Terryfic Times,
Cornelius, North Carolina

by Beverly Terry

Terryfic Times started when I began thinking about what to do after retirement.

Beverly Terry, owner of Terryfic Times.

I retired in 2001 after teaching accounting, economics, and computer classes at the local community college for 31 years. While education was my primary job, I had a Karaoke/D-Jay entertainment business, did after-school programs, ran a CPA review course, published an accounting textbook with two co-authors, produced a video series for a major accounting principles book, produced an accounting telecourse, did private corporate training and served as an officer in local, state and national professional organizations.

Having had my finger in many pies at one time, I needed more than the Karaoke and after-school businesses to keep me busy when I "retired." I got my wholesale license, thinking that I'd do home parties with a couple of stamp and stencil lines. When my friend closed her antique store, I decided to rent that space and open a shop. The name would be "Terryfic Times," the same one that I use for my Karaoke and after-school businesses. I opened the doors for business the first part of 2003.

 

An "Unusual" Location

The Terryfic Times storefront.

My shop location is "unusual" to say the least. It's in the retail space at the front of a gated storage facility. There's one gate with a keypad for storage renters and my private gate that I manually unlock and open during business hours. Customers know that if the gate is open, we're open for business.

The space is small but affordable. My hours aren't mandated as they would be in a shopping center. I have normal hours of operation as much as possible, but have to close to do after-school programs and run errands. My daily hours of operation are recorded on my phone message. I include my cell phone number, just in case of a "craft emergency."

Beverly with her sister, Sandy (left).

My sister, Sandy, helps me out during the week and runs the shop for me when I'm traveling with my husband, doing after-school programs, or have an appointment or errand to run. She literally was my "right hand" when I broke my hand in a car accident. She chauffeured me around and ran the shop for six weeks. I don't know what I would have done without her help.

The shop has about 650 square feet of useable space with a small bathroom and a very narrow hallway filled with paper storage racks, a small refrigerator and a file cabinet. There are three separate areas in the shop—the main shop with about 450 square feet of space, an 8 1/2' x 18' classroom, and the back room which is about 9' x 10' where we keep most of the shop's dies. I have access to a locker from the classroom and use it for additional storage.

 

What Makes Terryfic Times "Terryfic"

Initially I was concerned that I wouldn't have enough inventory to fill the shelves. I started out carrying a couple of stamp and stencil lines, inks, punches and papers. It didn't take long to fill up the space as I found new and exciting products to sell. The shop is small but we carry a large selection of fine papercrafting products. Our motto is "Lift and Look" if you can't find something at first.

Papers, ink pads and more.

I wanted to distinguish my shop from other stores. I decided that Terryfic Times would not only sell new products but would also take new and gently used art supplies on consignment. We have a quarterly Used Stamp Sale and More, but customers can go through the boxes of previously loved goodies at any time. We have many "shop" supplies and tools on hand for our customers to use in our open lab and our "Create and Take" (CAT) sessions. We have a "TIBYBI" policy—Try It Before You Buy It—and let customers try out the new products as they come in.

We help in the design of cards, invitations and announcements as well as do custom work. My most unusual request was making 500 tags with washing instructions for rhinestone thongs. My favorite projects were making the birth announcements for my grandsons, Drew and Daniel. My oldest grandson, Nick, was introduced to the world with store-bought announcements since he was born before I had the shop. However, I recently made some cards with copies of one of his works of art for submission to a magazine.

Stamps and instructional books.

Many customers choose to become TLCs (Terryfic Loyal Customers). For an annual membership fee of $25, TLC's save 10 percent off regular and sale prices, 15 percent on special orders, get $5 off an order for their birthday and other TLC specials. During a store-wide sale, a customer saved over $800 on her order. It was my best sale ever!

New customers and old appreciate the "Terryfic" customer service I offer. I remember an Eckerd's ad that said to "Treat your customers like you'd want your mother to be treated." I give little "thank you" goodies with my orders to let my customers know how much I appreciate their business. I don't add any handling charges on orders we ship to our out-of-state and international customers. I've shown customers how to use products whether or not they bought them from me. I'll be the first to tell my customers about a good deal, even if it means sending them to another store. I know they'll come back to me for other things.

A corner near the bathroom.

My customers are more like friends to me. I've spent hours chatting with customers who live out of state and exchange lots of e-mails. I've been pleasantly surprised when Barb from California went out of her way on a trip to swing by the shop to meet me. Customers paying by check often send a handmade card with their payment. Ruthie in Pennsylvania made a beautiful sign for my shop as a special birthday present one year.

Jane in the United Kingdom ordered some things that I hand-delivered to her daughter, Tara, in Aruba when we were there on a recent trip. Tara took me all around the island and introduced me to Karina, the owner of a local store, Palais Hindu. While my husband played golf, I taught a class at Karina's. Fortunately, some of the ladies spoke English and translated for me when necessary.

