The cold weather in Seattle is not helping the rhubarb grow. Creating a local, seasonal product means I am dependent on the local seasons, such as they are. But not being in the kitchen is allowing me more time to look at the business.
Last week, my friend Heather came over to help me bash around in QuickBooks. I got set up with the program last summer, but I hadn’t had an opportunity to explore all of the cool features, such as profit and loss statements and budget projections. I had a list of things I wanted to explore, including how my sales broke out between direct and wholesale, which retail outlets had the most orders, and which flavors sold most quickly. I also wanted to get a more accurate picture of my per-jar costs.
Well! It was all very eye-opening. There were no complete surprises, but there is a big difference between having a feeling about something and seeing the cold, hard facts. Looking at the numbers has allowed me to prioritize a few things. I learned (let’s say confirmed) that direct sales are going to be very important to me to stay solvent. This tells me that I need to prioritize getting into farmers’ markets. I also learned that I am pretty much paying people to sell the small jars. So that’s a challenge to be sorted out. I know that retailers and consumers like that small size. But would they still like it at a higher price? Or at that point, does it just make sense to only make the larger size? I am going to go to my retailers and see how they feel.
I learned more things, too, but that’s a good taste. I’m glad that I took the time to do some deeper digging into my business figures–one thing I learned working at Amazon.com is that you should never skimp on parsing the numbers. Pay attention to your metrics and you’ll have good roadmap for the work ahead.
So today, a prioritized list and some tea, toast, and apple butter.
