Page 60 - The Magic of Tiny Business

Chapter Three  Taking Tiny Steps

waiting an hour to get stamps for a hundred packages with
an infant in a stroller and then having to lick and stick
stamps onto each package. There was no glamour in this
reality, and I began to question everything. Fortunately, I
had a partner in crime.

Share Your Story—Everywhere with Everyone!
Shopping at our local natural products store one day, my
husband struck up a conversation with a guy unloading
product from his truck for the store. Blake pitched him
our business and the driver shared our story with the folks
back at headquarters. It turned out the driver worked with
Stow Mills, the largest natural products distributor on the
East Coast at the time (they later became part of United
Natural Foods, Inc.). And they were interested in us!
Within a couple months we had ten times the number of
orders. We had hit pay dirt! We had found our niche, sup-
plying the growing natural products industry through
distribution.

We continued to sell directly to consumers, but we
decided to focus on our wholesale volume business because
it was in keeping with our Tiny Business value of time for
family. With a wholesale business, office hours could be
flexibly managed during a typical nine-to-five workday.
We consciously limited our consumer business, which
freed us up to build relationships with buyers for repeat-
able orders.1

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