Spinning Wheels

I'm refering to the wheels in my head. They're spinning today with ideas that are 75% of the way developed but not "quite" there. Today was a big production day in my workspace but the production I was doing was elementary at best. It's the type of production that you'd pay the lowest level line employee to do because it's completely unskilled. Unfortunately the lowest paid employee right now - and also the only employee - is me. So I spent 8+ hours doing very very brainless work.

It's not nearly as bad as it sounds. Sometimes I enjoy the fact that I'm able to get work done but give my brain a break. Sometimes I'd rather be doing this type of work then QuickBooks :). And sometimes, like today, this type of work enables me to tune out and think about other areas of the business.

So this is what got me thinking (amongst other things). Pros and cons of trying to work with an established company to do private label for them. They're not in my industry but there are some similarities between our company's with regards to mission, quality, etc that I could see it making sense. Plus, given who their audience is, I could see this audience being interested in said new product. But....I just don't know. Anyone have any thoughts or experience with private label?

Still Here...

Just busy lately. It seems like everything collided last week what with numerous doctor's visits (just routine stuff), dog vet visits (not so routine but it's all looking good), and work. Busy busy busy. Truthfully it makes me very glad I didn't get that job at the zoo or I'd have been pulling my hair out by now.

The biggest focus of last week was getting the professional photos picked up and then working on them to get them in the formats I needed to send them over to some catalogues. A couple catalogues the pictures are being looked at and then if they like what they see they'll ask for samples. One of the other catalogues is one that I'm currently working with and they needed the pictures ASAP to start working with as they are already working on their holiday catalogues. So I've been busy trying to get all the right pieces going to the right contacts, keeping everyone happy, and trying to lure a couple catalogue companies further down the road of realizing that my products are something they just simply can't do without.

I'm also trying to get ready for my first Farmers Market next week. I'm working on a list of all the pieces I need and the list is growing expodentially every day. Thankfully I've managed to secure most stuff from friends if I didn't already have it so I'm holding down costs on this which is key because I just don't know how well my stuff is going to do in a venue like this. I could also use some stellar weather because that always helps farmer's market sales so if you could send some my way a week from Thursday from about 1-7pm it would be greatly appreciated.

Cash Flow is King

There were several things I took away from my entrepreneurship courses at bschool that have rung more true then I could ever have imagined. The #1 being that no matter how great a proforma spreadsheet you make - calculating all your sales, fixed costs, variable costs, etc - in the end for a small business what it really comes down to is cash flow. It doesn't matter that you make $1M annually if you don't have enough money in the bank to pay tomorrow's bills. I've talked about this a few times - specifically in the Fall when I'm more often then not waiting for payment from Peter to be able to pay Paul. It's a stressful stressful game to play.

Which is why I've really enjoyed this series of articles from the NYTimes small business section: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/my-week-in-cash-flow/
You'll want to scroll down to the bottom of the page and start with Monday's entry and read backwards, but it's a great example of the cash flow issues small businesses face. Personally, while reading it I felt a mix of "thank goodness someone else also goes through the same thing" and "thank goodness the numbers I'm faced with aren't nearly as large as his!" Regardless, it's a great small business read if you have the time and I think it hits home more strongly then many of us small business owners would like to admit.

The week here is ending up well. My photoshoot went really well yesterday. The majority of the shoot was strictly for product photos (product centered on white background) but there were a handful of more artsy shots and one in particular that when I saw it I said "that's my ad." Too bad I don't plan on doing a lot of advertising this Fall. This photo is almost good enough to make me want to do more!

Photoshoot on Thursday

Photoshoot on Thursday...photoshoot on Thursday....photoshoot on Thursday. Tons to do between now and then with the major one being jerry-rig some mocked up labels that I haven't yet paid to be professionally printed so they look professionally printed in the photoshoot. I need things to look perfect!

I've also been checking out this site for photography inspiration: http://foodgawker.com/

My photographer is an incredible professional photographer and I oftentimes just leave it to his creative direction but panning through that site helps give me ideas on different angles or ways of approaching a product that are eye-catching.

Business Book Review

Let me preface this by saying that I'm someone who always have to have a book that I'm in the process of reading. So when I finished up a fiction book recently on a weekend away and saw this book in their bookcase, I traded out books and figured I'd give it a shot. I remember hearing about The 4 Hour Workweek a few years ago and while I was skeptical, it certainly sounded interesting if you could pull it off. So why not give it a go and see what it has to say.

