Retailers must be antsy after a long mediocre year. As a followup to my earlier post regarding a plethera of new last-minute orders, I received an email on Friday wondering where one of those orders was. To set up the story, the order came in on Sunday 19th and I shipped it on Monday 20th via FedEx Ground as this retailer had requested. So the order shipped on Monday from the Pacific Northwest and she wanted to know why it hadn't reached her - in New York - in time for Black Friday.
I explained that, according to the FedEx website which she could have just as easily accessed since I always send tracking numbers after orders have shipped, the package was on it's way and due to arrive on Monday 30th. This retailer then told me that she hoped it would arrive then as she was - hmph! - losing selling time.
Well deario, perhaps you should have placed an order before the 19th or had it shipped via an expedited manner. Then it would have reached you in time to get on your shelves for Black Friday.
I chose to take the diplomatic way out and just didn't respond to her pissyness that the package hadn't gone cross country in four days despite the fact that one of them was a national holiday.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Where did this all come from?
Typically this time of year the last of my wholesale orders are winding down. In fact, if I remember correctly my last wholesale order went out about Nov 20th last year and I think I had one or two reorders the first week of December. As such, I don't have a ton of inventory on hand other then what I anticipate needing for retail orders.
This year is definitely different. I got 7 wholesale orders today. Four of them came in before 11am. My head is spinning with all these new orders that literally came out of the blue. Granted, some of these orders were folks I'd met at previous shows or folks who had seen an ad, but still, to be ordering the Monday before Thanksgiving is really really really late for retailers. The fact that they want the orders to arrive to them by Thanksgiving in time for 'Black Friday' is wishful thinking and I told them such (in my most polite sales voice) unless they are willing to pay several hundred for overnight shipping.
On the one hand I knew that retailers would be ordering later then normal this year but I honestly never expected it to run this late. I've been telling myself for a few weeks now "Just One More Week" in anticipation of what will be the last crazy week and yet every week I get more unexpected orders which pushes the busy period one week further.
I'm not complaining - just really really surprised by how late these orders are coming in. Plus, I checked my books yesterday and realized that the business is $2K behind this time last year. These orders today just pushed me a heck of a lot closer to last year's revenue number. And given the state of economy that's nothing to sneeze at. And when you figure in that the true bulk of this Fall's business won't really be accounted for until 2010 because I have them on Net 45+ terms, that's setting things up for a good first quarter cashflow-wise next year.
I'm even more glad then normal that I outsourced the cooking of the Thanksgiving turkey to a BBQ joint in town! Between the number of orders that have to go out this week (remember - I have little inventory so I have to make all the stuff first, get it packaged, and then get it boxed up) and then preparing for a big retail show next weekend there's just too much going on for me to try and squeeze in manhandling a turkey. I am excited for a little homemade pumpkin cheesecake though! Mmmm!
This year is definitely different. I got 7 wholesale orders today. Four of them came in before 11am. My head is spinning with all these new orders that literally came out of the blue. Granted, some of these orders were folks I'd met at previous shows or folks who had seen an ad, but still, to be ordering the Monday before Thanksgiving is really really really late for retailers. The fact that they want the orders to arrive to them by Thanksgiving in time for 'Black Friday' is wishful thinking and I told them such (in my most polite sales voice) unless they are willing to pay several hundred for overnight shipping.
On the one hand I knew that retailers would be ordering later then normal this year but I honestly never expected it to run this late. I've been telling myself for a few weeks now "Just One More Week" in anticipation of what will be the last crazy week and yet every week I get more unexpected orders which pushes the busy period one week further.
I'm not complaining - just really really surprised by how late these orders are coming in. Plus, I checked my books yesterday and realized that the business is $2K behind this time last year. These orders today just pushed me a heck of a lot closer to last year's revenue number. And given the state of economy that's nothing to sneeze at. And when you figure in that the true bulk of this Fall's business won't really be accounted for until 2010 because I have them on Net 45+ terms, that's setting things up for a good first quarter cashflow-wise next year.
I'm even more glad then normal that I outsourced the cooking of the Thanksgiving turkey to a BBQ joint in town! Between the number of orders that have to go out this week (remember - I have little inventory so I have to make all the stuff first, get it packaged, and then get it boxed up) and then preparing for a big retail show next weekend there's just too much going on for me to try and squeeze in manhandling a turkey. I am excited for a little homemade pumpkin cheesecake though! Mmmm!
