Face Forward

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, then you might have seen my posts last Friday about my change in job status. 140 characters (well, more on the Facebooks) isn’t much room to elaborate, so I thought I’d talk a little more about it here. This is all something I alluded to in my “First Cigar of 2015” post about a month ago, but I couldn’t say much more at the time because nothing was final. But now it can be told…

Last year, the East Chattanooga and Cleveland, TN, locations of Burns Tobacconist changed hands. Phil Windham, who founded the shops as well as the adjoining locations of Chattanooga Billiards Club, sold those two shops to Mike Hunter. I have been employed with Burns East since May 2013 and continued to work my “every other Saturday” shifts during the time of transition and remodel. But I did get a phone call during that time wondering how much it would take for me to come to work for Burns full-time. There were some initial conversations but it was agreed that it wouldn’t really make sense until another shoe was able to drop…which we’ll get to later.

I did begin to look into my full-time job at that time, though, and discovered a plan there to get rid of the design department, outsourcing the whole thing to India to save some money. That ended up not happening, but it made me realize that the higher-ups in the company don’t really see a value in the designers. We were a cost…and if they could find a feasible way to cut that cost, they would try again. So began plans to make an escape…to formulate an exit strategy from that company.

Part one was bolstering my freelance business. I have worked on freelance design and typesetting jobs since before working for this company, so doing the work wasn’t new…but it was never enough to pay my bills before…now it really needed to be. I’ve ended up spending significant time in the last 6 months finding new clients for the freelance business and while it isn’t growing as fast as I wanted, it is definitely growing.

Then the other shoe finally dropped. On January 31, Mike became the proud owner of the Downtown location of Burns Tobacconist. An offer had been extended to me contingent upon that occurrence, so now the offer became official…and I was able to make my plans public. I have turned in my resignation at the company I’ve been at for nearly nine years (well…I was hired when it was one company, within a year it changed to something else, then a year and a half ago, we merged with our biggest competitor), and will finish up with them by mid-February. The next week, I’ll begin a new chapter of my career, working full-time as a tobacconist.

I will be working to build up our social media presence, as well as helping plan events (especially the Chattanooga Tweet-Up!), expanding our lounge memberships (the benefits are excellent, even if you’re not a Chattanooga local), and just giving great customer service. I’m hoping to work through the coursework for Tobacconist University very soon and get “licensed” and I’ll be working on a new website for Burns that will encompass all our stores.

If you live anywhere near Chattanooga, I hope you come by and visit sometime. Follow us online at Twitter (@BurnsCigars) or on Facebook (Click Here).

And, hey, if you have need of graphic design or typesetting services…and especially if you are or you know any print brokers…drop me a line. My schedule will be freely up tremendously in the next few weeks.

One last thing…I’m trying very hard not to neglect any of my self-assigned duties here on Leaf Enthusiast. We will be announcing a winner for the January giveaway very soon, as well as announcing our February giveaway and talking about our new sponsor. AND I have lots of reviews already in the hopper and on the calendar. For this coming month alone, I have reviews on the way for Atabey, the Nestor Miranda Collection, Room 101’s Namakubi Ecuador Lancero, Cubanacan’s new HR, and the Garofalo (no…not Janeane…thank God).