I know it has been quite a while since I’ve posted! This is our busy time of year and I have gotten caught up in it all. This is what we have been up to these last few weeks……
Each year for the past 3 years I have always organized a group of people to volunteer for what Golden Corral calls Military Monday. It is always the Monday after Veteran’s Day. Golden Corral Restaurants across the nation serve free buffets to all current and retired military personnel. They ask for volunteers each year to assist with getting the Vets and their family members to the tables, serving drinks, cleaning tables, offering bread, etc. We spend a lot of time just ‘chatting’ with them and hearing their stories. It is a lot of work but always leaves us with a great feeling after serving those who served for us. I usually drum up volunteers from the Ambassador group of the Rogers Lowell Chamber of Commerce which I am active in. I also recruited a couple of friends to help.
I spent a bit of time over the past weeks getting a car licensed for someone who had moved out of state. Then I had to take the car to get serviced and cleaned so that the client’s son could fly into town to drive the car back to the east coast where my client is now living. This may sound easier than it was. It was part of a nasty divorce between two clients of mine and somehow I got put in the middle. I just try to make my clients happy by doing what they ask. I don’t always get the fun parts!
It became apparent that a trip to the account was necessary! Regina Young is a wonderful accountant and very patient with me. She didn’t try to convince me, she just came right out and told me I had to start accepting credit cards! Because The Errand Girl pays for all clients merchandise up front and because I have hired so many new contractors she said it was a must for my cash flow to work. I am fairly obedient when people in authoritative positions tell me to do something. So, I set it up online that evening! I now accept Visa, Master Card, American Express and Discover! It has already proven to make things easier!
In addition to all of the regular shopping we do for clients I was also asked to do a TV spot with a local station about what we do. For those of you that have followed me, Ms. Irma was on the interview with me!! She was so nervous – it was cute. Here is the clip in case you haven’t seen it 10 times already.
http://www.4029tv.com/video/29827725/detail.html?taf=fts
Thanks to Angela Taylor of 40/29 who did a great job of editing and putting both me and Ms. Irma at ease!
I made quite a few donation drop-off trips for clients. This always inspires me to ‘clear my own clutter’ at home, so we made some donations too. It always feels so good to get rid of STUFF that is just taking up space and/or collecting dust! One of the errands was taking a 50 inch television that had ‘died’ to be recycled. Yes, a female client and I got that TV in the van by ourselves. I am not going to say we did it without any scraps or bruises, but we did it! I took the TV to my friend, Brent Leas, who works for ESCO Processing and Recycling, LLC. They make it easy to recycle electronics.
Being a Notary Public I was honored to assist a young couple with notarizing some documents for their upcoming adoption of a child from China. I had to meet them at the Washington County Sheriffs Office. Usually when I go to the Sheriffs Office to notarize something it is not such a happy and joyous occasion as this one. This was a nice change of pace!
The cleaning side of The Errand Girl is really taking off. We have acquired a few more bi-weekly contracts. This meant I needed to hire more cleaning contractors. This is a very good thing, but interviewing people is taxing!! How do you tell someone that smells like cigarettes and has rotten front teeth that it wouldn’t be a good idea to hire them to represent you to clean someone’s house? I was able to be honest with them about the cigarette smell – I didn’t bother bringing up the rotten teeth issue. Another person I just spoke to on the phone had to be told, “I don’t think you are what I am looking for”. She asked what I was looking for. I had to be honest with her too and tell her “Someone that doesn’t talk as much”! She told me a LOT more details about her life and the people she had cleaned for than I needed to know. She told me she probably didn’t want to work for me anyway. Whew! Glad she saw that!
Over the Thanksgiving holiday we visited with lots of cats and dogs. They were all very grateful when we walked in the door! They were just getting us ready for all of the visits we will make over the next few weeks. We still have some openings for pet sitting for Christmas.
I spend a lot of time at doctors’ offices. No, I am not the sickly type, I am there with clients. It is amazing to me how impatient older folks are at the doctor. It is very rare that you don’t have to wait for a long period of time to get from the waiting room to the exam room. It is just a fact of life! You would think that older people would be more patient because they have been doing this for much longer than I have (sitting and waiting) and what else do they have to do???? Needless to say, I have spent some time waiting in doctors’ offices lately.
Lunch time! I don’t usually get to sit down and eat lunch (it is usually on the go). The last few weeks I have had the opportunity to attend a couple of luncheons. One of them was the CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) luncheon. We heard some really sad sad stories of local kids (and families). We also heard from volunteers for this organization who are making a difference in the life of a child. I was also invited to attend 15 cent hamburger day at a local senior apartment complex. The administration wanted to bring back ‘the good ol days’ of .15 hamburgers for the residents. That was a lot of fun meeting a bunch of new friends with all kinds of different backgrounds and stories to tell.
Someone called me this week asking me to make a delivery of some large boxes for her business. I always ask people how they heard about The Errand Girl. I really expected her to say she saw us on TV. That is the response I have been getting from most people lately. She said she saw the van on the road a long time ago and put the information in her phone because she knew she would ‘need us someday’. Smart lady!
We were successful in avoiding the stores for Black Friday. Mrs. C. called and tried to get me to go but I told her it would wait until Monday (it wasn’t a special item on sale). I did have to go to the grocery store for a couple of clients but it was not a big deal.
The Christmas wrapping season is now upon us. Today was the first day of gift wrapping mania. It seems as though a lot of people are shopping earlier this year – which is a good thing! I don’t recall seeing so many people in the stores actually buying things this early in December.
By the way………… we did hire another cleaning ‘girl’! Welcome Kim Jones to the team!!
Oh, yea, we also updated our website as you can tell with this post! Thanks to Jeannette at Scribe Marketing for her great work!!!
It has been a very busy few weeks, but we are ready for the next one …………..Bring it on!
