There are quite a few offices in your city which are not filled to capacity. You can utilize these spaces if you are looking to get your team into offices where they can work together. You can also use these spaces to hold meetings in. Of course, it is important to pay attention to what the cost will be to use these spaces so that you are getting what you need at a price you can afford. By having these kinds of spaces at your disposal, it is possible for you to be able to be more productive and feel more like a team than ever before.

Office Space

One of the ultimate things you can do for your business team is to provide office space in which you can work. You can look through websites like Loosecubes.com to find the office spaces that you are looking for in your city. These spaces can provide you with access to internet and service through VoIP service providers. This way you will not have to set up any services under the company name. You will only be responsible for paying the cost of the office rent to get access to everything your team will need.

Meeting Space

Even if you cannot afford to get an actual office space for your team, it is possible to at least get a place in which you can all get together as a team for business meetings. You can look in the same places which offer offices for rent to find meeting spaces which are cheaper than going to a hotel to utilize their meeting spaces. No matter what the expense, it beats having meetings in the coffee shop where you feel awkward brining in a whiteboard to strategize what is going on in your business.

The Cost

One of the things you are likely to wonder about in all of this is how much it will cost to get the space that you are looking for. It will all depend on the city that you live in, the amenities you will need such as a VoIP phone service or a complex printing system in the space you are renting and the amount of time that you are renting for. The longer that you rent, the less you may have to pay per month. All in all, it is possible for you to cut the cost of having a professional place from which to do business in half.

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It is because of all of these reasons that document management software was created in the first place. Of course, just knowing that the software exists does not help you to understand which one is the best for your growing company. There are a few different brands out there all telling you that they will meet all of your document management needs. If you are willing to invest just a little bit of time on research, it is possible to find the exact software that you have been looking for and you can get on with your life.

Look into Efficiency
One of the main reasons why you are likely investing your time and money into document software is because you are looking to save some time out of your day. The only way you will be able to accomplish this is if the software you install has the ability to provide a good workflow. Workflow is the ability to find and access information in a streamlined manner. It includes going through the security phases in order to gain access to the documents as well as the procedures for finding the document.

Look into Hosting
The right software will allow you to host your information where you want it to be hosted. You will be able to choose between hosting the information locally on your own system, in a managed system or on your system but allowing access from anywhere. Many prefer to allow another company to host the information for them because of the added layers of security. Others believe that allowing anyone else to have possession of secured documents is a security risk. If you do decide to host your documents, it is highly important that you encrypt your files properly.

Look into Ease of Use
The software will not be very efficient if you cannot figure out how to use it. Test out the software yourself by uploading a few documents to it. If you have any employees, ask them to test out the software. If you do not have an employee, ask your spouse or a friend to test it out. If someone else finds it easy to use without any instructions, you may want to choose the software. It is important that you are not tempted to install the cheapest one no matter how low your budget is. Lower grade software can be riddled with problems or it simply will not meet your needs. Tally your list of demands first and choose based on price last.

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The site is one of the experiments I like to refer to as the “inverted news paper” - citizen journalism at its most raw. Every day, a wealth of local information is created — officials inspect restaurants, journalists cover fires and Web users post photographs — but who has time to sort through all of that? EveryBlock aims to collect all of the news and civic goings-on that have happened recently in your city, and make it simple for you to keep track of news in particular areas. They’re a geographic filter — a “news feed” for your neighborhood, or, yes, even your block.

If your business is local and serving the public, check out how you are being discussed in your communuty.

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What items are required to be compliant?

All products that are marketed or could be perceived as being marketed to children under 12 years old.  This is NOT limited to toys.  It includes many items including clothing, jewelry, shoes, books, dinnerware, hair accessories, sunglasses, furniture, art materials, and musical instruments to name a few.

What does the testing require?

Lead content must be below 600ppm as of February 10, 2009 … then lowered to 300ppm on August 14, 2009… under 100ppm by August 14, 2011

Lead paint must pass a General Conformity Certification as having less than 600ppm for goods manufactured after November 12, 2008. Third party testing is required if the product is manufactured after December 21, 2008. These amounts will be lowered to 90ppm on August 14, 2009 and 3^rd party testing will be mandated

Phthalates in children’s toys and “childcare articles” are banned. Whether this includes children’s apparel items such as footed pajamas for a child under 3 years old is unclear at this point.  (Phthalates are used to make vinyl soft and flexible and can possibly be found in footwear or in this case, the rubber coatings on the non-skid bottoms of children’s footed pajamas.)

