Where philosophy meets reality

I have to stop thinking evil thoughts about the label man. He has a pretty good excuse, having to go interstate for medical treatment.

It has been part of my personal philosophy for years to support small businesses and especially, living in small towns, it is important to support local businesses. This was one of the reasons I was so excited when I discovered WAHMs. I am trying to build this into my business philosophy as well and deal with WAHMs or small businesses as suppliers, and trying to find ones in my state.

In keeping with this I found a label company that has a local agent and contacted him. Well that was over two weeks ago, the promised samples haven't arrived and my emails have not been answered. My little one has been very hit and miss with her naps so today was the first chance I got to phone him. It turns out that he has been away sick, and since he is chief cook and bottle washer my things just didn't get done.

Another small company I am trying to deal with has just requested my address and is going to send me things snail mail. This is because their website didn't have all the information I was after so I contacted them with questions using the contact us button. I get the impression that they are older or at least not as computer literate, so they are probably going to send me a brochure. And it is fair enough because most of their custom is not web-based, but for me it is a pain because I live in the middle of nowhere and mail is slow.

At this point the temptation to go somewhere else is starting, I know you can get these things on ebay! But this is where philosophy meets reality, and as a wannabe WAHM I need to give them some leeway. I am sure that at some point in the future I am going to mess up an order, something will be forgotten, or my way of doing business will be inconvenient for a customer. So I hope that they will give me the same leeway.

The last couple of days have taught me two things -

1. Try to set up good systems so that things are so automatic they have less chance of going wrong, and if they do go wrong you can hopefully catch them and deal with them.
2. Make your product good enough that people will be forgiving. I can't rely on everyone to share my philosophical ramblings.

The business has also given me a giggle today. I made up a toile of my new sleepsack pattern out of an old sheet and took it along to playgroup today to check that my sizing was correct on some smaller babies. Several people started asking about whether I sell polar fleece sacks and looking at the sample. One lady had come in halfway and only heard half the conversation. She tried it against her baby and was obviously a bit confused when she asked "So is this the warmest one you make?" "Um, no. That's an old sheet, it's just to check the pattern." She was very relieved to hear about the polar fleece!

I also got two completely independent compliments from playgroup ladies about my nappies, which they had been using for a while. It was so nice, it's those little things that keep you going.