Survival Mode.

We are slowly emerging from our first company catastrophe! Whoop!

On June 3rd, Canada Post (our preferred method of delivery) began a 'rotating-strike', in technical terms, they delivered a girlie slap, ran and hid behind a tree.

10 days later, the union was locked out by Canada Post, yet they continued to deliver more girlie slaps & outrageous demands. (Maybe the union is pregnant?).

A bunch of nonsense later, mail was stalled across the country for 8 days. No biggie to most - but to us this was terrible news.

We are a teeny tiny business that heavily relies on Canada Post. Other shipping options are available, but they are far too costly - our price point wouldn't line up well, ie: no one would buy from us. *Poof* we're gone.

We have worked non stop for the past year to build a seamless reputation with our clients. As fast as an order comes in, it is out the door, usually with the ink still warm from our curing dryer. Online shopping - as popular as it is becoming - still hasn't reached it's potential, because people don't like to wait.

We got that message loud and clear as the strike took down our perfect record, day by day. As much as we agree with the CUPW's right to free speech, chest pounding and girlie slapping, we were watching our little company take a huge hit. Sales were non existent as news spread internationally that mail was not being delivered from Canada.

As fate would have it, we were in the middle of re-stocking. AKA - current funds tied up, nadda coming in. As a brand new small business, even the smallest financial hit could threaten your company. There is no back-up, rainy day fun money. You are working for every dollar and making every dollar work for you.

I'm not going to lie - it hit me really hard. I couldn't stand the idea that everything we have worked for, was slowly being chipped away. Even worse, it was out of my control. I couldn't even save this one, with one of my spur of the moment, brilliant, business-saving ideas.

There was absolutely nothing we could do but sit and wait. We had over 300 shipments gathering dust in some postal sorting centre, and a stock room with hundreds more waiting to be sent out. Most clients understood - to them we're very grateful.

Fast forward to June 27 - the Canadian Government legislates the CUPW back to work. I felt like crying.

We had one very busy day prepping all of our shipments, but it felt so good to get them out.

We're starting to see our sales trickle back in again, mostly from Canadian clients. I don't think the internationals are ready yet. (Blame Canada!)

This was our very first hardship. Up until this point it's been all fun and games. Yes we're tired and broke, but it's a fun kind of tired and broke.

We're glad it's over. If it happens again, I just may venture a new logistics company.

On a brighter business note - we've hit a huge milestone. This may not seem like a very big deal to some, but to the self employed, it's a miracle.

We paid for our last re-stock, up front. No borrowed money. Mostly every small business has to borrow, (weather it be line of credit, terms or some other form of credit) to fully stock themselves. It's very normal, as you make your money back quickly and can pay the debt off in a month or so. We've done this for years.

This past re-stock we were able to write a nice tidy check, paid in full. Why is this important? It's a GREAT sign that we're growing steadily. In one year we've gone from a mess of ideas in my head, to a healthy debt free company. This does not mean that we're rolling in cash (I wish) but we are showing signs of financial stability.

We took a huge hit this month and still came out on top. Slightly beaten and ..with a new found trucker mouth, but .. on top none the less! So, very, proud.

Lisa needs braces! Dental plan.. Lisa needs braces! Dental plan..

Some of you may get that title, some may think I'm crazy. For the latter folk, Google and YouTube are your friends.

I took my three year old, Ben for his first dentists visit today.

Two nights ago I was brushing Benny's teeth (who trusts a three year old to brush on their own?) and he was pushing me away. That's very normal for all of my boys, I can be quite aggressive. But tonight was different, he was really pushing me and sobbing. Hitting my hands away and turning his head. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't push it any further. \
Fast forward to yesterday night. I laid him down and started to tickle his belly so during his fits of laughter, I could get a good look at his back teeth. To my horror - a GIANT black spot on his back molar. I pried the poor kids mouth open and dug around, he was really mad at me. I asked him where it hurt, he pointed right at the tooth in question. I felt sick to my stomach. How did this happen? What could we have done better? ....how the !*(@ are we going to afford this?!!?

