Has anyone else felt this way? I have been working on this storefront since May 2019 and I STILL feel the pain of deadlines, listing stress, – shooting for that ‘perfect’ web presence that will make my page shine in the vast sea of web stores, blogs, career building sites and trying to develop that ever important ‘branding’ that we are told is an absolute must if we expect to achieve, succeed, and WIN at that new-age marketing skills that confronts us ‘want-to-be’ entrepreneurs.
Me, being me, in the middle of all of this, I have been frantically buying inventory for the new Tea House; tea pots, tea cups, tea makers, tea travel mugs, infusers, scoops, and dozens and dozens of antique tea ‘things’ that I have brilliantly decided to include in my store to enhance that ever important – ‘BRANDING’. Oh and let’s not forget the tea! All successful Tea House’s need only the best teas – right? There are white teas and green teas, black teas and oolongs, Darjeeling’s, Pu-erh’s, Formosa’s. Teas from China, teas from Taiwan, teas from India and Nepal – OH MY! How in the heck does anyone keep them all straight? Some steep for 3 minutes others for 6 minutes, and if you don’t do it right, you suffer the curse of the ‘bitter tea brew’! In the midst of all of this activity, I realize, it’s online auction season! And, as the professional auction addict, Spring is the best time to buy! So jump I must to grab those teapots and collectibles for the store and website.
After the launch of the New and Improved Tea Website – I need to get on that 3rd project of mine – ‘The Tacky Chic Boutique. This project is my give back project. It will combine my love of Art, Antiques, Vintage Jewelry, and Collectibles and the money made from these sales will be donated to causes I find dear to my heart. Such as, The Peregrine Fund and Save the Owl Projects, and many, many more. This project will have a philanthropic agenda. I have been working on it for over 4 years now – but it keeps getting pushed to the side. Our theme is: Re-purpose for a Purpose! Watch for that announcement soon.
We need boxes; big boxes, boxes that fit inside boxes, tissue paper, shrinking paper, crinkle paper, and peanuts – lots and lots of peanuts! And, not just any peanuts, we must have biodegradable peanuts because here at 9 Lives Tea House and The Tacky Chic Boutique we are ‘GREEN’, as green as we can be anyway and as we all know – it ain’t easy being green! (There’s that ‘Branding’ again)
We are now approximately 3 weeks to re-launch the tea site and I see before me about 80 more hours of shooting ad photos, creating shipping labels, re-locating all of the tea things I bought and moved from Texas into 3 storage units…. ya, good luck finding what I’m looking for! Then I get to research the antiques; write up the descriptions; settle on pricing; and enter all of that information into the e-commerce platform remembering to click ‘save’ at every level so the just entered information does not disappear which requires that I start over from the beginning – again.
Seriously, I do not know how my head has not exploded by now! So, I ask – ‘Does anyone else feel this way about launching a new web site and opening a new brick and mortar store?’ And how do you handle it? Really…… Well, now that the end is approaching, I am resolved to doing as much as I can in the time allotted without TOTALLY losing my sanity. It will all be good (my fingers crossed). I am sure there will be bugs to work out and glitches here and there, but, ‘GOSH DARN IT! At least I have not forgotten the BRANDING!’
We hope you will join us in April for our debut of our new website for – 9 Lives Tea House. And the products hitting the store floor. I’ve already had folks coming looking for the teas! I’m working on it!
In the meantime: “Find Your Zen and Do the Brew” Tilt those tea cups everybody!
Judith A. Ames
9 Lives Tea House
Mid State Tennessee – Isn’t Tennessee the Volunteer State? Where are those Volunteers??!
Mid Tennessee Tea News 