the little things

as the days grow shorter, as the air becomes cooler, the seasons ahead begin to take shape in our orbit. spicy, sweet autumnal soaps are in demand while kooky halloween stuff fill the tables and shelves. like the starting gun commencing a race, fall triggers the beginning of holiday prep.

almost no one wants to talk about the winter holidays in September - least of all me - though it signals the need to gather all the ingredients and packaging, planning outlines and the production dates for the season ahead. just the other day i went to purchase pumps for bottles only to discover that most suppliers were out of stock, and that resupply wouldn't occur for at best, two months. will our current stock of pumps get us through? what about the ingredients we get from Canada? what will and will not be tariffed? can we afford the extra charges? what about border control? we've had weeks of delays from border and custom enforcement this year.

in the end, all we really want to focus on is the color of the boxes, the ribbon, the shred. will we make special labels for the candle boxes? can we afford special labels? what about bags? tissue? if we do the new thing one of us wants to create, will we have the room to display them? what about the pre-holiday sale? that's what's really important to us. how best can we create a holiday experience our customers will love, and execute every aspect of this season with some joy. after all, we are a little business that runs on creativity and joy. when you sell soap for a living, the profit must be found in the process.

everyone has a different idea of a small business. it is a nebulous term. here in the U.S. many manufacturing and mining industries allow up to 500 (or sometimes up to 1,500) employees to be considered a small business, whereas other sectors, like wholesale trade, often cap small status at 100 or fewer employees. many service, retail, and agricultural businesses are measured by average annual revenue (often ranging from under $1 million to over $40 million depending on the specific small business admin table of size standards. basically a business like ours consisting of 3 people (employee owned) is taxed and treated like a company of 99, which is why we think of ourselves an a little business. while a little profit might be welcome, breaking even is a treasured outcome.

the win for us is leaving work at day's end feeling a sense of having accomplished something, heading home with no animus, putting everything and everyone out of your mind. that alone is worth 24k gold.