ASR Blog

getting paid to pay those who need to get paid

A huge problem with small businesses working with small stores is collecting your cash. It can be really hard to collect the money owed to you from stores, and no real way to do it besides sending them to collections, or sending the mafia men out in suits. 'hey, give me the money for the baby onesies" (said in my best sopranos imagination voice)

but this is an issue and has been for a long time for us, it takes up a lot of time and it also prevents us from paying our bills on time to the people who have been helping us create the brand.

sometimes you got to play hard ball. and though its not a personal issue or matter, we have to get tough once in a while.

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Hi [ an anonymous store] ,
I have been calling and faxing invoices to the store since November and have
been emailing with M. since the beginning of January about two unpaid
invoice we have for your store. My factor, Westgate Financial, has been
calling the store as well.

M. has apparently passed the information along to you, and since
November I have kept being told that they will be paid “that week” however
neither I nor my factor have received either check and I have not heard back
from you. The credit cards we were given in October by M. were
declined, and I have since faxed, emailed and called to try to get someone
to send the payments by check, and have been continuously assured that they
were being sent out.

The first shipment (May 2007) was paid 120 days late to WestGate Financial.
We have extended terms of NET 30 to you on 3 occasions now, and since none
have been paid in a reasonable amount of time, I am sure that you will
understand that until our factor can approve your credit standing again, any
future orders will have to be pre-paid before they will be released to ship
out.

INVOICES DUE:
#26 (SO #75) Total: $----- (due:12/5/07—75 days past due)
#30 Total: $---- (due: 1/12/08 – 30 days past due)


Please see the attached and please get back to me via phone or email to let
me know that both checks have been sent.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

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Reasons I haven't Blogged -by Leanne Ford

1. i was stuck in mexico
2. i was stuck in new york city
3. i left my computer in the back of a taxi in las vegas
4. my phone broke in LA and i couldn't call the taxi to find my computer in las vegas
5. i quit punkster
6. i ran out things to complain about
7. i ran out of exciting things to tell you
7. we shot the new punkster campaign in LA and i have been staring at the pictures ever since
8. i was driving a convertible through the desert

(only one of these isnt true)

take a guess .. . .. go ahead!

puzzling

i found this already solved in the usair magazine. one less thing for me to have to figure out!

"if you don't want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you don't have to work."
-ogden nash

face (to computer screen) to face

my "coworkers and i have been trying to work on a new punkster line across the country, LA, NY and Nashville. We have been trying to get together but plane tickets kill budgets for small companies. we have been trying to conference call but trying to flash and 3-way connect on our blackberry is advanced beyond our years. (sad i know) so now we are trying to get a conference going on our ichat! i cant wait to see their beautiful little faces as they tell me how the productions won't be in on time, or the budget cant afford any more creative pursuits, or watch them smile as we talk about our new line we are creating and our newest press hit. there is something to be said about face to face to face. or at least iSight to iSight to iSight.

hey, we take what we can get! whats an "office" or a "company" these days anyway right?

alternative work arrangements

Another sign that the work world is changing is the increasing number of telecommuters, job-sharing and off-site arrangements. For example, some 40 percent of organizations now allow employees to telecommute in some capacity. These flexible work situations are becoming more commonplace and present another challenge for companies.

Technology can alienate

The increasing use of technology in today's business can have an alienating effect on employees. But, technology can also offer employers many options for communicating and connecting better with their people. The key is learning how to use the technology and then taking advantage of all it can offer.

