Read Online With Love and Quiches by Susan Axelrod - Free Book Online Page A

properly. We paid no attention to vital details that virtually define success: we didn’t realize that pennies counted, and we didn’t know that we were also a service business and therefore had better provide good service along with our products. By now we should have been polishing our image, but instead we had remained in our original mindset: clueless.
    The wholesale food processing business, as with any business involving production and service, is a full-time commitment, especially when there is established competition. It takes a tremendous amount of work, and we weren’t good enough. We had started losing accounts at about the same rate as we were getting them because our service wasn’t very good and our quality was uneven. The taste was there, but as I pointed out earlier, the weights were anybody’s guess.
    Our problems were those often faced by small businesses: we lacked capital, we lacked management and technical assistance, and we hadno formal technical training in our particular field. We had no understanding of finance, and we were inexperienced about marketing and buying opportunities. In sum, we still had no preparation whatsoever for business ownership, which put us at a great disadvantage.
    Now what? I found myself alone in the enterprise. It was a lonely feeling at first, but exciting too. There were a lot of possibilities ahead, and I wanted to stick around to see how the story ended. I was way out of my comfort zone, but I had bought my own business, and I had to assess what I had bought. I knew I might be in for the ride of my life, along with plenty of potential heartbreak—yet, at the very least, I wanted some payback for all of the burns I had suffered up and down my arms.
    We were a young married couple with two children, a big house, and very little money. Yet, this recessionary period during which we rolled our first dough provided Love and Quiches with its start; we saw the rise of the pub without a pastry chef. This became my motivator.
    With Jill gone and a few rudimentary business lessons under my belt, I knew I needed to turn things around. This is the point at which I launched the real business. I stopped dead in my tracks and made a fresh beginning. The very first step I took was to create an informal business plan. I outlined the scope of my operation: what I hoped to achieve, and what I needed to do. A more formal plan followed, detailing both the big picture and the smaller ones. This more formal plan detailed my rudimentary strategy and tentative marketing plans. I realized that even without Jill I could rely on a strong network for help: I had my accountant, my family, my friends, my mentor Marvin Paige, and anybody else I could get my hands on to answer my questions. I was learning fast and furiously.
    The one constant of my endeavor was my own ability to sell. I had to develop an organization that could meet the demands created by my sales out front. This was true even in that first small shop on Franklin Avenue where we were operating. I was virtually starting again. I had so very much to accomplish in a dozen areas, and I had to do it rightaway or I would lose the momentum we had most definitely created but could not control.
    I knew I had to gather the cash to get me through the next year or two, until I could develop a positive cash flow. (Yes, I finally knew what the term “cash flow” meant!) And I simply knew, with innocent clarity, that I wasn’t going to allow myself to fail. I broke a lot of my own rules along the way, but I did what I had to do. I’m still here.
    I was also mindful not to invest more than I could afford to lose, however little that was, just in case I was wrong and couldn’t pull it off. And unlike Jill’s and my initial mindless ideas, I would be doing it for the money, not the glory , which could carry me just so far.
    Even though I was still using handwritten index cards, I now knew my formulas and all my costs. I borrowed $15,000 from my