(More requirements here http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html )

What if I am not compliant?

As of February 10, 2009 non-compliant goods will be treated as Hazardous Materials and must be destroyed.  The civil penalty caps have been increased from $5,000 to $100,000 for each violation.

Why refer to February 10th as “National Bankruptcy Day”?

For starters, the legislation applies to EXISTING inventories.  Manufacturers commonly produce their goods 6-12 months in advance.  Any inventories that are currently in production or being warehoused now must be compliant.  If they are not compliant, they will be treated as “hazardous materials” and must be destroyed according to the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA).  For manufacturers (and retailers) of these goods, this could be devastating to companies already suffering from the current economic crisis.

Secondly, the 3^rd party testing is cost prohibitive for small manufacturers.  As the law is written, the finished product will need to be tested with separate tests done for each product variable.  For example, my company www.Glamajama.com manufactures embellished baby onesies, outfits, and t-shirts for toddlers.  Under the CPSIA testing requirements, I will need to test each design and clothing style that I offer.  With 20 designs each season on 40 different style combinations, that would equal 800 separate tests that need to be done at around $300-500 a test.  It would be an understatement to say that the cost of testing would be “cost prohibitive”.

Isn’t getting lead out of children’s products a good thing?

ABSOLUTELY!  I don’t believe any manufacturer in the children’s industry would want lead in their products.  After all, many manufacturers (myself included) started a children’s based business after having children themselves.  Why would we want to endanger our own children-much less someone else’s?  We can all agree that the CPSIA has many benefits for ensuring the safety of our children, however, there are flaws regarding how it is being written and implemented.  For manufacturers, the problem isn’t with producing a lead-free product; the problem is proving that you have a lead-free product.  .  These issues must be addressed before they inadvertently bankrupt small businesses in the children’s industry.

Where can I get more information?

The best advice I can give is to educate yourself regarding the new law.  There are many manufacturers out there that don’t even realize they are being affected.  Also, what about the retailers that carry these products?  Or the eBayers and Etsy artists? The publicists who represent the designers to the media?  The sales professionals who make their living selling these goods to retailers?  This legislation has many far reaching negative effects, many of which are being underestimated.  I encourage you to visit these following sites for more information as well.

http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/cpsia.html  Official site of the CPSIA

www.thesmartmama.com , Site by Jennifer Taggart, a Mom, Attorney, and Consultant specializing in environmental safety standards for children

http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/cpsia-requirements/ Fashion Incubator

Please comment below or email me at heather@glamajama.com …I’d be happy to try to answer any questions you might have.  Also, you can follow me on twitter (www.twitter.com/glamajama )

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Step 1: Make a detailed list documenting your production, processing, or shipping procedures

Step 2: Brainstorm ideas to shorten or simplify each one of those steps - without comprising quality or control of your final product

Step 3: Test your new procedures to ensure that they will indeed save time without causing any other unforeseen repercussions

Step 4: If the new procedure improves your operational efficiency, congratulations! If not, keep brainstorming.

Here are a couple examples of time-saving strategies to get you started:

• Instead of shipping small items in boxes, use padded envelopes (save time by not having to set up the box and they’re cheaper to ship)
• Re-organize your inventory so that the top-sellers are on the first rack for easy access (don’t just keep everything sorted alphabetically for the sake of neatness-instead focus on efficiency)
• Don’t drive to the Post Office to ship packages, schedule a free pick-up
• Set up instant messaging for employees to improve communication times (using the group feature will also allow group collaboration within seconds)
• Eliminate “double-entry”, instead focus on creating systems that are fully integrated (re-entering data is a waste of time and increases the risk of errors)
• Save time on accounting by using online banking to schedule automatic bill pays and request e-bills (some banks will even let you deposit checks via email/fax)
• Limit interruptions, instead of always starting/stopping tasks because of calls, random emails, or an occasional door-to-door salesman, set a routine to keep you focused (for example, only check emails in the morning, return phone calls in the afternoon, and require all visitors to be scheduled)

I’d love to hear your ideas…what operational changes have you made to save time and money?  Please comment below or email me heather@glamajama.com .  Also follow me at www.twitter.com/glamajama  -thanks!

