We’ve reached a bit of a tipping point here at the shop, and it’s finally time: we’re hiring!

We’ve been talking about this for a while now, although I think we’ve put it off for as long as possible. Actually, for me at least, I think I kind of like the way things are, but there are days when we work late into the night and we still can’t quite catch up.

This is exciting news, although also a bit crazy to consider. These first two years have been a wild ride in the best possible way, but as we grow, we’re reaching the point where we need to start taking on an extra pair of hands – helping to unpack inventory, to work in the shop when it gets busy (especially when I’m wrestling Caleb in the apartment), packing up orders. Big new releases like the Emeraude of Chivor or the Blue Midori’s sometimes mean we get a bit backed up, but we’d like to improve how long we take to pack orders up for shipping.

Really, though, it’s to not only get things done, but to allow us to provide better infrastructure for the online site, to get the shop in better shape for people browsing, to stay active on social media and catch up on blog reviews and updates. Even smaller tasks seem to just be accumulating on our to-do lists – we’ve been meaning to get ink swabs for the shop for a while now, but that’s a project that will take hours to do properly, and an extra set of hands would make a big difference in getting it done.

So, we’re hiring a part-time person who can pitch in where needed. We’d like to start around 15-20 hours a week, and we’ll go from there. Days of the week are flexible, except you must be available on Saturdays, and we’re looking for someone who can specifically offer increased hours around the holiday season.

We need a jack of all trades – you’ll be working in the shopfront, helping customers, stocking, processing transactions, cleaning and organizing, but you’ll also be working in the back, packing online orders, answering the phone, organizing the back stock area, and assisting in production tasks like making ink samples.

Musts:

Friendly, professional and welcoming: people who come into the shop sometimes need a bit of help finding the right pen, and we want someone who will help them feel at home – especially if it’s someone who’s trying out a fountain pen for the first time!

Flexible + collaborative: we need someone can pack orders, serve customers, organize and tidy, answer the phone or e-mails, and in the day-to-day setting, it will mean working with us depending on what tasks take priority. We’ll train you! But you have to be able to think on your feet.

A self-starter & efficient: you need to be able to take initiative to get what needs to get done, done, problem-solving along the way.

Good math skills.

You should like stationery: you don’t need to know a lot about fountain pens or paper weights, but you have to like what we sell, or it’ll be hard for you to sell it, too!

Must like dogs! We have a big, enthusiastic and barking dog, and he lives here. He calms down basically into a sleeping log after he gets to know you, but he’s a bit of a maniac at first.

Would be great:

Anything you can bring to the table! We’re a small business, so creativity is important for problem solving or coming up with new ideas. The two of us doing basically everything for this business, so make sure you highlight any expertise you can provide!

Website stuff

Photography

Crafty or creative merchandising or store displays

Social media

Strong organizational skills

Perks:

Opportunity to turn into a full-time position

Employee discount

Guaranteed employee of the month (just kidding)

Send your resume to jon@wonderpens.ca, and feel free to include any extra information about yourself. We’ll be accepting resumes until around the end of September, but of course we’re a pretty small family business, so the right fit is pretty important for us (and Super, apparently). This means that it could be a few months or more until we find our special someone, but this is pretty big step for us, and we want to make sure it’s just right.

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And in other news, we’ve got a bunch of new products! We’re not launching any new lines or anything, but we’ve got some new notebooks and other exciting things. They’re mostly hanging around the shop now, but I’m hoping to start getting them on the website later tonight and over the next week. You can check our Just In section as they get added to the website, but I’ll also be blogging about my favourites!