The Huts! The Huts! The Huts Are on Fiyah!

I was minding my business - literally - trying to get a calendar together of all the stuff we want to do and are doing for the biz because I am going nuts with stuff in my head. I was popping in on Twitter to chat up new friends when a local friend pops in and says I'm on fire. Took a second to register what she meant and then I ran to the website. Lo and behold, I saw the above. Yes, my friends, thanks to you and so many others on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, WIBO and personal friends and family, we are finally on fire and while that is no guarantee, I think that will help secure us in the top 200. I'm still urging anyone to vote because we have until midnight PT, which is 3 a.m. my time.

I can't tell you how thrilled I am at the possibility. The free publicity could do so many things for us. Our free Connecticut Post ad ran today (we won it in the expo we did in December with our business workshop alumni group, WIBO) and we got a call from that ad from a woman who wanted to see the puzzles. Who wasn't oh so thrilled that we had just been to our new store, gave that storeowner puzzles, then went to our first store and dropped some off with that storeowner? I was able to tell that woman where she could go see them and it was literally in her neighborhood. She was happy. So was I.

Now that free ad we won? As my mother and I worked on it - thank God for a mother who is a graphic designer - we got it to something I loved. I sent it in and was told we actually had more space than I realized. So we added some things. That ad ran in the OpEd page in the A section of the paper today. I found out that that ad, due to placement, was worth over $1,600. God? You bet!

I can't recall at the moment if I made my yearly prediction here when 2009 started or before 2008 closed but I have had feelings about the way a year would be for a really long time now. I do go by number somewhat - 7 means completion (the year a lot of people I know wrapped up some major stuff in their lives. Some good, some not so good things.); 8 means new beginnings (the year Obama was elected and my nephew was born). This year? It was hard to define but I knew this: Whatever you have sown in the past, be on the watch. You are going to reap it in a lifechanging way. Whew! If ever there was a time to keep God in front of you, this is it.

An expensive ad for free.
A third location.
So very many opportunities via the wonderful people on Twitter.
Maybe this contest, which means more free publicity.

It's only April.

I am praying to God that He give us the wisdom to step in the right direction. Keep the vision before us and Him in the middle. And most of all give us the courage to do new things and embrace success. There are so many people we want to bless. Success would be for them as much as ourselves.

To all of you who voted even once and especially to those who voted more than once, thank you for placing us in a great position. I hope to report back here that we were not just top 200 but top 100. Top 50! Number 1!