The Next Big Breakthrough?

The $64,000 question I have for the vendors posting/reading in this thread is simply that if they could go back to the day that they made the decision to leap into this field would they change their mind based upon what they know now?  

Probably, yes. I imagine that I would have applied to perfume school instead.

Its never too late. I know I have no idea of the extent of time and effort spent on the business and how much you could delegate to trusted family members or "soap elves" but if its your passion you can find a way to make it work. Now of course I'm being totally selfish here because I'm thinking about the impact of you going to perfume school on Barrister and Mann and the growth and directions that might take you. I can't imagine it being bad.

The $64,000 question I have for the vendors posting/reading in this thread is simply that if they could go back to the day that they made the decision to leap into this field would they change their mind based upon what they know now?

Not at all. Although when Mandy and I started this it was as a hobby to keep us from laying around watching TV at night. When we did decide to go full time I had a 4th trip to a war zone staring me in the face which meant another year away from Mandy (and missing the 1st year of our son's life). So, I am very happy that Stirling took off when it did. There are times I get frustrated and want to throw in the towel. There are definitely times I want to try another business and find something that would be more profitable.

It's a ton of work for not a ton of pay, but 90% of the time I really enjoy it. But the sad fact of this is that not every customer is as wonderful ( and I mean that with all seriousness) as you folks are. I'm sure this will come across as rude, mean, elitist, or ungrateful, but there are some customers that I've had that I wish I didn't. I've used this analogy before somewhere, but indulge me if you will. How many people do you come across in a day, week, month, year that are just plain jerks? I'm not talking about acquaintances that you argue with or people you have political differences with. I mean people that are just miserable jerks who make life worse just being around them. They may not be friends, family, or work associates. It may just be some nimrod in the parking lot of a restaurant or some witch at an airport. We've all run into people like this. Some of those people are wetshavers. And when you voluntarily interact with the public (aka your consumers) as a business owner in wetshaving, you are giving people carte blanche (in their minds, at least) to speak to you and treat you in any manner they see fit. Both publicly and privately. Sometimes you have to just step away for awhile and reset and force yourself to remember that the overwhelming majority of people that you meet in this business are good people who want your business to succeed.

I've had the opportunity to travel and meet hundreds of wetshavers in person and they were nearly all fantastic people that I hope to see again at some point. The vocal minority can really make life difficult some times though. The solution I've been given from others before is to hire someone to take over customer service for me and pay them to deal with it. Sounds good sometimes, but it won't work at this point. I can't give an hourly wage customer service employee years of knowledge on shaving and soap. That 's not the main issue though. People want to talk to me and Mandy when they contact Stirling. I like that and I think customers like that I respond to every email and either Mandy or I pick up the phone when you call us. It's fosters a connection.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. I could honestly go on for 20 pages about this. Perhaps some day I'll write a book about the shave soap game.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. I could honestly go on for 20 pages about this. Perhaps some day I'll write a book about the shave soap game.

Yes please, in all seriousness, I would buy a copy if you published!

ezlovan, I sincerely hope Mandy and you do hang in there and over time your venture is an even bigger success than it is now. Sometimes that nimrod may just be having an off day and we may never know that. However, unfortunately, there are people, as you describe, who almost seem to take pleasure in just being flat out rude and nasty. Sadly, those folks, as you have discovered, seem to be found in every walk of life. Fortunately they are, by far, in the minority.

ezlovan, I sincerely hope Mandy and you do hang in there and over time your venture is an even bigger success than it is now. Sometimes that nimrod may just be having an off day and we may never know that. However, unfortunately, there are people, as you describe, who almost seem to take pleasure in just being flat out rude and nasty. Sadly, those folks, as you have discovered, seem to be found in every walk of life. Fortunately they are, by far, in the minority.

Thank you, Freddy, I really appreciate that. I completely agree about off days. We all have them. I'm not talking about them, though. I'm talking about people who are just miserable sons of biscuits and go out of their way to be rude. I bring this up because today (actually, less than 30 minutes ago was the final exchange) I finally had enough abuse over the past two and a half years from a regular customer that I marked his account to immediately refund any order he places. I don't make enough money doing this to be verbally accosted via phone and email for no reason at all.

With each mile away from your domicile, or with any chance public encounter with strangers in general, the A-Hole factor increases logarithmically your "opportunities" of having to deal with one. That applies for electronic contacts as well (if not worse). That leads us to the most perplexing psychological question of our age:  if an A-Hole watches a movie whereas the actor/actress is being an A-Hole does the A-Hole viewer see it as such?