Jan designed the most gorgeous wedding program using a fan die from the shop. She had 150 or so programs printed (two pages each) and brought them to the shop to cut. I was afraid that she would ruin them if she cut them while she was stressed out. Her husband was astonished when I had him put a commercial die-cutting machine, the fan die and the cutting mat in the car. I told her to cut the programs out at home when she was more relaxed and bring everything back once the wedding was over. Of course, she had to give me one of the programs for Show and Tell at the shop.

 

To "Die" For

Commonly used dies.

I fell in love with the idea of a die-cutting system several months after opening the shop. I have three commercial machines, most of the personal machines and hundreds of dies for cardmaking and scrapbooking. I have designed many of my own commercial dies. It's a major investment, but I decided I'd rather have my customers spend more time being creative than cutting things out.

My custom dies include a self-closing box that holds up to a dozen A2 cards and envelopes, a mini star book, a star tunnel book, squares to make a teabag folded Christmas tree, the components for a quilted star card, ATCs and envelopes, a purse, panels for iris folding and more. The standing joke at the shop is that if someone wants to cut something special, I probably have a die to do the job.

We sell personal die-cutting machines, dies and accessories at Terryfic Times. I have the machines from the major manufacturers (Spellbinders, Sizzix/Ellison, Cuttlebug, AccuCut, QuicKutz and Xyron) on hand for my customers to test drive before choosing the system that works best for them. There is always a large selection of dies and accessories on hand.

 

The 3 C's—Classes, Clubs and Contests

Terryfic Times offers classes on a variety of papercrafting techniques. I teach some and have guest artists come in from time to time. The majority of my business is over the Internet, so I'm looking into doing cyber-classes for them.

The classroom at Terryfic Times.

We have a daytime and an evening stamp club, meeting once a month. We swap cards and do a project for $5. We don't have any requirements on what type of cards to make. The choice is up to each club member, but we often come up with the same theme. The daytime club usually goes out to lunch after our meeting.

Most of the regular club members entered Inkadinkado's Halloween Contest and were quite excited when their work was posted on the Inkadinkado website. The best news was that Ivy won the contest. Not only did she win $150 in products from Inkadinkado, but Terryfic Times got a $500 workshop. There were seven stamps, an ink pad and four projects for 10 participants plus additional supplies and tools for the instructor. I have 10 club members who regularly attend, so they each got to keep the stamps, ink and project kits. It was the second time one of my customers won a contest sponsored by Inkadinkado. Be assured that we'll be entering more contests.

My friend, Holly, won the Spring Contest, and we both got $200 in products. Afterwards, Holly, our mutual friend, Tina, and I were invited to join Inkadinkado's design team. Each month we are given the materials to make one or two projects that are featured on their website.

 

Kid Friendly

Stencils and templates.

We love kids at Terryfic Times. With the die-cutting system and lots of other resources at their disposal, kids come to the shop to work on their special school projects or to make presents for their family, friends and teachers. My great nieces and friends' daughters have been "Shop Girls in Training" and learned good telephone manners, how to check in and price inventory, count money and more. We've run summer camp programs and have had kids' birthday parties at the shop.

It's fun to watch the kids of my customers grow up. Melody recently stopped by with her (now) teenage son, Bobby. I still remember the first day he came with her to the shop. I let him and his sister make a card while their mom shopped. He commented that my shop was the first one that was really nice to them. We've always maintained a "kid friendly" atmosphere at Terryfic Times.

A wire rack containing purses, pens and other odds and ends.

I've been doing after-school programs for the past 13 years. Initially, I did Karaoke programs but have expanded into doing a variety of art programs. My favorite is my journal program. The kids pick 15 "fun" pages from 70 scrapbook papers, 15 solid pages from the 30 to 40 available colors, and two covers of their choice from a selection of 30 colors of cardstock. They decorate their covers with stamps and stencils and learn how the book is put together with my binding machine. They keep their journals in the Writing Center for the rest of the school year. My other art programs include cardmaking, Post-It Note^® holders, gift boxes, book making, door hangers, paper dolls and puzzles. We do customized autograph books for graduating fifth-graders.

On Tuesday nights, I work with the kids at my church making cards for our outreach/inreach program. Our mission at Kid CARE (Christians Actively Reaching Everyone) is to make a handmade birthday card for every church member (1,100) and an anniversary card for every couple. We make cards for other occasions as well (new baby, get well, thinking of you and more). We've made Christmas cards for the 500-plus church families. Some of my vendors (Inkadinkado, ClearSnap, Doodlebug, DreamWeaver, Notions Marketing, Hero Arts, Little Extras, and XPedX) have generously donated materials for this project.

 

Our Mission

Paper, stencils and punches.

Our mission is that all encounters with Terryfic Times will be just that—Terryfic Times. If you get to Cornelius, North Carolina (about 20 minutes north of downtown Charlotte), drop in and see for yourself. Call to be sure that the gate is open and plan to spend hours browsing through our eclectic collection of fine papercrafting products. Remember, you may just have to "Lift and Look" to find a hidden treasure.

Terryfic Times
18936 West Catawba Ave.
Cornelius, NC 28031
704/895-BLUE (2583)
FAX 704/892-6527
e-mail: terry@terryfictimes.com
Web: www.terryfictimes.com

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