So there I was as spring was about to sproing, registering my domain name, building my theme and planning the articles I would post on a regular basis. And then business slowed down for us. We were still staffed as we had been during December, the busiest month of the year last year, and suddenly we found ourselves under a too heavy payroll burden.
We had to cut back. Fortunately we had two people for whom our hours were extra so it was not quite as uncomfortable as it could have been, still, I was nervous that we would lose them completely. Time will tell.
What this meant for me and for Paul was that we were both suddenly back to doing the tasks that we had hired these other employees to do. As a result, my beautiful new blog site sat inactive while I baked and packaged and sold cookies and dough to customers who came into our shop. And Paul’s plans to travel far and wide selling our product to new stores was put on hold.
So how the heck are we supposed to grow this business when all of our time is spent on the daily tasks of the status quo? When you’re bootstrapping a business financially, the only capital you have to fund your growth is new sales and your own labor. The situation has made us seriously consider seeking investment funds, but we have mixed feelings about that. Some of the specialty business owners we admire most here in Vermont have built their businesses without going down that road, and they recommend we follow suit. And yet, do we have the endurance to do it? Again, time will tell.
I do still have the best of intentions to get back to the meat and potatoes of this blog. At the moment, doing so will be a little like a runner in the middle of a marathon attempting to answer her email. But hey, stranger things have happened.
