how far we have come...

first i wanted to share this LO made by heather who had won one of my RAKs in late august- what an adorable LO of her pup! (notice the rubons and ribbon and the sheer (used as a template).

as we sit at the cusp of another tradeshow, i am thinking back to 3 years ago when this who crazy adventure called maya road started. and it takes my breath away. i am both humbled and amazed at how far we have come. when we first started, we had like 24 sets of fibers and about 15 embellishments at our first trade show. we had a pegboard that my friend bryan and my DH had built over 2 weekends at a table. when deb started talking about these big goals for 5 years down the road, i didn't think we could do it but we have in 3 years.

i can remember that first show distinctly (CHA - dallas) b/c i remember a LARGE company coming by the new vendor tables, taking a look at our stuff (and my 6 layouts - LOL) and in passing said to the lady with her "fibers are so OUT OF STYLE". . i don't think she meant for us to hear that but we did and well it didn't matter. look at us now - EVERYONE starts from small beginnings.

things have changed but in reality there is a lot that is still the same. deb and i still head the show. we have 100% control of our company. jessica is so kind to help us out with our customer service starting this year. some ppl think we have like 20 people here working for us but we don't.

and well did we mention that deb is a director at a firm in silicon valley during the day? i don't know how many of you know that but that is the REALITY. i only quit my job 1.75 years ago to do this full time. our hubbies accompany us to every show - how many men do you know that know what to do with a ribbon slide? LOL!

but i was thinking about how our company is and who we are and i think we can be the ones that create a paradigm shift. we say no to stuff - even big "opportunities". we RAK b/c we want to. we chat on messages boards b/c we like the ppl there. and frankly i really enjoy scrapbooking. and there are a lot of business things we do differently (which i can't spill or risk getting shot) but it has a lot to do with both of us being engineers - we are careful in a lot of things, cash flow, deals, etc. .

heck, we even had a supplier scream in joy b/c we have some of our order forms in excel so you enter what you want and it calculates for you the total.

but again, i am humbled and overwhelmed by the support we have been given by all of you. without you, we would be nothing. yes, we have our struggles. yes, we are out of stock of things sometimes but that is all part of growing - in the past, we might have gotten 1 phone call every 2 days about our stuff (not any more) - in the past, we might have produced something and ordered 1000s of them and it lasted us a year (not any more) and we are learning to grow and change with that. it is not easy but you know what, we enjoy it - deb, jess and i. i think even secretly our DH's enjoy it too!

so with that it is onward and upward. - come see us at booth 221. meet the maya road family.