Final Wrap up – July 26th, 2014

This is it; the end of my internship and the final blog post pertaining to it.  There has been a lot of time and a lot of energy put into this internship and the things that I have learned along the way.  I feel as though I am a part the shop family.  There have been many times that the owners and their significant others have gone out of their way to help me out, and they genuinely care.  I have been blessed with the opportunity to be a part of the Beyond Boundaries family.

Branching Outside the Walls – July 22nd, 2014

Being in the shop almost every day gives me the blessings of getting to know many people and develop a relationship with them.  These relationships don’t just stay within the walls of the shop.  The people that come into the shop are people from the community that I live in.  These are people that you see every day.  Saying this, I had the opportunity to help out a customer who I have developed a relationship with in the shop.  These friends were moving, and I have my truck.  What better way to help out a friend than to utilize the truck.  I was able to spend a day helping out this friend, deepening the relationship we have, and hopefully showing that our relationship is more than just surface deep.

Week 7 Wrap Up – July 19th, 2014

This was a very busy week.  Blake and I have been going through our catalogs and looking into what products that we want to carry in the Spring of 2015.  Yes, I know that this seems like we are doing orders way too far in advance, but that is just the way the process works if you want to get terms for the items you order and so that you know you will have the product before the season begins.

The orders are not completely a walk in the park to do.  There are many factors that go into deciding what you are going to carry in store.  We looked through what we had sold of certain items the previous year.  We looked at how long certain items and even sizes stayed on the shelves.  We have to take into consideration the amount of space we have available and even the amount of money we have to spend.  One of the things that I brought to the attention of the owners was that we had some stuff in shop that was too technical, and thus too pricey, for the area that we cater to.  Sure we will have an occasional person that is looking to buy a nice down 20 degree sleeping bag for $299, but by and large you will be better suited stocking bags that are around the $100 range, because there is actually a need for that in this area.  If you can sell four $100 in a few months, that would be way better than only selling one $300 bag.  This means that you have a higher amount of cash flow, and stock flow.  You will not just have product sitting on your shelves for a year waiting on that one person who is planning a trip up in the mountains somewhere.

Relationships pt.2 – July 15th, 2014

I thought I might share another story with you about how running your business as a mission creates relationships.  I was able to talk with a man that has done a lot of hiking and backpacking in his life.  He has done a lot of stuff that I have done and we were able to share in those experiences.  Our stories turned into sharing what big adventures we have planned for our future.  Talking about our big adventures led to talking about the blessings God has given us.  This conversation went on about God for a while.  This was a very spiritually uplifting conversation for both of us.

Week 6 Wrap Up – July 12th, 2014

This week we celebrated the Beyond Boundaries’ Anniversary!  That’s right, the boys have had the shop up and running for 1 year now!  It’s been an exciting week at the shop.  We have gotten new inventory in.  We have gotten to see and talk with many awesome people that we get to cultivate a relationship with.  It all culminated today with a large celebration at the shop in which we offered a sweet discount to our loyal customers and broke out the grill.  Also Chance came back for the celebration.  I have not seen him since he left for his job down in Texas about 3 weeks ago.  It was great to get to see and catch up with him.

Relationships – July 8th, 2014

I have been told multiple times before that “It is all about relationships.”  This especially comes into play in a store that puts an effort into really getting to know their customers.  As Beyond Boundaries looks at seeing their business as a mission, they see that many opportunities come from the relationships they have with the people that come into the store.

I am going to tell you of one of the interactions I was able to have with a customer.  One day I was running the shop alone and had an older lady come in to simply just look at getting some insoles for her shoes.  So I helped her as best as I could getting the right size and telling her what the product is supposed to do.  Well she came inside to buy the insoles and saw a globe that we have up for decoration and asked if she could buy it.  I informed her that we just had it up for decoration and that we were not selling it, but I did ask what she wanted it for.  She told me that her granddaughter had recently been doing some traveling abroad and she was looking to get a globe to keep track of where she has been.  We ended up talking about her and her granddaughter and how they had taken trips down to Honduras to do some mission work.  I then was able to share with her the experiences I had in Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Peru.  This was a very great conversation.  I ended up asking her to give my information to her granddaughter, who is a Junior at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.  Maybe 3 hours later I get a friend request on Facebook from someone that I don’t know.  I asked who she is and she informs me that I did not know her, but that her grandmother had insisted that she contacted me.  So this led to a great conversation between me and the granddaughter; talking about the things we had done, what we had learned, and what our future plans are.  And remember all of this stemmed from a lady inquiring about a globe.

Week 5 Wrap Up – July 6th, 2014

I have been searching for a pattern in how much foot traffic and sales that we get during the week.  Every time I think that I may have figured out a pattern, something changes and I am just totally wrong.  The reality of business is that you are going to have up days and down days.  Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason for sales not to be coming.  Sometimes it’s just a matter of time.  You just have to stay above water and wait until your back on top.

Since this week was the week of the 4^th of July, we had decent sales all week.  Friday, the fourth, was a really slow day though.  So slow that I ended up closing early and we just stayed closed on Saturday as well.  I am hoping this next week will get us back on the up and up.