Najla's Notes

Fresh from the Beach - The Gift Book

I am slightly refreshed from a whirlwind weekend away at the beach. I sat in the sun too long and my face is now totally red and peeling which is not normal for me. I am olive skinned and normally do not burn. Anyway, the trip energized me and this week we have been working on our mailings and getting all the holiday gift items up on the websites.

 

We did hire a few people from Odesk to work on the websites and I must say things are moving right along. In one week we had 3 databases created and updated. It’s exciting to see all the new products coming in. It’s a lot like Christmas when the catalogs start arriving with all the new fall and winter holiday business gift ideas. We love to see the new products and we love to hear when our customers get excited about getting their RED Books. This is really called the The GIFT BOOK, but to our customers, because of the faux red leather cover and the gold imprint it is the “RED Book” and the most exciting book of the year. All I can equate this too is the excitement children feel when they get the toy catalogs from Toys R Us, just before a visit to Santa.  By the end of this month, we will be getting calls with squeals of delight!

Believe in What You Do

My son is doing a report on a famous person. That person is Will Smith. I somehow got involved in helping him on his project and last night read “King of Cool- Will Smith” By Brian J. Robb. It was a very interesting biography of Will Smith’s life. By the time Smith was 18 he was a millionaire, a year later he was broke, and by 21 he added another career to his Rap singing, and became famous for “The Fresh Prince of Bellaire”.  He did more in a 3 year span, than most people do in a lifetime.

 

I have always believed that if you work hard, and truly love what you do, you can be and do anything you want. Smith took this much farther than I could ever imagine. He truly believed in being the very best at whatever he set his mind to doing. He had a strong work ethic and it shows in everything he does.

 

I still believe that loving what you do, and being the best at it, allows you to live the life you believe in. This business is a lifelong dream. We are very lucky to be able to come to a place every day where we love to be. Yes, sometimes it is stressful, the hours can be long and sometimes it can be downright scary, but I can’t think of any place I would rather be than owning my own company.

Working from Home

I have been spending a lot of time working this summer even though I decided to stay home with my three boys instead of putting them in summer camp. I haven’t been able to think straight this past week to write anything. I have been trying to train our crazy dog (golden retriever) that is three years old, not to bark when the doorbell rings and not to jump on people when they come in the door. Then, there are my three boys who all think, that when mom goes in to her home office to get some work done, it is time to have a party. I find myself coming out of the office at different times throughout the day to find that while I was buried deep in my computer, designing our new websites, and emailing my customers, that instead of three children in the house, I sometimes have up to seven or eight!

We instituted a “no technology Tuesday” in our house for the summer. Every summer on Tuesday’s my house if filled with the neighborhood children. They are all upstairs in the boy’s playroom. And guess what? They are actually playing. Not XBOX (remember it’s no technology Tuesday in my house) but real honest to goodness games of make believe. My boys are 11, 9 and 6, they and their friends end up playing pretend games about make believe towns where they have houses and families and they have to pay rent and taxes and tolls for their cars. It really is amazing to see this, since most days I don’t see much of them except over the top of a Nintendo DS or behind an XBOX controller. It’s strange to see the neighborhood kids here when they could be at someone else’s house having a technology day. However, I really think they like the forced day of no TV, and no video or computer games.

In between cropping photos for the web pages, updating our office procedure manual and researching new products for our websites, I have found a bit of time to catch up on my reading. I’ll sit out by the pool while the boys and their friends swim. This gives me a chance to read my industry magazines and occasionally get in a few pages of Fast Company or Entrepreneur Magazine too. I like multi-tasking.

My middle child came in to my office the other day and asked, “Mom, why are you working? Its summertime, don’t you get the summer off too?” No, my dear Nicholas, Mom’s don’t get summers off when they run their own company, even when they have staff in the office, but I am sure glad I can be home with you.