For a lot of smaller enterprise homeowners like me, the final two several years have been whole of hurdles — from navigating the COVID-19 pandemic to lessen demand from customers for the merchandise and services we perform so really hard to offer.
And to include to the fiscal hardship, 1 yr ago my business just about lost every little thing.
On Dec.12, 2020, the North Country-based bakery and headquarters of my pretzel enterprise burned down in a fireplace. Martin’s Handmade Pretzels has been in my spouse and children for 4 generations, and when I woke up to see flames encompassing the developing, I feared for what this would necessarily mean for our potential.
I am very pleased to say that just one yr later, my pretzel business is not only back, but flourishing. We continue on to provide pretzels nationwide and throughout New York — from farmer’s marketplaces in Syracuse, Watertown, and Outdated Forge to New York Town Greenmarkets. We also lately reopened our new bakery — in Moira, northern Franklin County — to the general public.
There are two factors why my compact company was in a position to rebound although quite a few many others around me have not been as fortunate: the assistance of my community and my willingness to embrace modern technological innovation.
Very first and foremost, for smaller enterprises like mine, a base of faithful customers is vital. Since we do not have the means of more substantial corporations, we mostly count on term of mouth and social media to catch the attention of new customers. We are also fortunate to have devoted buyers who have been consuming Martin’s Handmade Pretzels for many years and are extremely supportive.
When my bakery burned to the ground, our shoppers confused us with their generosity. They chipped by means of a GoFundMe page, which assisted us raise plenty of income to get back on our ft. Some of our suppliers also generously made available to delay their payment conditions and donated expert services for free.
But rebuilding just after enduring unimaginable tragedy was also made easier by the actuality that we experienced not shied absent from innovation.
When I took possession of the company, I understood that our outdated technology was holding us back — not in the way we produced our pretzels, but in our back again-conclude operations. I turned to Latitude Bookkeeping Products and services in Plattsburgh to see if there was a greater way to hold track of our money movement and other important info like margins, cost for every product, and overhead. Between other technology platforms, they suggested digital payments system Melio, which allows small corporations to transfer and acquire payments digitally, speedily, and effortlessly.
This has performed a critical function in serving to my company bounce again. When the bakery and headquarters burned down, we also lost all of our business’s paper checks. Though that could appear like a tiny reduction, we essential to continue paying out our vendors each week and could not possibility missing payments. Luckily, we have been ready to ship out all of our payments on time.
With no this system, I would have had to buy new checks and compose them all by hand, which would have been very time-consuming. I have minimized the time I spend on administrative perform by 50 %, which has allowed me to spend additional time developing and rebuilding the business enterprise.
A lot of small business enterprise proprietors are typically wary of adopting new technologies, fearful that they may not see a return on their expense. But in my circumstance, I wish my spouse and children-owned pretzel business had started the digitization method faster, saving us both equally time and money.
Throughout this last yr of immense difficulties, I am grateful that I experienced the resources to get my small business back on monitor. I urge other small enterprise house owners to think about embracing digital technology that will enable their enterprise enter the 21st century.
Josiah Martin owns and operates Martin’s Pretzels in Moira, New York.