I am sitting in our classroom in Lake Erie Artists Gallery after a pretty long day. The weather has been rainy and sunny and windy during different parts of the day. My husband and I sat outside in our booth at Shaker Square Farmers Market this morning, and it seems like families are getting ready to go back to school this week. One of my daughters starts back Monday, but the other one does not start back until September 1. It is so hard to believe the summer has pretty much come and gone. We have done so much this summer, but yet there is so much we did not get an opportunity to do.
September is coming nevertheless, and this will be our first fall season at Shaker Square for Lake Erie Artists Gallery. In many ways, the fall and holiday season is the true test of a store. This is when many retail companies really measure their success. September is also the beginning of a new quarter for us, and even though we haven't accomplished all I set out to do this summer, we have begun to establish a presence here at Shaker Square. Today I had the pleasure of giving a customer her third piece of wall art from our store, and she wants to come back and buy another. This is the kind of loyal business we are working on building here, whether it be online or in our store, and the only thing holding us back is revenue. So as our revenue grows, so will our merchandise base, and so will our customer base, and so on as the cycle goes around again.
Every time a customer buys something from our store, part of that money goes to our artists, part to our vendors, and part to our government. We use local businesses as our vendors for packaging, printing, website services, and so on. So I like to think of the money flowing outward from here to our vendors.
Today has been a day of lots of traffic, but mostly browsers, but tomorrow is the British Car Show, so I think we will have a lot of shoppers when they get tired of looking at cool cars. We will be open tomorrow from 11 am to 6 pm, and closed on Monday.
I happen to be a Jaguar fan, so I am really looking forward to seeing the Jaguars tomorrow. My husband, two daughters, and I will be taking turns in the store and looking at cars.
I have been working feverishly on the website, now that it is back up, so keep checking for changes. Here is the link: Lake Erie Artists Gallery
Are you looking for Trollbeads? Unique Gifts and Local Art at Lake Erie Artists Gallery at Shaker Square.
