Otion Archives - Page 11 of 11

I got up this morning and started making a delicious bowl of pasta salad. That alone would qualify for a herculean effort (cooking, before work!? Craziness!) but what makes this even better is that I was cooking at 3:11 a.m. in the morning. Ouch!

I suspect that anyone who is an entrepreneur knows this particular type of insomnia. The framework of my brain would just not turn off! The buzzing about my businesses was loud and incessant.

I was worried about our new start-up that’s 6 weeks behind and way over budget. I analyzed the Otion staff meeting; which, was a bit fuzzy given that I did a tequila tasting for them. I’m still wondering if I really invited them over to my house to play the board game “Settler’s of Catan” or if that was part of a somewhat ill-advised dream. Then, I re-wrote the speech for the Keynote Address for the Arizona Soaper’s Conference, all in my head, lying prone in bed.

That’s all pretty par for the course for thoughts and worries. I can usually sleep through that neural net of business woes and concerns. The really big thing occupying my brain is that my brother is moving in. Today! With his dog. And his fiance. Into our small house.

So, after much tossing and turning, I decided to be productive. Thus, the 3:11 a.m. pasta salad foray. Followed by washing dishes. And then reading 55 pages of the book “I was a Good Mother Until I had Kids” (yes, it’s as funny as it sounds).

Erik and the dog (Sam, in the photograph above, a purebred Boxer) and Cheriss arrive in about an hour. They are moving from California and will be staying with us until they find a home of their own. It will be a treat to have them with us, for probably about the first four days. After that, I suspect everyone (Erik included) will be highly motivated to find them a house of their own.

After four years of Otion running under my “leadership” and a parade of managers that came and went, I feel confident that we’ve hit upon a winning strategy: family. Erik is smart, motivated, talented and best of all, shares in the same gene pool that spawned me. Some of that work ethic and entrepreneurial bent had to have gotten into him through osmosis or indoctrination from my parents! To back up that mesh of learned and inherited traits, he has a business degree to boot! So, the reign of Erik will start at Otion in the next few weeks.

I’m excited to welcome him to the self-employed life. His goal is to get Otion Bellingham healthy enough to fund an expansion into Seattle and become an owner/operator of the Seattle store. So, if you’re in the area, please stop into Otion and say “Hi.” He’ll be the newbie so you experienced soapmakers, please be gentle!

Full confession: I have a difficult time running Otion, our retail location and still trying to keep Bramble Berry, our mail-order company, open and working smoothly. The two locations are literally 2 miles apart.

I spent most of this morning’s business meditation reading the Inc magazine (April 2007) issue from cover to cover about how to “Grab a Piece of the [Global] Action.” I was inspired! I should open up a Bramble Berry Europe! A Bramble Berry Dubai! A Bramble Berry Shanghai!

Then, reality set in. I can’t even manage a retail store 2 miles away with ease and grace. What makes me think I could manage an entire company a continent away!? Especially a company that works on razor edge thin margins and requires all my savvy (and a very smart and dedicated staff) to try and make a profit.

But then, ego, hubris and fear set in. I was aghast that I was missing out on all these global markets and worried about losing a potential first-mover advantage. Then again, if I opened another operation, I’d take my eye off the ball and the actual cash-producing companies I have here in the little hamlet of Bellingham, WA. And, as I’ve already admitted, I am fully challenged just trying to run the two operations on my own homefront.

Bramble Berry exports about 5% of it’s total Gross Sales overseas. That percent used to be higher when I had a full time International Shipping Manager so I know that there’s an international market out there and waiting for soapmaking to be introduced to them. The International Shipping position ended up losing money. International Orders, by virtue of their high loss, damage, chargeback rates and just plain extra hassle with paperwork, cost more to process. Add the extra wages from a shipping manager and the program didn’t make sense.

But, what if I opened up another company in Europe – say France – with one of my favorite customers there and offerred her a piece of the pie (provided she would put some skin in the game)?

It’s an interesting thought and one I’ll be thinking long and hard on in the next few months after. A global market …the world is flat a la Thomas Friedman … risk/reward… it’s good food for thought.

The Reign of Erik!

Going Global