Chicago Ebay Live 2008

Whew!  Our week in Chicago and attending the Ebay Live 2008 went by in a whirlwind.  I brought the family and we had a mini vacation along with Ebay Live.  Love the windy city!

We were “power” sightseeing for the first few days and came limping into Ebay Live.

Ebay Live this year was rather subdued compared to the Vegas Live I had previously attended.  Attendance and vendors seemed to be down in number.  While there was a full slate of classes, I found it a bit difficult to find the kind of information that I was looking for to help me take my business to a new level.

The exception here was my favorite speaker, Seth Godin, creator of the wildly popular Squidoo site.  He is an entertaining and thought provoking speaker with a unique take on the world of online sales.  I’m still pondering his suggestions and looking for a way to stand out and be “remarkable”.

Janelle Elms of OSI Rock Stars had a fun promotion running through a “Spot the Rock Stars” contest.  It was fun participating and spreading the word to fellow Ebayers about Janelle’s wonderful online education site!

The McCormick West Convention center is the largest in the USA – as my blisters can attest to.  Check out the view over the center from the McCormick Hyatt Hotel.

  As usual Ebay, throws a great party and we thoroughly enjoyed the Gala celebration with Chris Isaak entertaining.

Setting up a new home business office

It’s finally happening!  I’m going to be able to reclaim the house from the endless boxes and shipments and paperwork that comes with having a home based Ebay business.  OK – so I’m not really moving the business out of my house … but almost.  We were rather fortunate to have a good sized house with a large unfinished basement.  One room in the basement was remodeled for our teen son – who has recently moved out on his own.   And now, the room is mine – at least after repainting over the graffiti, etc. – and repairing after a teen boy!

As we move, we’re trying to purge ourselves of accumulated clutter, excess files and so on – being hard since I do believe that deep down every Ebay seller is a bit of a pack rat!  The basement has been slowly turned into an inventory storage area and now the office will be on the same floor.  All except the fabric room – up on the 2nd floor – my one time sewing room is being converted to floor to ceiling fabric shelves.  I do insist, however, that my desk and sewing machine remain!

We may be able to dine in our dining room once again and have guests without piling boxes in a corner!

Promote “Green” Online Shopping with Alice in Stitches

When you shop online with Alice in Stitches, you can be assured that you’re doing your part in the “green” movement.  Here are a few of the ways you’ll save energy and materials by purchasing products online with us:

• You won’t use gas to drive to the store
• No toxic car emissions
• We’re a small home-based business – so we won’t be driving to work
• We recycle and reuse packing materials that come to us
• We pick up packing materials from company’s with excess
• By supporting a home business, you support a “smaller footprint” – i.e. our home and business shares utilities and space

We’ll look for ways to continue to create an environmentally friendly shopping site.

Are you still in your bathrobe at 2:00 pm?

OK, I’ll admit it!  I sit down at my computer at about 7:00 am every morning and often I’m still there in my pajamas and robe at 2:00 pm, and it’s almost time to pick up my son from school!  I’m sure some of you out there can relate.  Just one more thing… then I’ll take my shower and get dressed.  Sure!

I’m usually answering all those questions that came in the night before as soon as I get up.  After that, we run sales sheets to fill orders and ship.  And by the way, my husband works at home with me now as well.   We’re usually in a rush to get orders backed and out to beat the mail carrier, who generally shows up at 11:00 am (12 if we’re lucky!)

One of these days my goal is to be dressed before noon!