Trying Not to Be Bitter
Sep. 4th, 2020 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayalaenI'm trying not to be bitter about this, but but I’m really bitter about this.
I haven’t posted in a long time because I’ve been too busy to breathe. Trying to keep my business going when worldwide businesses are either failing or taking off big time.
My parents and I haven’t left the house since March. We’re all high risk, and I don’t want my mom to die. So after the first two months of the shop being closed, Charlie and Marissa insisted we needed to reopen the shop.
Okay, so I’m working from home, setting up a completely new system that has me working 14 hours a day 6 days a week, sometimes more.
And I’m still doing this even months later.
While Charlie and Marissa kill my shop.
They don’t know how to do customer service. They’re too emotional. They’re too self-centered. They’re not overly friendly. They don’t LEARN THE FUCCKCIKING PRODUCTS.
We’ve had this shop for 8 years now, and they STILL don’t know the products, how they work, and how to sell them.
So fine. Okay. I made them papers that explain everything.
But instead of using the papers to learn the product, they hand the papers to the customers. Like... if a customer wanted to read about a product, they’d look it up. TALK TO THE CUSTOMERS. Be buddies with them. Upsell them. Be upbeat. Don’t be bitchy to customers if they’re not super friendly or they’re problem customers. This is a family business and it gives you money that you LIVE ON.
But no.
Charlie is firing Evan today. Because he’s managed the artists SO BADLY that they’ve become bitter and snarky. Charlie and Marissa don’t talk to them, don’t keep an eye on them and do maintenance, and they’ve all become unbearable. While every other shop in the valley is so busy that they can’t even keep up with it, my guys are barely bringing in anything, are almost never there, and they’re pissy when they’re there.
So in a couple weeks I think I’m going to end up closing the tattoo shop even though tattoo shop business is through the roof right now.
And I’m wondering if maybe I should do the same for the supply side.
How much longer will customers put up with them? They never really liked Charlie or Marissa that much and some of them even begged me to fire them, not knowing they were family.
So I’m working so much that I can’t even have a personal life, I’m so stressed I can’t do anything other than work, make food for my parents, and eat in front of the TV every night before crashing into bed.
But when I make suggestions on how to better the customers’ experience, Charlie and Marissa laugh at me and say “we’ll see.”
“We’ll see” when the discount system they’ve been using is to have a spreadsheet of the basic percentage discounts on each product line, and when a customer asks how much a box of something is, they have to look at the spreadsheet, times the product by the amount in the box, then minus the percentage for the discount ON EVERYTHING THE CUSTOMER ASKS ABOUT.
But when I say hey the way to make this smooth and easy for everybody is to put hang tags everywhere with the single and box prices, they LAUGH AT ME AND SAY “we’ll see.”
Am I the crazy one here?! They’re being so insane it’s making ME feel like the crazy one.
I don’t even have time to be sitting here complaining online about this, but I’m just so blown away and so devastated that they’ve ruined the tattoo shop and might even ruin the supply side too that I just...
I don’t know.
I’m at a loss.
I know people have different abilities, and I’m really good at people pleasing, but can’t you at least fake it?! For the sake of the money that pays your bills?!
Within 2 weeks of reopening the shop, Charlie and Marissa got me my first ever 1-star rating on the supply side. Because Marissa got pissed at a customer for coming into the shop when Charlie forgot to lock the door.
Even after the woman came in again, the rating stays there. If I wouldn’t have been there if I’d been at the shop because I would’ve gotten the woman to undo it by sweet talking her, but they can’t sweet talk ANYBODY.
And my business that I’ve built from nothing despite not being a tattoo artist and being a woman in an industry that frowns on both of those things is failing.
Not because of the p/an/demic. I mean kind of because I can’t go into the shop for fear my parents will die, but when it comes down to it, it’s because Charlie and Marissa won’t stop being assholes. But they gladly use the money to live on.
I’m trying not to be bitter and resentful, but I’m really struggling with this, and now I have to decide if I should just walk away from the entire thing. Go out with a bang instead of a whimper.
And I’m stuck here in this house with no way of fixing. No solutions besides putting my parents at risk via exposure.
I don’t talk about this part much, but the reason I have the business in the first place is that Charlie and Marissa opened it and bombed so bad and lost so much money with it that after 1.5 years my family and Saul (the artist who does all my tattoos) got together and said LET MAYA DO IT YOU’RE FAILING.
As soon as I took over, the business took off. So I took a failing business that already had a bad reputation, turned it around, and made it what it was.
Five months ago the artists on the tattoo side were making us enough money to pay the shop costs for the ENTIRE building and utilities, meaning everything that came in on supply side was income.
It wasn’t problem-free, but I managed everything.
I don’t know what to do. I feel like a failure.
I haven’t posted in a long time because I’ve been too busy to breathe. Trying to keep my business going when worldwide businesses are either failing or taking off big time.
