staring at the face of success...

... so while at the w/h today, i looked at the 40 foot container staring me in the face. yeah a 40 foot container- FULL of maya road stuff. to help you all visualize what size that is - think about those big semi trucks you see on the road. the bigger ones - that is about the size of the container full of our stuff. as i saw them unload the container, i felt both excited and overwhelmed at the same time.

why?

b/c we have grown so much (as this was the 4th or 5th container we have unloaded this month) but at the same time every single box of stuff in there represents the challenge of any manufacturer - INVENTORY. and inventory = money. as a manufacturer/wholesaler any box of stuff you have in the warehouse is a box of your money sitting there. so to effectively manage your cash flow and growth, you have to move stuff in and move it out ASAP. if you have "dead" inventory that sits there - it is like having a bag of money just sitting there - your money and you can't move it.

if you can't move it that is less cash that you have to invest to develop new stuff. unless you get someone to pump cash into your business. or you take out a loan. or you don't develop new stuff. your choice.

that is why we are very careful about how we conduct business (after all you don't have 3 engineers (1 with a MBA from stanford) and a lawyer as partners for nothing)... which brings me back to looking at the 40 foot container. wow. i said a little prayer of thanks right then for the growth we have been given.

i am humbled by what we as a company have been blessed with. i am thankful that we can share with others with RAKs and things. nothing means more to me than to get a thank you note for someone who tells us they respect us for being nice people. you know what? nice people don't finish last. we are living proof of that...

the one thing that is hard about owning your own SBing company is that there is NO TIME TO SCRAP. but i did sneak some time away this past THANKSGIVING weekend to create this coffee break book that i have been looking at over a year. yes, i know these puppies are hard to find so don't worry i didn't take them from inventory - this was a sample i had. i created this noah book out of some pictures that my friend melissa took. sigh, she is so awesome. i wish i had the "eye" for photos like her...