Kurt did his best to settle me. Naturally, when he wasn't looking, I ran straight to google.

Pictures of severely neglected, decaying children's teeth, medical studies of how terrible childhood cavities are, pretty much everything I should not have seen.

I went to bed early, all I could do is call a local dentist in the morning and beg them to squeeze me in.

2am, I wake up in a cold sweat. I am a terrible, horrible mother. We have no dental plan. I'm self employed, and we have no dental plan. This could cost us a lot of money.

I should have gone to university.
I should have become a Dr!
I shouldn't have squandered my teenage years away being cool, and got a medical degree.
What if this happens again with our other kids?
What if dental bills break our finances apart?
We will lose our house, have to live in someones basement - and eat out of cans to survive.
I am an awful, terrible, horrible mother.

So - in a nutshell - my sons (possible) first cavity, lead our family to bankruptcy and homelessness. This is all my fault because I'm self employed.

I cried. Maybe I took it a little far, but there was definitely some guilt there. I was up until 6:30 am, giving myself a mental lashing.

I had a good long think about it. The reason we are doing this is so that we can be with the kids. Sure we may have to make a few risky moves, but it's worth the risk when I get to sit and eat lunch with my kids, pick my son up from the bus every day and kiss every boo boo. Even if we have to spend loads of money on dental bills, we will find the money somewhere and make this work.

Benny and I just got back from the dentist, turns out that we had one very resilient-to-brushing blackberry seed, and I have quite a flair for the dramatic. (Silence, Kurtis..)

Self employment is tough. Others can hate their job, but know when their next pay day will be. Sometimes, like these past few days, it can weigh pretty heavy on my shoulders.
I have keep telling myself, I made these choices so I wouldn't miss a minute of my kids lives.

Like this:

K's first baseball practice

and this:



30 potato bugs!



and this:



Twins & a mud puddle.



Maybe I'm not such a bad mom. I wouldn't trade any of this for the world.

 

Dragons Den, Babytime Round Two and more!

Hi all!

Once again it's taken me far too long to update on our progress, and the exciting happenings of the last few months! Every time I flake out on my blog, I promise I'll do better. This time I won't promise that, I'll just put it out there that I'm going under water, and probably won't come up for air for a long while.

I shouldn't even be blogging right now! We have SO much to do, and no time to do it in! I'll get to that in a minute though.

First exciting bit of news - we auditioned for "The Dragons Den"!

It was an interesting day to say the least. We showed up at the Barrie, Ontario audition at around 10-ish in the morning. We were greeted by some friends that had travelled all the way from Toronto and London Ontario, to model our tees.

I went up and registered, "Sarah Olson for K Sera Sera", which was pretty cool in itself.
We were 24th in line, which ended up being a long wait. Each pitcher takes a good 10-20 minutes to give their full presentation. We did a lot of sitting.

Getting bored..

We got to listen to loads of new businesses, and all of their fantastic money making ideas. Some were great, some were downright awful.

We ended up pitching around 3pm. I got up there, my pregnant (some were pretending to be pregnant) models stood behind me, all bellies looked wonderful!

Handing in my application

The "KSS belly crew"



Nervous!

 I was ultra prepared,  and had an answer for every question they could throw my way. Then something weird clicked in me - and I became a nervous wreck! My voice was shaking, I was tense, and light headed.

I answered all of their questions very thoroughly - I wouldn't change anything about that. But the nervousness? Come on!

I don't know what happened?! This is so out of character for me! The only thing I can chalk it up to - how important this audition is to us as a company. Which again, I'll get to in a minute.

All in all, it was a great day! I'm so thankful to those that came out to support us!



KSS Belly Crew! From left to right: Allison, Carrie, Keri, Courtney and Jenny

 Special thank you to Angela Smith - http://www.angelasmithphotography.ca/ for documenting the day!

The producers said "if" they liked us, we will get a phone call sometime in April, inviting us to the show.

After watching some of the pitches, it seemed like they were looking for "bad" businesses. You know - the ones we all laugh at when we watch. They were impressed with us, but didn't seem to take too much time with us. All we can do is hope! It would be an amazing opportunity for us, as we NEED the investment!

