First Four Weeks in the Record Books!

Today was the end of a very exciting first four weeks of operation.
We have been very pleased with the initial response the shop has received. With no advertising at all, we have achieved over $7000 in sales in our first four weeks. That is not enough to be self sustaining, but I think it is very respectable! I would like to thank all of our friends and family who have supported us, as well as our new 'regulars' from the surrounding businesses and area. We can't do this without all of you!

We received a copy of the Mike Boyle show that will be airing this weekend. It was supposed to be an eight minute segment, but they made it a twenty minute segment! We have some friends who own their own company producing television shows and she said a minute of edited video costs $1000 to $1500 for this type of a show. That means we are getting $20,000 to $30,000 of advertising absolutely free, and it airs three times, not once! He has also been talking about us on his radio shows as well, and we have had some customers for lunch who came in because of his radio show... How cool is Mike Boyle???

My art rail came this week, and I will be hanging it tomorrow. Paul Kulik, our first featured artist, will be displaying his artwork on Saturday. We will have his work up for 2-3 months, and he will be rotating in new pieces every 3-4 weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing his amazing panoramas up on the walls...

I bought hundreds of board feet of Padauk, an African exotic hardwood, for use in the shop. I bought most of it from CO Lumber, and they have an employee named Don who came by the shop to see what we were up to. He asked if he could have some Padauk scraps, so I sent him home with an armful of off-cuts. He came in this week and presented me with a very nice Padauk ink pen, that he turned on his lathe out of a piece of my scrap. It is a beautiful pen, and I'll post some photos later when I have a chance. I asked Don to build a lockable display case out of Padauk and we will carry his pens on consignment. I'm looking forward to selling some of his pens for him!

I'm starting to get replies on the emails I sent out to some of the local www.meetup.com groups. I have an event scheduled for Saturday, and another on June 6th. I've had some other groups show interest as well.
Keep em coming!

Time to head home... Everybody have a safe holiday weekend. Don't forget to give thanks for our fellow countrymen who are fighting on our behalf this Memorial Day. I'd especially like to mention my brother Aubrey, who is serving his third tour in Iraq, as well as our neighbor George who is also on his third tour. Lets keep them and all of our troops in our prayers. I've been there and done that, and I'm incredibly grateful and appreciative of their willingness to serve.

God bless,
JD