 

ezlovan, I sincerely hope Mandy and you do hang in there and over time your venture is an even bigger success than it is now.  Sometimes that nimrod may just be having an off day  and we may never know that.  However, unfortunately, there are people, as you describe, who almost seem to take pleasure in just being flat out rude and nasty.  Sadly, those folks, as you have discovered, seem to be found in every walk of life.  Fortunately they are, by far, in the minority.

Thank you, Freddy, I really appreciate that. I completely agree about off days. We all have them. I'm not talking about them, though. I'm talking about people who are just miserable sons of biscuits and go out of their way to be rude. I bring this up because today (actually, less than 30 minutes ago was the final exchange) I finally had enough abuse over the past two and a half years from a regular customer that I marked his account to immediately refund any order he places. I don't make enough money doing this to be verbally accosted via phone and email for no reason at all.

Hi ezlovan , I too hope you continue in this business and I think you just found a way to a least a little peace of mind. You fired a bad customer. Thats great. I spent my latest career as a lawyer and I can recall years ago when I was just starting out the practice advisor of our bar association was speaking to a bunch of us newbs, among the many things he told us was that we should try (its always hard to do) to do an annual review of our clients and rank them from best to worst and fire the bottom three clients on the list. Every year. Eventually you might have a decent client list. Now as I said this is easier said than done because we always are nervous that maybe all our clients will leave and we'll starve so we put up with abusive behaviour, slow payment, having our bills ground down, ridiculous expectations especially on timing - I need this on monday and I don't care if its your daughter's baptism if you want the work/get paid I'll see that on monday (and its 10pm saturday) In any case as you get older and more experienced and confident you come to realize what good advice that was and guess what? There'll be another client coming down the road and maybe he won't be such a jerk. One other thing, I've worked hard my whole life, whether in law school or in my job or volunteering at church, I've paid my taxes and been polite and respectful and I've brought up my kids to do the same, I've tried not to complain too much and to be grateful for the blessings I have in my life, I've even allowed other drivers to merge in front of me on the freeway the way you're supposed to but I can't tell you the number of times I've come across perfect strangers who, upon learning that I'm a lawyer have made rude and insulting comments, even in front of the kids. People, what are you going to do? Thankfully they are in the minority.
Mark

With each mile away from your domicile, or with any chance public encounter with strangers in general, the A-Hole factor increases logarithmically your "opportunities" of having to deal with one. That applies for electronic contacts as well (if not worse). That leads us to the most perplexing psychological question of our age:  if an A-Hole watches a movie whereas the actor/actress is being an A-Hole does the A-Hole viewer see it as such?

 

I recommend this book, its actually an academic work on the sorts of people you're describing. And no, they don't see themselves as such, they actually believe they're entitled to cut ahead of you in line or deserve better service or whatever. Its a good read. I apologize in advance for the title of the book and if anyone finds it offensive I will delete this post.

https://www.amazon.com/Assholes-Theory-A...s+a+theory

The $64,000 question I have for the vendors posting/reading in this thread is simply that if they could go back to the day that they made the decision to leap into this field would they change their mind based upon what they know now?  

Probably, yes. I imagine that I would have applied to perfume school instead.

Its never too late.  I know I have no idea of the extent of time and effort spent on the business and how much you could delegate to trusted family members or "soap elves" but if its your passion you can find a way to make it work.  Now of course I'm being totally selfish here because I'm thinking about the impact of you going to perfume school on Barrister and Mann and the growth and directions that might take you.  I can't imagine it being bad.

Never too late, but, no, Barrister and Mann would collapse without my constant presence. We work somewhere between 80 and 100 hours per week, pretty much every week, and the business requires nearly constant oversight. If I were to study perfume at the knee of trained professionals, then the company would have to either be sold or shut down. Not out of the question, but not a particularly optimal solution for the time being.

I recommend this book, its actually an academic work on the sorts of people you're describing.  And no, they don't see themselves as such, they actually believe they're entitled to cut ahead of you in line or deserve better service or whatever.  Its a good read.  I apologize in advance for the title of the book and if anyone finds it offensive I will delete this post.

https://www.amazon.com/Assholes-Theory-A...s+a+theory

Having dealt with thousands I agree with him without even having to read the book.