The plan(s)

I will try to make a coherent outline of my little plan. I want to go back to selling what I weave.

At first I thought I would make the most down and dirty plan I could. Weaving is good. Sales tax, not good. Extra money is good. Income tax, not good. I won't waste our time spinning out my several improbable schemes. Do people even want to buy towels?

There are a few blogger friends to whom I've promised towels, hopefully sooner than later. I decided first, to test the waters. I put the towels into artist open studio events, with success. That bit of sales impelled me into an annual event in the township, the December Community Bazaar, the first Saturday of that month.

The Bazaar is a real commitment on my part. and meant I had to follow words with deeds. I asked my sister to come share the booth, with her quilts. There is no way I could make an attractive eight foot display of towels alone, but we have put together a decent plan, with some good private laughs from our years of expertise.

Sales tax! I had to resurrect my license, cancelled in another lifetime, when the house sold. I've helped my sister with her legal requirements often enough to know my state's electronic platform has been reinvented since I last used it. 

It was easy, peasy. Though I remembered little, I remembered the answers to the secret questions. Take that, brain injury. It makes me wonder what little nuggets float in your brain forever. I didn't wonder enough to investigate, however. So, if you live in Ohio and buy my towels, I will collect sales tax.

Then, to solve the biggest impediment to a sale, ready cash. Checks are fine, especially since I now know how to deposit them via my phone. Do you still carry checks? I don't. 

So, I now have a little credit card reader. Setting it up was not easy. The technicians called me in the afternoon or evening, when it is too easy to confuse my brain, especially with blue tooth. Yesterday, I called them, at nine a.m. It seems to be sorted, except I need to contact my sales representative to generate a new pin. 

That brings us smack dab to the present. What to do next, after the bazaar? 

I've toyed with web sites for sales. The long and short of that is, I don't want to maintain a web site. This month alone I spent an appalling number of hours simply retrieving my sales tax information.

No more do I have the easy resources, like accounting and inventory programs to gather up my sales and expense information. I must sit at the computer, not at the loom, and forego a game or two of solitaire because I must knock together a rudimentary P&L.

So, I will sell entirely on my blog. There are ways to do that, it turns out. You know, platforms that do everything. I need to look into them, understand them and how to use them. And I will do that. But I want to begin selling now, and have decided to do it the old fashioned way, the honor system.

After the Bazaar, on December 7th, I will add a For Sale page to my blog, and on it post photographs of every color towel for sale, and describe the additional cost, like applicable taxes and shipping.

If you want to purchase towels, send me an email, jnoragon at gmail.com, listing the quantity and color. Then write the same information on a piece of paper, and mail it to me, along with your check for US$, or your credit card number. I will take the orders in email sequence.

When I get your email, I will pack your order, change the quantity available on the blog page, and wait for your payment information. When I get your check or card information, I will finish your order.

I will ship every Monday, and more often if as many as half a dozen orders accumulate.

And in my spare time, I will look into the various blogger add-on's that allow direct selling. In my mind, it is simple. But my mind is not always trustworthy, these days, and takes longer to learn. 

Thank you very much. The For Sale page will go live December 9, 2019.