Which brings me back to those "I'll get to that later's".

We have seen an incredible amount of growth this past year. Which is fantastic! We have a product that woman love! But financially, we are watching our money go out the door as quickly as it came in.

Having more customers means putting more money out for stock. Trying to grow your company also means spending, insane amounts of money. Tens of thousands of dollars, just so you know we're here!

The old saying goes "you have to spend money to make money", and it's so stinking true.

We're at a bit of a crossroads. We need money to enter the trade shows and launch proper marketing campaigns, but all of our money seems to be getting sucked back into buying more stock.

We're rationing as much as we can, setting aside as much as we can, to make sure we can enter at least a few shows this year and put a few small ad's up where the budget allows, but it's not enough. We need to go all out, "strike while the iron is hot" - so to say.

It's a struggle! More so when - I know - given a healthy budget - I could blow this mother outta the water.

We need investors! Come on Dragons Den.. call us back! We would love nothing more than to become "K Sera Sera, Inc."!

All money grubbing aside, we are sweating buckets - prepping for our second go at the Babytime Show!

We're really excited to be participating again. We did so well last year. We made loads of connections, great sales and have had lots of happy return customers. Come visit us - April 15-17 at the International Centre, Toronto, Ontario - booth 546.

We're also doing another smaller show in London Ontario, called the "Babies, Tots and You!" show. This is a huge step for us as well because it will be the first time ever that I will be letting go of the reigns! I won't be at the show myself, one of our sales representatives - Carrie McKichan - will be hosting the KSS booth. She's done such great work for the company, we're very lucky to have her! We know she'll do a fantastic job! Come visit us in London - April 10 2011, 11-4pm at the Lamplighter Inn.

Alright, now that you're all updated, time for me to get back to the grind. I have about 1000 shirts to fold and tag. Not complaining - although I'd be less stressed in doing so if I had Dragon backing...

If you find a penny, put it in my pocket..

It is tax time.

For the first few years, KSS was a very small side project. We are still a "small business" by definition, but not so much, compared to ye olde days when a sale happened once in a blue moon and we could fit our expense report on a post it note. No more Mrs. Crafty Pants. This year was about making some noise.

This has been our very first, full fiscal year as a business. Gosh what fun we had!
Designing, networking, chatting, trade-showing, hoteling, serious faced meetings (in which I had to wear ironed clothing), handshakes, deals, landing accounts, advertising... it's so easy to forget that all of this fun = spending. I kept a pretty good running tally of what was going where, but it's completely different than exact dollar amounts. More seriously, amounts owing.

This is the first time I've had a good sit down to comb through every little thing. Every fraction of a cent has to be accounted for. As great as I think my records are, they won't stop me from sitting and obsessing over receipts, invoices and bank statements until my accountant tells me to stop.

 I wish I were more like her, she fluffs me off all of the time. I call her in a literal panic, learning soon enough, I was her laugh for the day. Our books are easy-breezy compared to some of the major cooperate accounts she works with.

I must say - having all our ducks in a row is also important because we're about to go public and ask for investment in KSS. As great as the exposure could be for us, it could be horrific if I show up with inflated numbers and a huge ego. Any hope we have of success with our next move, completely relies on having a correct valuation of our company.

All in all - I'm a little stressed. Many companies sink in their first few years because they do not pay attention to their finances, ultimately getting themselves in trouble. We do not want to be that company. We have had a huge benefit, slowly growing over a number of years at a rate that we could handle, financially. In our "first" year we have become substantially profitable (despite our expectations)  - not many businesses can say that.

I need to chill.

If we plan on growing this company to the level we're hoping for - I can't be breaking out in cold sweats when I'm faced with big numbers - a hard habit for the mom-on-a-budget to crack. How do you let a 5 figure number roll off your back, when a 3 figure grocery bill has you sweating buckets?

This year has been a learning year for me, personally. Kurt has been running his own business for years. He sees me pulling out my hair, it's just another day in the office for him.

