Going the "extra mile"...

nimblejack Thu 3 Mar 2011 - 19:03

Hello again everyone

I just wanted to share a little anecdtote from the Magic Toob journey. Back on January 5th I got an e-mail from someone named Samantha who saw a listing I have at the Organic Consumers Association:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/state/greenbizdetail.cfm?staticname=Nimble-Jack-Enterprises-44778

This is what the message said:

Hi, I’m Samantha and I’m in a service learning group at the North Middlesex
Regional High School. We are running a day to educate our school about the
environment and a big part of what we are doing is about green efforts in
our state. We were hoping to have some tables of green companies and the
things they do and I was hoping you would be able to help.

Thanks Samantha

After exchanging a few e-mails I agreed to visit the school and bring some free samples of the Magic Toob product. I was prepared to do a quick demonstration and answer any questions people had. This event was scheduled for Feb 1st during the lunch hour. I prepared a total of 200 samples along with labeling to go into 200 little Ziploc bags. This was a tedious and time consuming effort that burned through two ink cartridges but I was only too happy to oblige. As the date of the event approached, the weather, as it so often does this time of year in the northeast, began to take a turn for the worse. There was a 12-inch snowstorm forecast for that very day. Upon realizing this I had to cancel the plan to drive 62 miles (one way) on that day and instead I drove there the preceding day just to deliver the samples I had worked so hard to put together. I was disappointed that I wouldn't get to meet Samantha, but I wanted them to at least have the samples and some informational literature I had put together. Because I don't know that part of the state very well I got a little lost on the way. It seemed to take forever to get there and almost as long to get home. Then as it turned out, they had to cancel the event planned for the next day because of the snow and all the students were let out early. Boy, what a waste of time I thought. But then again, maybe it wasn't...

Not only did I NOT make any money on this effort but it cost me a nice little sum. There was the cost of the samples, the bags, the ink, the gas and my time. They eventually held their Environment Day and I imagine that all the samples got distributed. Perhaps a few people will be enticed enough by the free samples that they may decide to order the product. And perhaps on a day when the entrepreneurial roller coaster is at a low ebb, one or two orders for the product will suddenly appear and I will once again feel invigorated enough to want to keep plugging away. But I did get something in return for all of this. Today when I checked my mail there was this nice little note of thanks from Samantha: