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Moderator: Matt

By ps3isawesome
Posts:  981
Joined:  Sat Jul 26, 2014 7:09 pm
#238637
Hey Matt:

I know you're super busy but I'm just really curious as what's the life like of someone running an online CP store.

Would love to see a video of what you do on a daily basis running your green house, responding messages, preparing orders, and what not.

PLEASE ? ^_^
User avatar
By Matt
Location: 
Posts:  22523
Joined:  Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:28 pm
#238643
Hah, OK :)

Most of the stuff isn't that exciting. A lot of time is spent online each morning checking in on the forums, answering emails, invoicing orders, printing shipping labels, printing packing slips, printing care sheets, etc. I usually start with that after arriving home from swimming at 7:30 am or so. While I'm doing that stuff, Leah will often get things set up for our employees to do when they arrive (gather plants for them to repot and make sure they have all the supplies they need).

After doing the online stuff and giving it to Leah, I will head outside to water all of the plants on the deck, patio and in the greenhouses, which takes about an hour or so. After generating a list of plants that need to be shipped that day from the packing slips, Leah heads out to there to pull plants. After she gathers them, we set up shop on the deck (during the summer months) or inside (during the winter or bad weather) and start uprooting and potting plants to get them ready for their new homes. This goes on from whatever time we get started, which is normally between 10am and 12pm, until 3:45 or 4pm. At that time we have to transition to packing up the orders.

We pack orders until 4:35 or 4:40 and then make a mad dash for the closer post office, which is a mile from our house and has a drop-off deadline of 4:45. If we can't make that deadline, we have to head downtown, which is a 3 mile drive. While at the post office, we check our PO Box for any checks or money orders that have come in or any returned boxes.

Then we return home and clean up for the day, putting away pots, plants, etc., and whatever was left out that needs tending to so that it doesn't die or suffer. After that, we normally get back online and check for any emails and then settle in to relax for a bit in the evening sometime around 6:30 or so.

That's a typical day during the spring and summer months. But, of course, there are lots and lots of other chores that need to be done. Things such as:
1) Keeping the store and website software up to date
2) Spraying for pests
3) Potting/repotting plants in my private collection
4) Reorganizing the thousands of plants in the greenhouses
5) Shuttling plants in and out of the greenhouses to get them some direct sunlight so they are better hardened
...and many other things.

Today I spent most of the day upgrading Leah's work computer. She had a cheap one that was frustratingly slow, so we got a new one which arrived yesterday. I had to set it up, install her preferred softwares and then upgrade to Windows 10 and get all of the printers shared on the network again, which was more of a hassle than I had bargained for. I just now finished up with that stuff and am getting ready to relax for a while :)

In the winter and early spring months, much of the activity is the same, but I spend a lot more time doing tissue culture work and deflasking plants to be potted out.

Pretty boring and mundane stuff aside from the fact that we get to spend time with awesome looking flytraps all day :)

I'll see what I can do about a video...
Matt, Matt, Matt and 2 others liked this
By David F
Location: 
Posts:  1649
Joined:  Sun Jan 02, 2011 8:41 pm
#238655
That's a pretty full day, but about what I expected. Hopefully the new computer will cut down on that time and you guys can have a little more cocktail night time :D
David F liked this
By ps3isawesome
Posts:  981
Joined:  Sat Jul 26, 2014 7:09 pm
#238656
Thanks for sharing your day with us Matt. Really appreciate the insight.

Now that I've lived vicariously through you, I don't have to open my own CP shop.
ps3isawesome liked this
By yellowjacket7
Posts:  197
Joined:  Tue Jun 02, 2015 10:26 pm
#238837
Anymal911 wrote:I wish I could work with you lol
Sometimes I literally spend all day tending to my plants (CPs and non-CPs).
I would volunteer there for free! That would be AWESOME!


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