RAKS...

ok i will pick the winner of the RAK later today but before i do, i want people to understand that this business is NOT EASY.

i have literally over 100 requests a week for donations for a crop, an event, etc. and honestly, as much as we would love to be able to fill all those requests, we cannot. that is the reality. we can't afford to.

now some might say "well how can you not, MR is so successful?" well i will let you in on a secret, this is the REALITY of this business as a small fish.

let's start with a hypothetical situation. let's say Maya Road had an excellent trade show and we sold a $100,000 worth of stuff at a show (now before you read anything into that this is a hypothetical and what maya road makes in a show is something that i am in reality not going to share with you).

so $100,000 - wow a great number! sounds like a lot of money right? well let's see what is left after:

1. $50,000 - cost of the actual product (what it cost us to have the items made)
2. $10,000 - cost of a trade show (that includes like a booth, chairs, drayage, shipping, airline tix, hotels, food, minivan)
3. $5,000 - cost of catalogs and mailings out for the trade show (orer forms, catalog requests, giveaways, promotional materials)
4. $20,000 - other costs (cost for DT payments, 1-800 phone line, 1-800 fax line, internet, computers, website, electricity, warehousing, shipping, boxes, bubble wrap)

ok so what does that leave?

$17,000 - wow a whole $17,000 and guess where this goes? to the next set of products. so here is the conundrum, $17,000 is what is left after all of that but the next set of products but if you are trying to hit a $100,000 show, you need to spend at LEAST $50,000 to make the products (probably more b/c not all of it will sell and you will have stuff sitting in inventory).

so where then does that leave us? close to zero. this is the reality of a small business. we go through it. others like us go through it (unless they have investors or venture capitalists go through it). this reality is magnified as you grow b/c then you release more stuff and you need to have the turn in inventory to make enough money to support the next show.

and we are not the only ones who go through this - your LSS has to worry about this too on a different scale.

i am writing this b/c i want people to understand. there are reasons we cannot support all the requests that come to us for donations. in the end, MR is a business and it has to make sound financial sense for us to. if i donated to everyone who requested something, well then we might as well pack up shop and go home.

i think about all the people that have come up to me and said "wow you had a good show" and i want them to see this and realize that even with good numbers - you need to THINK about all the costs behind it.

i hope this will help people understand a bit more about the nature of this business.

a RAK winner later today!