Baby Steps

Today I did some marketing. I hate marketing. I'm totally stressed out now and needing attention. I got myself so stressed out that my short-term memory began lapsing (some of my friends have experienced this in me). It is embarrassing when you are trying to tell someone about your business and make a sale and you keep forgetting words or leaving them off the ends of sentences. One beauty that I came out with was, "Since you are in Salem, there is no delivery..." Which got a stunned and somewhat uncertain look. Of course, what I meant was there is no delivery fee. Sigh. She was very nice about it though and we got it all sorted out.
Part of the reason I was stressed was because I was late for my first delivery to Cherry City Cafe (www.cherrycitycafe.com). They had told me "around 8am" and I was there at 8:15, which was totally not a problem for anyone except me. I had planned on being there at 7:45am. Unfortunately, just before I walked out the door, I realized I had made a mistake in my pricelist and needed to update it. :| Then, in my rush out the door I forgot my invoice, so I haven't even been paid for the order because they kind of need a receipt before they are willing to pay! :P Oh well, live an learn. I guess certain things will begin living in my car trunk from now on, or I will have a spare in there (like my receipt pad).
Anyway, after I made that delivery I had planned out a route with five stops to bring samples too and do a little marketing. The first place I didn't even bother talking to the manager, they had lots of baked goods and most of it seemed homemade. The second place I had a good time chatting with them and am hopeful about getting some orders from them (and they have a refrigerated display!--that means I can do cream or mousse tarts and fun stuff like that :D for them). That was also where the stress was the worst and I was loosing a lot of words and totally must've seemed absent-minded. The third place is just a little drive through coffee stop (they have TONS of those here in Oregon) and she seemed interested too, but I am a little uncertain about whether I'll get orders from them. The fourth place is a tiny little coffee shop that is mainly a drive through. They do a lot of their own baking, but they definitely seemed interested in the cinnamon rolls and maybe muffins. I'm really hoping that I'll get an order from them. They seem like they would be fun to work with. The last place I couldn't find. I think I turned down the wrong road, but by the time I had more or less figured that out I was mostly home, and I decided I was too tired to go back (I got up before 5am this morning).

I hate marketing, but I have to say, no place gave me an outright "no" (of course, it is hard to turn down free samples), which is encouraging. I would really like to get three to five regular wholesale orders going. It would really increase my profit because it doesn't take very much time more to make a double batch than a single and actually, a lot of things are easier to do in bulk. Plus, most orders are actually only 1/2 dozen of one item (usually 2-3 items at least), which is a very small amount. And when I do delivery runs, it makes the time and gas spent on that more worthwhile too.

I would like to make Monday "marketing" day and every Monday for the next month or two call or go to different places and do a little advertising. The thought is daunting to me. But important if I am going to make this business work. Deep breaths. I think next week I am going to do some banks since I have to check up on business accounts anyway. Then I can offer to do platters or whatever for them. Which means I need to do another price list between now and then! aaaaahhhh

I decided on "Marketing Mondays" because this way I can get it over at the beginning of the week and feel good all week about having done something worthwhile for my business. And the nice thing about it is that I can do it in the morning and be back in time to do my real work. (this morning I made it back around 10am--I'm guessing next week will be a bit later since banks don't generally open at 8am). But it is nice to feel like I still have the whole day in front of me (even though I am tired--got up at 4:45am).

By the way, you can check out The Little Bakery website at www.oregonslittlebakery.com. I'm still working on it, but it is beginning to look like something. I still need to put up price lists and fun stuff like that, but babysteps.

Oh! And please do pray for the bakery orders. Having a few regular customers would be fantabulous!