JPD Mom

Right Start It's Over

Dear Right Start,

I am breaking up with you.  This time I mean it - it is really over between us.

I want you to stop sending me these cute newsletters and emails telling me about the sales you are having.  Trust me I know about the sales, I also know that, being one of your re-sellers, none of your re-sellers are getting paid for these so-called sales. 

I wonder if your customers realize that every sale you make, you do NOT pay us, I am always wondering that.  And also, stop following me on Twitter - I mean you have got to be kidding me.  I think that is sort of mean and cruel - after all you have done to me, you follow me?  And the letters, the letters I get in the mail from your attorneys, as if I did something wrong.  Enough Already!  I know I am not getting paid, I know you are bankrupt.....believe me I KNOW!  Stop tricking me, I am forever hopeful when I see another official letter from the Bankruptcy court....I know I should not be hopeful, but I am.

What Might Have Been

I am not one to be cruel, or to be mean spirited but I must mention this - you came and  courted me!  You came after me, your buyer called one day and begged asked me to be in your catalog.  And if memory serves me correct YOU came after me once before, a long, long time ago.  Your buyers approached me at the ABC Kids Expo, once again wanting to carry my products.  At the time you  had no personalization, not much of a website and your nursery decor' was limited.  Don't get me wrong you had me at;  "The Right Start is in your booth", but I had to wait till the time was right.

Which brings me back to last Spring when my accountant took the fatal call from your buyer.  The one that sent me rushing into the office without any make-up on.  You had me all a flutter and excited.  I mean you swept me off my feet this last time, with talk of multiple stores, catalogs and your hundreds of thousands of customers.  I was giddy with the possibility of this partnership.  Who cares if you only took two of our Name Plaques and Two Birth Certificates. The numbers you threw out there - had me seeing green.

Never did I think that you would betray me like you did, even though I had known you went bankrupt before.  Not even when you had me spend hundreds of dollars on bar codes for my products ( but the joke is on you, since I drop-shipped the products you will never know if I actually used them).

It's Really Over

I just want to come right out and say this harder for me to do than I thought.  I mean I figured after you refused to pay my invoices I would have been able to end this.  It was not like you were ordering anything after Christmas, but still I hung on.  However, I stayed with you and kept hoping things would get better.  Of course as you continued to abuse our relationship - it only got worse.  Things did not get better, they only got worse. 

Not only did you refuse to pay any of my bills due to your "Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Court" thing you kept throwing in my face, you also forced me to pay my own shipping.  

Shipping that you charged your customers for and then took their money.  And then you gave me a UPS account to charge your shipping to.  But, but what happens is if you do not pay ( I am sure you know this)?   I PAY YOUR SHIPPING BILL (sorry am I yelling?)!  So, guess what happened?  Well.... THEN, THEN you did not pay your bill - cause of your ol' bankruptcy thing you are covered by the courts.  I am not covered by the courts, I am just a small business that took a chance and decided to work with you!   Well UPS came after me and forced me to pay for shipping - shipping you already got paid for.

I do want to thank you for taking my tiles off your site recently though - it was the least you could do.  Thanks for that, I am guessing you did not want me to yell at you when you tried to take an order.  Or maybe you can only sell items in inventory?  I don't know which it is is....

You Can Go Your Own Way

So Right Start, I hope we are clear, I mean how could I not be clear.  It is really over this time.  I would really love to have you listen to some great break up songs, like Fleetwood Mac if you will - I mean Lindsey Buckingham got it - go your own way!

Sincerely,

Jamie R. Lentzner (bitter ex-girlfriend, partner)

An Email Battle Royale

Forced Photo 2004
Originally uploaded by mama_lentz.

March 3, 2007.

So..just so you all don't think I use this blog to totally brag and puff my chest about how great my company is, I thought I would write about a baaaad experience I had:

It has been three years since I had a parting of ways with one on line retailer, and it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. It was the first and only email battle (well one with a really good friend, but we made up - thanks to her) I have had with my business - and I really learned my lesson.

I started working with a company in Spring of 2003, my husband actually found the channel on line and helped me start the relationship. At the time, this site came up pretty high on search engines and the name of the company "fit" with our products. The battle was winter of 2004 (see how young my kids are? It was me hand-painting in the garage):

If I am to have learned anything, looking back, I realize that when we started discussing pricing, listings, etc. the conversations did not sit well with me. Watching Oprah all these years has taught me something...I should have listened to that little voice in my head that said, "something is not quite right".

She had her own hand painted letters on the site, more prominent than other products. When you tried to purchase my letters (which I did) hers kept popping up, trying to get the customer to buy hers, hence change the sale to her letters.

