My inspiration blog...

The word inspiration comes up frequently in my business, usually mentioned by clients and their designers. They email or text to me photos of kitchen or furniture ideas they have seen online.

If you didn't know, I design and sell custom cabinetry.

Today, I received a photo of a long TV wall unit with floating shelves and a fake fireplace in the middle. The customer gave a description of what they liked about the photo and what they want different. Got it. My meeting with the client is tomorrow. I'll be ready.

Yesterday was a similar scenario. I received a few photos on Monday, we met in the showroom on Wednesday. The woman was very impressed with my presentation and the products we manufacture. When asked how long I've been doing designs, I said "I had brown hair when I started in this business!" We laughed, she liked the joke and felt comfortable with my ability to design a great kitchen for her and her husband.

I was at a previous job for 8 years and it's a good feeling being in the groove again.

A little personal life reveal here.
I thought at my age, I would semi-retire, pick a few projects and have more than 50% free time. That hasn't happened. The company I'm working for got stronger after COVID. We opened a showroom last year and the owner wants greater sales this year.
While we were allowed to use the showroom during construction, we couldn't make any financial transactions until the city signed off on the building permit. I had a client meeting the morning the building inspector gave us the 'go-ahead' and I made the first sale in the new building. Milestone.

That means, new logo, shirts, business cards. I'm enjoying the new look!

This week was hectic with lots of appointments and a few new projects to price.
I'm feeling some pressure to have all my commitments on time. If there is a time constraint, I still make my meetings and gather more information for the next meeting. This is okay as every project has multiple sets of revisions. So if my drawings aren't 100% complete for the meeting, my presentation is good knowing client revisions are normal.

I reached out to some older contacts and they have started bring me new business. Passing by a jobsite with a new house going up, I connected with the general contractor and will have the opportunity to bid that project and get added to bid any future projects they have. Win-win.

I think the new car purchase this year is also a boost of positive energy. Nothing wrong with the previous car, as it was only 3 years old. I do a fair amount of highway driving and the new car rides nicer, more comfortable with less interior road noise.

Things are good. Real good. My mood is up, I decided to use a designer who had some free time to help me with drawings. I'm using her as a tool to allow me to be more productive and not use my additional free time for play and not work.

That brings me to a few things. Hopefully we all know the distance of Internet (not seeing, hearing people as in real life) often reflect a view that is different to what the person is like in real life. Because of this, some people could be perceived as arrogant, moody, aggressive, mean spirited or bitter when they are actually not. Like a mirror, I've returned less-than pleasing comments with less-than pleasing comments. That doesn't show me in the light I would like to be seen. Someone said 'don't argue with a fool, they will bring you down to their level' I must remember that.

Member gonelikethewimd who is like her name, comes in only to comment and quickly disappears. She commented on another blog that I appear to be taking all the news surrounding ex-president Trump personally. Could it be? I respect her opinion, but every news channel, Yahoo page, YouTube video is 95% about him. In truth, there is nothing I could that could add or subtract to what is going on with the lying and legal mess he created. We can only wait and see the outcome.

My inspiration blog...