Mmmm wholesale - I have written my tuppence about this in the past and have always said that I couldn't afford to sell wholesale.
This was my position right up until the beginning of December. I knew that something would have to change in the way the business was run and we had invested in a cabin workshop that will allow me to move everything to do with the business out of the house (thus avoiding divorce).
One of the problems that I had this year was that I was ill over the summer - not a dramatic illness, just a phase of the chronic tiredness, bluesiness and tears that seems to be a symptom of my Addison's. It was cured by taking DHEA a hormone that is standard treatment for Addison's in the US but not licensed here for prescription. (If anyone find this by googling "Addison's" I would say DHEA is tops!)
Anyway, it became clear that I really needed other people about so that I can delegate to if needs be. Fiona joined the team to help in the garden as Sally helps with the flowers.
Then, just before the Country Living Fair my left hand swelled up and became more or less useless and painful. I think in retrospect that it was most likely to have been caused by overwork but, at the time, the worry was that it could be the beginning of rheumatoid arthritis. There seems to be a tendency for some people with Addison's to pick up other immune system things like RA; accumulating symptoms over the years.
So far I have been lucky and only had minor additional things like lack of B12 and numb fingers. This threatened to be a whole different league. It was brought home to me that I may not always be able to do the things I can now.
I am quite superstitious - my feeling is that if you plan for something it will never happen. So I decided that I needed to have people about to help with sewing/packaging/invoicing too.
And . . if I am going to have more people in the team, then production has to go up to pay the wages.
And.. if production goes up, then I don't need to make as much profit from each item, and material costs come down as does courier costs. . .etc. etc. blah, blah, blah
I do feel that this is a very tedious post - especially as it is the start of a whole new year.
I just didn't think I could do an about turn and not explain it.
I hope that it doesn't sound horribly whiney.
Anyway - coming to a gift shop near you . . . . .I'm very excited.








