Gift Rep Sandy

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Even if you have a written sales agreements, issues or disagreements can come up – even if it is addressed in the agreement.  Situations like these require some difficult decisions as it is not easy to find a win-win solution.

Some of the biggest problems I encountered with breaches in sales agreement revolve around territory and/or house account issues.  For instance, it is easy for a potential buyer to call a vendor direct (not realizing that you are the sales rep) and place an order.  The vendor processes the order forgetting to give you credit for the sale or to inform you about the new customer.  Like I said previously, vendors are busy people wanting to get products manufactured and shipped as soon as possible.  Most of the time, these instances are just oversights.  Personally, I chose to ignore these minor occurrences.  Most of the time, I ultimately found these store buyers and took the re-orders anyway.  Also, I felt my relationship with the vendor was more important than making an issue over a small commission.

When the situation becomes serious, there are a few courses of action.  First and best option always is to talk to the vendor about the problem.  Visit in person if possible.  There may be many different reasons for the situation and your vendors should have the chance to explain.

If the first option does not work, or if the vendor is not willing to pay you, you can file a complaint in small claims court in the county where the vendor is located.  You need written proof of your attempts to collect.  If you kept good records, it should be easy to prove the breach in the written agreement.  Or you can turn the vendor over to a collection agency.  Once again, you need actual written records including a demand for payment before a collection agency is willing to assist you with collections.

Lastly, you always have the option to terminate your services with a vendor who does not pay you.  I found this option was often my best choice because I did not have the time or the inclination to follow a legal course of action. At this point, the relationship was damaged and I no longer wished to represent their products anyway.

Whatever action you decide to take, these cases should be weight by questioning whether the money you receive is worth the effort or time you need to take to collect it.  In most of my cases, my time and peace of mind was more important to me than filing any legal actions.  But, of course, the ultimate choice to handling the issue is really up you!

Wishing you and your families a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sandy and Malcolm Dell

Malcolm and I are very busy with holiday sales this month!  We have lots of web orders along with running a holiday kiosk in Moscow, Idaho near where we live.

But early in 2010, I will be starting a new series of blog posts on how to become a sales representative to the gift industry.

If you are interested in pursuing a career in this field, or if you are a current sales rep looking for some fresh ideas, make sure to subscribe to get the latest updates next year!

For now, I would like to wish you a very happy holiday season!

GiftRepSandy

If you hadn’t noticed, the days are starting to get shorter, the nights are cooler, the kids are heading back to school … change is in the air!  Late summer is the time of year that my sale rep business starts transitioning from tourist season to holiday season.  Even though we have some of the hottest days of the year in August, I need to start thinking about Christmas, holiday products to offer my customers, and new products from my list of vendors (lines I represent)

With all these changes, comes new pages and updates to my website:  www.idahogiftswholesale.com.  I will be spend large chunks of time over the next weeks to gathering information, taking pictures, and offering new products to my retail buyers for October/November buying.

On the home front:  I need to take my laptop back to my friends at Cactus Computers in Moscow.  The crazy machine is running slow and crashing programs even after I doubled the RAM capacity a few weeks ago.  We bought a Toshiba laptop in March of last year — a change from our usual Dell purchases – because we were told that Toshiba made the best laptops.  Well, you could not prove that by my experiences with this one!!  Hopefully, my friends can fix the problem and I can go about my business.

We are still spending everyday at the downtown office to access the internet.  It looks like we will not be able to replace our high-speed internet at home.  Malcolm has set up a dial-up service, but I have not yet tried it.  I suppose I will want to go to sleep waiting for it to load up, but at least we will have service at home again.

So enjoy these last days of summer.  I get back with an update on the fall changes as they unfold.

I know that you have not heard from me for awhile.  Malcolm and I had a very busy July and August.

Historically, the wholesale business is busiest in April and May.  But this year, buyers were very reluctant to purchase many new products for their stores until June and July.  Order tend to taper off in July … but not this year!  I have not looked at the records (been too busy), but I would expect that this July is the best July wholesale month we have had since I started my sales rep business in 2001!!

Reports I have been receiving from around the state tell me that tourist areas are having a good season.  Twin Falls had a long season this year with the falls (due to all the rain), Mountain Home says lots of their visitors are folks who are traveling on the Interstate rather than the typical tourist who flies into the area.  And of course, the beaches in Coeur d Alene and Sandpoint are lined with people.  Maybe Idaho isn’t seeing the recession as badly as other areas in the country!

On another note, Malcolm and I attended the North Powder (Oregon) Huckleberry Festival on July 25.  Check out our post and pictures on the International Wild Huckleberry Association blog.

Malcolm and I decided to take some time off and drive up to Elk River this morning.  Elk River was having a small Huckleberry Festival and we thought it would be a fun event to attend.

The drive to Elk River is rather long from our home in Orofino.  It was hot today, so the air conditioning in our car was greatly appreciated!  Anyway, once we arrived in Elk River, we were a bit surprised at how quiet the town was!  Not much of a festival, but the town was also featuring their ‘community garage sale’ day.  Of course, we came for the huckleberry items and not the garage sale, but  I did pick up one of the old “Huckleberry Heaven” huckleberry cookbook:  101 Huckleberry Recipes from the Kitchen of Huckleberry Heaven!  A few really interesting recipes that I will probably be featuring on the International Wild Huckleberry Association blog over the next weeks.

