Attitude Readjustment

I'm going to bed in no more than 45 minutes. After running on minimal sleep in a fairly physical job for the past two weeks straight I'm exhausted and it's impacting who I am, my attitude, and the job that I'm doing. So rather than staying up late tonight doing work that could be done, I'm going to bed and will get to my workspace early tomorrow morning to hammer through the day. If nothing else, the sleep will help me substantially. Also, to reward myself for what will likely be a very long day, I'm going to pick up one of those new Starbucks hot coco's that I've been eyeing for the past few weeks. I'm also picking up one for my loyal part-time employee even though he'll be in working for another person tomorrow. Do you think the hot coco will be seen as a bribe by the other employer?

Worth It?

(sorry, small rant ahead)

I need all this craziness and hecticness to be worth it. I know in my heart of hearts it is because I'm building something from scratch and no one ever said that would be easy. But sometimes I just need the reminder that all the hard work, the not spending time with my husband and dogs, the waking up in the middle of the night with worry, the dishevieled home since that's where 50% of the packing is currently taking place, the no paycheck, and the general turning my entire family's lives upside down is worth it.

I did a very quick scan of quickbooks last night and I realized two things:
1. In the next two weeks I'm sending out the same dollar amount of revenue as I did all of last year (as such I'm exhausted and eaten alive with worry and stress)
2. At the end of the day, after the credit cards have been paid off for the year and all revenue is accounted for, I will likely break even.

Don't get me wrong, breaking even is a great thing to do and something every new business strives for. But to work this hard and not see a penny of it return to your pocket is a little tough to swallow right now as I prepare to spend another fully day in my workspace after having been woken up by eastcoast phone calls first thing this morning.

The business is definitely running me right now, running me ragged. And I just want a reminder that it is all worthwhile and will pay off in one form or another at some point.

Being Grateful

It's not yet Thanksgiving but I am thankful for a lot of things right now:
1. My company is getting orders faster then we can fill them. It's keeping me incredibly busy (14+ hour days 7 days a week) but right now so many of my friends and competitors are slower then expected. Therefore I am SO thankful to be busy. Tired, yes. But thankfully busy.
2. FedEx is one of the greatest companies in my mind right now. Not only do they stop by my house to pick up all the orders going out the door, my FedEx person even dropped off more supplies for me since she knows my leg is broken (even left a nice little note!). And today FedEx freight called me up to make sure that someone would be around to sign for an important package tomorrow. They didn't know it was important but I was waiting for it so I'm so thankful that I know to expect it and can be around.
3. Easy returns. I'm having to return some packaging that didn't work out as planned and the company I order from makes returns so incredibly simple. That means that not only do I get my money back, but I also get the boxes out of my house. A house that my husband affectionally referred to as "a bomb shelter."
4. In two weeks 95% of the orders for the year will be out the door. That is something to look forward to right now!
5. Not related to the business but something to be happy for nonetheless - my husband isn't totally opposed to a "UnThanksgiving" meal this year. No pumpkin pie, no turkey, no stuffing. Right now I'm thinking mini hors d'ouvres and triple chocolate cheesecake. Not that I don't like typical Thanksgiving food, but right now I'd prefer to spend the time reconnecting with my husband and dogs rather than spend the day in the kitchen.

Planning for a Recession

I was doing some work at home last night and had CNBC on in the background to keep me company while my husband was away at a business function. In time, The Big Idea and Mad Money came on and they were talking about how certain companies would better weather the recession because they saw it coming versus those that were completely caught off guard. Now they were talking about bigger companies but I started thinking about how it applied to my company as well. For a while I've thought that we were headed into a recession (mainly thanks to a finance professor who, back in 2006, pointed out that the yield curve was inverted and as such we would likely enter a recession in 12-18 months. Turns out he was exactly on the mark!) so I've tried to plan accordingly.

That meant doing things like trying to cut back marketing expenses (ironic given that I was a marketing major at bschool) since it's sometimes tougher to determine the ROI of those activities or, at the very least, being much more strategic with the few marketing dollars we have been putting out there. I think we've done a good job but I'm also looking forward to figure out what we are and aren't going to do next year. Topic #1 - I've nixed an east coast tradeshow in the spring. Too expensive, too far to travel, and the east coast is - right now - being harder hit by this economic downturn then the west coast so I just don't think my products would play well there right now. Course it's a gamble since other folks I talked to had a great show there last year.

