Happy 1st Birthday, Azara Effect Productions!

As some of you reading this know, the birth of AEP coincided with the birth of Scott’s son, John. Over the last year, many lessons about babies and businesses have been learned, and I thought it might be fun to share a few common ones:

1)      Appreciate every moment

Owning a small business means running back and forth between two ends of the busi-ness spectrum: from working 14 hour days to watching the tumbleweeds blow over the keyboard. We’ve learned that it’s important to be grateful for having so much work to do, and to be equally grateful for the days (or weeks) off.

2)      Always be two steps ahead

This is still a lesson in-progress, but we’re learning to try and plan for the future work alongside of doing the current work. Imagine building a plane while flying it – sometimes easier said than done!

3)      Get by with a little help from friends ...

... and family, co-workers, neighbours, strangers, cats, etc. Azara Effect Productions would not have made it to its first birthday without all of the help and support that we’ve received – thank you, so much.

Also similar to baby John, AEP is slowly learning how to get up and walk, but, I’m sure, we’ll be running* in no time!

*Smashing into walls

Mutual Admiration Society

My family and I were strolling through downtown on a Sunday afternoon, when a beautiful table inside of a store caught our eyes – so much so, that we backtracked to take a look. The store was subtle and filled with handcrafted and unique items made of wood – along with some unusual odds and ends, such as printing stamps and antique typewriters.

The salesclerk was present but not pushy, informed but not a know-it-all. It was a lovely browsing experience, and we remarked that it might be our Victoria version of a store we had loved on the mainland. We told the salesperson about our previous favorite store, and we described the mid-century furniture it had that we coveted so much.

“Well,” he replied, “you should check out the store across the street; they have great pieces of mid-century furniture, and … “ he went on describing the beautiful pieces the other store had – all while standing in front of two lovely mid-century pieces in his own place of work.

We soon browsed our way out of the store, and although we intended on crossing and checking out the other store, we decided to keep going down the street instead.

We will, without a doubt, go back to the first store. It is also quite likely that we will check out the store that the clerk spoke highly off. It is even more certain that we will tell others how much we appreciated the workmanship at the first store and the quality of the friendly, knowledgeable sales staff.

Promoting another company doesn’t drive customers away from your own business; I would argue that, in the long run, it brings more costumers to it. We are happy to be in the Mutual Admiration Society; especially when it’s for causes we support and companies/clients whose work ethics and values align with our own.

Thank you, Trade Roots, for reminding us of this! And, we can’t wait to come back and check your store out, The Fabulous Find!

Melissa