Chapter 2: Always on My Toes
With each new venture, the necessities for financial stability and management standards reminded me that I still had a lot to learn. This was work. Whether physically entrenched in the operations of the business or providing the leadership for others to get the job done, I frequently had to do a self-assessment to know if I was up for it. I had to rely on my resiliency to keep scratching at the bite until I could relieve its itch with a resolve that would carry me through. The solution often wasn’t readily apparent. Sometimes I mistook what I thought was the problem to be something else entirely. I was taught to learn from past mistakes, but unfortunately, that usually meant I had to first survive them.
“I wish I hadn’t cried so much!” said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out.
“I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by drowning in my own tears.
-Lewis Carroll,Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
In the first two years ofAnnie’s Honor Snacks, our inventory was always lean because of our extremely tight budget. There were two disasters that nearly wiped us out. An unusual abundance of winter snow storms, rain, and early spring thaw, caused an unusual amount of flooding throughout the state and severely damaged inventory stored in our basement. We had lived in that home for four years and never experienced any unwanted moisture or water.
This major set-back caused us to rethink our existing operating system, how we preserved and recycled inventory, and our process for packing boxes. Our homeowner’s insurance deductible was set high to keep our monthly premium cost down and wouldn’t be enough to help us with the replacement cost. Upon further inquiries, it was questionable whether we could even have a claim since it was a business loss. We had never considered the need to adjust our insurance policy coverage.
Our solution was to convert our garage into a warehouse, parking in the driveway or alongside the house. We had to consider that on-street parking was banned in Vermont during the winter months to allow snow plows to get through. Moving to the garage seemed like a great solution. We gained a waterproof staging and storage area. It was a minimal expense to cover the cost of shelving, insulation and a kerosene heater. Unloading and loading the snack boxes into the vans was more easily accomplished. Certainly, it saved some wear and tear on our house.
Three days before Christmas 1982, disaster struck again. The kerosene heater in the garage malfunctioned during the ni
