Changes behind the scenes

I know many or most of you don’t have any interest in what happens behind the scenes, but in case you do, I am going to try to answer a few questions here.

I emailed frequently in March about the close out of body products.  To keep the story short, my body products provider changed their policy with no notice, to only selling their products in 55 gallon drums.  This would require me to have a forklift and loading dock, neither of which feel feasible for my business.

At the same time, I lost my long time employee who handled all the shipping and order packing when she decided to move to Texas from here in Oregon.

I have been slowly moving myself to Portland from Southern Oregon after my youngest child graduated from high school, but all these changes behind the scenes presented an opportunity to move the whole business to Portland where I want to live, near my adult kids.

A month ago, I got every single thing moved north and the makeshift shipping space set up and kept the shipments moving!  I planned carefully and filled all orders on a Thursday morning in Ashland, then packed up the space and loaded and drove a 20 ft U-haul 5 hours.  And then and unloaded and unpacked and filled orders on Monday.  I did it!  

I do have some help to pack orders, and I'm getting it done, but the writing is on the wall, I need either more help and a bigger space, or to outsource shipping.

I have been wanting to move the order fulfilment process to a fulfillment center (another small business takes responsibility for shipping) but the one I wanted to work with, near my home, had a wait list.  I am now at the top of the list and am moving my products there by the first of June.

Moving the responsibility of order filling to another business has been a topic of debate, (mostly in my own head) because there will inevitably be some impact on my customers. In the course of a week, I have dozen of order notes, incorrect address change requests, corrections of all kinds, that I can usually catch.  My ability to control what happens with physical orders will change.  I have no idea how much this will impact my customer's experience.  I also have heard stories of these arrangements being disappointing and businesses returning to self fulfilling.  I am going to try this and hope for the best.  If it doesn't work, I'll lease a bigger space, hire more employees and head that direction.  But I really hope it works!  

To make this a little simpler, I have changed the site to just carry my current frequent sellers, because space for my products is limited and getting even just a month of product together to move to the fulfillment center is a daunting job.  We are filling and packing up a few thousand bottles, based on the sales of the last few months. 

So fingers crossed!  Our oil selection will likely expand in the upcoming month, I have some glorious oils here waiting! 

 I'm just here doing my best, and learning a lot.  Thanks for reading if you are still here with me after this short novel. 💕