New Kiva Loan

We just made the following loan through Kiva!

Borrower Profile as copied from Kiva:
"Mr. Sovannathou and his wife have been married for twenty one years. They have three children—one son and two daughters. Two of their children are employed full time and other one is in school. The family lives about fifteen kilometers from Phnom Penh.

Mr. Soun has been selling watches for fifteen years. He buys them from the market in Phnom Penh for resale in Treng Trayoeng Market (Kam Pong Spoe Province). His wife has been a garment factory worker for 5 years.

Mr. Soun is requesting a loan for the first time. He is asking for $1,000 to purchase watches for resale."

As of March 28th, 2008, Mr. Soun has raised 75% of the needed funds.

Please check out this wonderful organization that empowers and enriches the lives of so many people around the world. These entreprenuers do not have access to capital the way we do here in the United States, through small business loans and heck - personal credit cards, home equity lines of credit and friends and family!!! Kiva provides them with the opportunity to start or grow their business through loans. You can lend as little as $25.

Check out Kiva here: http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=home.

Thanks to my sister-in-law Amanda who introduced me to this wonderful organization! $25 may not be a lot to some of us, but it means a lot to these people.

My side of the story...

I recently refused to fill someone's order and feel that I need to explain the reasons that led up to this difficult decision. Up until now, I've restrained from using this blog as a forum to air my grievances, but I've just about had enough of people who are so quick to cut and pass judgment without even for once considering that there is another side to the story.

This particular customer ordered the Spring Sampler. However, knowing that she prefers to have her products scented in Very Strong, and that I've received e-mails from her in the past stating that even at this intensity she still couldn't smell anything, I was sure that the sampler wasn't going to meet her standards. The products in the sampler are scented at Medium to Medium/Strong, the most often requested intensity by our customers.

So I decided to refund her money and in my e-mail to her I explained that since she has been unhappy with her previous orders and the lack of throw in the products even at the Very Strong level, I did not feel comfortable filling the order because the products in the sampler were scented at Medium to Medium/Strong. I offered to send her fragrance oil samples free of charge if she wanted to try out any particular scents, but again I explained that the sampler was probably not the right avenue for her.

Twice I've filled orders for this customer. The first time she ordered, she e-mailed me and told me she couldn't smell any scent in the product so I gladly remade everything, scenting all the products as strong as I could within safe guidelines. The feedback from this round was that she could detect a faint smell in the products and I suggested that she let it cure to allow the oils to bind and the fragrance to bloom.

The second order was for a shampoo and conditioner. The feedback from this was that the scent itself was nice, but again, still not as strongly scented as she would have liked. Again I explained that 1) All products need time to cure and 2) The scent she chose, Dark Pink, takes a little longer to fully blossom so she should give it some time and 3) I can only scent to a particular maximum load so as not to compromise the preservative system and stability of the product itself.

Okay, so given the customer's history of only being somewhat satisfied with her orders from me in the past, what possible incentive did I have to fill this one, especially when the scent intensity was clearly not going to be to her liking?! In my e-mail to her, I apologized for not filling the order and explained that I simply wanted to save her the frustration and money of receiving yet another batch of "weakly" scented products. What would YOU have done in this situation? I didn't refuse to sell her anything - closing CLC's doors on her! I simply refused to offer her the sampler given the past e-mails she's sent me about her lack of satisfaction with her previous orders. Come on? What was I supposed to do? It's like, "Hey doc, it hurts when I bang my head against the wall." "Okay, so DON'T bang your head against the wall then!"

Truth be told, I just didn't want to get another e-mail from her after she received the sampler stating that there's no scent in the products. I was damned if I filled the order, but I guess even more damned that I didn't. In addition, there have been more instances where I've received feedback that our products were too strongly scented and that they found the throw to be too much.

I really hate using this blog for this situation, but I've sat here feeling defenseless and mute long enough. When CLC re-launched in February, someone named Chocolate911, CocolatteXXX, ChocoDelicious and every other combination and permutation of the word, sent me some wonderful e-mails with screen shots of what was being said about me on a particular forum for weeks! My business and I were subject to a lot of name calling by people who had never ordered from me before, yet felt entitled enough to pass judgment on me. Those who were kind and open-minded enough to ask me what happened that caused me to close CLC down so suddenly got a very candid and honest answer from me. However, I wasn't going to use this blog to broadcast all the personal issues I went through. If you'd like to know and I know I owe some an explanation, by all means please ask and I'll tell you! Just not on a public forum such as a blog.

