Like just about any business doing any business anywhere, 2008 has been an interesting year for black & light co. (to say the least). This isn’t the ideal economic environment to launch a retail business. We’ve made it this far, and thanks to one (especially) bright light at the end of the tunnel, we look forward to an exciting start to 2009.
Throughout this year, we singled out certain events we deemed heroic. Robb & Stucky was a ‘hero’ when they placed our largest order to date back in the spring of this year. The Philadelphia Buyers Market proved to be a ‘hero’ as well, garnering us ten new wholesale accounts and propelling us to our best month of the year, September. Lisa Morgan and the Online Market World Conference folks were ‘heroes’ by providing Holly the chance to be a keynote speaker along with the likes of Kathy Ireland and Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos). Moniqe DeMayo (OnDemand Marketing) was a hero when she hooked us up with key media contacts and we found ourselves at a Global Compassion Ball in New York with Ann Curry, Meredith Viera, Peter Greenberg, Miss World AND America, the UN Secretary General, Nancy Rivard to name a few.
Then the market went on its now famous and infamous downturn. The extremely promising month of September turned into a dismal October, and consequently a slow November. As November was coming to a close and sales were still slower than September, it became clear that the 800 lb gorilla in the room wasn’t leaving any time soon. We now needed, more than ever, a ‘hero’ to give us a final lift in the end of the last quarter of our first year in business.
We found it.
It wasn’t a person, a conference, or a trade show and it definitely wasn’t a fairly large man with a white beard and a belly like a bowl full of jelly. It was sitting on one of our shelves at the office, waiting patiently and silently to be picked up, and lit.
The ‘hope’ candle, outsells the rest of our inventory on a scale of two to one. Since becoming the candle of the month in late November when we re-discovered it, (it was a prototype for another project back in March) we’ve made numerous trips to the North Pole of candle-making to run more. Our ‘hero’ is flying off of the shelves, along with our ‘bees’ candle, making for an exciting outlook for 2009. Finally, we have a little peace of mind, much needed in these economically dreary days.
‘hope’ in both the candle sense and figurative sense, is that light at the end of a long, twisting tunnel. Hope is a constant in all lives, more now so than ever. Never stop hoping. It’s one of the three key ingredients keeping us all going. The other two? Faith, and that all important love.
From our ‘hope’ to yours, we wish and hope for – better times, better lives, and better goodwill – for all people in all places.
