On being too small to matter…
It’s embarrassing being treated as if my business is too small to matter. I called a local printer company inquiring about thermal label printers for my home studio and the owner dismissed me with patronizing comments like ‘I’m not trying to chase you off [but actually…]’ and ‘Buy a cheap used Rollo off facebook marketplace [then call me in 5 years when you’ve reached a production level that warrants the real machines I sell]… I didn’t want to be told to buy a chintzy used piece of equipment and talked down to, I just wanted recommendations for something new that meets the needs of my home office and improves my workflow efficiency. At least the owner eventually did send me the follow up email he said he would, so that was somewhat redeeming. Needless to say, if I ever expand my business to the point of requiring a fancier printer, I probably won’t be calling that guy.
I’m sure he’s used to working with New England companies that need higher production level equipment, and he didn’t mean any harm by his comments, but I was still fairly offended. Even though I’m tiny potatoes in the business world, I still matter! Just because I don’t make six figures or move thousands of products per year/month/week, I still deserve to be treated like a viable business. Sure, selling less than 50 handmade items annually through my online shop sounds kitschy and insignificant from a capitalist point of view, but it’s a real part of my livelihood and it’s disheartening to get brushed off by other business professionals for being too small to bother with.
It’s stupid to let my self-worth get too entangled with my professional life. Normally I’m not too heady about things, but this modern mindset of basing ones’ personal worth on how productive you are or how much money you make is ridiculous. I feel like I have to come across as almost apologetic when I tell people about how small my business is, like ‘My gross income is only $30,000/year’ or ‘I’m just a micro flower farm growing on only 1/10th acre.’ But that’s ridiculous too. Being a self-employed small-scale farmer and craftsperson is a totally legit full-time business that supports my simple lifestyle. It’s my primary source of income; it’s hard work and I love it. I don’t want to keep expanding indefinitely, biting off more than I can chew, taking on employees, getting buried under more stress, having to make more money to stay afloat, keep running frantically on the hamster wheel till my little heart gives out from exhaustion. I’m managing my small business on a scale that works for me and I’m content being tiny potatoes.
After thought:
One of my favorite things about running my own small business is identifying parts of the system that aren’t running smoothly and trying different solutions to address the hang-up. E.g. shipping dried flowers in the mail. Up to this point, I’ve been printing address labels off at the little public library in town and taping them on boxes. Comical, I know! I have to make a trip down to the library during their limited open hours and the computers are maddeningly slow. It’s crazy inefficient and every time I walk out of there I think ‘I can’t stand this, I need to do something different.’ So I finally decided to buckle down and get a wireless thermal label printer to print sticky shipping labels off at home. I went down the rabbit hole researching different options—as I tend to do with all my business purchases—and decided on a Zebra ZSB thermal label printer, which seems like a good affordable option for small home business settings. Plus somehow their label cartridges are compostable (apparently made out of potato starch?), which reduces some plastic use, so I feel a bit better about that. I think this machine will totally meet my needs and make my shipping process a whole lot smoother.