I've made it to page 34 and just can't continue. I'd rather have no book to read then be forced to finish this one. Perhaps it's the author's tone, perhaps it's his arrogence, or perhaps it's because the book was published in 2007 - likely written in 2006 - and with it now being 2010 I have the benefit of knowing the financial meltdown that was about to occur. In a nutshell - from the 34 pages I've made it through - the author seems to propose a life away from the cubicle, the working 9-5 (more like 8-6!), and the 401Ks IRAs and other retirement savings vehicles. He recommends becoming one of the "new rich," living for today, and enjoying life when you're young.

Like I said, I went into this with a healthy dose of skeptism and in my 34 pages it only grew. Then again, I am someone who believes that hard work pays off or lord knows I wouldn't be doing this entrepreneurship thing. I also believe fervently in living well below your means and keeping a nice healthy cushion of savings and investments both for retirement or simply the curveballs live throws at you along the way. So while the idea of outsoucing my life and traveling the world sounds appealing, I sleep better at night knowing I actually have two dimes to rub together.

The author does bring up an interesting concept though which is perhaps explored further had I continued to read anymore. The idea that we in the US believe that work has to be all-encompassing. That if you aren't working 50+ hr weeks you really aren't working hard and haven't "earned" your money or your lifestyle. This is in contrast to the European view of work in which work is a compliment to your life but certainly not the mainstay...otherwise the French wouldn't take the entire month of August off!

In some ways my own business mimics this somewhat. My busy season - so busy I barely have time to breath and typically lose 5-10lbs because I'm just too busy to stop and eat - is about 4 months long. There's some quasi-busy time as I lead up to those months and do my best to prepare, and then the rest of the year is really pretty quiet. During those quiet months I typically feel guilty for not being busy and for having the time available to enjoy some sunshine and read on the porch. What I'm trying to make myself realize this year is that I shouldn't be guilty about the ebbs and flows in my business. I'm certainly trying to introduce new products that will take some of the seasonality out of the equation, but at it's crux, my product and its price point will always be more geared towards holiday gifting then simply an everyday purchase. I'm trying to keep in mind that the slow periods are a great time to get caught up on the rest of my life and do odd jobs around the house like paint the baseboards or fix the screen door and that I shouldn't necessarily feel bad that I'm not running around like a chicken with its head cut off....cause that'll start again about September!

Back on Track

I didn't get that part-time zoo job and given that I was upset about it for approximately 90 seconds seems to be pretty good indication of how badly I wanted the job. I honestly think I wanted to "win" the position more then I actually wanted to do the job itself. Oh, and the paycheck, I wanted that part of it too. Even though it was a measly amount, it was a measly amount more then my current paycheck. I did get my zoo volunteer assignment though and starting next week I will be in charge of the petting zoo. Ok, maybe "in charge" is a bit of a stretch - more likely I'll be trying to keep the docile animals from biting small children, explaining to hypervigilant parents that no, your kids cannot get swine flu from the zoo's one pig, and scooping poop. Luckily my dogs have already given me plenty of training in the poop scooping arena so I will undoubtably be in charge of that after just a few short volunteer sessions.

In the meantime, it's getting to be about that time of year to start thinking about holiday product photos because nothing reminds one more of the holidays then tulips blooming. I have my annual photo shoot (for products, not for me) next week so I have to spend some time this week getting everything compiled and organized.

Paying Someone Else

I'm a very hands-on person with my business. To the extent that it's my hands literally making the products that go out the door. Many would argue that that is not necessarily the best business model but at the end of the day I do love what I'm doing.

As much as I dislike paying other people to do what I believe I can do myself there are two areas I have no qualms paying someone else to oversee. The first is my accountant who I meet with once a year to get my business taxes filed. The rest of the year I keep the books up-to-date. Or let's say I at least get them done before I go in for my accountant meeting every year. But she's the one who knows the intricacy of the tax code, any changes to the tax code, and she makes sure everything gets filed and paid on time. For that I pay her a nice little sum but it's well worth it in my mind.

The other is closely related and that is with the filing of my quarterly employee paperwork. Sadly, once you have employees you have to file quarterly reports with the local gov't even if you get to the point where you don't have any employees. Thanks to the recession, I'm in the 'no employee' zone but still have to file the paperwork even if the paperwork has a big fat zero on it. Truthfully I probably could do the paperwork myself and get it filed but the honest answer is that with everything else on my plate I often forget that the quarterly files are even due until they show up in my mailbox needing my signature and a 44cent stamp. So for the sheer fact of someone else making sure I keep the gov't informed and happy I gladly pay $200/yr. It's worth it to me in terms of peace of mind.

In other news - no word yet from the zoo which I'm taking as not such a great sign since they said I'd hear "early next week" (aka - this week). Figuring since I haven't heard it likely means they've offered the job to someone else and are waiting for that person to confirm before telling everyone else thanks but no thanks. But you know what, if it doesn't happen it doesn't happen and I choose to believe that there's some other great stuff coming down the pipeline.