The Ding Letter

If you've been following my sporadic posts, you may have learned that I am an aspiring novelist. In truth, I am already a novelist (with two works under my belt), but I don't feel like I can officially claim that because I have yet to land a book deal. I haven't lost hope. I've really just begun. But I learned quickly that it is a tough business, and that you will go crazy if you don't develop a thick skin. I have received a number of rejections from agents at this stage in the game. None of them were nasty. I respect the fact that not everyone will fall in love with my work, and they have to let you down somehow, right? I am sure they don't take pleasure in sending the stock "I'm not the right agent for you, but best of luck with your work" ding letter. (I do appreciate that these agents send the letter, because it is nice to cross it off the list rather than wonder if your query got lost in cyberspace.)

Yesterday's ding letter, however, brought back fond memories of my favorite ding letter of all time. While I doubt it's the norm in any business to take pleasure in drafting the DING!, in this particular case, I have no doubt that this person was sitting at his desk and laughing as he composed this masterpiece. I am sorry that this comes at the expense of my good friend from law school, whom I'll call Mr. Smith.

Here goes:

Like many diligent job seeking law students (note that I did not fit in this group), Mr. Smith set out early on in our first year to secure a summer internship for the transition from obnoxious 1L to even more obnoxious 2L. (This is a generalization, of course. Incidentally, Mr. Smith is one of the least obnoxious people I know.) Mr. Smith's search was very impressive. He visited the career services office and found contacts for dozens of law firms. He dipped into his law school loans to spring for the expensive bond paper (because these were the days before everyone had e-mail). He sent out these letters by the tens, being careful to address each to the hiring partner at the firm to which he was applying. This was the year 1996.

A few months later, the letters started pouring in. Many were the standard, "sorry we don't hire summer associates, we have already fulfilled our internship needs, etc. etc." But one special letter stood out from the rest. It was so special, in fact, that it was gingerly placed in the display case by the library in the spring of our third year, the highlight of all of the good times we had as law students. And this is what it said (more or less):

"Dear Mr. Smith,

Thank you for inquiring Mr. Jones [contact person from career services office] about a possible summer internship at [insert name of firm]. Unfortunately, Mr. Jones will not be getting back to you any time soon, seeing as how he died in 1981.

Love,

[insert name of surviving partner/associate laughing ass off while composing letter]"

It was classic.

And the Results Are....

So I'm going back to the cupcake store thing....because I just so happen to be having dinner with girlfriends at a place near the cupcake shop that I wrote about on Monday and Amanda was kind enough to stop by the store for a 6-pack of cupcakes. When she arrived at the restaurant, she set down the box and proceeded to tell the story of how at a little before 6pm, the shop was down to three out of 15 flavors from the day. The shop closed at 7pm.

The flavors were - coconut (ick), rootbeer float (ugh) and banana cream (barf). Those were my (reactions) upon hearing what she got. But you know what - after dinner, I decided to give it a try anyways. The lesser of all evils to me was banana cream. One person taste tested the rootbeer float (which came with a cute straw sticking out of the cupcake) and the other two took the coconuts (thank goodness). And the results are...they were good. The icing was creamy and the cake was moist. Overall, we agreed that the cupcakes were tasty.

But just because they were tasty doesn't mean that they should've skimped on their business plan and not forecasted their demand properly. I mean, they weren't joking about not forecasting their demand. With an hour left until closing, and having a scarce amount of inventory left? That could lead to some unhappy customers.

After writing my entry on Monday, I found a little news alert that announced about FIVE cupcake shops opening in the DC area...I wonder if they are running into the same supply/demand issue and the lack of knowing what it is.

Real Catalogs for Real People

I like getting catalogs in the mail - I like to sift through them and see what's out there that I'm not normally exposed to on the world wide web....I've even wondered how I've become the recipient of some of these catalogs since I've either 1) never heard of them or 2) haven't ordered anything from them. I'm guessing it comes with the whole home-ownership thing.

