More improvements...

Every new year I vow to fix all the nagging little (and big) issues with the business, and this year is no exception. We solved a bunch of them this week:

1. Producing gift baskets creates all sorts of weird storage issues...like where to keep multiple rolls of shrink wrap so they are visible and don't roll all over the place when you're trying to use them. You can mount racks on the walls, but I didn't have enough available wall space and many of our walls are difficult to mount anything to because of the concrete. I figured out a cheap and easy fix - paper towel holders (see above). The are accessible and I can easily see what we're running low on.

2. I finally hooked up an iPod to pipe music into our showroom and production area. Now we listen to "smooth jazz" instead of some lame radio station...and no commercials! I can't believe I didn't do this sooner.

3. Our building is like a big shoebox - a long rectangle. There is quite a distance from the front door to the rooms in the back, plus there are a lot of concrete walls in between. We often didn't hear customers and delivery people when they came in despite our clumsy temporary fix - a set of wind chimes attached to the door. I was looking at door chimes in a retail supply catalog, but found a cheaper solution (30 bucks!) - a driveway sensor. It's meant to alert you when a car passes the sensor in your driveway, but it works great here - and I can hear it from anywhere in the building.

It's the little things that make me happy...LOL.

(I do realize that this is probably only of interest to someone else in the business - but I know we have a few who read this blog :-)