The economy is also impacting the types of new products I'm thinking of introducing next year and the price points that will be feasible for those products. And it's also weighing on my mind as I think about the next steps for this company. If we're at max capacity right now with the way things are currently organized I want and need to figure out a better way to grow. But if the economy is such that sales may take a huge hit I'm obviously a little nervous about dumping capital into business expansion be it on increased production space or additional personnel. It's a fine line, made even finer in this economy, and I'm trying to determine the right balance so that at the end of the day not only are we one of the businesses who have survived, but that we can emerge as a leader in, what will be initially, a smaller competitative landscape so that we can be positioned to thrive as the economy gets back on its feet.

Being More Efficient

If the company was more streamlined and more efficient I'd have more time to put down all the thoughts that are currently running through my head. But I literally don't have the time to stop. As Martygaal posted in response to my last blog post, I do need to become more efficient and figure out a way to make this business run with less "me" time actually having to be in there doing it. However, part of what makes our product so unique is the fact that it's not put together by teenagers getting $8. Trust me, I tried it and they just don't care enough to make the product look the way it should. Or they just quit (or never show up in the first place) which then puts the onus back on me. My hope is to spend some time over the holidays figuring out a way to bring on another employee or two to work with me and take some of the load off. However, it's hard to get people who want to stay, even if you pay well, if you can only offer 20-30 hours a week and I just don't think I'm at the point where I can offer more hours, especially during first and second quarter which are typically pretty slow. So I'm sort of trying to walk a fine line between finding the right person and paying them enough to make them want to stay and be motivated but also not breaking the bank on employee costs since, at some point, I'd actually like to be able to take a salary from the business...or at the very least start to repay some of the loans I wrote into the business to get it started.

And We're Off

The big order from the bigger company came through on Wednesday morning. It's about 50% of what my company made in 2007. It also needs to ship the first week of November. Yes, I know that it's already October 16th...I'm choosing not to realize how close the first week of November is. So I've been spending the past few days ordering in all the packaging (and a few pieces are backordered so please please please let them come in in time), renting more workspace time and the office in the workspace because if I have to do all the packaging in my house my husband will leave me - and I won't blame him, and I've been scheduling in employees to help with the load.

Thankfully yesterday I had the foresight to tell one of our online wholesale partners that our products were going to be backordered until Nov. 10th. In addition to this big order, I still have to fill all the orders that came in at the tradeshows so my hands are pretty full as is. Then this morning a decent sized order came through the wholesale site so I'm so glad I don't have to worry about it (or, realistically, even think about it) until after this big order ships.

So I'm basically going to be working around the clock for the next three weeks but it's all good. I just need to figure in a way to hit up the HUGE Title Nine sale next week. You know, the important things.

Ah Crap!

Thankfully other people are more organized then I am because left to my own devices lord only knows what would happen. A few weeks ago I gladly offered up some product for the Bicycle Alliance of Washington because 1. I'm a huge cyclist (well, when the leg heals) 2. I'm good friends with someone on the board and 3. Said someone also has great connections into the WA wine scene (just kidding Erin!). So my friend called and asked if I would be willing to make a donation to their silent charity auction. More than happy I said...and then it promptly slipped my mind.

The Bicycle Alliance is apparently much more organized and called me on Monday wanting to know when they could pick up the donation. "Ummm...yeah...how about towards the end of the week," I said as I desperately starting to think about what I could add to the promised gift basket. We agreed that they'll come pick it up tomorrow.

Which meant I had to run around today to pick up things like...oh, the actual basket that the gifts will go into. Since I'm in a little bit of a whining mood today I'll take a moment to whine about how what should have been a 30 minute errand ends up being a 90 minute one because I'm just so damn slow on these stupid crutches. Sometimes I wish I had actually asked for a temporary handicap tag for my car so that it wouldn't take me 15 minutes - not to mention many many explitives - to get across a parking lot. But on the plus side - my arms have never been stronger or looked better!

So I'm sitting here looking at the basket and figuring out what's going to go into it. I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to pull off something that looks pretty snazzy (she says with hope!). I'll post a picture later tonight after I get it done.

