#17. First-Time Salesmen (Tuesday, August 7, 2006)

What was your best day…of doing something that made you feel much more mature than you actually were?

As you may recall, this was the summer that I had decided to become a full-on business owner…selling costume jewelry from a roadside stall. And now, with all the logistics having been sorted out (#83), there was only one thing left to do. Start selling.

That first day was by far the best day. Initially, our CEO Daniel had arranged with some family friends to share their stall in the Byward Market for a few days a week. But on this Tuesday, for some reason that couldn’t happen, so we had to get our own selling spot. And for that, I had to get to the Byward Market administration office really early, while lugging my giant Rubbermaid container (to serve as a makeshift table), to book our spot. (Daniel and them were coming later with the jewelry.)

Well, apparently the only place they had was this small space in the middle of the farmer’s market. And when I got there, there was a huge truck parked in that space. So I had to get one of the administration people to get it removed – my first, but definitely not last, moment of feeling like a true adult that day.

Finally, at around eight a.m., I am able to stake the spot. And shortly after, Daniel, Foster, Yenan, and Naomi arrive with the jewelry – which, you might remember, were hung neatly across a set of four rabbit cage cubes. We start setting up our display, while Foster’s all like: “What the hell are we doing in the food place?”

For the first half hour or so, there are no sales. I go to the ATM in the mall next door to grab some cash for change, then I come back to see Yenan (who’s more awkward than me) in the process of selling one of the necklaces to an older woman. He struggles through, but after ten minutes we have our first sale. What an awesome feeling!

For being in the middle of the farmer’s market, business is pretty good for the rest of the day. We sell probably six or seven more pieces, including some to the nearby fresh produce sellers. Then, as the end of day nears, the four others take off one by one. I manage to sell a couple pieces by myself. And then, just when I’m closing shop at around six p.m., I sell one more. Sweet!

Ending that first day, thinking that I was a real businessman at fifteen years old who had just sold a dozen pieces of jewelry in a day (in a competitive downtown market), was just an exhilarating feeling. In my interactions all day, I had been acting with a maturity beyond my years; and I saw that as a glowing shining light for my days and years to come.

Unfortunately, we’re never able to recapture that magic. Foster, Yenan, and Naomi had found retail jobs for the summer that they’re more interested in, and think it’s a big waste of time if we all come here every day. So we end up doing two people a day, two or three times a week. Sales aren’t as good at the other tent spot, which is bigger/more legitimate-looking but at the edge of the market. (Though one day, when it’s Foster and Yenan there, Foster decides to starts cutting the jewelry price by 50% or something: and he ends up selling 30-40 pieces that day – in his words, he was “selling like an animal”. But the next day we get several complaints from the other jewelry-sellers that we “messed up the economy”…so we’re forced to bring the prices back up to normal.)

Still, for that one day, I was – in my mind at least – a fully-grown adult in a teenager’s body. With infinite potential that lay ahead…

(NB: By the end, we recoup only about half of our $1,200 investment. But, in my mind at least, that was all worth it for the experience.)