As I was looking through some catalogs the past few nights, it has occurred to me that everyone modeling the clothes is uber-skinny. Is that something that surprises me? Of course not because isn't that what models are known for? And it's not like you would want to see a really heavy woman modeling clothes in a JCrew catalog. Aside from the Victoria's Secret catalog (because we all know you have to be practically perfect to be in that catalog), I'm wondering if there's a catalog out there that has "real" women wearing their clothing in "real" situations? I want to know how clothes are going to fit on a woman of a similar build to myself. Why? Mainly because you're asking me to order it via this catalog or online - without being able to try it on first...if it doesn't fit or look right, I have to go through the hassles of shipping it back. But most importantly, clothes fit differently on different body types.

Here's an example - I was shopping at a store a couple of months ago and came across this really cute peasant top. It was white with navy embroidery around the collar and deep V-neckline...it was really cute. When I got it into the dressing room and over my body - it wasn't quite so cute anymore. My conclusion? These types of shirts don't work for women with boobs - like size C and up - it didn't lay nicely in the chestical area as it probably was meant to do. Instead, for someone like me with boobs, it sat wrong and just made the whole top unflattering. It was a sad moment.

So I'm wondering if there are catalogs out there that will put everyday women in their clothing and throw it on display - cause before I order, I would like to get an idea of how it's REALLY going to look on me. I'm talking different sizes of women (petite, skinny, athletic, average) in clothing that you're trying to sell to them.

Is that too much to ask?

A New Look

Don't be alarmed, Cupcake Readers!

I decided it was time for a new look - darkness wasn't helping with my moods - SLAP! (that was for any Dave Chapelle fans out there)

I went with something that was more serene - the color really reminded me of the Restoration Hardware store color...which I plan on using to paint one of the guest rooms.

So enjoy the same great cupcake but with a lighter, frostier look!

Why Have a Plan, then?!

For those of you regulars that read our blog, you have come to know that I am a super-planner. I need to plan out just about everything in my life - at least seven days in advance. This goes for groceries, weekend activities, etc. So when my husband and I decided to throw a BBQ over Labor Day for friends that would be in the area, I began planning out the menu - what kind of appetizers should we have; what sort of drinks; how do I want to arrange everything; what needs to be cleaned in our house, etc.

Amanda was nice enough to inform me of a new store selling cupcakes in DC. I immediately thought that I did want to go there AND possibly purchase some cupcakes for the BBQ. I thought that would make a nice dessert option. So I read up on their website about their flavors, pricing and saw that you could place advance orders and even order mini-cupcakes (advance orders only, it says). So I quickly asked what Amanda's schedule was going to be so I could plan on ordering my cupcakes today and giving them an approximate pick-up time for Saturday.

Imagine my surprise when I went to call them and they said they're not taking advance orders at this time. Their excuse was because it was their opening week and they didn't know the demand that would be out there. So my only option was to go to the store and be serviced on a first come/first serve deal. I feel like she just told me I had to camp out for concert tickets.

This is where the business side of me comes out. If you're going to advertise the fact that you can pre-order cupcakes AND you have mini-cupcakes available for pre-order only, then why can't you follow through on that promise? If it is part of your business plan, why can't it be executed from the very start? At the very least, why can't you have a caveat on your website that says orders can be placed starting on MMMDD? The excuse they gave me that they couldn't forecast demand is totally unacceptable (to a business person). I'm actually providing you with a demand - why can't you supply me with it then? It's economics, people. You can't create your supply unless you have a demand - and if I'm handing you a firm demand, why can't you create the supply to meet it? It doesn't make sense to me. And the fact that they couldn't forecast tells me that someone didn't complete their business plan. After all, part of creating a business plan is knowing what your demand is going to be so you know how much you need to supply.

They are certainly not the first cupcake place in town so it's not like they couldn't do some field research to meet the business plan goals and do some forecasting.

So there's one point on the 'Con' side of this new cupcake shop. I wanted to like them - they had a great name and a great location - but we are off to a rough start, my friend.

We'll see if I decide to camp out for concert tickets.