Shop Update

After visiting Las Vegas for the MAGIC Marketplace fashion trade show, I realized that I am not a lucky person. I would sit down in front of the 1 cent slot machine, put in my dollar, and walk away with my head down after just about losing 100 pulls straight. On the other hand, the people I was traveling with would either walk away with some winnings or at least stretch out the entertainment value of their one dollar two or three times longer than me. Then, there is my friend who flew into Las Vegas the day after me and won $400 on a pull of the Wheel of Fortune slot machine. This is pretty much the same exact experience I have had the two other times I’ve been to any gambling destination.

To be honest, I did feel a little down about the idea that I’m not a lucky person. After all, who wouldn’t want to consider themselves lucky and who in their right mind would want to be unlucky? After some self-reflection, I did realize that I might have something even better than luck. The Force is strong with me, just kidding. Actually, my self-revelation did occur after I thought how Jedi Knights are actually pretty unlucky. After all, Yoda lived and died in a tree and Obi-Wan Kenobi was living in a cave up until he was reintroduced into Luke Skywalker’s life. This was, of course, after the Jedi’s were plotted against by one of their own, Anakin Skywaler/Darth Vadar. If you ask me, then that’s just about as unlucky as one can get.

Ok, enough of the nerd talk. What I have cannot be summed up in a simple noun, such as luck, and maybe that’s why it might even better. For my adult life, whenever I have set a big goal and put in the hard work, I have achieved my goal. When I graduated High School, I knew that I wanted to transfer to the Walter A. Haas School of Business, which was named the #3 ranked undergraduate business administration program in the United States by US News & World Report. When I was accepted, I had a 4.0 GPA, was a tutor in Economics, started an investment club, a member of the student government, and a volunteer at my local hospital. Of course, at the time, I didn’t feel comfortable about my chances, but in retrospect there was no way I wasn’t getting into the University.

After graduating, I decided that I wanted to take a shot at being a Nightclub DJ. Of course, it’s not that easy to pick up a gig as a DJ when you do not know anybody in the industry. So, I took a job as a janitor at 1015 Folsom Nightclub, which during the 90s was pretty much THE club in San Francisco and arguably the United States because they brought in guys like Paul Oakenfold, Paul Van Dyk, etc. In less than three months of cleaning of spills, puke and one time feces, I was probably one of the youngest Resident DJ for 1015 Folsom.

After I quit DJing, I tried my hand at producing dance music. I must admit, that actually didn’t go anywhere, but not enough hard work in the world can make up for natural talent. I did once make a bootleg remix of a Snow Patrol song, sent it to Dave Dresden (a famous DJ and music producer), and received very positive feedback from him. So, that is kind of the extent of my success in music production.

After realizing the music career was not going anywhere, I decided to pursue a Masters degree. Originally, I was interested in pursuing a MBA, but I actually ended up doing a Masters in Finance. Coming from such a highly regarded undergraduate program, my goal was for the top programs and that meant a high score on my GMAT, the standardized test required for business school. I studied almost non-stop for half a year. I ended up with a 720, which for my test date was in the 96 Percentile. So, technically, I did better on the test than 96% of other test takers. After visiting London during December, I loved the city so much that I decided to apply to the London Business School. Their MBA program requires a second language, which I do not have, so I applied for their Masters in Finance program. In the end, that’s where I ended up.

Finally, thought I will not get into details, I had to work hard to convince Toon, my girlfriend, that she and I could be a couple. In fact, even though I knew she liked me, she did in fact tell me “no,” twice, before we became a couple. A friend of mine in the Masters in Finance told me something about how he turned his friend into his current wife, “try harder.” That’s exactly what I did. Of course, that’s not the end of our story. I hope that she and I have a lifetime of working together as a couple and with T.I.L. Darling.

I know there is plenty of people right now who wish they had some good luck, but remember that it’s always better to fall back on hard work.

For those who just don’t consider themselves tech savvy, shopping online for clothes is almost not even an option. This is a shame because not only is shopping online for clothes fairly simple, but also convenient, secure, and extremely price competitive.

The most straight forward case I can present is that of shopping at Border Bookstore versus shopping online at Amazon.com. If you drove down to your local Borders Bookstore, then you would find Figure Drawing for Fashion Design by Elisabetta Drudi for $24.99. Meanwhile, you can visit Amazon.com and order it for $16.49 and a very good chance of not paying any sales tax. Of course, there are certain shipping charges and shipping time that may be inconvenient, but I have always found it cheaper and convenient to go the way of Amazon.com.

