Anyone who's ever started a small business knows how difficult it is to find success, whether that means being taken seriously, finding a niche in the marketplace, gaining and keeping loyal customers, or whatever. Things like taxes and regulatory burdens only add to many of the natural frustrations that are inevitable when you try to build a company from the ground up, and some days the roadblocks can simply be overwhelming.
T-Rev's Stiff Willi Chili is in its very nascent stages -- I've been in business just over a year -- but I'd be lying if I said there haven't been days when I've thrown my hands in the air and said it would be easier to pack it all in. Well, it's always easier to give up, and if running a successful business were easy, there would be a lot more people who did it. That's why I'm always thrilled to get letters or emails from happy customers. It's quite literally the single most important source of energy required to slog ahead because it provides reassurance that I'm doing all of this for a reason, that there are actually people out there who appreciate the culmination of my work.
In reality, a good salesman can generally get someone to buy his product once. But if you want to remain in business, that customer has to be convinced to come back again and again and again. So imagine my excitement today when I opened my email to find this note from Wendy in Rochester, NY:
T-Rev-
Up here in NY it has been pretty cold. What makes a cold day better?.... Chili, obviously. I took out your Stiff Willi Chili mix that I won from the Seneca Park Zoo’s Zoobilation auction and made a double batch of chili thinking I would have enough to freeze some for one of our next cold days. Well, it never made it to the freezer. Everyone loved the chili so much that there was triple helpings being had and none left over. That stuff was awesome!!
Thank you for donating the chili mix and I look forward to winning the next auction item ;)
And Thanks to Eric for knowing you, getting the package and insisting that it was awesome stuff because it certainly is.
As I wrote in my reply to Wendy, I almost don't know what to say when someone not only takes time out of her day to write me but also raves about my products. Aside from my family and a few select friends, there's really nothing that means more to me. So thank you, Wendy. I hope you know I appreciate your kind words every bit as much as you appreciate my chili!
And for the record, the Eric who is mentioned in the email is my good buddy Rico, who, along with his wife Melissa, have been mentioned on this blog elsewhere as two of my most invaluable friends, to whom I will owe much gratitude should I ever have the good fortune to look back one day and think, "I made it."
