Page 89 - The Magic of Tiny Business

Part III  Practice Your “How”

Show. Oprah and her guest, TreeHugger’s Simran Sethi,
talked about ways to “go green” while pointing to our
reusable bags as one impactful action to take.

In those few seconds, Oprah changed the trajectory of
my business, the green products category, and millions of
viewers’ opinion of what can be done to clean up the
planet. She sent this Tiny Business on a wild ride into the
unknown. We experienced the “Oprah effect” firsthand.

But Be Careful What You Ask for . . .
The phones started ringing off the hook with people say-
ing, “I want to go green.” Orders came in practically non-
stop for months and then with a repeat of the same show a
year later, orders flooded in again. Our integrated, scal-
able, cloud-based system held up, thankfully, but we had
to get a bigger office and add phone lines and staff
immediately.

We went from $700,000 to $2.2 million in a year and
from a two-person office to five and growing. We had
back orders for up to three months. We were over-
whelmed, but we patiently communicated to all our new
customers, setting expectations on delivery and welcom-
ing them into our eco-friendly world like they were din-
ner guests. Throughout the insanity of the pre- and
post-Oprah months, we maintained regular business
hours and I managed to swim daily. My personal take on
this was, “We’re not running blood. There are no bag
emergencies.”

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