Starting a New Business . . . OR . . . People Suck

[Cecilie1200]

This thread has way too much information.

I hope Cecille makes lots of money though. Then she can dom all she wants the chuckleheads who got in her way.

Thanks. I'd consider it a success if the event breaks even and the attendees go away, talking about what a great time they had and looking forward to the next one. But I won't object to lots of money.

 

[Big Fitz]

Paulie. You've sunk to a new low. Very classless. I'm a little ashamed for you because that was way way WAY out of line.

I never said I would do it.

Just that if someone else was doing it, I would laugh in her face.

Oh THAT makes it aaaaaaaall better.

 

[Paulie]

Paulie. You've sunk to a new low. Very classless. I'm a little ashamed for you because that was way way WAY out of line.

I never said I would do it.

Just that if someone else was doing it, I would laugh in her face.

Oh THAT makes it aaaaaaaall better.

Well, Big Fitz...

I guess I'm going to have to go slit my wrists now that you don't think so highly of me.

 

[strollingbones]

Dom vs Domme. sub doesn't even get the courtesy of a capital letter.

But now that Stroll mentioned it, I wonder if we have some subs trying to dom from the bottom.

surely that is not news to you big....

 

[Big Fitz]

Dom vs Domme. sub doesn't even get the courtesy of a capital letter.

But now that Stroll mentioned it, I wonder if we have some subs trying to dom from the bottom.

surely that is not news to you big....

ah yes... the cycle of passive aggressive. Been there, done that, chained it to the wall and subjected it to lolcats.

SEE THE CRUELTY INHERENT IN THE SYSTEM!

 

[Cecilie1200]

Update time:

This weekend, my partner and I are taking our very first business trip. The club in Phoenix, APEX, is hosting a very popular event this weekend with a lot of vendors, and we are attending to network and keep our project in front of the community's eyes. Also, my friend, Blair, and his new business partners are setting up a booth there to sell the shiny new toys they've been making, and we're going to help with that.

Should be all kinds of tense and awkward, since a goodly number of people from the local club that's been giving us shit will be there, but my instincts are screaming at me that that's EXACTLY why WE need to be there. Sean suggested that maybe if we didn't go, it could serve to let things cool down and fade away, but I suspect a lot of people, both here and there, have heard garbled rumors about what happened, and not going would just look like we were hiding and disappearing from the community, and let wrong impressions harden.

We got the final modifications to the ad picture from the photographer, and they look AMAZING. We took 'em to Office Depot and got a rush printing of some business cards to take to the event with us, and I'm really pleased. They're going to get right up the local club's nose, though, because right at the top, in blood-red letters, it says, "Southwest Fetish Ball", the name they tried to stop us from using, and underneath, it says, "presented by Southwest Fetish Productions". Like pouring sand in their vaseline.

Oh, I want to include Blair's under-construction website for his toys, if anyone's interested in seeing them.

The Art of Sins

 

[Paulie]

 

[Ravi]

I wonder what the health care insurance premiums will be in this type of business?

 

[strollingbones]

why would working with leather and other materials cause any thing with health care?

 

[strollingbones]

you do have to be careful with untanned leather....dont be putting it no where...

 

[Cecilie1200]

why would working with leather and other materials cause any thing with health care?

Insofar as they're all small business owners, rather than employees, they're not obligated to have health insurance for themselves at the moment.

And Blair buys the leather already tanned from a leather factory, FYI.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Okay, we just had our first official business trip this weekend, and it went smashingly!

Sean and I went up to Phoenix for Kink Karnival to help Blair and Co. with their booth and to schmooze and network for our own business. The excitement level for the fetish ball is just amazing. We both commented that it's not like we're putting on the fetish ball at all, but that the fetish ball is putting itself on, and just using us to work through. It's like being in a fantasy novel, where some farmboy gets touched by destiny and finds out he's The Chosen One and gets swept along by epic events.

I'm almost taken aback by how excited PHOENICIANS are getting about this, because the usual joke in Arizona is that "I-10 only goes one way", meaning that Tucsonans will go to Phoenix for events, but Phoenicians won't go to Tucson. Not the case here. Sean was floating trial prices for vendor space at our event, thinking he was starting a little high and would haggle down, but they weren't even batting an eye. A number of vendors just said, "Great, e-mail me when you have the details, and I'll be there."

Best of all, a lady up there who has a weekly radio show/podcast on kinky topics (and is listened to by most of the Arizona kink community) said she would be talking about our event on her show, and might even do an interview with us right before the event to drum up more excitement. Yay for free advertising!

On the down side, I discovered that while my friends are mad geniuses when it comes to creating products, and Koryl is at least a reasonable salesperson, Sean and I both have better marketing skills in a coma than any of them do. After hearing tales of the chaos reigning in their house during their attempts to get ready for this event, and being appalled by their lack of appealing set-up, I gently - and it WAS gentle, because I want to help, not piss them off - scolded them for not picking up the phone and calling me for help, and will be spending several days at their house, generalissimo-ing their operation into some semblance of organization. First thing on the list: providing them with an immediate cash flow. I've been spending the morning on the phone, making arrangements with local farmers'/artisans' markets in town to sell their more vanilla products, like the jewelry.

Life is wonderful, and I'm really feeling like I suddenly found my perfect niche in the world.

 

[Big Fitz]

Great to hear the good progress for you.

 

[Cecilie1200]

My second and third events of the calendar year have started planning themselves, and we haven't even had the first one yet. I swear, it really is like being swept along by destiny or something. It's almost creepy.