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Assigning UPC codes

A UPC, or Universal Product Code, is a generic term that refers to your 12 digit Global Trade Item Number (GTIN).  This number will allow your products or services to be uniquely identified when they are being sold, shipped, received, and invoiced in the marketplace. Your GTIN number can contain 14 digits, 13 digits, 12 digits, or 8 digits.  For the sake of simplicity, let’s focus on the 12 digit GTIN that is commonly referred to as the UPC code. 

Determining the UPC code for your products or services can be tricky and there are a couple of ways you can go about this.  The first is to become a member of GS1.  GS1 (formerly the Uniform Code council) will collect information regarding you and your company and then assign a GS1 Company Prefix to be used as a unique qualifier for your company. 

 Company Prefix + Item Reference Number + Check Digit = UPC number

The item reference number will be assigned by you to identify each of your products.  To assign an item reference number, first subtract the number of digits in your company prefix from 11 to determine how many you will need for your item reference number.  For example, if your company prefix number is 82234600 (8 digits) then 11-8= 3 digits needed for the item reference number.  The item reference number can then start at 000 and increase sequentially to 999.  The check digit is created by calculating other numbers in the string and helps ensure that the data is being used correctly.  To calculate, follow these steps:

• Step 1)   To calculate the check digit, write the 11 digits used for your UPC.  In our example this would be 82234600000 for our first item.
• Step 2)   Then add the numbers in Positions One, Three, Five, Seven, Nine, and Eleven. So 8+2+4+0+0+0 = 14
• Step 3)    Now multiple that number by 3.  14/3 = 42
• Step 4)  Then add the numbers in positions Two, Four, Six, Eight, and Ten.  So 2+3+6+0+0 = 11
• Step 5)   Now add the result of Step 3 and Step 4.  42 + 11 = 53
• Step 6)  The Check Digit is the smallest number needed to round the result of Step Five up to a multiple of 10. In this example, the Check Digit would be 7.

Got it?  This is where the “tricky” part comes in!  Don’t stress too much though, as there are calculators available on the GS1 website that can help you with these calculations and verify your numbering strategies.  You can even use their free “Data Driver” service to create the UPC’s.  After providing information regarding your product the software will create an appropriate UPC for you.  Once you have the number for your product, they can then be “tested” for readability and compliance.  This service is a lifesaver!   Becoming a member of the GS1 is the only way to have an official GTIN (UPC) prefix assigned to your company.  The cost of membership depends on your company size and the amount of UPC numbers you will need.  Expect to spend at least $1,500 to get started and yearly renewal will be about $500.  (Contact GS1 for an exact quote).    

Sharing the UPCs with your Retailer

Once you have assigned UPCs to your product offerings you are now ready to inform your retailer of the codes.  In your “New Vendor” packet you will have received an “Item Set-up Form” which will ask you various questions regarding your products including what their UPC codes are.  Once you complete and return the form to them they will perform a search to confirm the UPCs are valid.  This is the same type of search that you can perform on the GS1 website.  Avoid any potential problems during set-up by performing the search yourself while you are completing the retailer form. Once the UPC numbers have been loaded into the retailers system, your item will be tracked for sales performance, stock status, and to monitor any damages/returns. 

Common Questions….

What if the price seems too high or you only need a handful of UPCs?

There are UPC re-sellers available that will let you “buy a barcode” for $20 to $100 each.  These companies have become members of GS1 and then paid for thousands of UPC numbers that they are now selling to you for a fee.  While there are some scams out there, many of these are indeed legit and can save you quite abit of money if you need only a handful of UPC numbers.  However, please note that retailers such as Wal-Mart and Kroger’s require proof of a GS1 certificate with your company’s name on it.  A UPC re-seller will not be able to issue you this type of certificate as the UPC prefix will belong to the reseller only. 

Do UPC numbers expire?

No, once they are assigned there are permanently linked to a product.

Are UPC numbers valid only in the states?

No, UPC codes are recognized throughout the world and are the standard when transferring product information via barcodes.  (Except for books and magazines)

Can a product have different UPC codes associated with it?

Yes, if the product is packaged differently.  For example 1 widget will need a UPC code, as will a dozen widgets, and a case of widgets.  The “widget” would then have 3 different UPCs depending on how it was packaged. 

