All through the last 17 months of entrepreneurial Covid-catastrophe, almost no income and an endless feeling of sinking in quicksand with the ever-changing shipping & tax rules, global travel projections and re-opening requirements, our independent Thai social enterprise has hung on to one thought: that BIG order that will come as Thailand begins to open, and which will save us.
And then it came, and it felt like this.
Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay
I'm looking back from a littered entrepreneurial beach, if you will, and taking stock today.
Our small Thai company was selected as a brand partner with a much bigger US operation, who have the Agoda account. And so we went from depleted stocks, no raw materials, sub-zero cash reserves, supply chain glitches everywhere and having lost all our trained staff into an almost overnight online-selling hothouse. Agoda gifted its Thai team with gorgeous gift boxes, and their Thai Agoda team could choose from a menu of gift box selections online, of which we had 6 choices. We woke each morning to a list of orders which we had to fulfil very quickly, and then were paid for already fulfilled items the following week.
Talk about slammed!! (but in an incredibly good way!)
Sending love to my mother, my dear friend Ken and to DJ, who loaned cash with no questions asked so we could buy raw materials and cover courier costs and cash payments for casual workers. Me? I worked 18 hours a day for 3+ weeks to fill orders, co-ordinate everything and make sure that we retain this fabulous client. And we have. Currently preparing for Holiday Season gift boxes!!
The last days of the Agoda deluge, we arrived to our leased and paid-up office to an ominous, obviously legal notice glued to the gate - the property had been foreclosed and repossessed by the bank. Frantic days of dialogue with an unhelpful on-the-run MIA landlady and the bank who had won the legal action, and we discovered that Thai law mandates vacant possession after foreclosure.
Considering the lack of legal legs to stand on, and anticipating another deluge of gift box orders in November-December-January, we decided our ONLY real course of action was to drop everything, relocate the office and get ready while there was a brief lull. And so we have done just that.
Office relocation completed yesterday and today I must concede to being, well... knackered. Totally.
The last (there are always three!) major disruptor and part of the tsunami? The unexpected influx of funds enabled me (finally!) to replace my almost-dead laptop. But a bit like moving office mid-order, there is NO good time to set up your online world on a new device! Today I am totally thankful for Hivesigner!
As I sit and breathe a little for the first time in over 6 weeks and begin my planning for a post-Covid business-life, I am also pondering how I will be changing up my online profile on various platforms, including Hive! Some very exciting things coming ahead in the next months.
What I love about this entrepreneurial tsunami (and, indeed, Covid) is that is has FORCED some serious and much needed changes that might I might have wasted another decade considering.
And so here we are. On the entrepreneurial beach again, with the sun shining brightly and quarantine free travel into Thailand starting next Monday.
Bracing. Putting on my entrepreneurial life vest and feeling a little more ready.
Blissed n Blessed.
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