* To my Board Member friend Erin - I'm so sorry it slipped my mind. But I will get you something that will look great and hopefully raise a lot of money. If not I'll owe you a trip to Trophy AND Theo Chocolates (as well as a personal donation to the Bicycle Alliance)

Foiled By Christopher Columbus

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that Christopher Columbus risked life and limb to find North America (though some would argue how does an individual "discover" a country that's already inhabited by Native Americans - didn't they "discover" it?). But Columbus Day just seems to be more of a pain then it's really worth. For the record, no one I know has the day off - myself included. Why the problem? Well, the problem lies in the fact that given that noone has it off, it's just not on my radar. I was completely caught off guard yesterday by the realization that mail would not be delivered or picked up today. Unfortunately I sent in my business credit card bill a few days in advance of when it was due, as usual, completely forgetting that the USPS was shut down today. As such, it appears as though I'll have a nice little late fee from AMEX. And yes, I could blame myself for not looking at a calendar and realizing a holiday was coming up but I'm going to choose to blame Christopher Columbus.

Holding Pattern

In the last few days a bunch of things have been going on which would make you think I'd be running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. But since nothing has actually "closed" I'm sorta sitting here in an anticipatory holding pattern trying to get what can be done actually completed but not letting me get too far ahead of myself. Did that even make sense? Well, here's the rundown so you can see for yourself:

1. Our new product won an award as one of the top ten gifts to give this holiday season from an online industry publication.
2. Said publication also submitted their list to People Magazine who has asked that we send samples (which I did) so now I'm sitting here waiting and hoping that they like what they see (and slightly terrified that if they do like what that may mean from an operational standpoint).
3. Received a ceist and desist letter regarding the name of our new product from another company. Said letter is on its way over to my trademark attorney as you read this (in all honesty I'm not too worried about it - he'll either think that I am in violation in which case I can easily change the name to something that is still recognizable or he'll think that I'm not in violation and we'll go about registering the name to avoid this hassle in the future).
4. Left a message with BIG company on Friday. My contact there had told me to call her last week but the week totally got away from me so it didn't happen until Friday. Sadly I never heard back from her yesterday but in all honesty I think it was best as I wasn't functioning at my highest yesterday (I really needed coffee, but do you know how hard it is to get coffee to go when you're on crutches? Really, someone needs to invent some sort of cupholder for crutches). I hope to talk to her next week.
5. Lastly, I'm in negotiations with the bigger company regarding the order they're interested in placing. They like our stuff and want to place an order but we're going back and forth on pricing. Sadly, the item they're most interested in is the one I have the least margin on so I just don't have a ton of wiggle room before the product starts to lose money for me. So I'm waiting to hear back from her but hoping this doesn't take too long because she wants the products shipped the first week of November which, since I have to order in raw materials, is cutting it really close and is starting to make me really nervous. So I presented her with my final price yesterday and it appears as though it's being mulled over. To sweeten the deal though I did happen to mention that apparently People Magazine was interested in the product.

The Good & The Bad

Ok, here it is, the Good & the Bad of the Chicago tradeshow. Let's start with the bad news first:

The Bad:
1. It's obvious that the economy is having an impact on retailers. Even more apparent that it's currently hitting the midwest harder then the west coast at least based on sales and interst at this show versus the Las Vegas show. Part of it though, is that I think more of the west coast retailers who used to go to this show are now going to the Las Vegas show since it's closer and cheaper for west coasters to attend.
2. Fewer buyers = fewer sales.
3. My hotel. Now I'm the type of person who can happily camp without a shower for days on end but I'm finding that when traveling for business - especially when at a tradeshow where you're on your feet (or in my case, foot) all day - you really want a comfy room at the end of the day. My hotel was a little subpar in that area. Next year I'll up the ante, pay an additional $8/night, and stay at the nicer hotel that's right next door (and gives out free chocolate chip cookies!)

And now the Good Stuff
1. At first blush it appears that we at the very least broke even on our show costs with the orders we received. In this economy I'll take that as a win.
2. Reorders - we had a lot of retailers who have placed orders with us in the past who came by and placed reorders. In addition to the revenue and the opportunity to show them our new products, it was a chance to show them that in this economy we're still around and still planning new products.
3. A potential new Northeast sales rep. In talking to some other retailers, this rep is really the best rep in the industry and is doing this as a real business as opposed to so many other reps who, it seems, do this as something on the side or because they think it will "be fun." Best of all, since we're in the Northwest, we've made very little headway into the Northeast so if we can go in with him and make headway in that region then hopefully it will be win-win for all parties.
4. A new booth setup. I really liked how one booth had set up their merchandise so I asked where they got their booth furniture. They told me and it's not too expensive. Plus it turns out that this week said company is running a sale that includes free shipping. It's on my to-do list tomorrow to place an order.

