As Promised...drumroll please... Update to full time scrappin'

If you guys know me at all you should know that I am always late with the posts! I have pictures though and that is always awesome!

Anyhow - I am really enjoying doing this as my job! The most important thing to me in a job is that it stays interesting. Otherwise I have problems keeping it! I guess you could compare me to a sponge in that sense although it's not a very helpful personality trait to have. My biggest issue so far seems to be finding my balance with bringing in material/business. I don't want to put myself in a position that I end up not being capable of fulfilling a commitment that I've made due to poor planning/lack of space. It is bad business and makes me look unprofessional in the eyes of customers (for lack of a better term). That alone can take you out of the game before you even get started in a small town like the one that I live in. Of course, the other side of this is under-commiting which leads to a lack of incoming material and therefore lack of incoming funds to continue. The latter is where I find myself; stupid because it's almost a Catch-22 situation.

I made some postcard sized flyers around Christmas that had the holiday theme and then had to recreate a new flyer after that because it's super tacky to keep handing out Christmas themed handouts after the date has past; that's how I would see it at least. The second flyer is better because I figured out a way to make it double sided which gave me a larger area in for detailed information about what I'm doing as well as space to include a couple of examples of the items that I'm looking for. I believe that examples are a vital part of the way that I've chosen to present myself and my purpose. It's easy for us to come up with a million and a half ideas of what we're looking for but the average person thinking is not shaped the same as ours.

I struggle with my own self-confidence issues when it comes to interacting with potential customers. It's like an extreme sub-category of stage fright like behavior. I'll freeze up, talk too quickly, or end up not getting out there at all to even try. As much as I am an outgoing person (obviously) this behavior has a tendency of coming out of nowhere and puts a dent in my networking activity. So, I am working on that issue. I have been getting a few other half developed methods of bring the material in but have to work out the details of course.

I apologize if I'm being a little vague - a good friend on here informed me of the fact that I could potentially shoot myself in the foot by giving out too much information about my plans/ideas because they could be taken and used against me. Trust and believe that if that should happen I will not take it very well and handle myself in a calm and mature way like I know that I should. Bad temper, got it from my mom, she's worse than I am though - suffers from "Dinosaur Brain" (when you see red and don't remember what happened after the fact).

Well if you made it this far through the reading I think that you deserve pictures! I realized that the pictures that I have aren't nearly as good as I lead myself to believe they were but, hey, hopefully you will enjoy them and I promise to do better next time. I'm going to try and possibly get an example of the Christmas flyer that I made since I am not currently distributing it.

It's hard to not just throw it all on the table because I would love to get the feedback from all of you. The only ones that I've gotten an opinion from are my mom and grandma and they are a biased source of criticism as well as not belonging or having any concept of the industry.



Hope that I didn't bore you to death...now on to the pictures!!

Magnet Faces that Morgan made from all the magnets we've collected



Couple of close ups:




It's an itty-bitty CRT! (post-it to help with perspective)


Side View


Shouldn't warnings be free from spelling errors?



This is an aluminum ring from inside a laptop hard drive....


and it makes the perfect scrapper fashion accessory!

I was thinking of turning this into a Halloween monster decoration...


and this is our part-time cat

What is she the rest of the time?

Originally Posted by musicman57

What is she the rest of the time?

The Cat? Oh she is someone else's pet the rest of the time lol

Thanks for the update Julie...glad to hear that hard work is paying off.

If I may: I have a sales/recruiting background so I can present my business well. Since you mentioned: I struggle with my own self-confidence issues when it comes to interacting with potential customers, might I recommend a little sales/self confidence training. It's easy, just go to the Library and pick up 1 book and read it (just get one at a time). Don't go crazy reading this all in one day, just read a chapter and use the info on your next cold call. You can start with someone like Zig Ziggler or Dale Carnegie. Also, less is more. When you are speaking to potential clients, stop talking and let them talk and then listen. Write things down that they tell you, if that will help you. Smile!!!
A couple of months ago, on my lunch hour, I walked into 3 office buildings just up the street from where I worked. I spoke to maybe 7 people. One of them gave my flyer to their IT Director. Over the last week I have obtained, 4 Pickup truck loads and 1 trailer load of e-waste. That was the only marketing I have ever done and it produced $$$. And it is one of the largest companies here. I'm now trying to get them to allow me to use their logo on my flyer. That would be a awesome.
Start reading/training, present yourself professionally, listen, less is more,,,,,,and you will do fine.
PM me and I will share my phone number and you can call me to discuss.

Glad to hear from you Julie. What ever you do don't give up, the more you talk to people the easyer it'll get. Good luck and keep up the good work.

Originally Posted by BRASSCATCHER

Good advice from Liberty there Julie. As much as other scrappers can be your competition they can also be a good resource. I have always been friendly with the other local scrappers in my area and have traded jobs numerous times when I couldn't get to something or they couldn't. I have also networked with one or two people here on the forum as well.

I'm always very friendly with other scrappers that I encounter (one so far) but I find myself feeling the same way that I do when it come to working on cars. It's primarily a gender biased type of work in the sense that females are not automatically seen as equals in the eyes of fellow scrappers. So, I have a little bit of that feeling that I have something to prove in my ability to handle my self and my scrap. Once I feel that I have accomplished this I'm sure that networking with my peers will easy. Once I find them that is....

I believe the same as you about the gender thing... but if you've seen my picture I'm sure that at face value I don't amount to much. I know that it happens but they always have their feet in their mouths (or however that saying goes) by the time that they get to know me. I'm very stubborn too and have always had to learn things by doing them myself as opposed to watching others or being told how to. I'm sure that it helps but I'm going to be needing a Rascal Scooter before most of my peers. lol

I appreciate people that can cook good food.... I make a mean buttered toast myself on a good day...

You're right that you can ruin your business by not fulfilling commitments. A policy of mine is, if I say I'll take it, I'll get everything moved one way or another and worry about storing/working it later. You might put in some late nights, but it will work out for the good.

I like your examples idea, just try to think like a person outside the scrap business. You might try asking a friend or local business person that you know to tell you what things they have that they don't know what to do with or how to get rid of. If any of this fits your long wanted list, it might be something to include on your fliers.

I used to have what I called "panic stage fright" and couldn't talk, sing, or play in front of anyone on mic. Then a friend called me out live one night and it was more embarrassing to refuse than do it, so I ended up being the keyboard player and singer for our church praise band. Now a couple years later, I am still self conscious, but it's a lot better after taking the plunge.


Good luck and how much for the cat?