Stay Tuned for Part III, EDI

Questions? Comments?  Let me know!  Leave a comment below or email me at heather@glamajama.com

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I’ve been fortunate enough to receive an order from Target.com recently.  (click here to see the line)  As I’ve been muddling through all their compliance and routing guides, I couldn’t help but think my fellow Startup Nation readers might get a kick out of hearing how it all comes together.  This will be my first post in a series, so please let me know if you have questions as we move along and I’ll be happy to answer them the best I can!

First things First…

It has been my experience that the majority of these “big boy” retailers shop the tradeshows in New York and Los Angeles.  If you’re exhibiting at a tradeshow in either of these locations, be on the lookout!  Also, don’t be surprised if their name tag isn’t strategically placed so that the store name can’t be easily read.  They’ve learned to keep a low profile to avoid being bombarded with sales sheets and elevator pitches.  If you’re able to get their attention they will ask (at least) three questions:

1. Are you EDI compliant?
2. What is your liability insurance coverage amount?
3. What’s your turnaround time?

 (Other popular questions are, “How much will you discount us?”, “Do you drop-ship?”, and “Who are you currently selling to?”.  These usually come a little later though.) 

Are you EDI compliant?

If you are not currently EDI compliant, don’t panic.  Before I was set-up on EDI I usually just said something like, “yes, we are in the process of setting that up right now.”  You just don’t have to mention that that “process” started 2 seconds ago.  They aren’t going to ask you for a membership card, ID number, or anything like that -don’t worry.  In case you’re not familiar with EDI, let me explain.

EDI:   Short for “electronic data interchange”.  By using a product’s UPC number (Universal Product Code) manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers can communicate between themselves information such as submission of production orders, purchase orders, ship notices, and inventory statuses to name a few.  EDI is a standardized database which ensures that everyone is using the same system protocols.   

Becoming “EDI” compliant can happen several ways and I will explain all of your options in the next post including how to come up with your UPC’s numbers in the first place.  They can be a little tricky.

What is your liability insurance coverage amount?

At this point you should have general liability insurance coverage already.  If you don’t, call your Insurance provider ASAP.  What you might not have is an insurance policy with general liability coverage for $3-5 million.  Most small business owners just start out with $1 million in coverage, so be sure to check your policy.  If you need to increase it, give your insurance agent a call and they should be able to raise the liability limit without it increasing your costs terribly.  If the costs do seem dramatically higher, it might be a good time to shop around for a new business policy.  There are several insurance companies out there that offer “umbrella” business policies that can cover everything from slip and falls, lost tradeshow samples, and a shipwrecked freightliner all in one easy to read policy.  Just ask your agent.  If you don’t have the correct coverage amount, let the buyer know and explain that you will call right away to increase your coverage.  They are usually fine with this as long as you follow through.  You will be asked to send proof of your coverage amount during the vendor set-up process.

What’s your turnaround time? 

Buyers attend tradeshows with a mission.  For example, they may have shelves that need to be filled ASAP, need products for next season, or they want products that can tie in with the latest trend. They need to know turnaround time to see if you will be able to fill their needs.  They might like your product, but if they have empty shelves and you need 6 months to produce- it’s not going to work.  Be honest about your capabilities.  While it would be unfortunate to miss out on a big order because of a tight deadline, it would be far worse to lie about your production timeline and miss your delivery window.  They will probably cancel the order and you will be left with the excess inventory.  The trust is gone and don’t expect a re-order.  Keep the goodwill and just be honest. If it doesn’t work out this time, stay on their radar by sending new product updates and inviting them to see you at future tradeshows.  You just might get a second chance. 

This is Part one…the next post will cover becoming EDI compliant including how to find a provider, assigning UPC numbers to your products, and an overview of how the system works start to finish.  Stay Tuned!

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It may have taken the shape of a loss of data, or a short-fall in needed cash. Perhaps it was a lawsuit or a personal medical situation. Who knows - it could’ve been an unexpected tax hit or maybe even a key customer pulling back from a large order that you’d considered “in the bag”.

We had our own crisis last month when this website was attacked and disrupted by a “hacker-bot”, a new term for me and one I’ll always wince at when I hear it in techie conversations.