Anyway, whoever this "Choco-whatever" person is, used to send me daily e-mails from different addresses (so I couldn't block them) letting me know what was being said about CLC and me. Again, what I found most surprising was that people who never had exposure to CLC were the quickest ones to make judgment calls. Wow, if this is the market to which CLC caters to, then I guess I'm doomed from the start eh?

So how about we try this novel idea people? Before you pass judgment on someone, stop and think about what their side of the story could possibly be and what could have motivated them to do what they did? Some a$$hole cut you off? Maybe they're on their way to the hospital to witness the birth of their child or to hold the hand of someone who's dying. The waitress was abrasive and rude when you asked for extra napkins? Maybe the person in the next table left her a $1 tip for a $40 meal. Some e-tailer refused to sell a customer a sample set? Maybe, JUST MAYBE, given the customer's history and feedback on past orders, she knew that the customer wasn't going to be happy with the scent intensity in these pre-made products and that she thought she was actually saving the customer time and money by offering an alternative. I guess it's true what they say, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

If for nothing else, this whole ordeal has made me a more empathetic person because I have seen first hand just how ugly being judgmental can be. It's made me stop and think before I lash out because I've been on the receiving end of this type of ugliness.

So anyway, that's my side of the story. If you've gotten this far, thank you for your time and for at least hearing me out. That's all I wanted - for my side of the story to be heard.

I intend to move forward from this incident and I do not wish to revisit this. To the customer who felt "deeply offended" by my decision, I've apologized enough and offered an alternative solution which she didn't want to accept. If I've lost business as a result of this decision, well then it's a price I'm willing to pay to shake off all the negativity and false accusations.

I'm moving on and I hope others can too.

15 Minute Update

Okay - it's 2:44 p.m. EST and I figured if I can stick to this 15 minute rule thing, maybe I'll be able to post more often.

Here's some mindless on and off-topic banter that's been on my mind:

1) I really need to make a large batch of the hair mist/detangler that I'd like to send out to test. I wrote about it a while back, then I played around with the formula some more, then I decided I'd like to test two different versions. I'd like for it to be multi-purpose, so on top of being a hair detangler & perfume, I'd also like it to do double duty as a body mist. Hopefully, I can work on this this weekend.

2) Speaking of this weekend, I'd like to take Sunday off. I've been working 7 days a week, and well into the night and I need some time to unplug and decompress. On top of that, I have shopping bags of stuff that need to be unloaded. Here's the thing - I hit 3 Lush stores back in January/February when they were having their huge sale. I have been digging through the bags to see which product I'd like to use next. I guess in a way it's good because it's kinda like a grab bag. Close my eyes, stick my hand in and pull out whatever I happen to grab. Last Lush product I used was a bar of Snowcake. BTW, the 3 Lush stores I hit? One was in the Philippines, during my holiday. WTH is wrong with me?

Anyway, I think I need to spend some quality time organizing my stash. It's kinda gotten out of control. I made a bunch of CLC perfumes, Lusciuos Lathers, Comforting Cremes and Flutter Butters and the bottom drawer of the bathroom cabinet is now completely filled. I need to organize this before it gets too much more out of control. I took quick stock today and in addition to all the CLC stuff I have, it's brimming with airplane amenity kits, hotel toilettries, free gifts with purchase and product samples.

BTW, don't let me give you the wrong impression. I'm a HUGE fan of CLC products (but of course!). I love and use every freakin' thing I make but as I've always maintained, I'm a product junkie and a sales addict. You put these two together and you've basically mainlined a drug into my veins that will get me to surrender my credit card for the sweet truimph of Buying One and Getting One Free. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that these expenses count as a business tax deduction for competitive research purposes. Hello! Hey, it was Origins' Incredible Spreadable Scrub that inspired our Cream & Sugar Scrub after all.

3) It's now 2:52 p.m. - 7 more minutes left to type and I just hit a freakin' writer's block.

4) I think I have my running mojo back. If I can keep this up and commit to a sensible training schedule, I'd really like to run the NYC Marathon this year. I've backed out twice because of injury, but I feel good about this year.

