Ok, I missed my Tuesday post and it’s Thursday now. But I’m going to back date this one to Tuesday.
It’s been a week. I updated some of the website and bookeo to allow people to book large groups on their own. That took a while to do. Then it broke everything and worse, I didn’t like the way it showed up on the booking page as a million openings. So I changed it all back, which took another half day. This also broke the notifications so I had been down and out because we hadn’t gotten any bookings in a couple days. Turns out we had a lot.
I did manage to do block out 6 hours of just program work. I got the programs all updated and mixed down. That was a huge win.
This unfortunately made the showings tonight glitchy for users. We were still using the old stuff, but when the PC gets full the thing slows down. I forgot that and now have unhappy customers (I assume). I reached out offering a refund as soon as Christina told me. It also made it awkward for Christina who could not have known how to fix this one. Ugh. I hate when the customer experience is bad.
The door Grant installed pinched a cable, so I had to buy another cable and get him back to adjust the door. It wasn’t shutting either (old house!) so that is now fixed.
Some paperwork has been piling up and even offloading it to the bookkeeper requires work from me. I can’t wait until they just do it.
There has been a ton of back and forth on these new shirts and other swag. Shirts have been the biggest pain. They are a good source of revenue and people want them, but man there are so many things to think about. Colors, designs, how big it fits on a shirt, how it fits on a small shirt vs a 3XL, how many to order of which combinations, what color ink, which printer. I really, really don’t like dealing with swag buying. Shirts have been approved and now it’s just a few smaller things we’re working on.
Probably the top priority is that Christina’s other job is picking up at the same time that Chelsea wants to cut back on weekend nights (understandably, she’s done a lot of them). But now I need to find someone to work 10-20 hours a week. And definitely ASAP since SXSW is coming up.
I also met with a seamstress designer that is going to help gussy up the gift shop more. I’m talking to a couple people about building a shrine in the closet. These are both probably bad ideas, business-wise, since people already like the Room. But I think adding some awesome surprises at the end make the customers happier and that has to be good for business, right? I’m not convinced the opportunity cost isn’t too high though.
There’s been lots of odds and ends operational stuff as well.
Some things I should try to do: If the swag is good enough, don’t change the designs anymore. If the gift shop doesn’t happen, that’s ok. Stop taking so many meetings- they are a time sink and a half. I don’t need any more networking right now. I need to get the thing running smoothly operations wise. Take time off to relax without a schedule.
It’s 8:57pm Thursday night. It’s 46 degrees. I’m going to the springs.