This coming week I’m going back on CNBC’s The Big Idea to discuss how to deal with crises like those mentioned above. I’m wondering if any among you would like to be featured on the program to ask your burning question about how to deal with a crisis you’re experiencing. The show will air next week on Tuesday, barring any pre-emption.

So, anyone dealing with a crisis at their business? Been through one recently and want to avoid similar situations in the future? Please share your comments below and/or volunteer to be considered for the show by satellite uplink from your town’s local TV station.

If preferred, as an alternative, you can use this link to contact me, too.

Rich

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How can you grow without an influx of cash?

The hardest thing for a company to do is start up with little money much less grow without a lot of financial backing. This was a position I found myself in from the get go. It is extremely hard to get loans on unproven businesses so “bootstrapping” ends up being the only option in most cases and was definitely the only option in my case. Not qualifying for startup loans and not wanting to give away any ownership in the company also placed me in a tight operating position. Most business experts will tell you to keep as much ownership as possible in case it does grow to be a multi-million dollar company and goes public; you want to have all the shares you can in order to maintain some control. Many, many startups end up with none of their business after investors and venture capitalists get a hold of it. In addition, if you ever do need an investor they want to know that the ownership is solid and with few partners to deal with, with sole proprietorships being the most appealing to a potential investor. Giving away my company after all this work was not something I wanted to do.

Therefore, it took some strategizing. First, I knew there had to be a high ROI (at least 500-700% markup from manufacturing costs to retail price) even though I was a few years from the major players that would eat up my profit, I knew this would give me a huge jumpstart in the business financially. Secondly, I could not incur large overhead expenses so I operated out of my house for the first year. Even when we started growing and added an assistant and shipping manager, they came into my house a limited amount. Having them out of the house and working with their own equipment kept them within the contractor guidelines so we were not obligated to pay outrageous employment taxes. Thirdly, I kept very good relationships with my vendors. Developing these relationships with the vendors was a great investment of time and energy. When I needed them, they were there for me. Fourthly, using stock bottles from suppliers alleviated the need for me to stock them, which freed up cash. Lastly, taking very little out of the company for myself, almost every dollar made rolled back into the company. My family had a meeting and decided to cut expenses so we could operate without my salary knowing this was an investment in our future. It was a family decision and we went for it knowing the first 2 years was going to be tough.

Do not get me wrong it was not all a perfectly planned bed of roses. There were still the 3 a.m. cold sweat, panic driven awakenings many nights but looking back, I can tell you it all worked out perfectly and would not have done it any other way. At every corner, I had no idea how the next step would be…would we end up ok or was this the big fall? Every move was risky and had to be done deliberately and boldly in order to achieve my goal of $1 million the first year, $3 million the second year and to sell out for $10 million in the third year. (Note: We are still in year two but we are on track so far, only time will tell). For instance, we had had average success in about month 6 of operations but the product was gaining ground. We still did not have enough dollars for inventory and we were approaching the Christmas season, which is the largest for most wholesalers. Knowing that our stores would not wait 4 weeks for an order to turn during the Christmas season nor would they pre-order a lot until they saw how the product sold, I had to do something to beef up inventory being against a wall of opportunity with nowhere to turn I looked to my suppliers. I called the manufacturer, which is the main supplier and explained the situation honestly asking if they could increase my credit line for the Christmas season (keep in mind I had no credit with them prior but had been nurturing the relationship for months now). They had a meeting and to my surprise, gave us a credit line larger than I could imagine! Not only did they increased the line, they asked if I could send extra bottles that they would make product and store it for me and not bill until they shipped it! This was amazing!

Feeling a bit like Rocky after a knockout, I used this information of the increased credit line with my other suppliers who also upped our limits and another vendor offered the same deal; if I committed to producing the goods, they would make the product and warehouse it, billing only after shipping! Our manufacturers were now investing in our company and that’s better than any bank!

Finally, we had the capacity to produce goods and sell them without a loan! We flew through a profitable and successful Christmas season. Then the January shows came and there was no way of knowing what was coming. We had the fortunate luck of one of our vendors standing up in front of 600 other store owners at a breakfast meeting in Atlanta. Little did I know this was to create a frenzy over the product like very few vendors have seen. Within a few days, we had over $200,000 in new orders and several markets still to go! The next dilemma presented itself: how could we produce the goods before we shipped (our customer pays when we ship) Again, I looked to my suppliers, which rallied up and started production right away. We successfully wrote and shipped over $500,000 of orders (to mom and pop gift shops mind you) in a 2 month period.

