When we ask ourselves what success means to us there are many different answers. Most commonly the answer is money.
To me success is accomplishment, and it comes in many forms. Whether it be finishing a paper, passing a course, running a marathon, teaching your child to announce they need to go to the bathroom or today it means putting 9 pallets of natural egg coloring kits in my driveway for pick up and delivery to Williams-Sonoma. Our kits will be available in every Williams-Sonoma store in North America including Canada and online. This endeavor took four months of planning and executing. We had to hire more staff, stock more product and buy more natural vegetable extracts than ever before. All this came at a cost to us at eco-kids both financially and psychologically. As we drained our bank accounts to fill this order we were put to the test as a company, family and at one point had to ask ourselves, "How far are we willing to go?".
For us the answer was simple, all the way, until it works or fails. You keep going and pushing because you know there is light at the end of the tunnel. If you can visualize the end, then all you have to do is put the pieces of the puzzle together to get there. When you own and operate your own business and manufacture the products yourself, it is a feat that you even remember your name at times. There are days when you struggle to answer "Why are we doing this?". Then, there are days like today where I stand in my driveway surrounded by success. We made the right orders, asked for the right favors, our staff did the work that was required, and now we reach another national level. You might look at all this "success" and think it is filled with money...but it's not. The cost of ramping up production comes with it's own growing pains. What I see in this photo, is a family with a dream, who went from the farmers market to the national market. I see the hard work of our employees, whom in return got a fair wage and are able to work toward their dreams. I see pride in a job well done. I see a small made in the USA business risking it all to get to this point. A big and a small business providing for a nation, all out of a house in Portland Maine. Our bank accounts may not be filled with paper gold, but to me, that has success written all over it.
We are off to the the New York Toy Fair!
