Hello all... :)
just wanted to give you a little status as to what I'm working on right now at Aromaleigh, as I've been in what I'm now referring to "Code Pink"- moderately severe stress/work crisis mode.
I guess I could represent it in shoe-speak, with this ultra-pink glittery platform shoe... Code Pink is a serious place for me to be in, so I need to be sure to surround myself with as much sparkle as possible during these times...
This is all part of my having to take a big, deep introspective look at how I do things and do one of three things:
1) 86 it
2) organize it while catching up and/or delegating
3) Focus on the most important tasks at hand.
Oh, and
4) Don't take on any new projects or responsibilities until all of the above are met and no longer in crisis. Also, I'm not repeating previous mistakes and failures thinking that "this time it will work". I did this all last year.
Right now, I'm working on a few crucial things. Many of you expressed interest in hearing about how I was going to change la vida loca to la dolce vita, and cut an 80 hour workweek back to 50 hours. This has proven to be a real challenge, as in order to change things to work better, I have to first fix things or catch up on things or concept new systems.
THE EMAIL QUANDARY...
A major thing I am working on right now is clearing out, organizing and establishing a process for my email inbox. I am incredibly guilty about the state of my inbox- I have hundreds of photo gallery looks I have never been able to get to, hundreds of feedback emails, hundreds of personal emails... well, you get it- I'm horribly behind. But I am not going to stop until I reply to EVERY single email that I feel needs a personal reply from me. I'm just not comfortable with having so many thank you's, and notes of appreciation that I feel are imperative for me to write.
SHOP BY COLOR...
Getting this important and very helpful website feature functional, working and organized is ultra-important. It's going to be an ongoing process, as little by little I do programming each day and each section starts to build out and become useable. There's no way around this task with a magic wand- it's just straight up, repetition... but little by little, we'll get there.
PHOTO GALLERIES...
I feel terrible about all of the images I have queued in folders. I am going to start a new system for sharing your looks and photos. I am starting a 2nd blog, JUST for Aromaleigh customer images. If you've sent in photos to me or if you are going to, make sure that you have an Aromaleigh account set up. Rewards for getting your images on the blog will be given as points. The Creme de la Creme of looks will be formatted as "Get This Look" sets on the website. My ETA for this? Well, I set up the blog... and I'm organizing the folders in my inbox. Once my Email quandary is in check, I will be able to start taking baby steps on this one.
Some changes I've made that you probably have noticed are the process in which we program sales- Making them 2 week stretches and totally changing the way they are programmed has freed up about 8-9 hours of time per week for me.
I'm no longer blogging the customer product reviews, as our poll showed that this feature wasn't a top priority and the posts weren't typically read. Each one took about 1.5 hours of cutting and pasting, so that frees up 6 hours a month!
Customer rewards- this new system had a lot of kinks that had to be worked out before it could work and be maintained. Previous versions of the rewards levels resulted in massive confusion, order problems, and other assorted time warps. We've not instituted a multi-level rewards system that rewards higher levels with higher percentage discounts. I've got points coupons generated for each level, stored in spreadsheets and ready to be emailed to you when you make your rewards request. Big timesaver, no more emails, held orders, and difficulties. Time saved? I was spending 1-2 hours a day dealing with rewards problems in previous months. It was excessive. To average things out, I'd have to say that I've saved 5 hours a week, generally. Great!
The Aromaleigh Email newsletter... this was something that you would sign up for, and I've used it for about 10 years as the main way to communicate with customers, since we didn't always have blogs or twitter or facebook. I've retired the newsletter, for several reasons. It's an archaic form of communication, and our stats showed that only 2% of newsletters were ever opened. The newsletter takes a long time to program- it's not drag and drop, like blogging. The newsletter is opt-in, but registrants were regularly reporting the newsletter as spam to their ISP, causing us to get our account suspended (they are extremely strict about spam reports and if you have more then 10 per 10,000 emails sent, you get in trouble- literally), and getting placed on blacklists. Also, it cost $155 per month and I rarely used it anymore. Solution? 86 it.
Traditional Cosmetics items and Skincare: We always sold very few of all of the items that are being discontinued, they took up a lot of space, were expensive to keep in stock, and I felt that they diluted the Aromaleigh branded offerings. I have some surprises in store that will make the discontinuation of these products a mere fleeting thought. I am keeping the eye gel liners, cream shadows, primer and concealers at this time. Wait and see what the future holds...
Well, that's about it for now... OH, NO! It isn't... I've been working up some orders of new pigments That I can't wait to arrive... two of the manufacturers that I work with provide these wonderful "sparkle boxes" with small jars or vials of all of their effect pigments. It's so awesome to have these... drool....
Some of the new colors I'll be getting in are so gorgeous and have incredible effects. I am so excited to use these in formulation. Bringing in new pigments is always really exciting for me!