Friday, November 20, 2009
The Outcome
Everything turned out as well as it possibly could short of having them just send me a check for not giving them product. I talked to the head buyer first thing Thursday morning and she acknowledged that a mistake had been made on their end which resulted in the problem. I simultaniously told her how upset I was that the mistake had happened (not at them, upset that I wasn't able to give them my product for the holidays) and how I really did want to build a strong relationship with them. So she recommended I come up with a few ideas for Valentine's Day/Spring and send it to them. That's now my homework for the weekend to ship it out on Monday and see if I can secure a little early 2010 revenue. Granted, it will make my December much busier then originally anticipated as I'm guessing they'll want the stuff in their distribution centers by end of December and I'm away for 5 days for xmas, but without a whole lot of boutique wholesale orders to fill simultaniously I think it will be a little easier to manage. Besides, worse comes to worse I can just have my husband box up product while I'm away for xmas. Right honey?
Happy Friday to one and all - off to figure out the Thanksgiving menu and accompanying shopping list...
Happy Friday to one and all - off to figure out the Thanksgiving menu and accompanying shopping list...
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
I feel ill
Not in a flu-like way. More like a pit in my stomach.
Today was going so well. BIG order was out on Monday with a few complications but everything seemed to be smoothed out. Other wholesale orders were being shipped out despite the fact I'm frantically making product to keep up with it. Two more going out tomorrow and then 3 next week. And then my wholesale orders are done and I can stop and try to relax before turkey day (hooray for outsourcing the turkey!).
And then 4pm hit and I got an email from BIG company (same company - different division) wanting to know where their order was. Uh, what order? Turns out they faxed over a large order to me mid-October. Except they faxed it to my phone number not my fax number. Not surprisingly, I never got it so I knew nothing about it until today's phone call.
And now I feel sick. They're going to fax it over (to the correct fax number!) tomorrow so I can take a look at it but between the fact that it's a handmade product combined with the fact that the holidays are baring down on us so damn quickly, I'm just not sure any of this PO can realistically be filled. And truthfully I'm not sure I have the energy to fill it. But I hate the idea that I'm leaving $3600 on the table. And hate more the fact that this screwup - someone else's screwup (did you not notice that the fax machine said the message didn't go through?) - may cost me this relationship with this large company.
CRAP!
Today was going so well. BIG order was out on Monday with a few complications but everything seemed to be smoothed out. Other wholesale orders were being shipped out despite the fact I'm frantically making product to keep up with it. Two more going out tomorrow and then 3 next week. And then my wholesale orders are done and I can stop and try to relax before turkey day (hooray for outsourcing the turkey!).
And then 4pm hit and I got an email from BIG company (same company - different division) wanting to know where their order was. Uh, what order? Turns out they faxed over a large order to me mid-October. Except they faxed it to my phone number not my fax number. Not surprisingly, I never got it so I knew nothing about it until today's phone call.
And now I feel sick. They're going to fax it over (to the correct fax number!) tomorrow so I can take a look at it but between the fact that it's a handmade product combined with the fact that the holidays are baring down on us so damn quickly, I'm just not sure any of this PO can realistically be filled. And truthfully I'm not sure I have the energy to fill it. But I hate the idea that I'm leaving $3600 on the table. And hate more the fact that this screwup - someone else's screwup (did you not notice that the fax machine said the message didn't go through?) - may cost me this relationship with this large company.
CRAP!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Lies Small Businesses Tell
Here's a few off the top of my head:
1. Referring to "we," "our", "us" - anything in the plural. It's really "me," "myself", and "I" But the business sounds more legit if you think there's more then one person, doesn't it?
2. Talking about "the staff" - similar to #1 but unless I'm talking about the dogs then "staff" is also "me," "myself," and "I"
3. Talking about our "warehouse" - this one cracked me up today when a shipping company asked about our warehouse. I tried to play it cool but in my mind I'm thinking "you mean my basement which is currently full of boxes waiting for you to come pick them up?"
4. Filling out forms that require you to put in the names of people for all your roles such as sales, marketing, operations, finance, etc. I get sick of filling in myself for every role so I've started to add my dog's names to the roles. The best part is that they now receive direct mail addressed to them. I figure it helps them feel like they have a bigger role in the company.
