Well, I wish that I could say that I was over-the-moon excited about receiving my much anticipated 1st shipment of product, but to be honest, today was just an absolute blur. As much as I tried to prepare and believe that I was ready for it to arrive – I wasn’t. Most days I feel like I’ve come a long way on this journey but nothing could have prepared me for the surreal experience of seeing 2000 unassembled kits on pallets in the middle of my husband’s warehouse driveway.

As I stood there staring at pallets of unsold product, the only thing that stopped my heart from leaping out of my chest was my ‘too tight’ bra. I truly do belive in my product and feel that I have a clear vision for the direction I’d like the business to go. However, starting/running a business can be exciting and overwhelming all at once. Each task that you check off of your never-ending list of action items is a baby step in the process – and you truly do need to crawl before you walk. So here I am, almost two years to the day of when the concept hit me and I started the ball rolling with product design, sourcing, and making a million decisions that have all led to this final product. Up until now, I was feeling pretty good about myself. Why shouldn’t I? I have crossed my t’s and dotted my i’s – I’ve ‘been there, done that’ and I’m no longer a newbie in this game – right?? WRONG!!!!

In a nutshell, there are some things wrong with the shipment – things that coulda, shoulda, woulda been avoided if I had known that I needed to constantly remind the factories about certain things. I should never have left anything up in the air thinking, “Nahhhh, I’m not going to bother them about that again. They know what they’re doing’. NEVER take anything for granted, and even if it’s something basic, do not assume that someone else will just take care of it.

Overall, nothing was horribly wrong. Just things that are time consuming and aggravating, and time is money, and…why didn’t I have the overseas factory create ‘retail ready’ packaging??!! Hmmm? Oh…because I wanted the box to look like a mini studio with the peaked top and awning. Not sure if it was worth the trouble at this point…in fact, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t (filing this under ‘lessons learned the first time around). The contents of each kit were supposed to be poly-bagged together. Guess what? That didn’t happen. Each paint color was separated by color, batched in 20 unmarked boxes of 100 tubes.

So…armed with a box cutter, Sharpie and packing tape, I went through each box in the shipment, marking the contents on 3 sides of each box, separate each item and stack them accordingly in the warehouse. I was actually using a hand truck…the guys were really getting a kick out of watching me schlepping back and forth with boxes stacked on the dolly so high that I couldn’t see over them. I was definately feelin’ the girl power ;0)

Each kit will need to be assembled (even the stencils did not arrive collated). They forgot the velcro closure for the box, so I will need to have that sent…blah, blah, blah…I won’t bore you with the details, but to say that I’m overwhelmed and feel like I am right back at the starting line again, would be an understatement. Today my confidence went right out the window and it was replaced by fear and doubt. I hate days like this!!

But the good news is that today is just about over. The kids are in bed, my feet are throbbing, my eyes are closing…and tomorrow is a new day. I will spend a few more hours at the warehouse getting things organized, and putting together some kits to ship to press contacts and some potential buyers. Now the fun begins I suppose. I will be studying Leslie’s Blog (Grill Charms) because she just hit the ground running with her product and racked up so many sales in a very short period of time. Go Leslie!

I will be back soon to update you all on my progress and I promise to have more positive things to say about all of this ;0)