I’m going to go out on a limb here and talk about something that’s very close to my heart: the industry I operate in. Lately, we’ve been experiencing quite the shake up. A major chain has gone under, and we’ve all felt the brunt of that collapse–manufacturers and reps perhaps more than other retailers. In the shortest term, brick and mortar retailers can hope to experience some of the traffic that would have gone to big chain to have their printing needs met. In the longer term, and I’d like to clear the air here: THE MANUFACTURERS WILL BE FINE. Those who closed “due to the pressure” of a failing big chain were suffering from other bad business moves long before the big chain fell.
Retailers who are angry at other manufacturers for leaving them out in the cold, should be. Manufacturers who have closed had other choices–they just chose not to take those roads. In my very humble opinion, you can’t do business like that and expect to survive, let alone rebound. As a business owner, I believe it’s my responsibility to communicate openly with my retailers about our long term plans as a business. After that, integrity tells me that I need to operate on those words. And, just for the record: the long term on our business strategy is that we’re not going anywhere.
Another common misconception that I’m noticing is the retailers tend to think that hundreds of thousands of dollars of invoices accumulate over an extended period of time. While on many occasions, this is the case, many times it is also not. And a big store has the capabilities to place hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of orders in one sitting. And here’s the catch: as manufacturers, we’re crazy to refuse them.
I often say that the reason I don’t gamble at the casinos is because I feel like my life is one big gamble on a daily basis. As a small manufacturer, we have tools that we can use to check credit, but they are exorbitantly expensive. The cost of checking a stores/individuals credit can often be well over the investment of an opening order. So, we ask for a credit card, and hope to build a strong enough relationship with the vendor, so that by the time the third order rolls around and they ask for terms, we feel like we know them well enough to say OK.
In other words, we’re operating on the good ol’ fashioned honor system, a handshake, and a gut feeling. And in all honesty, if I want to pay myself a decent living, that’s what we’ll have to continue to operate on until we’re much, much bigger.
But here’s the thing: I never say OK on any order, combination of orders, or business relationship that would jeopardize my company, my ability to pay my employees, or pay their benefits.
I remember back to a “collection call” I made once when I was just getting started. The store owner had the guts to tell me that she hadn’t even been able to afford to have a pedicure that month. As a literal starving artist (my parents were gracious enough to feed me dinner each night), I had no qualms about reminding her that I hadn’t had a pedicure in 6 months. I wanted to go on about the fact that if she paid her invoice, I would be able to pay my reps, my electricity bill, my printer, but still would not be able to afford a pedicure. I bit my tongue. But I have gone on to remind a few customers that our lack of pedicures aren’t the worst thing in the world–quite a few children the world over have it much worse.
So, at the end of today, I sat and paid our bills. I carefully balanced an allotment of funds that would go towards paying down our loans. For the most part, we operate in the black, but due to the economy over the past year, we’ve leaned up and relied on a line of credit, and the good ol’ Amex. I crunched numbers, spreadsheets, marketing ideas, and strategy, giving everything I could to the people I have given my word to. At the end of the day, there isn’t a whole lot left over for me, but that’s not why I’m in this business.
I’m in this business, this industry, because I love creating moments of exuberant happiness for people. I love knowing that a first time mom is thrilled with her birth announcements, or that a friend had a well-attended party because of a fabulous invitation, or an coworker went home with a smile on her face because she’s proud of what she accomplished that day, or a retailer looks like a knight in shining armor to her customer because we’ve over-delivered on an order. And I’ll admit that it makes me feel good when I can look at someone and say “if it makes your life easier, let’s take care of that,” and they have one less thing to worry about at the end of the day.
It’s all about those moments. And I’m in it to create them for the long haul.