5) I'll be releasing our Spring/Summer '08 scents soon. I'm looking at third week or last week in March for the release. Right now, I'm in the process of writing scent descriptions for all of them. Not sure yet what special I'll have for April. I'm open to suggestions.

6) Crap! It's 3:01 p.m. Gotta sign off.

Have a lovely weekend. I'll be posting some of the pics I took of the Denims & Knits event (which was a success by the way) in my next entry.

Progress not perfection

Okay, this has been a very hard lesson for me to learn. I am a perfectionist by nature and this idiosyncracy has been exacerbated by my strict Filipino upbringing where there's a huge emphasis placed on excelling in everything.

Flylady.net (http://www.flylady.net) has been a tremendous help to me. I've been a subscriber for about a year now and although I don't follow everything to a tee, I have learnt and un-learnt some lessons. Here's one I've found really valuable.

15 minutes is sometimes all you need: Now this was a tough one. I've been known to clean my stove with a toothbrush for an hour. As a matter of fact, and come to think of it, I've been known to clean a whole lotta stuff with a toothbrush! I was skeptical about this 15 minute rule at first, but the thing is, when you set a time limit to devote to a task, you're forced to be happy with the progress you make in that short amount of time. Here's what I can do and be happy with in 15 minutes:

• Unload a dishwasher
• Load the dishwasher and shine my sink
• Clean the guest bathroom
• Clean countertops
• Vacuum the living room and hallway
• Dust most of the furniture in a particular room

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of other tasks I've completed in 15 mintues, but you get the point. It's helped me let go of some of my perfectionistic tendencies, especially when it starts to get in the way of getting things accomplished - for example - getting an order out. One time, I spent an hour obsessing about a particular label, sticking, peeling, un-peeling and re-sticking to get it just so. I could've definitely spent that hour more productively, but I was on a mission to get this lable stick straight. Not to say that now you'll get products with lopsided labels. Truthfully? I know I'm my harshest critic so stuff that you probably won't notice or mind, I lose sleep over.

So anyway, try this 15 minute thing. Set a timer to 15 minutes and get busy. Once the timer goes off, you have to stop. Finish up what you're doing, step back and admire what you've accomplished , and you'll be surprised about how pleased you are with what you've done in that amount of time.

Okay, gotta run. My timer just went off and as much as I want to write more about the lessons I've learnt from this great website, I'll have to save it for another 15 minute session.

Where my...?

Girls at...?

Calling all NYC girls! On Thursday, March 6th, Crater Lake Company will be participating in Denims & Knits charity sample sale event to benefit Futures and Options. Stop by and say hi and I'll whisper your very own secret code good for 30% off CLC goodies. Here are the deets...

Who: Denims & Knits and the businesses that make up Marmalade Pink
What: Designer sample sale event to benefit Futures & Options
Where: 2 Cortlandt Street - Across from Century 21 (OMG!)
When: Thursday, March 6th between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

See you there!

New scents...?

We'll be releasing our limited edition summer collection in late March or early April. Here's a sneak peek at one collection we're launching...Tooth Sweet! And boy it sure is! I'll do my best to throw in a sneak sniff of some new scents we'll be launching in every order this month.

Package at...?

Okay, I still haven't gotten to the bottom of this and it's getting mighty frustrating at this point. The good news is that all orders from the sale have finally made their way to their loving homes. The bad news is that some packages that have absolutely no business making a stopover in Kearny, NJ are stopping there anyway. Here's 2 examples: Package one is headed off to some sexy body in Framingham, MA and another to Bronx, NY. MA is north of NY last I checked. The Bronx is about 40 minutes south of me. Where do both these packages go first? That's right folks! Kearny, NJ! WTF?

I think Jimmy, my USPS rep is on vacation (or hiding from me) because I haven't had a chance to ask him. But I intened to. Oh boy do I! For now, I make my frustration known by shooting Death Star glares at the unwitting clerk behind the counter every time I drop off my packages.

That's about it! I will try my very, very best to post more regularly on this blog. Believe me, I have so many topics to discuss and my running list keeps getting longer and longer. However, my priority is to get your orders out as quickly as possible. I'm working a little slower these days due to my carpal tunnel acting up and I have the finger dexterity and grip strength of a noddle right now. Thank goodness I'm a fast typist.

Thanks for reading gals. Happy March!