And I was very strict on price increases, and charging the same across the board. She kept raising my retail prices, which I did not like. Looking back, the price increase was out of my control. But I wanted the retail prices to stay the same, and she ignored my continued requests, without explaining her position or prerogative.  Emails would go unanswered.

She also tried to get me to say the products were made by her, or shipped from her warehouse. She kept asking if she could say that she made the products. She wanted me to change the ship from address, I did not like this at all....

So, after situations that kept coming up and making me uncomfortable, I sent an email asking why she continued to do these things when I asked her not to. She immediately pulled my products and said she did not want to work with me any longer, no explanation. I should have left it at that....

I replied, stating the problems we had and I did not like the way she pushed her products on customers that bought my products. She then replied with a blast about how she had to pay for advertising and she could do whatever she wanted. I replied again...it was ugly to say the least.

I let it get personal. Days after the dust settled and we were both nursing our wounds, orders continued to come in from her. One after another, before she could pull our products off her site. After shipping the last of her products out, I never heard from her again. I continue to see her products pop up in magazines once in awhile, and it makes me think about the way it ended.

I should never have gotten into an email battle, it was not worth it. And, I should have trusted my gut. Now I have strict guidelines and there is no longer a grey area when it comes to who can carry my products. I don't like to work with companies that sell there 'own' creations, just for this very reason. I believe there is a conflict of interest. As for the price increase, ah - I was green and did not understand - I should have let it slide.  And, uh must I go over the whole pretending she made the products?  That one still burns me up.....

After telling my husband I was going to write about this experience, he stated I should call her up and see how she's doing, and if she wants to work together again...........isn't that just like a man?  They can let gigantic argument settle and then pat each other on the back and start all over.  If only it were that easy.  To quote my very sassy 4 1/2 year old daughter I told him, "NOT!"

Uh...what? Not enough?

IMG_0424
Originally uploaded by mama_lentz.

February 1. 2007.

Blah Blah, a girl can't have enough paint, right? Or sales channels right? And, lost one yesterday, and I gained one...right? with me?  Did you read the blog?

Today that sales channel that "dumped" me.....placed another order.

Yes, kid you not. So I sent an email back stating, thanks for the order and how shall I proceed, since you are no longer carrying our products?

I got an email back stating we are only discontinuing SOME of your products....

Oh, um, okay I get it, I guess.....

I am happy the relationship, or partnership did not end...for whatever reason. I am not sure I understand after the conversation that transpired yesterday what actually happened.  Maybe they saw we are the only ceramic birth certificates?  Maybe it is too much work to pulls us off the site? Who knows?

Lesson learned - if I had been rude, mean or sarcastic the relationship would be over. And there would be one person out there thinking really bad of JPD.

So, need to go buy more paint (no seriously I do) and go after new channels....still.

I am thrilled that one of our channels (small or not) is still with us. I am sticking with my mantra, "It's not personal....it's business."

When You have had Enough

IMG_0423
Originally uploaded by mama_lentz.

February 1. 2007.

Paint, I love paint. I can never have enough of it. I can never throw it away either. I have paint from our first home, just in case (used it to paint the office wall this past fall in fact) I decide to use it again. My boxes of paint continue to grow to different boxes, to cabinets, to dressers - a girl can NOT have enough paint.

Unfortunately paint is not like channel partners. I mean, I don't know if I will ever have enough sales channels, always growing, expanding to different parts of the country maybe the world! However, when do you know you have had enough? When do you decide or let them decide that.....the relationship is over? Who gets to be the dumper? Is it mutual?  Who is ending the partnership?

Which brings me what happened today to my company, I um, think I was dumped....sorry, let me back up and tell the story the way it really happened:

Being February 1, 2007 we had to make some changes, we had to raise some shipping charges (Fed Ex does this every year, I do not make a penny off of shipping) and we wanted to make sure our 150+ products got named correct when the sales channel ordered them.  So we sent out emails and faxes to our 150+ sales channels. I hate, I mean it, I hate getting an order wrong, even if it is the channel's mistake. I like happy customers, I want them to love me...er, I mean Jamie's Painting & Design products.

So, I get an email from an e-tailer stating that they have never had any problems and will keep the naming conventions just the way they are, thank you very much.

I start to respond in a nice email, stating okay you are doing this at your own risk, we warned you....then I decide to look at the website, it's been like a year or more and I should see, there naming conventions may be perfect (husband has warned me of this in the past, I need to check things out before firing back, or even sending a skud missile). So, guess what? Not only did they call one product the total wrong thing (um the name of another one of our products actually), a second product was still on the site that was discontinued TWO, yes two years ago!

