What an interesting week. I'm not sure what God is up to. But I sure wish He would tell me soon. :/

Work has been slow again. I got to work FIVE WHOLE HOURS the last weekend of January, and the following two weekends in February. That was great. I thought maybe the slump we were in was getting fixed.

Well, last week it was slow again. Barely scraped in three hours. Duane was off somewhere, so I was working with Delilah, and she mentioned that she wondered if it was even worth it for the owner to keep the shop open on Saturdays. I admitted to her that I had been thinking the same thing for several weeks. :/

Delilah doesn't have the authority to decide that, but I can imagine she would present the question to the owner.

So, yeah. I might not have a job in the future? Hence the :/ face. That's about how I feel about it...Not my first choice, obviously, but the slowness is excruciating. The only thing I can do is just wait and see what happens.

Anyway, the second thing that happened was hugely more disappointing. I think I mentioned that I started selling makeup from www.theallnaturalface.com. I don't remember how much I've said, but I've encountered numerous problems with it, because it isn't a well-established business. It's very small, and the woman who runs it is not very well organized or very professional. One of the big problems I was having was that, even though I was a consultant, I couldn't log into the website as a consultant. She was in the middle of getting that part of the website set up with her "web guys." Back in October or November, she told me that the important part was set up and I could log in, but I tried to do so and was not able to log in. Frustrated, I sent her an e-mail letting her know, and never heard back, so I just left it alone and continued drop-shipping orders instead of having people buy them from my website.

Well, this last week, I tried logging in again, and there was an "I Forgot" button for my password. So I clicked it and they e-mailed it to me...Apparently I was just using the wrong password! I logged in and saw the back end of the website she was talking about, where I could track orders through my site.

This was THRILLING to discover. I didn't have to be afraid to have people order through my webpage anymore! That meant I could tell far-away family members and friends, I could drop business cards off to places, I could do SO MANY THINGS to promote my business that I couldn't do before! So I jumped right on that and began investing more into it. I made a beauty habits quiz (you can take it here: Stephanie's Market Research Beauty Survey--please, I love to get feedback!) and was giving it the last finishing touches about two days later when I got an e-mail from Crystal (the gal who owns the business). It was a response to a question I had...And in it she told me she was "rethinking the whole consulting thing."

Can you imagine how devastated I was?

I was just. Starting. To get into it.

I've recovered somewhat now, but the last few days I've been depressed because of that news.

Thankfully, Crystal asked me for my feedback on her idea of canceling the consulting thing, which was encouraging. I sent her a (very rational) e-mail telling her that I was disappointed, and explaining how I had just started getting into it. I also offered her one suggestion if she does cancel the consulting, and gave what I hope was an encouraging note on how highly I think of her business and her products. Overall it was a very good e-mail and I hope very much that she will listen to my suggestions and hopefully keep on consulting a bit longer.

The suggestion I gave her is that she give advance notice (like, a month at least) to her consultants as to when their customers will no longer be able to order through their websites, so that we can take advantage of the time we are given.

I have told myself that she will probably do this anyway, so I have given myself one month to push my business as much as I can and see what happens. Make use of the time! So we'll see.

I invited something like 274 people to take my quiz via a Facebook event (that's how many of my Fb friends are female and under the age of 50). I have 28 responses so far. Not many. But I'm glad anyway. I gotta figure out how to prompt more people to respond without being annoying... I really dislike annoying, continual prompts to promote somebody's business myself (and I have TONS...I mean TONS...of friends in some kind of consulting or home-based business now). So I need to figure out a way around that, if there is one.

So...I've been applying for some retail jobs. I haven't heard back from either of them yet. I wish I knew what God was doing. I guess I ought to be telling Him that, huh? ;)

That's something I need to work on...Relying on Him more.

So, God, what are you up to? I REALLY would like to continue selling the all natural cosmetics! And I would love to stay at the flower shop I am at. I would also love another job. Is there some way You can make all of those wishes come true? I trust Your leading, but those are very dear wishes of mine. Please let me know what You're doing soon. I'd even rather see endings than see only uncertainty. Your call, Lord... Love, Me

-Stephanie

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