Next, we caught the attention of several international distributors, which is amazing being so young. All the international distributors wanted discounts and terms (up to 90 days to pay). After negotiating, I upped their discount for upfront payments and buying in volume by the pallet load, they had to purchase all marketing material at or above my cost; none was free. Also, remember with our markup we had the profit margin to negotiate and still maintain make money on the deal, this is why reducing costs is important from the beginning.

The next logical step was to strengthen the company financially. So while I was at the shows I spent a lot of time not just selling the product but also asking other vendors questions about things like how they carry accounts, how factors work, etc. During this time, I found a factorer and was able to work with them. They charge a flat non-recourse 4%. They buy the invoice and pay me everything when the customer shipped less the 4%. To some financial experts it is considered expensive money but to me, it cheap! I have 96% of the money upfront and remember we had the profit margins built in form the beginning…Beautiful! Currently I have looked into Purchase order funding just in case we get hit with the major vendor orders. Also in preparation of this next step we are looking into outsourcing fulfillment. This will enable us to ship large vendors. Major vendors are notorious for having very strict guidelines’ and your profit can easily be eaten up by errors in freight. Seriously most major vendors have shipping binders with guidelines that must be adhered to or you will be fined for each error on your bill. I have heard of nightmare stories where manufacturers invoiced $120,000 and ended up getting paid only $25,000 after all the penalties were figured. It can break you very quickly.

So my advice is to be strong, think positive, plan for the worst, hope for the best, be honest and aggressive and partner as much as you can with all your suppliers.

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Below Suzy provides more of her advice.

In Suzy Batiz’s Words:

COVER YOUR BASES/PROTECT YOURSELF

Only once I got my manufacturing organized and costs controlled did I start with patents, trademarks, logos, etc.  At this point, I had spent very little money and had really only spent time, which freed me up financially to file for patents, hire a graphic designer, buy some stock bottles and produce my first run of 1,000 units.  We also paid $400 to do a patent search to make sure it was a patentable idea. Then we filed a provisional patent application which gave us a year to run and then file for the actual, full-blown patent.  I would recommend this to all startups as the upfront cost is much less.  Also we initially filed for trademarks through an attorney which have been very expensive. It’s very easy to do on your own, and we have filed all other trademarks ourselves through www.uspto.gov . 

The first patent attorneys we contacted were very pricey so we researched through the internet to find one that was reputable but had a much lower fee than our local attorneys.  It has proved to be a great relationship.  Do your homework and check backgrounds.  I always Google the words “scam” together with the person’s name or business name to see what comes up.  You will be amazed what you find. 

USE FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO FINANCE & MARKET

We had an initial investment of $25,000 to work with (which is not a lot in the grand scheme of things). Therefore, with limited resources I approached all my friends and family to help.  My husband designed the website and I asked many friends if I thought they even remotely had talents that could help.  You will find that people are very willing to help especially when they believe in what you are doing! 

We produced 1,000 units, this was a huge leap but I figured I could sell them out of the trunk of my car if needed.  Keep in mind the minimum from the manufacturer was 5,000 units.  I negotiated this down claiming that I did not want to produce that many until I had seen if the formulations would work and they could produce (turned the tables).

We emailed friends and family and asked them to email everyone they knew and to give a testimonial.  They did and to our amazement, web orders started coming in. One friend called and suggested that I send some to her friend that owned two retail stores.  I sent samples and he wanted to purchase wholesale.  I asked him for help.  He referred another store and then another until the first month I had 15 stores selling the product.  He then suggested that I contact a rep group and I asked him for referrals.  Armed with proof that it sells at retail (as I had 15 stores selling it already), I could confidently speak with rep groups about the product and the retail environment. 

KEEP GROWING & LISTEN

The rest is history.  We sold over a million dollars of product (wholesale) within the first year and are continuing to grow.  We keep hearing that the stores want more products to sell.  We increased the line in January and quadrupled our sales.  We are developing more products for this show season.  We listen very closely to consumers as well as stores to keep a feel for the market demands.

—

Go, Suzy!

I’ll post more of her experiences and advice soon.

Feeling inspired?

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