My parents and I haven’t left the house since March. We’re all high risk, and I don’t want my mom to die. So after the first two months of the shop being closed, Charlie and Marissa insisted we needed to reopen the shop.
Okay, so I’m working from home, setting up a completely new system that has me working 14 hours a day 6 days a week, sometimes more.
And I’m still doing this even months later.
While Charlie and Marissa kill my shop.
They don’t know how to do customer service. They’re too emotional. They’re too self-centered. They’re not overly friendly. They don’t LEARN THE FUCCKCIKING PRODUCTS.
We’ve had this shop for 8 years now, and they STILL don’t know the products, how they work, and how to sell them.
So fine. Okay. I made them papers that explain everything.
But instead of using the papers to learn the product, they hand the papers to the customers. Like... if a customer wanted to read about a product, they’d look it up. TALK TO THE CUSTOMERS. Be buddies with them. Upsell them. Be upbeat. Don’t be bitchy to customers if they’re not super friendly or they’re problem customers. This is a family business and it gives you money that you LIVE ON.
But no.
Charlie is firing Evan today. Because he’s managed the artists SO BADLY that they’ve become bitter and snarky. Charlie and Marissa don’t talk to them, don’t keep an eye on them and do maintenance, and they’ve all become unbearable. While every other shop in the valley is so busy that they can’t even keep up with it, my guys are barely bringing in anything, are almost never there, and they’re pissy when they’re there.
So in a couple weeks I think I’m going to end up closing the tattoo shop even though tattoo shop business is through the roof right now.
And I’m wondering if maybe I should do the same for the supply side.
How much longer will customers put up with them? They never really liked Charlie or Marissa that much and some of them even begged me to fire them, not knowing they were family.
So I’m working so much that I can’t even have a personal life, I’m so stressed I can’t do anything other than work, make food for my parents, and eat in front of the TV every night before crashing into bed.
But when I make suggestions on how to better the customers’ experience, Charlie and Marissa laugh at me and say “we’ll see.”
“We’ll see” when the discount system they’ve been using is to have a spreadsheet of the basic percentage discounts on each product line, and when a customer asks how much a box of something is, they have to look at the spreadsheet, times the product by the amount in the box, then minus the percentage for the discount ON EVERYTHING THE CUSTOMER ASKS ABOUT.
But when I say hey the way to make this smooth and easy for everybody is to put hang tags everywhere with the single and box prices, they LAUGH AT ME AND SAY “we’ll see.”
Am I the crazy one here?! They’re being so insane it’s making ME feel like the crazy one.
I don’t even have time to be sitting here complaining online about this, but I’m just so blown away and so devastated that they’ve ruined the tattoo shop and might even ruin the supply side too that I just...
I don’t know.
I’m at a loss.
I know people have different abilities, and I’m really good at people pleasing, but can’t you at least fake it?! For the sake of the money that pays your bills?!
Within 2 weeks of reopening the shop, Charlie and Marissa got me my first ever 1-star rating on the supply side. Because Marissa got pissed at a customer for coming into the shop when Charlie forgot to lock the door.
Even after the woman came in again, the rating stays there. If I wouldn’t have been there if I’d been at the shop because I would’ve gotten the woman to undo it by sweet talking her, but they can’t sweet talk ANYBODY.
And my business that I’ve built from nothing despite not being a tattoo artist and being a woman in an industry that frowns on both of those things is failing.
Not because of the p/an/demic. I mean kind of because I can’t go into the shop for fear my parents will die, but when it comes down to it, it’s because Charlie and Marissa won’t stop being assholes. But they gladly use the money to live on.
I’m trying not to be bitter and resentful, but I’m really struggling with this, and now I have to decide if I should just walk away from the entire thing. Go out with a bang instead of a whimper.
And I’m stuck here in this house with no way of fixing. No solutions besides putting my parents at risk via exposure.
I don’t talk about this part much, but the reason I have the business in the first place is that Charlie and Marissa opened it and bombed so bad and lost so much money with it that after 1.5 years my family and Saul (the artist who does all my tattoos) got together and said LET MAYA DO IT YOU’RE FAILING.
As soon as I took over, the business took off. So I took a failing business that already had a bad reputation, turned it around, and made it what it was.
Five months ago the artists on the tattoo side were making us enough money to pay the shop costs for the ENTIRE building and utilities, meaning everything that came in on supply side was income.
It wasn’t problem-free, but I managed everything.
I don’t know what to do. I feel like a failure.
no subject
on 2020-09-05 05:28 am (UTC)It sounds like if you can it may be best to close the shop before your family members ruin everything you've built. Maybe once they have to work for themselves they'll appreciate how much effort it takes to earn money.
They obviously aren't learning customer service skills, or even attempting to make an effort working at your shop and at this rate all your artists may quit and then you'll have to start all over again. I don't suppose you can hire someone else instead of them?
Basically, you're between a rock and a hard place. I think you need to have a real conversation with Charlie and Marissa about how no one is going to have any money because they suck.
no subject
on 2020-09-05 07:26 am (UTC)