My First Supplier

So… a recap.

There I was, sitting in my car in the village hall car park, trying to persuade my legs to work. You see they felt a bit wobbly. I was on my way to visit a local shop to see whether they liked my designs enough to stock them in their shop.

I felt apprehensive and scared. There was no way I was ready for this.

The night before, my mother told me in no uncertain terms that she would frog march me up to the shop herself! It was too good an opportunity and that the answer would definitely be no if I didn’t even have the courage to ask.

I am almost fifty, I had thought to myself. I no longer need my mother to hold my hand and say nice things about me t0 persuade the other children to play nice. No, I am a strong independent woman, hear me roar gulp.

Claire, I told myself sternly, the door will absolutely 100% remain shut if you do not at least attempt to open it and go through it.

What’s the worst that could happen?

Sure, they could say no.

So what?

I slowly got out of the car to pay for my parking. The first ticket machine wasn’t working. So I tried the second. Nope, not working either. I sighed, praying this wasn’t a sign of things to come. I tried the third and last machine.

On the way there, I bumped into a friend. A lovely supportive friendly friend. A friend who right now was looking after her sick son and her dying mother. A friend whose personal situation immediately put mine into perspective.

We paid for our tickets and both went on our way, perhaps a tiny bit lighter for having seen each other.

Last Tuesday I managed to make myself walk into the shop. I kinda wish I hadn’t worn a jumper, given the humidity and high temperatures. But it was the smartest thing I owned. I was now even redder in the face than I would have been had I worn something cooler. I felt a ball of sweat trickle down my spine.

Long story short, the woman I saw wasn’t the woman I needed to see. However, this woman looked at my designs and liked them and asked me to come back on Thursday to meet the owner.

Crap! I needed to go through that all over again?!

Thursday came and so did my nerves. I was meant to go some time after lunch. I left it as late as possible. And went through every emotion, ball of sweat and red facedness all over again, even though I opted for a shirt this time. The sweat must have been down to nerves not heat.

If there had been a video of the whole meeting, it could have been put up on YouTube as how not to conduct a business meeting. She was kind and liked my designs. She was even happy to stock them in her shop. She said she did not have anything similar. Then she started asking me questions about prints, printers, cost per unit, profit margin… you get the picture.

So, I said I would go away and think about it and let her know. Seeing I was clueless, she took pity on me and showed me some of the cards she sold. She told me that she sold them for £3.50 but bought them from the artists for £1.56. The inference was that I needed to make sure I could print them for significantly less than that to make any money.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I have one place in my village who are happy to sell my cards, which is exciting and maybe a slight confirmation that I am going down the right path.

Thank you to Katie, Joanne and Sheryl for leaving their views on my small business ideas. If any other readers have anything to add, good or bad, I would really appreciate your input. Even if you don’t think I should do it at all, please do head over to my small business post and answer any or all of the questions. I will be forever in your debt…🙏