The Snowbirds are Coming: brace for impact!

     We are on the verge of a new season, which will bring returning friends, increase in activities.  Cultural organizations like the symphony,jazz society, and community concert bands start again.  Some businesses that were straining to stay open get a new lease on life with all the new customers.
     When my store was open many customers talked about stocking up on things like guitar strings, wind instrument reeds and other musical supplies as there was not a good music store here.  My store closing was a big hit on the company and I am hoping to find a place to reopen or at least have some retail outlet to serve the customers that said they would buy from me this year instead of stocking up from a music store in their northern home.  For me the prospect is a bit daunting as I am not well recovered from last years try.  Last year could be looked at as the death of the effort to get into retail or a dry run with valuable lessons learned.
     This is a much smaller market compared to Chicago but I do have the chicago business to sustain me.  The tuning business has little overhead and little risk campared to retail with stock to buy and a physical presence to maintain.  I intend to try agian in spite of the risks.  Retail offers more exposure to all the services offered of the company and greatly expands the services that the company can extend to my customer base here.

Banking and small business

I think most small business owners would agree with me that banks are the enemy of small business. In these very difficult economic times banks also have no compassion for the individual who perhaps is strougling with income falling short of expenses. Since all banks charge excessive fees it is meaningless to name one bank but Charlotte State Bank and Trust would be an example of this problem. My 91 year old mother has an accout here that is being closed because the bank cites excessive negative balances. Even when there is direct deposit that makes the account right at least once a month the bankers there look at their computers and obey. The obvious solution would be to not charge the fees. The rub for this bank and others that do the same thing is that they are addicted to this free money. There was a time when banks worked for the money by providing services to customers. Sticking customers with hundreds of dollars worth of fees is a service that I can do without. The branches are convenient at charlotte State and they serve cookies in the loby but customers could buy the cookie company with the fee money collected. I could never be a banker and look a customer in the face telling him that his money would not be returned.