Don't mind me, most of this is just venting.
We inherited the shop from her father, when he passed, but in reality, kind of impossible for a small shop like ours to compete with online and the bigger outfits these days, at least without specializing in high-end stuff, and that means you just tie up a lot of money in merchandise.
So, I've been trying to convince her to just close the shop, after having a major blowout sale (and then selling the rest of the stock on EBay or local yardsale sites). It's a 30' x 20' area, so not really small, and it has its own bathroom (well, toilet and sink).
It's attached to the house, so my idea is that she should convert the space into a Crop Room. Basically, a room where she could host little scrapbooking get togethers, like she typically goes to on some weekends (spending $10-$30 for the privilege). My thinking is that SHE could host these (in this space), and fit about 20 in there, making about $200-$600 total per one she hosts. Not bad for also doing a hobby you like on a weekend. Heck, if she did two a month, it'd basically be the mortgage!
I think her holdup is that she feels like she is failing her dad if the shop closes. Look, we can't help that the business landscape has changed. Instead, we're sitting on this inventory, barely selling more than $2000 a year in profit.
Currently, what USED to be her scrap room is now our daughter's room (she came back home to live with us, she's 21). So, this solution would do 2 things....give her a place to scrap, and store her stuff, and likely make more money than the damn shop! I'm sure our daughter would love to have more freedom to decorate her room too (without having so much of it taken over by scrapbook supplies).
Would be a pretty minimal cost to get it converted to a crop room (a crop is what they call one of these scrapping get togethers). Buy 4 tables, get a few more nice office chairs (more comfortable for sitting all day, as most of these crops are for a few hours). Over the years, she's collected a few hundred dollars worth of scrap gadgets and machines, and these could all be used during these crops, further adding to the value. And, we could sell some minimal supplies, just things that are handy to have for sale during these things.
I think I have all my facts, etc. straight, I just have to convince her that this is really a win/win scenario. Room for her to enjoy her hobby, makes more money than the shop, and makes our daughter happy. Why is this such a hard sell???
We inherited the shop from her father, when he passed, but in reality, kind of impossible for a small shop like ours to compete with online and the bigger outfits these days, at least without specializing in high-end stuff, and that means you just tie up a lot of money in merchandise.
So, I've been trying to convince her to just close the shop, after having a major blowout sale (and then selling the rest of the stock on EBay or local yardsale sites). It's a 30' x 20' area, so not really small, and it has its own bathroom (well, toilet and sink).
It's attached to the house, so my idea is that she should convert the space into a Crop Room. Basically, a room where she could host little scrapbooking get togethers, like she typically goes to on some weekends (spending $10-$30 for the privilege). My thinking is that SHE could host these (in this space), and fit about 20 in there, making about $200-$600 total per one she hosts. Not bad for also doing a hobby you like on a weekend. Heck, if she did two a month, it'd basically be the mortgage!
I think her holdup is that she feels like she is failing her dad if the shop closes. Look, we can't help that the business landscape has changed. Instead, we're sitting on this inventory, barely selling more than $2000 a year in profit.
Currently, what USED to be her scrap room is now our daughter's room (she came back home to live with us, she's 21). So, this solution would do 2 things....give her a place to scrap, and store her stuff, and likely make more money than the damn shop! I'm sure our daughter would love to have more freedom to decorate her room too (without having so much of it taken over by scrapbook supplies).
Would be a pretty minimal cost to get it converted to a crop room (a crop is what they call one of these scrapping get togethers). Buy 4 tables, get a few more nice office chairs (more comfortable for sitting all day, as most of these crops are for a few hours). Over the years, she's collected a few hundred dollars worth of scrap gadgets and machines, and these could all be used during these crops, further adding to the value. And, we could sell some minimal supplies, just things that are handy to have for sale during these things.
I think I have all my facts, etc. straight, I just have to convince her that this is really a win/win scenario. Room for her to enjoy her hobby, makes more money than the shop, and makes our daughter happy. Why is this such a hard sell???
