See a Need, Fill a Need!
~~~ At its best, building a small business is an ecstatic, intoxicating, and heady feeling of providing goods and services to underserved customers in underserved areas in underserved sectors, at its worst it can feel like being punished everywhere you turn for doing the right thing. Now that the Roxbury Home Store is making sales, I am struggling with bottlenecks in the supply chain forcing me to be extremely creative in order not to raise prices above what I consider things are worth - e.g. fair. I feel like I am bending over backwards so much I am turning into a praetzal ! (or a doormat ) - Case Studies : In February we sold an antique Japanese vase to a customer in California. The Vase cost me 5o cents at a garage sale, I sold it for 12.8o$ - I knew it could be worth several hundred dollars, perhaps more - but I considered a 2600% profit good enough for me - to rehome a beautiful item, while cultivating a reputation and customer base. 1o% of that was subtracted by Ebay for selling the item. 1o% donation was made I think to Habitat for Humanity in that case. and the remaining what - 1o dollars. well - derp di doo! Since day one of our 2o15 launch - We said we would not charge for shipping. (Which is a bit of a stretching of the truth, because you can say, "We do not charge for shipping" if you can incoporate the cost of shipping into the cost of the item) - Well, that would be wonderful if a 26oo% profit on 5o cents was enough to cover the cost of shipping and have a profit left over - NOPE. not in this world ! It cost me I think 12.5o to ship . so you could say The Home Store took in 3o cents of (net) profit - WOW! I am glad that my math was dun good enough that we made that much! Talk about flying by the seat of one's pants - wowie zowie ! ~~~ Now, we are selling herbs online - I grow mugwort in my personal garden, a hard to find , dern powerful herb that simply loves to grow where i live. and boy does it grow! even pruning it back to keep it from taking over provides a lot of material to work with - so what can I do with the fruits of my garden labors? offer this powerful herb throughout the world for lower prices than the competitors! YAHHHHSSSSS - not just to undercut their prices, but because as someone who buys herbs and other supplements on a monthly basis - I know how inflated prices of herbs can be, and often are! I am so grateful for our new customers, I am so grateful to be able to offer the fruits of my labors - plants from my own garden to people throughout the world who need and want them. I am so grateful for the support and Interest in this crazy dream of mine ! WOW. what a concept - to sell things for fair prices in an unfair world to awesome customers who are so trusting, and generous, and wonderful and supportive ! <3 you would think being a member of a coop would get you a deal on bulk herbs. WRONG. - no deals in the greenwashing of yupster land! even worse for small coops in rural places that are priced up the WAHZOO. "Yay! Take my Money!!!" ... being born in 1986, I look at this generous sized bundle of dried mugwort, and I think - what is this worth? what will the market hold? what is fair ? - well, I probably could sell this bundle for $4o, or rather grind it up into 4 oz packages and sell for $2o a piece (PLUS SHIPPING!) - and laugh all the way to the bank. and perhaps that is not bad. but I look at this neatly tied bundle in my hand, and I ask it : What do you think I should charge for you? to get the medicine from where it is plentiful to where it is needed and make it available to a larger clientale than yuppies and hipsters ? it says, 1o dollars and 8o cents. Okay - so it is online and BOOM. they are selling! yay Life goal achieved ! success. so now - how do I package and ship the bundle of mugwort in its current form ??? hrmmmm... I got it - cardboard poster tube inside a plastic envelope to catch any debris - BOOM! so there it is - what is the cardboard tube going to cost me - like $5 ? and shipping - le sigh. at least 6 or seven dollars - KODY! what are you doing to yourself??? you are horrible at this! - it is probably going to cost me 15$ -$2o to package and ship something that sold for $11 - NOOOOOOOO!!! but what do I do ? I can raise the price to $2o for a bundle ? but then I risk losing customers, and I think that that price is what we call INFLATED. $2o is a lot more than an easy $1o - why god why ? but if a customer purchases at least 3 bundles at a time - the roxbury home store wins! why! because the profit outpaces the cost of packaging and shipping - because it fits in the same container and doesn't weigh as much - Yay! so that is the goal - but what if people buy 1oo bundles of Mugwort - separately ??? THE HORROR. so friends, this is (one of 1o,ooo reasons) why business is not for the faint of heart. I don't believe in operating on the Competitive plane (See Wallace Wattles, "The Science of Getting Rich") - but if I am going to be punished for charging what I consider fair prices by everyone else on the supply chain - what do I do? it will work out somehow, but as of this hour i have no idea how - Even more, I am so embarassed to admit what I bring in for all my efforts. i feel Nekkid! Doubly so when most businesses are lifting their customers by the seat of their pants, turning them upside down and shaking them until every last dime falls out of them. Same struggle with Atlas Landscaping and Handyman Service (although prices are better for that so far and always works out - again flying by the seat of my pants - everything compensates everything else on that Front - one job pays little, another pays over - so it averages and is mutually beneficial) --- Don't do to me what you did to America ! Yours, ~Kody J. Bosch The Roxbury Home Store Oroville, Washington STate, USoNiA |
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November 2022
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