Easter Egg Nog

This week I am working on inventory for my $100 challenge business. I decided to call it “Strings and Beans” since I will be knitting bean bags. Since Easter is coming up I will be knitting Easter egg bean bags. I’m trying to decide how many colors I should offer and how many I should have ready to sell. I have never attempted or even thought about launching my own business so this is new territory for me.  I would rather err on the side of knitting too much than not enough. I have plenty of children in my life that I could give these bags to if I don’t make a lot of sales. On the other hand, if I receive more orders than I am able to knit up myself, I have a friend who volunteered to help me. She has been knitting longer than I have and does quality work. I plan on setting up my online shop on Etsy by next Saturday.

Our reading this week included the story about Stew Leonard and his “customer service rock of commitment”.  Leonard was working at his store a couple weeks after grand opening when a customer came in with egg nog that she had purchased earlier. It was sour and she demanded a return. Leonard was taken a back, questioned the customer and told her that couldn’t possibly be. She was furious and said she would never come back to the store again. After relaying the incident to his wife, he realized that there were dishonest people out there but the majority of them were honest people. He knew that if he was always trying to defend himself against those who were not honest, he would lose loyal paying customers. He purchased a huge block of granite and engraved 2 rules on it: 1. The customer is always right, and 2.If the customer is ever wrong re-read rule 1. I thought this was valuable reading. It is the customers who keep people in business and I agree; most of them are honest. This is good to remember as we work to start our own businesses.