Can You Juggle?

Suppose you are a construction worker and one day when you show up on the job-site the foreman instructs you that you have to dig a ditch. Then he informs you that you also have to pour the concrete and screed it yourself, oh, and then there is the mail to pickup and the invoices to be paid and the website needs updating and here is a phone to handle customer service and don't forget to sign for the load of materials arriving later and we could really use some new business cards. After all that he puts his hat on your head and tells you that you now own the company, then he jumps in his pickup and leaves you bewildered in the settling dust. About this time you may be wishing you had learned how to juggle.                                   Although I am not in construction, this anecdote is not dissimilar as to how I got my start in business. In 2009 I was a mild-mannered potter and stay-at-home dad who walked into a local banking branch to start a business. An hour later I had a DBA and a business checking account opened with a couple hundred dollars (the minimum necessary to open any checking account), and a book of starter checks. As I walked out of the bank I had no idea that my succeeding life would be more closely associated with the Cirque du Soleil than with pottery, but I jumped right in regardless. I went home and started planning my arts and crafts show tour that would traverse central and western New York State. I bought a pop-up tent, some folding tables, a cash box and made some cheap business cards, then set to building a clumsy and difficult-to-transport display for my art. After a week of working out the display booth I dropped a few hundred dollars on entry fees for a couple of shows and also realized I would need some way to process credit cards, so I called my bank and they referred me to an overpriced and difficult to use third party credit processing company. But, what did I know? I signed the paperwork and handed over a hefty chunk of startup change that I certainly could have used in other places. I worked hard on my booth presence and brand, and then realized I had better make some stuff to sell! The night before my first show I stayed up working all night in the August heat and humidity trying to finish enough pieces to fill my shelves. The show was quaint and pretty and the weather was great and for about three weeks of work I cleared $120. But I was not discouraged and I forged ahead for almost a whole year more refining my process, products and brand.     The craft show circuit never paid off for me but it was a great place to cut my teeth on business since I had no business experience or training whatsoever. It allowed me on a very condensed scale to work on branding, marketing, sales, product design, customer service, accounting, and production. Like a kid with a Klutz starter kit, I was learning to juggle. Now that I had these balls in the air it was time to add some more. As the craft show idea wained I began web-marketing more which meant I needed a better web presence. I had to invest in photography equipment, a macbook and some design software so I could have decent images of my work and better print material. Online sales was a much better solution than craft shows. I was selling more online, so I needed to add some more to my bag of tricks. I needed to learn about inventory, packing and shipping, carriers, refunds and returns, damages and where to put a roll of bubble wrap as big as a refrigerator. My online sales increased. I continued to refine my products and look for more niche markets. About a year after I first put products online by way of Etsy, I was found by some retailers and I now needed to figure out how to wholesale my products, create invoices, do billing and not get pulverized by corporate heavyweights. I was now juggling a lot of tasks, and the management side of the business was starting to overtake my ability to keep up with producing enough products to sell. I had to add some more juggling balls to the already whirling cyclone that was my life. So amidst great trepidation I added an employee, started a payroll, and decided to also learn web-design so I could make and manage my own website. And that is where you find me today. I know every job and vocation has its fair share of juggling tasks, but not all of us actually get to juggle an entire business. It might not look like much to an outsider, but I often feel like Nik Wallenda on roller blades juggling dynamite, flaming torches, a honey badger, swords and a shark. You really cannot afford to drop even one of them, and there is also no safety net. But, if you can manage the tightrope act it is really a thrill and may even inspire others to do the same.