Dent Bridge

After having a nice lunch at the Log Inn, we headed home over Dent Bridge.  The gravel road winded through the wooded area between Elk River and Orofino as we traveled home.  Once we hit the top — just before crossing the bridge — we stopped briefly to enjoy the spectacular site!  The beautiful Dworshak Reservoir lie just below us!  The bridge crossed the 52 mile reservoir about 17 miles north of the Dworshak Dam.  (NOTE:  For more information, see Wikipedia)

After returning from our trip, we headed to the office to check on any orders we may have received for the day.

All and all, it was a fun day for the both of us!!

Had a wonderful 4th of July weekend with our friends, Tim and Romana, in Moscow.  Visiting with them is always fun and interesting.  Tim is very engaging — despite the fact that his wife, Romana, has alzheimers.  Sad story especially considering she was a professor at WSU before this disease hit!!  All in all, Tim seems to be handling the situation and Romana seems oblivious to her problems!

Update on huckleberry rakes: We picked up the shipment last week and got all the back-ordered rakes shipped out.  And just in time … We had a record day of orders on Tuesday.  Huckleberry are starting to ripen and folks are getting ready to do some serious picking.  The next couple weeks should be a busy time for us with the huckleberry rakes.  Love those on-line credit card orders that post money to our bank account regularly!!

Update on internet service: After looking high and low for internet service to our home office, we are resigned to sign up for sloooooooooowwwwwwwww dial up service again.  I understand that a new Verizon tower is going to be installed in Orofino which should make their high speed internet service available to us again.  So in the meantime, we are signing up for dial-up to help us, at least, be able to access our webmail and do a few pertinent tasks at our home office.  We will continue to travel downtown, but at least not EVERY day!!

With the 4th of July weekend come and gone, wholesale orders are starting to pick up again!  Received several on-line orders along with some phone orders.  Good news to see gifts selling despite the slow economy.

Once again, I am focusing on being thankful for each small thing we have.  It makes dealing with the set-backs a bit easier!

Malcolm, my husband, says I am not very good at writing about myself!  No fooling … I can whip up numerous articles on How to do this or that, but ask me to write about my day and  . . . I can’t seem to  . . . remember or come up with anything . . . important to say!!

The last week has been very hectic trying to work out the details to getting and shipping the back-ordered huckleberry rakes.  Ending up making two trips to Spokane to pick up what we needed.  Now we have TWO models of huckleberry picking rakes available for sale.  After picking up the second load of rakes, we shipped all our wholesale and resale backorders!  PHEW!!  Did NOTHING for most of the following day!!

Now, we have found out that our wireless internet provider at our home office has been permanently disabled (long story).  Because we live in the “hinderlands” of rural Idaho, it will be a challenge to find a replacement company that does not want the deed to our Chevy Van to hook up and give us good service.  Thank God, we have a small office downtown where we are able to access the wireless hotspot!!

Despite all of these challenges, I am looking forward to a couple days away at friends of ours home for the 4th of July holiday.  It is times like this that we all need to thankful for the gifts and freedom we have!!

I love the weather we are having this year!  Last year, we seemed to have winter all the way into May.  If my memory serves me well, I remember waking up a few mornings in late May to 1-2 inches of snow on the ground!  Not this year!  We’ve had a few rain and thunder storms, but between the storms are some beautiful 80 degree days … You know, the kind that makes you want to sit out in the sunshine all day, have picnics, watch the wildlife and play with the cats!!

Malcolm is currently on a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico giving a talk on Community Kitchens.  He is giving his presentation at  the National RC&D  (Resource Conservation and Development) Conference — an organization he has been involved with for many years.

During his absence, I am working diligently to get some of the tasks accomplished that I cannot normally do while he is here.   For instance, cleaning out my very cluttered office!  Oh joy!!  I’m also working on some of his website product input.  We are featuring Camping Forks made right here in Orofino!  Site is still under construction, but I will have products inputted and photos edited and ready to go by the time he is back late Thursday.

Next week, we are heading to the freight carriers in Spokane to pick up our second pallet load of huckleberry picking rakes.  Need to call several wholesale customers in the Spokane/Coeur d Alene area to see if they need to restock their rakes before the 4th of July weekend!

While Malcolm is gone and into the next weeks, I will be adding a section on this website for several different business tools we use that has made our life easier.  Check back often, for updates to this page.

Oh, the phone is ringing …. see you later!

It’s Free Fishing Day today in Orofino.  My husband, Malcolm and his oldest daughter, Andrea are out on the Clearwater

Clearwater River near Orofino

River fishing this morning and afternoon.  I can think of a million things I would rather do than sit in the hot sun danging a pole in the water waiting for something to happen … Needless to say, I am NOT a fishman (or fisherwoman!)

The last several days have been busy — Huckleberry season is just around the corner and huckleberry picking rake sales are starting to pick up.   This year is looking like another great huckleberry season, so I suspect we will be busy shipping rakes until fall!  (If you are interested in recipes and interesting facts about huckleberries, check out and subscribe to my blog:  International Wild Huckleberry Association!)

I am also surprised that the wholesale business, which is normally slower in June, is still steady.  I don’t travel much in June, but retail buyers are still contacting me with their orders via the phone, fax and from my website:  Idaho Gifts Wholesale.  Buyers are being more conservative with their orders this year, but I am gratefully for every contact and order I receive.  I really believe that if we can hang on through this economic slump, buying should pick up for the holidays.

Have a great weekend!  It looks like a beautiful one here in north central Idaho!