So I make a call in to state my case, did not want the email to sound mean. Go through the whole, "Hi, sorry to bug, I know you don't want to change the naming conventions, however, this one is wrong, and this one was discontinued two years ago....." I get cut off and the owner gets on....I go through the same rig-a-ma-roll, state my case, blah, blah, blah........

Silence.

"Ya, you have spoken to my employees before and we just can't keep up with all your changes.. (did I mention that the product was discontinued two years ago and the other CHANGE she is referring to is the ONE, I repeat ONE time we raised our Name Tile prices in the four years we have sold them?)...so we are going to pull your products."

"Uh, I was just stating (this is me talking) and telling you the reason we have had problems is your naming conventions have been wrong and you have a product on your site that we no longer carry.....I take customer service very seriously and would hate for your customer to purchase something and get the wrong product."

Silence.

"Ya, you have spoken to my employees before and we just can't keep up with all your changes...so we are going to pull your products."

This conversation went on for ten minutes, I kid you not, same thing over and over.

So I said, fine...

Now, yes, yes, YES, I know there are two sides to every story. And this channel did not do more than $1,500 in sales for us last year. However, I do not know why you would not want to 'fix' an error on your site, and I do not know why you would complain when you have a product that is two years old....or you are calling another product the wrong thing all together - I mean really, customer service?  Sending wrong product out?  Anyone??

So, good news is that I picked up another new website today, I guess today I am just status quo.  And I really wish things had not ended....thank god they did not end bad (been there...another blog).  So at least I followed my rules with this 'relationship' that ended:

• Do not get Nasty
• Do not get Personal
• It's just Business

The more I think about it, there were lots of phone calls, lots of 'mistakes' on there orders, communication was not perfect, some lost orders that they lost and some incorrect prices, shipping costs, addresses...maybe the relationship really was over.  So, I guess I did get dumped...however I am taking some of the credit.

If at first you don't succeed.....

IMG_0100
Originally uploaded by mama_lentz.

January 24, 2006.

Well, you know the old saying, about not succeeding, then try, try again? This reminds me of my daughter learning to swim, we are still trying to get her to swim. She has taken all the classes, and each year we get oh SO close and then she fizzles out like a fire cracker. Now that she is almost five and almost in kindergarten she is pressing for lessons, I think she knows we are not going on vacation with all her um 'floating stuff'.  Really, really she tries...and come May we will try again.

Which brings me to today.....each January I go back over our 'People That Want to Carry Our Products' folder and look over the companies that have contacted us.  I re-send our catalogs, emails, wholesale docs, anything they may  need to make a decision.  Then I go back over the folder of 'DAMN, why won't they take my products?" folder and re-send a kiss-ass, hey did you catch me on Ellen Show email.  Now, I know this sounds desperate and childish, but I am like a dog that gets kicked.......I come back for more.

Truth be told, following up come February or March is very hard for me.  It's not that I don't have every intention of following up on my submissions but I get so dang busy....with orders, life, kids, orders, life - seriously daunting.  And, my biggest pet peeve ( and if I have done this to you please forgive me) some of these 'channels' do not ever ( and I mean EVER) respond!  It is so RUDE!!!  Why not just send the following letter:

Dear Crafty Ceramic Lady (if that is what you call yourself),

Thank you very much for submitting your "artwork" to our (catalog/boutique/website - fill in the blank) .  We are totally NOT interested, but please feel free to submit your products at a later date........when you get some talent, or on Oprah.

Best of Luck,

Mean (Boutique/Catalog/Website)

Yes, yes, yes there are many 'channels' I would covet to be a part of, for whatever reason.  I just wish I could get an honest answer, or an answer!  I try to respond to all emails, I honestly do, even it if is to say, "No I am sorry I can not teach you how to paint tiles" or "No, I am sorry I do not have any interest in taking your artwork, placing it on tiles, showing it to my channels and giving you a royalty...uh NO thank you"  I force myself to send out these letters.  No matter how big (or small) your company is I think you need to remember the little guy.  And, know that you will not be on top forever....trust me, coke, pepsi, coke, pepsi.........if one is number one, then the other is not.

Which brings me back to, the mantra, 'try, try again'....I was speaking to a large company I met in Atlanta on Monday, the buyer was new and told me she had worked for another large company prior.  I was green with envy and stated I had tried for years to get my products in their catalog (her prior company), she said, "Well, you never got me on the phone".......case in point, you need to keep trying.