In regards to security, this is far form scientific, but I know more people who have had their credit card/wallet stolen or lost while shopping or doing some kind of activity than those who are victims of online credit card fraud. At T.I.L. Darling Clothing Boutique, the credit card information is never seen by us, rather it is passed directly to Paypal, our credit card merchant.

Here are simple tips for shopping for clothes online.

1. Know your measurements. You will need a cloth tape measure and preferably someone to measure you while in your undergarments. For women, you will want to measure your bust, which is the fullest part of your chest. As we already mentioned, this should be done over your bra. Next, measure your natural waist. If you cannot find your natural waist, then stand with your feet slightly apart and bend to the side. Where your waist creases is your natural waist. Finally, measure your hips. Stand with your heels together and measure the fullest part of your hips. Do not pull the tape tight.

With this information, you can simply cross reference it to the store’s size chart.

2. Whenever you are going to provide any sensitive information, such as your credit card information or personal information, then make sure you have an “https” in the pages url. The “s” stand for “secure.” If the url simply states “http,” then any information you send is not secure and can be intercepted by thieves.

3. When you are ready to set-up your account or checkout, make sure you know the exact billing address on file with your credit card issuer. One of the top reasons for rejected transactions is because the full address provided by the customer does not match that of what the credit card company has on file.

4. At some point during your checkout, the website will ask for a three digit code on your Visa, Mastercard, or Discover Card. This is the last three digits on the back of your credit card. But, if you are using an American Express card, then you want to provide the four small digits on the front of the card.

5. Take a few minutes to search for available discount codes. Simply search for the store name + coupon in any search engine. For example, if you search for “T.I.L. Darling Coupons,” then you’ll probably find one or two floating out there.

6. Always understand the return policy. Every store has their own return policy. Some may completely disallow returns and only accept exchanges or store credit. Some may require you to return your item within 14 days while Zappos has an unremarkable 365 days. But you can be sure that almost all sites will require you to return your items in the same condition as it was sent to you, otherwise your item may very well be rejected or returned for a huge discount of your purchase price. Additionally, more and more sites are providing free returns and exchanges, such as T.I.l. Darling, but not all sites have adapted this practice.

7. Always look at the total price when comparing between two sites. For example, you may find a dress at Lulus for $55, while we may be selling the same exact dress for $59. Of course, once you checkout, then you’ll see that Lulus has a shipping charge of $7, while we have free shipping on orders over $50. Additionally, currently, you do not have to pay sales tax on items shipped from outside your shipping destination’s state. So, if your purchase from T.I.L. Darling from outside of CA, you are essentially already receiving a 4%-10% discount depending on your state of residence.

8. If you are still worried about security, then purchase from a business accredited by the Better Business Bureau. T.I.L. Darling is accredited with the BBB and has therefore agreed to abide by their arbitration procedure if a customer complaint arises. Fortunately, we never have had a complaint filed with the BBB and our report card is currently an A-. We are not at a full A because we’re simply just a young business.

9. If you are looking for a specific item, such as an Esley Halter Dress, then use Google’s shopping results to help you narrow down the best deal. Simply search from “Esley Halter Dress” in the google search engine and there should be some kind of link that says “Shopping results for esley dress.” From there, you can sort and filter your results to hopefully find exactly what you are looking for.

10. Carefully read the checkout confirmation before processing your order. Through files known as “cookies,” sites are able to remember what you add to your shopping cart on previous visits. For example, if you add an item on Monday and return the following day, then the website will keep that item in your virtual shopping cart. Of course, you would not expect this and once again add it to your shopping cart a second time. If you do not look carefully at your shopping cart or your checkout confirmation, then there is a good chance you’re going to purchase two of the same item.

11. When you submit your order, do not press the “submit” button twice. Otherwise, more likely than not, you will be charged twice. Depending on your internet connection and the website server, it is possible a transaction could take up to one or two minutes to process. In many cases, it should only take a matter of seconds, but it is not always the case. We get plenty of duplicate transactions because the customer hit the “submit” button two or even three times.

With these simple tips, you should not only be able to have a safe experience shopping online, but also save a great deal of money.