Fair Work Australia (FWA) contacted me in mid March to say Heroes HQ was part of the random pick of businesses in Ballarat to be audited. It was pleasing to be able to have everything naturally in place, to send in within the very short time frame for the audit – (about 4 days), as well as having an accountant who moves around the background doing counting things and making the legal changes (and offering advice) required for staff conditions, awards and other comic store thingy stuff.
Anyhoo’s - FWA gave us the big tick of approval.
It was lovely to thank the current team for moving through change in those initial 8 - 12 months of ownership (they required so much patience and understanding as I moved them through legality, onto timesheets, testing rosters or not, emailed payslips, learning Xero and then direct banking.)
Free Comic Book Day (my second) is nearly here. I’m not as nervous or worried this year. (That either means I’ve settle well into the role or I shouldn’t be taking the prep so calmly.) I haven’t ordered as many comics this year. Many of my left overs last year found some good homes at the Base Hospital pediatric ward and a few schools. 50 titles and much anticipation in 2017.
The web-store is slowly picking up. Data shows we had 14,000 global hits in the last 30 days. It floors me. Well maybe not floors, but it does ground me. Over 2000 comics on line now and the back issues area is slowly leaving the shop floor. It’s heartening when a local comic book customer tells me they enjoy looking at the webpage. One found the search button the other day and told me it made his life easier – he’d been keeping a check on what page he was slowly trawling through. We chuckled at his discovery of the search button saving him hours and hours of looking. I did tell him it had been there all along – it has made me think perhaps it doesn’t jump out at people and to re look at its design.
Guardians of the Galaxy is hitting the Movies ANZAC Day eve. This and Wonder Woman are the two movies for me this year. I have loved the story line and artistry in the Wonder Woman comic. So much so that I look forward to getting the next chapter.
X-Men Prime, Gold and Blue are awaited also, hoping they live up to expectations. The short series of He Man was enjoyed. Dark Chrystal and Kill and be Killed has been great reads. The joy of owning a Comic Book Store is the reading in the quiet times, sadly only when the store responsibilities allow.
Jumped feet first into stocking Warhammer – another steep learning curve, as people ask for figures…screaming cannons - it’s a learning curve into Chaos.
I’m enjoying the chatter and advice from customers.
Onward and upwards. We’re 5 this year.