Lastly, the neighbors think we're nuts. Yesterday we (and by this I mean my husband and I) had a pallet delivered to our house stacked with packing boxes for this big order that has to ship next week. Not something you usually see hanging around someone's house. Then again, one neighbor up the street has ripped up their entire front lawn and taken the porch off their house (we are affectionately calling this house 'Afganistan' in the meanwhile) and the neighbor across the street has taken out part of their driveway and is personally increasing the size of his garage so perhaps the little goings-on over at my house go unnoticed by the neighbors. Unforunately there is a firebug setting arson fires about 30 blocks over so I opted to spend part of last night - in the rain no less - moving the boxes away from the house and into the back just in case the arsonist decided to stroll south.
Wow, I just made my neighborhood sound like there are cars on blocks and drunks in doorways. It's actually a great little neighborhood...even better if the arsonist stays up north (or better yet, gets caught!).
Big order is *almost* ready to go. Looking like it'll be picked up next week. In the meanwhile, wholesale orders have been surprisingly brisk for this time of year. Normally all retail folks have ordered already but this year everyone seems to be waiting until the last minute. Lots of work but I'm not going to complain in this economy. Here's hoping I pull in some retail orders of my own too!
1. Referring to "we," "our", "us" - anything in the plural. It's really "me," "myself", and "I" But the business sounds more legit if you think there's more then one person, doesn't it?
2. Talking about "the staff" - similar to #1 but unless I'm talking about the dogs then "staff" is also "me," "myself," and "I"
3. Talking about our "warehouse" - this one cracked me up today when a shipping company asked about our warehouse. I tried to play it cool but in my mind I'm thinking "you mean my basement which is currently full of boxes waiting for you to come pick them up?"
4. Filling out forms that require you to put in the names of people for all your roles such as sales, marketing, operations, finance, etc. I get sick of filling in myself for every role so I've started to add my dog's names to the roles. The best part is that they now receive direct mail addressed to them. I figure it helps them feel like they have a bigger role in the company.
Lastly, the neighbors think we're nuts. Yesterday we (and by this I mean my husband and I) had a pallet delivered to our house stacked with packing boxes for this big order that has to ship next week. Not something you usually see hanging around someone's house. Then again, one neighbor up the street has ripped up their entire front lawn and taken the porch off their house (we are affectionately calling this house 'Afganistan' in the meanwhile) and the neighbor across the street has taken out part of their driveway and is personally increasing the size of his garage so perhaps the little goings-on over at my house go unnoticed by the neighbors. Unforunately there is a firebug setting arson fires about 30 blocks over so I opted to spend part of last night - in the rain no less - moving the boxes away from the house and into the back just in case the arsonist decided to stroll south.
Wow, I just made my neighborhood sound like there are cars on blocks and drunks in doorways. It's actually a great little neighborhood...even better if the arsonist stays up north (or better yet, gets caught!).
Big order is *almost* ready to go. Looking like it'll be picked up next week. In the meanwhile, wholesale orders have been surprisingly brisk for this time of year. Normally all retail folks have ordered already but this year everyone seems to be waiting until the last minute. Lots of work but I'm not going to complain in this economy. Here's hoping I pull in some retail orders of my own too!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Hello?
I realize blogs are far more interesting if people who 'own' them actually write something from time to time. And I realize that I'm guilty of not doing that. What can I say, it's been busy. Very very busy. The second of the two big orders is slowly getting pulled together. I have 80 more units to make on Tuesday which - figuring that I need 1200 total - shows I've made some decent headway. Then this weekend is going to be a glory of getting all those units packed in their pretty little boxes and ready to go. The labels I was waiting on showed up yesterday so now I can finish the packaging and then last night I finally got around to ordering the shipping boxes I'll need to pack all of this into and those should get here on Tuesday. So I have an exciting few days planned out. A weekend of packaging, Tuesday back in my workspace for production, Wedns finish packaging and get everything into its boxes. My hope is to have every thing ready to go on Wedns when I can officially tell the store it's ready for freight pickup and if luck is on my side they will come by and pick it up either on Thursday or Friday of next week. Then it's out of my hands and I can finally get a good night's sleep. And a margarita (or three).If you don't have any plans and have a burning desire to do some packaging this weekend feel free to swing on by. I'd love to offer you a place to stay as well but right now the entire guest room and basement is filled with product so I'll have to apologize for being a crappy hostess. Though I am planning to make some individual chocolate mint tortes later today (simply because I'm craving them) so I can offer that instead!
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