And we're Back

That's it - no more flying with "the leg" (as I affectionally call it). That was my last flying trip of the Fall and, I believe, the last flights I have to take for 2008 as I'm driving home for the holidays this year. Flying with a broken leg has got to be one of levels of hell in Dante's Inferno. Everyone is in "airport" mode which means they have no awareness of their surroundings outside of themselves and their luggage. If their luggage happens to careen widely into you - well - that just sucks now doesn't it. Being in O'Hare especially had me on high alert as it's a bunch of business travelers with roller bags full of business papers and business things on their mind. They are obviously far superior to those of us not dressed in business suits and as such they rule O'Hare. (said with the utmost affection to my husband and other business travelers out there) On the plus side though, apparently I looked sufficiently pathetic after United moved my gate from one side of the terminal to the other and I had to crutch my way down there dragging my bag behind me like some half-crazed bag lady that they bumped me up to first class. Did you know they serve warm cookies and milk on United First Class? Almost makes it worth the cost of the ticket!

The tradeshow was good and I'm putting together a list in my head of the highlights and lowlights which I'll get up here in the next day as I'm sure you're sitting there going nuts with anticipation. Sadly however I've decided that Chicago just doesn't agree with me. I spent two years there in grad school and the entire time my skin was a disaster. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the poor grad school diet or grad school hours - nope, it was Chicago. This was confirmed this weekend when after only a day in Chicago my entire body broke out in hives. Yes, too much information I know. But let me tell you that nothing is as much fun as being stuck out at the airport for a tradeshow and having no access to a pharmacy. The thought crossed my mind to find an emergency room but at this point I think my health insurance is going to cut me off for being too expensive and I didn't want to add fuel to the fire. You think I'm kidding? Last week the insurance company sent me a note basically asking who they can sue to make back the money their spending on fixing my broken leg. I told them that I was sure the US Forest Service would anti up that money without a problem. They don't currently find me too amusing.

So anyway, according to the doctor I saw today, I am suffering from a massive allergy attack. Either an allergy to some normal Fall allergin - and it's just made worse by the fact that my immune system is already overtaxed with trying to heal the leg. Or, and this is the fun one, it's a metal allergy to all the new hardware in my leg. When the doctor mentioned that possibility I must have looked like i was about to break into tears because he quickly followed it up by saying it wasn't likely...but was still a possibility. In the meantime, I'm choosing to believe it's an allergy to Chicago. Or, more correctly, the Rosemont Convention Center - which - if you've spent any time in there, you would probably agree with me.

Off to Chicago

I'm headed off to Chicago and am not bringing my computer as traveling right now with the broken leg is hard enough already not to mention trying to get through security with a rod in the leg and various computer equipement in the bag (I'm good at setting off metal detectors these days!). So it may be quite around here for a few days until I get back on Monday. Unless I can sneak time at the fancy business center in my Crowne Plaza hotel!

But before I take off I thought I'd leave you with this:


Hmm, that photo didn't come out very big. So sorry. Anyway, anyone out there who is an operations person would be proud because, to ease the growing anxiety I was feeling about the feasibility of filling production for this potential "bigger" company, I built out a production schedule (on the advice of my husband who, like usual, was right - hate that he's always right!). In truth, mine is a lot prettier then the one you see above because, don't you know, looks do count. I figured if I had to devote several hours to figuring out the logistics of this potential order then it might as well look nice so I added lots of fun colors (the colors do actually coordinate to different tasks and positions - but I did pick fun colors like fuschia and magenta just to make me smile). I built out a 30 day schedule based on the initial amount said "bigger" company indicated they may be interested in and, while it may kill me, it is doable. Granted, I will be living at my production space and never see my dogs or husband, but it's not like I've been a bunch of fun to live with lately anyway so I'm not so sure my abscence would be missed by any of those parties.

Course the production plan basically assumes that all other business will stop or, at the very least, be able to be fulfilled with existing inventory. Which, if Congress doesn't get off their butt and do something about the economy in the next few days, may very well be the case as I anticipate retailers will be nervous to place orders this weekend given the state of the economy.

And just to keep things interesting - I have a phone call with BIG company next week. They are apparently interested enough that they gave me access to their vendor portal which, being the dork that I am, I just printed out to take and read on the plane.

With all of this wheeling and dealing I can sometimes see glimpses of the possibility that this business may actually go into the black at some point. Now I just have to play my cards right with all parties and get the deals done!