Be Over Prepared

November 5, 2006.

So, I may have written about this before, but it is such an important aspect of being an Mom and an entrepreneur.  I would like to say that I am ALWAYS prepared....but I am not:

• Last week we ran out of tiles and had make an emergency order
• For three weeks we have been waiting for one color of ribbon that was back ordered
• We had no batteries for our camera to film my daughter's Halloween Parade
• When our Printer could not use the lay out for our new brochure I had to scramble and back track to get another Printer involved
• When presenting quotes for a new component of our websites I forgot to get two second quotes (Accounting demands three quotes)
• Painting flowers in my daughters NEW room take not one but at least five coats of paint due to the dark coloring of the walls....
• Had to have a clock and two pillows for daughters room shipped over night
• Finished my son's costume hours before a big Halloween Party

However, I am getting very prepared, even over-prepared for a first ever event, gulp, I am going to be interviewed for a local TV show.  The film crew is going to film my children's rooms (hence the expedited shipping) and apparently interviewing me about Jamie's Painting & Design.

I am almost prepared (I think) I still have a thousand things to do before the interview but this I have done:

• I have to talked myself while driving about what I think they may ask me <check>
• I had my husband video tape me (oh how painful to watch myself and hear my voice) <check>
• I know the show backwards and forwards (what TIVO is for) <check>
• The rooms are touched up, spiffed, pillows fluffed, vacuumed, adjusted to death <check>
• I have researched the interviewee <check>
• I have asked for advice from other entrepreneurs <check>
• Taken advice from our publicist (bold colors bad, dark colors good) <check>
• And I have started a mantra "s-p-e-a-k  s-l-o-w-ly" <check>

And if all else fails I will tell a knock knock joke my son taught me....no I am kidding.  I feel pretty confident about the interview, my stomach IS doing sumersaults as I write this though.  The last thing a friend said to me when we spoke on the phone last week keeps ringing in my ears, "DO-YOUR-HOMEWORK". <CHECK>

And it Always comes back...

October 31, 2006.

The irony of this post is how I started my day...I read my news in the morning on www.cnn.com every day.  I always quickly scan the articles before logging on to my check email.  Today an article about Oprah giving away $300,000.00 caught my eye so I read it.  Unless you live under a rock you probably heard she gave $1000 to 300 people (oh not to forget Bank of America sponsored it too) insisting they must do something charitable with it, and then document it on there new DVD recorder.  I thought it was a great idea, and am anxious to see the show...then went on with my day.

So....today I got not one but two emails back confirming we were in two articles regarding 'giving back'.  Being the media savvy entrepreneur I always reply to emails from journalists or magazines looking for information for an article, or just sending some company information to an editor.  So, I did not think twice of sending out two separate responses to two separate requests on charitable things we did.

Let me back up a second, and mention we give back to the community, to victims of Hurricane Katrina, terminally ill children, families on EMHE (another blog), church functions, charity events, sponsor sport teams, etc.  I feel as a business owner it is my duty to give back.  I also feel blessed, lucky to have such success and damn it it feels good to help people.

I am happy we did give back, and I am happy to get some free publicity - I actually  hope it inspires others to give back too.  And I do agree with Oprah, who said, "I can honestly say that every gift I've ever given has brought at least as much happiness to me as it has to the person I've given it to," (Amen, Oprah and psst.....call me!)

Tracking Visitors to Your site

October 18, 2006.

So, yesterday we had a big spike on our website, in fact it went up Monday and continued to go up on Tuesday.  Today we are going back down.  We had 12% of visitors to our site from Lafayette, California, and 34% were returning visitors from all over the United States.  In other parts of the world they are viewing our site also, London, Buenos Aires, Singapore and even Dubai!  Last week we had a record Monday with our biggest day ever of views to pages and almost all were new visitors, it was 3 times the average amount of viewers to our site.

So...how do I know this?  And if you have a company website YOU should know this too....

It's called Web Analytics, and there are many companies that do this...it's basically tracking activity and performance on your website.  Analytics measures whatever you want it to measure, effectiveness of a marketing campaign, measures traffic to a website, measures activity of a shopper - it's Big Brother for sure!

We use a free product from google (www.googleanalytics.com), and it gives us a glimpse at what our customer is doing.  Now, don't get me wrong I don't know exactly where they live, I don't know who they are, and I don't know what they are looking at.  And I believe it can be skewed....what if one person in Malaysia (not likely) looks at my site 45 times a day?  I am told it should be cookied and they will look at each user as a different visitor.

