hey rocky! watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!
 
growing a small business like ours in a shrinking economy is quite a job. the process is filled with hard work, proper planning, weighing options, knowing our audience, focused energy and just plain common sense. it does not mystify me though i am beginning to think it will take nothing short of magic to produce the desired results. liquidity! my brothers and sisters, is not always the answer to everything. the devil is found in the details. james’ daily operational goal has been and continues to be staying out of the red. difficult to achieve on a good day but downright scary every winter when the january/february slowdown occurs, especially when expansion into wholesale distribution is on the doorstep. being a shopkeeper on 13th street is not my life’s goal. don’t get me wrong, i enjoy the store and my work at the lab and in the kitchen but that is not the whole story. at least not the one i intend for us to write. a piece (a part) of our overall vision is to create a quality brand at a great price. in comparison to a host of other brands, we’ve done our job well. but that’s not enough. this particular fruit will die on the vine if all we ever aspire to be is a little soap shop in the hood. the brand needs to grow. it has to get out into the world where it can (hopefully) flourish. besides, selling more today means creating newer, better earth friendly products tomorrow. when we opened the first store in 2004 we had four bottled products. with the enormous cost of development and packaging plus the mounting minimum runs one experiences with a professional lab, it was all we could afford. we paid for that and used the money we made to create four more, paid that than expanded to eight, then sixteen...you get the picture. though incredibly satisfying, it is not easy which is why i still get defensiveness when someone gets in my face about what i should be doing. taking any idea, formulation to packaging then putting it into production begins at about $10K per item (and that’s low-balling it). regardless of preconceived notions others might hold about owning a business, having this particular business is all about commitment, sacrifice and just enough ego to believe that it’s all possible without going nuts. the reward, if we are successful, is growing the business and living the vision. grow or die. those are the basic choices. forget that the banks are not lending, for the most part we are attempting to take it one step at a time and pay as we go. my personal view of money is of an energy that moves things around and propels technology forward. i also think money is like air. in our society you can’t live without it. each day we suit up, show up, do our best, give our hearts and hope like hell that it all works out. if we’ve done something good, something worthy, we get money to do more. really. that’s it. all the good intention in the world doesn’t add up to a hill of beans without a $ at the end of the equation. living the vision is talent, timing, a bit of luck and money. at one time i would have thought this cynical but then after some experiences i got the hang of how it works. i’d like to think that as a “born-again” capitalist my true religion is pragmatic optimism. i guess it’s why james and i agree that slow and steady wins the race. we’ve seen too many entrepreneurs go bust expanding too fast. you might get the huge initial order from a national retailer but if it doesn’t move, it gets dumped. standing beneath the weight of $100k + of unmovable inventory can break the back of the little soap maker that could. expanding the dream is always a gamble but how one gambles tells a lot. vegas casinos don’t play blackjack with a one deck shoe. the idea of wholesaling our product began with ali’s wagon almost two years ago. after a good deal of trial and error, the wholesale arm of duross & langel is growing into it’s own. the online wholesale site is almost complete and the requests from retailers big and small is encouraging. like everything else we do, we’ll do it our way. we’ll make mistakes and have missteps and hopefully learn as we go. the commitment is strong, the sacrifice is certainly felt and if we can keep everything on-track, anything is possible. after all, i still have a few tricks up my sleeve.
Sunday, February 22, 2009