jewelrycabs.com Blog

Mushroom surrounded by grass.

A new month. Another new day.

Today is not the day to worry over things not done. Today is the day to begin getting the important things done.

Choosing the important things (projects or daily tasks)  first frees up time and energy to do more of the ordinary or even  the necessary things.

Being able to choose the important things rather than those urgent things brings us peace. Sometimes an important thing can become an urgent thing if we are not careful to use our time wisely. When an important thing becomes an urgent thing it may not be done in an efficient manner and therefore not done as well as it would have been done if it had been done while it was thought of as important.

Urgent matters cause haste and waste. The haste may cause the thing to be done hurriedly carelessly, and with waste. The waste may be in time, energy, money or pride in accomplishment.

Wisdom in knowing whether a project  is important or urgent is needed.  When important projects are not handled efficiently they may not become urgent. More thought can be given the important projects which will produce a better outcome.

Regular blogging may be a news/history of a web site if it is regular and if it contains news or information about the web site or those individuals and activities of the web.

I would like my blog to be more than just a news paper of what has happened. I would like it to be interesting as well as contain information about the happenings of the site.

I want it to be a personal connection with those who log onto the site. In order to have that happen, it will have to have something interesting and draw people to connect and comment. That is my desire.(But this is too small to be a goal.)

Only well written blog entries will accomplish this.

From time to time I will see a need of presenting my goals for this web site. For me to present these goals, I will need to examine the pages of the site and determine what the goal of each page is. But this will not be the total goals of the site because each of the pages are only step or tool to reach an unstated goal. In other words, what I need is the underlying goal of not only the web site but also the goals of my activities that deal with the production of the site.

What we may be attempting to determine is “What is one goal of my life?” (A goal that would rotate around the web site.

I am getting ahead of myself because I am not ready to expose my self at this time. More, though, will come.

For now I am inserting a picture of the “new” shop that I build to help house some of my materials and activities.

Four walls needed for roof.

Exterior walls or siding needed as well as the roof give more hope.

Siding and roof make a much needed improvment.

A wide door way will make it easier.

I received an email from a potential customer some days ago that I did not follow up on correctly. I failed to follow through so I lost a sale. He sent me an email today stating that he had found what he was looking for at another location.

Will he be a potential customer in the future? I don’t know. It is possible that he won’t come back with an order since he has found a place that might be quicker to supply his needs.

So, what I have learned is that follow through in timely order in necessary for good customer relations.

My desire is to provide prompt service. This means that follow through is absolutely necessary to provide prompt service. Leaving actions for later can interfere with providing prompt service.

So many varieties to capture with a camera.

I am thrilled when I get an email order. I am, of course, curious as to what was ordered. Each one is different. I then begin to imagine what the stones are going to be used for. Drilled stones are probably for a necklace, although I had a customer that bought some for Christmas tree ornaments. What I list as wire wrapping stones, as well as some of the cabochons, probably go into a wire wrapping project. Polished specimens may go into their collection of rocks or it may be intended as a gift for someone else. It is fun to speculate even though it doesn’t matter as long as they enjoy looking at some of God created gifts he has given to us.

The other thing that I am curious  and amazed at is where my customers are located.I find that  most of my customers live east of the Mississippi River, some in Kansas or Texas and another group in California. I may never get to some of these places but it is nice to know that some of my work (polished rocks) travels so far and end up in so many different hands.

These hands feel them, their eyes see them and their minds create purposes for each one. That is where it makes me nervous. Then I have to think – did I do the best I could to polish that particular stone or did I just say – “Oh, it’s good enough.” I have to confess that sometimes I have been tempted to do just that. That is when I have to think that Jesus is looking over my shoulder and checking to see if I has done the best for the stone. Jesus said he was in the beginning and created all things even the very rock I am working on at that moment. Would Jesus be satisfied with the work I put into the stone?

This is one thing that keeps me going but the other thing is that God has put within me a desire to polish rock.

I guess that is what keeps me going.

By the way, the picture has nothing to do with polished rocks.

I have some ideas that I want to work on to keep my web site up to date. I am not sure that all would be good but at least I am thinking.

One idea is to date each item that is entered. This would give you, my customer, information as to when I did some updating of my site. The benefit for me would be to be able to see items that have been “on the shelf” to long. These items then could be removed or the price changed. It might help me to recognize what type of items are not selling.

A second idea is to have separate pages for special cabs. I could have one page dedicated to Holly Blue agates, one page for picture jasper, one page for … You can see what I mean.

Another idea that may come into being in my marketing plan is to offer “On Approval” selections. This would be designed especially for all my past customers.

Ready for work

Jan.14, 2010

I am busy. I am glad.

I want to do the best for my customers that I can. I won’t meet many if any of my web site customers but I want them to feel good about their dealings with me. I want them to feel they got a fair deal. This is how God would want me to treat others as the Bible says to do to others as you would want them to do to you. God knows best. He is always right.

It is my dessire to get some new pages up on my site. These pages will include free form jewelry cab pages that will specialize in one kind of stone. I am thinking I will start with a Holly Blue Agate page. I will use the other jewelry cab pages as a template. This should make it easier to just add new stones in the old settings.

I have not gotten much local cutting or polishing yet this year but it is too cold and wet for any local rock hunting. When they go out there is more work. I like the flat polishing of the Thunder Eggs.

What else am I doing you ask? I am helping my wife to do some of the heavy work at the Food Bank that she is Director of. This is the Crossroads Church Food Bank. She really has a lot to do to get the help and keep it running. In this area, because it is a large city she has many non-English speaking people come through. This is a challenge if they get unruly as it is hard then to tell these people what they should be doing.

OK I am waiting till it is warmer so that I can go gold panning again. Until then I will just keep cutting rocks.

Face Book is an interesting source of customers. I am working on that to find customers so that takes time and work.

So much for today.