So, back to why the spike?  Our angel ornament was featured in Country Living's Holiday Gift Guide, however it hit newsstands back East over two weeks ago.  So, who knows?  We do not have a marketing campaign that we have been wanting to track, or an advertisement in a magazine.  We do PR and that is all we do.

Maybe some day I will be able to see you Jane Smith at 456 Elm Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan, looking at those Snowman ornaments over and over, and over again, tracking you as you explore our website.

Um, did I say loyal?

October 11, 2006.

I do consider myself a loyal business partner, and a loyal friend for that matter.  I have stood loyal by:

• Failing Sales Channels
• Companies that do not pay their bills on time
• Sales Representatives that do not 'represent' very well
• Contract Employees that were not working out
• Small companies that helped me develop my brand

That being said......I feel awful about something that happened today.  I have worked with a company for over three years.  It is a small business owner that has helped me in many ways.  I have gotten advice on computer programs, printers, color adjustments, paints to use, paper quality and weight, price cuts.  We have gotten free training, we have worked well together. 

However, we are now paying rent, we have an accountant, we have bills to pay.  So, for the first time ever I had to get multiple quotes, one from my friend, two others from strangers.  I got thee quotes and my loyal friend's quote was not the lowest.  We discussed it, I was honest and said I had to go with the lowest bid - I said it's business.

So, I gave the job to a new company, discussed the process and moved on.

Today, I got a call from my associate and he wanted to try to get a better price.  I reluctantly let him and assumed he could not match the price we had already established. Well, that's right he got a better price and he was asking us to go with his company.  To be honest, I was tempted to go with what I was familiar with and make my friend happy.  I almsot did, but then I thought about it for a few hours.

I had to go with my word, I gave my WORD to the other company and I had to stick with it.  I am nervous about branching out, I admit it.  I may get a raw deal, this is true.  However I have to stick with my word, even if others don't.

So, that being said I had to ask myself if i was loyal?  And yes, I still believe I am loyal, I will continue to use him and go to him for quotes, however I have to do what is best for my company.  It's not personal, it's business.  I have said THAT a number of times, so then why do I feel so crummy though?

Being Loyal in Business

October 2, 2006.

One of my favorite movies is The Godfather (1972) and the book is an incredible read also.  I have seen it numerous times and even did my final paper on it for a film class in college.  Yet, I did not realize how much I would re-use a quote from the movie after starting my own business:

Michael: Sonny...
Sonny: You're taking this very personal. Tom, this is business and this man is taking it very, very personal.
Michael: It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.

This is true 99% of the time, even for women business owners this is true.  It is NOT personal, it is business.  Yet one is it personal?  When do you decide to make it personal?  When do you decide that you need to bend the rules?  When do you decide that this time it IS personal? 

Well I decided to make it personal last week.

I started this business in late 2002, yet did not pursue the web until middle of the year 2003.  I can remember doing searches on the web for products like mine and for top children's boutiques.  I would look at them over and over, not quite brave enough to call them or submit my products.

Then one day I got my nerve up and I sent an email to one of the sites I had admired for so many weeks. I sent a nice email, with a few attachments of photos of my products.  The owner actually called me on my 'new' business line I had just put in.  She was very nice, very complimentary and she really showed me what to do with getting my products on line.  She became an advocate and a friend who was also honest about my prices, even telling me I was charging too little, where instead she could have just marked her prices up.

Long story short, almost four years we have worked together, she used to talk to me and confide in me and really help me when no one else would.  I really appreciated her honestly and willingness to help some one she did not even know.  At the time, she was one of our biggest accounts.  Now at over 150 channels and climbing,and some major companies, her company is not one of our biggest - but that does not make her channel any less important to me.

So after working together for about two years she asked me a favor, not a big one, but a favor.  I was very willing to help her out and I agreed.  It was one of those 'what if' scenarios, and I was happy to oblige her, I owed her and I was loyal.

Well, this past week, that favor came a knockin', and I remembered my promise.  I called back my friend, had asked her about our conversation over two years ago.  She was dumbfounded that I a. remembered and b. was willing to keep my promise.  I told her I was loyal, that no amount of money was worth that.

We don't talk as much as we used, back in the day when we weren't as busy we talked weekly.  I do have fond memories of one conversation though, I told her something about me being so new to the business and I was just a small company, a nobody.  She actually raised her voice at me, scolded me and said, "You are NOT a nobody, you are a somebody.  And mark my word, some day you will be very successful, I know this about you.  I know you will be very big some day and you are already a somebody.  Don't ever say that again."

I miss those conversations.....