This 'n' That
Feeling the need to catch up.....it's been awhile since our last blog.
January, is always a pretty slow month, a good/bad thing, actually. Good because we get a much-needed breather, good because we have a chance to regroup/assess where we are, and good because we have a chance to "fabulate" a new collection of gifts for Valentine's Day. But really not so great for our cash flow. Thank God for the awesome corporate customer we acquired last year who keeps us going on a daily basis.
It was actually that very same customer who requested the 40 last-minute holiday gifts I mentioned in my "Merry Christmas..." entry. We were winding down on Friday, our last business day before Christmas, so very glad to have everything under control, knowing that all we had to do was get through the afternoon. Julie had been in discussion with our contact at the company for some time about this particular order, trying to pin down the details. We knew it was due soon, and we knew we would be out of the store until after Christmas. When she told us the gifts had to be in the hands of the recipients by the January 2 , she didn't realize, but we knew we had a "gift basket emergency" on our hands. The gifts were going all over the country, some all the way to the West Coast. They had to go out that day. At that point in our season, 40 of anything was a challenge. We had gaping holes in our stock. and we were pretty much fried crispy. Fortunately for all of us, our customer's first choice of gifts contained seasonal items we would have had left over after the holidays (bonus!) And fortunately Julie and I were both there, as well as our new "Girl Friday" in- training and our awesome holiday shipping dude. Awesome shipping dude called in our part-time guy, and we dug in our heels...determined to get it done in time for the UPS pick-up at 4:30. Julie constructed all of the gifts, I made bows and shrink-wrapped, Girl Friday wrote message cards and shrink-wrapped, and the boys packed and ran everything through UPS. We pretty much ran at warp-speed, and just did it. As Joe (shipping dude) said, if we had thought about what we were trying to do, it would have freaked us all out. Anyway... fast-forward to bottom line: gifts made, gifts packed and sent in time for the deadline. Customer happy, us happy. We closed the doors at 5 and left for a much needed holiday break with our family.
With that story finished, there is one other potentially more interesting story to update. Julie started our company blog in the summer of 2006, when we were asked to provide a group of baskets for a Tom Hanks-produced movie-in-the-making, "The Great Buck Howard" (See July 2006 "The Craziest Story"). We took our chances at the time, not knowing if it was some sort of weird scam or a real opportunity. We decided it was just something we couldn't afford to pass up. We also knew that it would be an unbearably long wait for the movie, with a release set originally for the summer of 2007. We created the 20 requested baskets, delivered them, and moved forward, trying to tend to everyday business. We intermittently Googled for information on the movie, with not much of anything beyond cast and synopsis of the movie coming up. The summer of 2007 came and went, and the projected release was revised to 2008. Finally, in December I found a couple of stills and a potential movie poster when I searched, and I figured that it might actually be getting close. And then, interestingly enough, my search last week netted several reviews of the movie, which is/has been shown in the past week at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. The reviews are all favorable, especially in regards to John Malkovich, who plays the title role.
At this point we really have no idea if our baskets will actually be in the movie, and if so, whether or not we will be identified in any way. To be honest, neither one of us are holding our breaths. It was originally explained to us that delivery of the baskets would be an ongoing thread throughout the movie, and that the name of our company would be evident. Yes, it's a little hard to imagine, but we decided that if it was for real and we passed on the opportunity, we wouldn't want to have to deal with "what if?"
We've made countless changes in the operation of our company since we sent out those 20 baskets to Hollywood. We've reinvented ourselves and streamlined and improved our processes and products. Some of this evolution has occurred as our company has grown, but much has been done as a result of our unusual "opportunity". From that aspect, we will never consider it a mistake. We're able to smoothly transition to 5 times our normal business, and we do it well every November and December. Give us the opportunity to accommodate a substantial increase in business every day, and we'll be ready. All we can do is wait and see!
January, is always a pretty slow month, a good/bad thing, actually. Good because we get a much-needed breather, good because we have a chance to regroup/assess where we are, and good because we have a chance to "fabulate" a new collection of gifts for Valentine's Day. But really not so great for our cash flow. Thank God for the awesome corporate customer we acquired last year who keeps us going on a daily basis.
It was actually that very same customer who requested the 40 last-minute holiday gifts I mentioned in my "Merry Christmas..." entry. We were winding down on Friday, our last business day before Christmas, so very glad to have everything under control, knowing that all we had to do was get through the afternoon. Julie had been in discussion with our contact at the company for some time about this particular order, trying to pin down the details. We knew it was due soon, and we knew we would be out of the store until after Christmas. When she told us the gifts had to be in the hands of the recipients by the January 2 , she didn't realize, but we knew we had a "gift basket emergency" on our hands. The gifts were going all over the country, some all the way to the West Coast. They had to go out that day. At that point in our season, 40 of anything was a challenge. We had gaping holes in our stock. and we were pretty much fried crispy. Fortunately for all of us, our customer's first choice of gifts contained seasonal items we would have had left over after the holidays (bonus!) And fortunately Julie and I were both there, as well as our new "Girl Friday" in- training and our awesome holiday shipping dude. Awesome shipping dude called in our part-time guy, and we dug in our heels...determined to get it done in time for the UPS pick-up at 4:30. Julie constructed all of the gifts, I made bows and shrink-wrapped, Girl Friday wrote message cards and shrink-wrapped, and the boys packed and ran everything through UPS. We pretty much ran at warp-speed, and just did it. As Joe (shipping dude) said, if we had thought about what we were trying to do, it would have freaked us all out. Anyway... fast-forward to bottom line: gifts made, gifts packed and sent in time for the deadline. Customer happy, us happy. We closed the doors at 5 and left for a much needed holiday break with our family.
With that story finished, there is one other potentially more interesting story to update. Julie started our company blog in the summer of 2006, when we were asked to provide a group of baskets for a Tom Hanks-produced movie-in-the-making, "The Great Buck Howard" (See July 2006 "The Craziest Story"). We took our chances at the time, not knowing if it was some sort of weird scam or a real opportunity. We decided it was just something we couldn't afford to pass up. We also knew that it would be an unbearably long wait for the movie, with a release set originally for the summer of 2007. We created the 20 requested baskets, delivered them, and moved forward, trying to tend to everyday business. We intermittently Googled for information on the movie, with not much of anything beyond cast and synopsis of the movie coming up. The summer of 2007 came and went, and the projected release was revised to 2008. Finally, in December I found a couple of stills and a potential movie poster when I searched, and I figured that it might actually be getting close. And then, interestingly enough, my search last week netted several reviews of the movie, which is/has been shown in the past week at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. The reviews are all favorable, especially in regards to John Malkovich, who plays the title role.
At this point we really have no idea if our baskets will actually be in the movie, and if so, whether or not we will be identified in any way. To be honest, neither one of us are holding our breaths. It was originally explained to us that delivery of the baskets would be an ongoing thread throughout the movie, and that the name of our company would be evident. Yes, it's a little hard to imagine, but we decided that if it was for real and we passed on the opportunity, we wouldn't want to have to deal with "what if?"
We've made countless changes in the operation of our company since we sent out those 20 baskets to Hollywood. We've reinvented ourselves and streamlined and improved our processes and products. Some of this evolution has occurred as our company has grown, but much has been done as a result of our unusual "opportunity". From that aspect, we will never consider it a mistake. We're able to smoothly transition to 5 times our normal business, and we do it well every November and December. Give us the opportunity to accommodate a substantial increase in business every day, and we'll be ready. All we can do is wait and see!
posted by Marcia at 11:42 AM
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