Check out my new blog, dedicated to household cleaning tips.
Shop online at www.vacshack.com
In the Oklahoma City area shop www.acleanerplace.com
Monday, November 15, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
We Are A Cleaner Place
I think you will be surprised that we have more than vacuum
cleaners. This is the merging of two
lives and two very divergent careers: Stephen Fuhrman and Jeanie Jones.
Steve has been in the business of selling vacuums for 25
years. When we met he had a retail store
in Tracy, CA. He was not happy being in
California. We started making plans for
a future that did not include California.
I have been a therapist for 25 years. When I met Steve I had been doing contract and
consulting work and training and found that I was much happier being my own boss. I had moved to California, but was open to
other locations.
We began to aggressively expand Steve’s online business in
preparation for a move. We decided on
Oklahoma: home for Jeanie, closer to
Steve’s family in Minnesota, cheaper rent, centrally located. We got married and made the move to
Oklahoma.
I have chemical sensitivities and had been using
non-chemical methods of cleaning and making my own cleaning supplies for
years. Steve sold cleaning products but
had never heard of Natural Cleaning Products.
Steve & I got more involved in selling Miele Vacuum Cleaners: went to some sales meetings, learned more about the products and company, met Nick Ord, President of Miele USA
and we decided to make a shift in products and focus as we made the move to
OK.
Since moving to Oklahoma, we had been growing weary of poor
quality, made in China, disposable vacuum cleaners, (filling landfills and
making customers grumpy), chemicals that are unhealthy and big box stores that
take our money out of Oklahoma, out of the USA and offer poor quality, little
to no customer service in return for cheap prices.
Our goals:
- · Excellent customer service = Engage with the customer, solve their problems, offer quality products and service
- · Eco-friendly products that are sustainable, non-chemical, healthy for families
- · Made in USA, locally or regionally when possible, made in Europe, made by companies that are responsible
With all of this in mind, we are no longer a Vacuum Cleaner
Store. We are A Cleaner Place, where you
can buy vacuum cleaners, floor care machines, personal care products, kitchen
products, household products all with the above goals in mind.
In the Oklahoma City area shop www.acleanerplace.com
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Anniversary Celebration
Hey Oklahoma City! We have now been in Oklahoma City for four years and at our present location for one year.....so it's time to celebrate. Come on by for some fun, food, drinks, prizes, discounts, samples, product demonstrations. Did I mention a Grand Prize that anyone, who comes by, will be eligible to win?? See below for product sponsors.
Anniversary Celebration
Fri, 11-5-10, 3-6 pm; Sat, 11-6-10, 10 am–2 pm
12409 N Rockwell Ave
OKC
405-721-7222
www.acleanerplace.com
- Green Cleaning Supplies
- Made in USA products
- Natural Personal Care Products
- Vacuum Sales, Service & Supplies
- Beverages
- Snacks
- Product Demonstrations
- Special Discounts
- Awesome Prizes
- Drawing Every Hour
Riccar
Caldrea
BioKleen
Host Dry Carpet Cleaning
Dirt Devil
Epicurean
Shop online at www.vacshack.com In the Oklahoma City area shop www.acleanerplace.com
Monday, November 1, 2010
Electrolux unveils five Vacs from the Sea
Electrolux unveils five Vacs from the Sea
Shop online at www.vacshack.com
In the Oklahoma City area shop www.acleanerplace.com
Shop online at www.vacshack.com
In the Oklahoma City area shop www.acleanerplace.com
How to Stay Positive While Running a Retail Business
As we approach the second anniversary in our new location
and four years of being in a new state, it was a good time to look at what we’ve
accomplished. Mind you, I did not just
come up with the idea of doing this; quite the opposite.
I am a therapist by profession. I have spent many years working in direct
client contact, managing programs, managing people and training others on how
to deal with problem employees, how to assess clients, how to deal with crises,
how to prevent suicide, and many more topics.
I delved into the retail world about five years ago when I met my
husband and he had a retail store in Tracy, CA.
Things evolved and we decided to add e-commerce to his
business in preparation of moving the business to my home state of Oklahoma,
which we did, about four years ago. I
had never run a business before. He had
the knowledge of our products: Vacuum
Cleaners, Floor Cleaning Machines and Cleaning Supplies (although we took a
turn toward Natural & Sustainable after I came on board), so we decided my
contribution would be managing the business side of it. OK, less decided and more just evolved.
All this is to say I was immersed in a world I was really
not prepared for. Running a retail
business is hard. Expanding into
e-commerce is harder. Moving to a new
state and having the economy take a big downward spiral just a few months after
we opened in OK was nearly more than we could tolerate. I could go through many scenarios of things
that went wrong, including once when our website quit working for several
weeks, but the specifics are not as important and it is to say, many things can
happen when you are running a business and many of those things happened to us.
At this point in our business we were struggling to have
enthusiasm, even though we were planning to have an anniversary celebration at
our store. Then, I came across Liz Strauss’s
http://www.lizstrauss.com/2010/10/10/everyones-business/when-will-you-stop-to-claim-all-you-already-own/
Wow! Did I need to
hear that! I immediately sent a copy of
the blog post with a note, to the other staff members at our company and said, “Wednesday
will review. What has VacShack.com, Inc.
accomplished in the last 24 months?”
It was a very productive meeting and all staff members
were able to list some accomplishments, including:
o Moved
to a better location
o Added
Kitchen Product Lines
o Added
two new Vacuum Cleaner Product Lines
o Up-graded
our Point of Sale Software
o Started
a second website, highlighting our local store www.acleanerplace.com
o Up-graded
our e-commerce website-to-shipping software
o Began
a television ad campaign
After we went through the exercise of looking where we
had been, we decided to bring back a technique we had used when we first opened
in OK. We keep a whiteboard “Wish List”
for the company. This includes
short-term and long-term goals for equipment, benefits, directions that we
would like to see for the company. We
would periodically review it; see what we accomplished, what we want to keep
and what we want to add. It helps to
have a visual aid, to let employees know their voices are being heard and for
them to think they have a part in deciding in which direction the business is
going.
Having a retail business is a struggle every day, especially
for the small business owner. We feel
fortunate every month that we are able to pay our bills and keep our doors
open. It is hard to remember that and
hard to remember to see what we have accomplished and celebrate our
success. I believe people are put in my
life for a reason and I believe being pointed to Liz Strauss’s blog was no
accident, but something I needed to read and put into practice. Thank you Liz and thank you Twitter!
In the Oklahoma City area shop www.acleanerplace.com
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