Losing all my profit at the Post Office

I GOT MY FIRST SALE!!

It came at about 11.30pm on Thursday via eBay and I was very excited.  It was a Cloud B Ladybug nightlight and it was to a gentleman about 5 miles away from my house.  So far very very exciting.

Now if you have been reading my blog you'll know that my stock of toys was 250 miles away at my accountant's office.  Despite already being dangerously close to wearing out my mother's goodwill, I asked her to post this nightlight to my customer and she was happy to help.  I created my first invoice and emailed it to her, and she carefully wrapped the parcel and asked my dad to take it to the Post Office.

I got a call from him on Saturday morning, it went something like this.

Dad:  "I've been to the Post Office and I think you'd better sit down"
Me: "Why? How much was it?"
Dad: "£6.30"
Me: "WHAT?"
Dad: "Don't shoot the messenger, you'd better re-think your pricing strategy".
(I tried not to bristle at this, so I changed the tone of my voice)
Me: "Why was it so expensive, did you send it Special Delivery?"
Dad: "No, its the new rules, it was a "large parcel, 2nd Class Signed For" as you asked"
Me: "Its OK, I still made £3"
Dad: "Not much good for all that effort, and you haven't allowed for packaging costs".

Now, my dad may not seem very supportive from this conversation.  But don't judge him harshly.  He didn't know why I was giving up a well paid job to do something like this, and he didn't believe the market was big enough.  I'm talking in the past tense, but I'm pretty sure I still have some convincing to do.

I was lucky I was still in profit to be honest.  And if you take into account packaging, eBay shop fees etc it wasn't enough, but I was learning every day and I still am.  But one of my strong points is I'm adaptable, and I immediately started doing my research and found an alternative.  This is what I do - I make mistakes (some horrendous, more to come) and I try and learn from them.  That doesn't mean I don't get despondent, but I do pick myself up.  I find it easier to do than in my old job, because I do really care about my business so its easy to be motivated.

So I've built a nice little relationship with my friendly local newsagent who takes my parcels in.  I like it because I am used to them, and I get tracking every step of the way - that doesn't mean I don't know it will go wrong at some point, but I do everything I can to make sure my toys get there in one piece.

I took a few more deliveries at mum's office, and then I decided I had made her carry the parcels up the stairs enough.  Also, the postwoman wondered what the hell were in some of the parcels one day when they started singing to her in German in the back of the van.  So I took mum up on her offer to drive halfway to my house to do an exchange.

Next time - doing a toy swap at Warwick services and the stock room starts to take shape...

"Ein, zwei, drei, hier ich komme"


www.rachelstoyshop.co.uk