I will probably have to go through this a few times before it becomes old news, and I buy one of those cool green 'tax' hats you always see in 80's movies.

Lets hope next year is a green tax hat year. Please!

**Editors note - Lets all pat Sarah on the back - I typed this entire blog with a 2.5 year old on my lap. Multi-tasking is the new black**

Dare to tame the Dragons?

Kurt and I are obsessed with "Dragons Den". A Canadian show featuring 5 multi-millionaires (the dragons). They listen to entrepreneurs pitch their business plans or product ideas, and if you can impress them, they will invest in your idea.

Naturally, being the little entrepreneurs that we are, we love watching other budding companies sink or swim. People are so passionate about their product. Some are amazing, and some are plain .. wrong.

We watch and natter the entire time about what we would do if we were on that show. How we would plan, how we could make the dragons adore us.

I logged into facebook last week. I got a little nugget from the Dragons page, they are holding open auditions across Canada. I sat there and stared at it for a minute ..or ten.

Could we really do this? Can I stand there and pitch my business plan in front of these guys? What would I even ask for? What if they rip me to shreds and rain all over my little parade? .... yah I'm totally signing up.

So I did!

We go to the first audition in February. We will pitch in front of the producers, who will probably be so sick of seeing smiling faces and friendly business plans by the time I step up to the plate. IF I can woo them.. then we move on to the next round.

We will pitch in front of the Dragons. People have said that this is a loooooooong day of taping, and you may get bumped to the next day. We will sit in a room staring at our toes until they call us up.
If I don't pass out by this point - I will stand in front of the investors. Do my little song and dance.
If I make for good TV (which you can bet I will) we might make it on air.

Thousands of people apply - only a few will ever be seen. My goal is to make it on air. If we get a deal, even better, but the main focus is to be seen!

I feel a little weird about it. I'm not going to lie. If it works out, I think it's a great move for our company. If it doesn't - no skin off our backs. But, putting myself, and my business out there like that - makes me nervous.

What if they don't take me seriously?

What if I make a weird face and they edit it so I am repeatedly making that weird face through the entire pitch? (flashback -Bridgett Jones going down the fire mans pole)

Kurt tells me I need to practice. I will.

When we were at the Babytime show, a customer saw me struggling. We had run out of stock.
Our booth was packed with people wanting to buy buy buy. That lady came over to me and said "You weren't prepared were you!" I thought about it and said "No, we weren't expecting this" - she replied "ALWAYS prepare for success". It was a short two second conversation, but it never left me.

So - thank you, to whoever you were. You've inspired me to take giant leaps and believe they will work out the way I want them to.

I will practice and prepare. I will bring my A game.

I've got this in the bag!

Meet Bob.

This post is dedicated to the unsung hero of our little company, my father in law - Bob Olson. He is our biggest fan, and we wouldn't be able to do this with out him.

He shows up almost every day to help us fold, tag, package and more. He's built shelving units in the basement so we can store our stock items, built a second folding table. (side note: kind of cool that we need two folding tables now!), painted, hung lights, fixed our dryer over.. and over.. and over again.  He goes out for pick ups, daily deliveries and he cheers us on every step of the way. He does it all with out hesitation. He listens to Kurt and I gab, gripe.. argue. Even better - he usually takes my side :)

Aside from the work, he always knows how to lighten the mood. He knows how to make us laugh. Usually though, it's just me laughing - as he spends a lot of time pushing Kurt's buttons for fun.
He knows our clients, our schedules, and always keeps a running list of our current orders in mind. He's right in the thick of it with us.

Last summer, he and my mother-in-law Vivian (hi mom!) went on a long, well deserved vacation. Kurt and I were able to handle ourselves, but boy it was a lot more hectic. We had to work many late, late nights to play catch up. He is a huge part of our day to day business. As over-worked and tired as we think we are, it is nothing compared to how we would feel if he weren't here to help.
We love him dearly - and thought it was only fair that he get a huge blog shout out!

Meet my father in law - our hero - Mr. Robert Olson. The 3rd member of the K Sera Sera team!