Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Here's the thing

It's great being small and mobile, right? Right. You can pretty much go where the people are, take your business to consumers instead of vice versa.

But being small and mobile also puts you at the mercy of the weather and parking gods.

This week, for instance, we've had to postpone opening not because we've been sleeping in or slacking off or whatever but because our little "from scratch" truck needs to be finetuned, to be ready for all road and weather conditions. And this takes lots of time and planning.

You have to scope out the streets at various times of day, you have to rethink your parking strategy when unforseen conferences and events suddenly pop up. You also have to make sure that while you're perfectly nice and dry in your big, old sturdy truck listening to your Peter Mayle or Jeremy Irons-narrated audiobook or maybe some Car Talk or some pop music if the mood strikes. You know, whatever. While you'll be nice and dry on a day forecasted to have "scattered thunderstorms" — just a 30% to 50% they say but you never know — your potential customers may not be interested in braving the elements to buy cupcakes. Even if these are the best darn cupcakes they'll ever eat :)

So, you have to rethink your little homemade awning (took 8 hours to sew by hand thank you very much. I did say this was a from scratch business, didn't I? Personally, I think that's part of the charm, and if you can appreciate a true old-fashioned "mom and pop" operation, and we sure hope you can, you're in luck).

Anyway, I digress. My point is you have to be ready for everything. And that's what we're doing. Hence the delays. We want you to come by and buy our cupcakes no matter what the weather or parking gods may throw our way.

We hope to see you tomorrow.