One step closer to face-to-face communication is the use of video-conferencing. Home Depot, for example, has a weekly satellite feed to all stores known as "Breakfast with Bernie and Arthur," their chairman and CEO.

ah, score!

here's what im using to make my punkster business plan!

www.score.org/pdf/ABusiness%20Plan%20for%20an%20Established%20Business.pdf

it seems pretty helpful, course its 29 pages, so that stings my eyes, but still! i really like SCORE too, its this site that knows and shows all things small business, it even offers to set up meetings with people who have been there and volunteer their time, its really amazing!

i have to get back to using all these resources, remember people have been to the depths of darkness that i have. and they are (mostly) still alive.

words to your mother

the thing is, my favorite type of design and art and inspiration is words, i love words. in songs, in books, on scraps i rip out of magazines, on subway walls, bar bathrooms, billboards on the 405, ones that pop into my head and dont make sense, words that i say out of order by mistake that end up sounding better. photographs and paintings of words are my favorite. so its only proper that i started a company that makes so much of its punch and cash with words, with wit and with personality and design and desire for the product through words.

but i have come to realize that if i want the design to be stepped up, no matter how much i see or imagine for it in my head, i have to get someone else to put that onto paper, or the screen for me. i have just conquered "open apple c" and am working on "open apple v" or is it the other way??

anyway, i guess thats why some are cretive directors and some are creators. we both create, we just use each others ideas and concepts and skills to create something beautiful. or funny. or interesting. or at very least, something to look at.

creative souls coming together always seems to make something wilder and more powerful than alone.

in the words of jack johnson, "we're better together"

word.

international sensation

in a day of internet, the world is small. too small. in so many ways, for so many reasons, the internet is a dangerous tool, that we being so very human use and abuse. so now in 2008 its amazing that someone's ideas in australia can be seen by me, here in nashville.

and my ideas in nashville can be seen by someone in australia, and who thought of them first? and who stole them? or who just has similiar brains. i mean, there is a chance many people think of an idea at once in multiple places in the universe. but who's to ever know? who's to ever figure it out? who is going to stop?

in the old days, before i remember or know of really, someone across the world could have just started punkster, word for word, bottle for bottle, idea for idea, and it would have been fine, but today where anyone can buy anything from the internet, and see anything, its hard to not feel sad when you see your ideas being taken, or created, or even worse, see better ideas than yours.

dont do it.

My college paper is writing an article about punkster and i thought this was an interesting question they asked. what would you give as advice?

4.) What advice would you give to college girl's that are trying to start their own business?

dont do it. no just kidding, kind of. . . i would say dont go into anything hastily, if you think it will be profitable and easy quickly, it wont. no matter what. if you want to grow a business you will always be putting money into it. and if you dont want to grow it, it will be stagnant soon.

also, do something that you are passionate about and love, something beyond just "starting" something. because this will become your life, and everything you think about and stress about and talk about for the next X amount of years, so make sure its exciting to you. because it will put you through the ringer! but if you are excited about it you will put up with the chaos and create something beautiful.

another thing is, do your best to stay away from inventory based businesses. they are so difficult to conquer!

oh and be patient, companies need time to catch on, and iron out their kinks, and get buzz.

design, ehr. . . .

im constantly inspired by everything i see everyday, everyone i talk to, every interaction, song, movie, trailer, they all are inspiration for my life which of course, bleeds into my work. my friend showed me this site, www.ffffound.com it has pictures of "stuff" some really amazing, some inappropriate, all artistically pushing some envelope somewhere. yesterday as i spent an hour or more clicking on every color, poster, drawing, word that looked interesting to me i thought about the world of design and how amazing it is, and how i really want punkster to be a part of something amazing. something revolutionary. i want punkster to be a part of the design forefront that is coming out of the streets of the lower east side on 3am on a wednesday, that is taking its lunch break at the beaches of fiji, the design coming out of barns in the middle of america. the revolution of design is inspiring and exciting, and exhausting and something i would love to even try to try to TRY to keep up with. through my own life, my own house, my own company.

if you cant beat em, blog em!

i saw this in a magazine years ago when i thought bloggers where just MAKING us read their diary. now i still kind of think that, but it is amazing what has happened to blog world. its a huge tool in marketing. like me, for punkster. see. . .did you click on it? did you?? then i did my job.

one day this internet thing is gonna kick in, you'll see!

hey! if you cant beat em, blog em!

soo, self-absorbed? marketing guru? ...or both. . . .

-leanne ford
the original punkster
the unoriginal blogger.