Weekly Report

3/1/20 1:39pm

Holy catz! Just looked and saw my last “weekly note” was on 2/9/20! So much for my “weekly note” I think it’s “whenever I get to it note”... this one’s going to be a little long as I’ve got a lot to tell you this week ;)

Sitting aboard our sailboat now as the cold wind is gusting to 27.8 knots (32 mph) I’m sitting in the cockpit in a beanbag chair tucked behind the dodger trying to stay warm in a bit of sun. As we rock back and forth I appreciate the calmness of the harbor as it is empty of the weekenders running their boats up and down the busy channel. Today, the wind is the only thing ruffling the water....

It’s been quite a crazy few weeks. We went off the grid to our solar powered house in Baja for a few days as we do this time of year being that it is lemonade off season. When we returned everything seemed to go into high gear! 

First, we just finished a run at the end of January as we were out of  Ginger and our Original Lemonade. Then, we had such a run on orders during January and February I didn’t realize we were running almost empty of Lavender and Strawberry! So, we had to set up another run which happened Friday. These are huge expenses for our company as we run 63k bottles on a normal run and have to pay for everything way before it sells. It’s one of the things I never considered when I was starting the lemonade company over 8 years ago. I am still amazed that we are able to make it work each time. But, let me tell you it has not been for the faint of heart. I won’t even tell you the types of creative ways I have funded these runs over the years. But, we’ve always made it - (knock on wood) 

We have some interesting new places we have been working on for you to find our lemonades - and I’m pretty excited and amazed at how we weave our way through the process to keep moving forward. You will see these new spots pop up on our social media accounts.

This week, thanks to one of our fans, we were able to find out that our Lavender Lemonade had been inadvertently discontinued by one of our major retailers. I have to admit it gave me a bit of a scare realizing that it literally is that simple, to be wiped off the map of the store with one click of a button. I worry about that as I make 63k bottles and wonder what I would do if our major retailers and distributors just decided to stop. (I hate that thought) But, fortunately, this time, it was just an accident, and fixed though I feel that I need to do damage control calling all of the stores this week to let them know what happened so they can get us back on the shelves...

After that, at 4 am Friday morning the bottling started at the plant and the caps for the bottles had still not arrived! Fortunately, we had 30k in stock and my bottler had 30k I could do an emergency buy from. Long story short, after I literally cancelled the order that was still on route out of frustration, a call came from the driver of the truck, caps aboard he unfurled his treacherous story of the endless troubles he had had since leaving Canada over 3 weeks ago where are caps are manufactured. His team consisted of his wife, and himself and a small dog aboard, whom I heard barking in the truck. They had run into a snowstorm in Nebraska where the roads were completely shut down, his truck broke down somewhere between there and California and he just had a heck of a time. I actually wasn’t supposed to get the call, but he had gotten my number by mistake. But, I have to say, I am so glad I did. I realized that sometimes stuff happens and challenges take time to overcome, I knew that I would need those caps for another run soon and this team had to be paid. I called the supplier right away and made sure to tell them we would purchase the entire order of caps and pay for the freight costs. I wanted to make sure these people were paid even though they missed the deadline. We were still okay, we had enough caps to get through the run. Turns out the caps arrived half way through the bottling and all turned out well. 

It makes me stop and think that all of us are just doing our best out there. There are unforeseen delays and problems that can detour our progress making us miss important deadlines even with the best laid plans. Compassion, patience and understanding are the order of the day. 

I’ve learned a lot being at the helm of LOL - I think I still have a lot more to learn... 

We look forward to continuing to bring you the most delicious, organic lemonades for you to sip and share...

Lori Volk

Chief Believer/Founder

Lori’s Original Lemonade