Sean, Joe (my husband), and I had talked about the need to have another big bash in the fall to offset the one in the spring that's already in the works. Well, a Hallowe'en bash just seems natural, right? And then we suffered through an excruciatingly boring Hallowe'en, and realized that there's just squat to do in this city for adults on that night. Hell, there were hardly even any trick-or-treaters that we saw, let alone any big parties or haunted houses or such. Basically, it's Nightfall out at Old Tucson, or nothin'.

Next thing I know, I have this combination party/concert in my head, with an intermediate-name musician who does Victorian-industrial music (yeah, I know how it sounds, but she's INCREDIBLY talented), and similar local bands to open for her. Sean and I would both really love to do something to support our local music scene, which is performer-rich and venue-poor. And the piece de resistance is the theme: Tim Burton-esque.

While I realize that we can't actually use Tim Burton's licensed movie characters and stuff to make money without getting into deep legal trouble, nothing says we can't use the same style he does in a more generic way. Picture a scattering of round tables toward the back of the room, covered in swaths of muted "creepy Victorian" colors a la "Sweeney
Todd" and "Sleepy Hollow". Folding chairs covered in disposable black covers with big bows on the back. Gothic-style candelabra with electric flickering flame bulbs on the tables. A scene setter wall hanging (which they sell for cheap at any online party supply store) that converts one wall into a wrought iron Gothic fence looking out on a creepy forest. A few strategically-placed white pumpkins carved in elaborately-scrolled Victorian styles. A few carefully-placed gossamer drapes (also available cheap from online supply houses) hanging from the walls. Volunteers in creepy Victorian Gothic costumes. If I feel like splurging, I can even comb the secondhand stores and yard sales and find some appropriately-styled furniture that someone's throwing out to make little seating areas around the place.

The other event just popped up yesterday, after my trip to Phoenix. It has been suggested, with great enthusiasm, that Tucson should have it's own kinky carnival and swap meet event like the one we went to, with better planning and more advertising to bring in larger numbers of people. I wanted some smaller stuff on our calendar - it can't all be big, expensive parties - and this seems to fit. Maybe we could arrange for some actual carnival-style stuff, rather than just booths of people selling stuff. I'm going to research online in other cities with more developed kink communities and see what they do.

 

[Cecilie1200]

We signed the contract and put down the deposit for our venue, and we now have a firm location and date. The fetish ball will be April 23, 2011, at the Tucson Expo Center. We are now free to put up a website and start rustling up vendors, sponsors, and performers. Wheee!

Ohmigod, it's now irrevocable. We're committed to doing this. Excuse me while I have an anxiety attack.

 

[Cecilie1200]

We have our first paying sponsor!

 

[Jos]

We have our first paying sponsor!

Glad to hear you have been able to "whip up" support

 

[Cecilie1200]

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Sean has made three more sales, one of whom is a full sponsor. The bad news is that the emcee/hostess that we wanted for the event - Miss Bunny Fufu, who is an uber-famous drag queen in the Tucson area and was the head of the gay fraternity at the U of A - has retired to Hawaii. She said she would be willing to come back and do the event if we were willing to provide her with a plane ticket, since she would like the opportunity to visit friends here, anyway. We're probably going to get another hostess, but if that turns out to be the least expensive alternative . . .

Fortunately, Tucson has quite the drag queen population (who knew?). So I have no shortage of suggestions for a replacement.

In other news, we appear to have set off a furor in the Arizona kink community, which has been raging on the Internet. It never ceases to amaze me what a group of melodramatic junior high girls people turn into at the drop of a hat. We began a new group on the BDSM social website called "Southwest Fetish Ball", since that's the name of our event, for discussion and updates on the plans for the event. Almost immediately, the group was joined by a mob of people who are members of the local kink club, wanting to scream and rail about us and our "unethical" and "misleading" use of that name. We told them flatly that we own that name, having purchased its trademark from the State of Arizona, and that our use of it is completely ethical as well as legal. Furthermore, we have been quite clear at every turn that we have no affiliation with the local club, nor do we want any, and that our group is not for discussion of their personal issues and that they should take such things elsewhere.

They actually went and started a whole new thread in a different group just to bitch about us.

We ignored them and went on about our business, leaving it to the rest of the community to get annoyed with them and slap them down, which has since happened. One dork in Tempe - who is a complete stranger to both of us - announced that he was going to throw a free party on the same night, just to suck people away from ours. Our response? "Good luck with that. Hope you're rich." Like you can just slap something like this together that easily and cheaply.

Honestly, is it such a difficult concept that if you don't like what we're doing, just don't attend? Don't join the group, don't talk to us, for certain don't make a point of following every single bit of news about us just so that you can be outraged on a regular basis. I mean, cripes. Being pissed off must be really fun for some people.

 

[geauxtohell]

This thread is comically hilarious.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Good news! Sean and I talked to our next choice for Mistress of Ceremonies on Sunday, and she's THRILLED to be part of our event. She's already signed on without even discussing the money.

Her name is Ajia Simone, and she does a show at a bar here in town with two other "female illusionists", as she calls it. She also makes numerous appearances throughout the year at Gay Pride events, which I think is one of the reasons she's excited about working with us: we're making a point of trying to promote tolerance for the "alternative" community, in addition to having a great party. We're in negotiations with the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation to have a community outreach booth at the ball, as well as several other groups.

As a bonus, the owner of the bar where she does her show has ALSO signed on as a sponsor for our event.

And as a cherry on top, the community has finally gotten tired of our detractors and shouted them down, so all we've heard from them lately is a lot of very insincere good wishes and hopes that we'll be successful. I suspect this has something to do with the fact that all of the businesses and performers we've negotiated with have come away raving about how organized and prepared and businesslike we've been. Doesn't exactly reflect that well on the people they were negotiating with before.