Time to get serious

I want to open Elk Grove's FIRST refillery by the end of this year

I've allowed myself to be pulled in so many directions since starting this business 6 years ago. Originally the vision was a small sustainable gifts and toys install in a corner of another shop (anyone remember the wonderful "Gifts from the Heart" in Old Town Elk Grove?) When that shop closed, I looked at doing pop ups on my own. My first was at the Spring Fair at my daughter's school, I couldn't even sell yet, I just had on display the type of products I wanted to carry and had great conversations with families about low-waste living. 
I was working part time as a contract employee for a EV charging company and would work out of a local co-working space. One day while explaining my concept to a friend there, they suggested I check out Refill Madness in midtown. I approached them about running deliveries for their business, but they weren't interested. I decided to just stick to doing pop ups in Elk Grove, I got into the new Thursday night Farmers market at Dist 56.
I started traveling the country to meet eco-shop owners and manufactures of really neat sustainable products. A shop in the Bay Area told me about a liquid soap vendor in Oakland that I should check out. Not only did I fall in love with their product, but also their closed-loop delivery and container return operation and I wanted to help them grow fast. A different liquid soap brand that had been a staple in most refill shops in the late 20-teens had recently sold to a large conglomerate and was ending their relationship with refill shops. I helped this new brand out of Oakland sell to shops in Washington, Oregon, New Mexico and California. They had me doing deliveries to the neighboring states while they did their Northern California deliveries themselves. I worked as a brand rep and earned a commission. But the problem with that was there was not a set schedule for me to get paid those commissions and the company constantly pushed me off, saying I just needed to wait until they got their next round of funding. After 3 years of waiting, I cut ties with them, at a great financial loss. I took a year to try to get reorganized and spend time with my family after being on the road for most of the last three years. 
I found a new liquid soap manufacturer out of Missouri that many refill shops liked, but that shipping costs kept most of them from being able to bring on their products. I slowly started working with local shops to work collectively to bring out this product in a way that minimized the shipping impact. This operation has grown over the last two years and I now work with 15 shops regularly. But this service I provide has never really been profitable, because the focus has been to keep the overhead low for the shops. Two years ago, I also started to reopen my local retail operations, going to the occassional makers market and participating in regular pop-ups at A Seat as the Table bookstore and cafe. 
Since cutting ties with the soap manufacturer in Oakland, my business debt has been creeping up and I've accumulated a large assortment of products from various sources. Sometimes a new vendor I want to support, sometimes another shop that is closing and sometimes I make products myself as I see a need for a locally made option. Up until now, I have not done much for marketing locally. I find most marketing to be very hit-or-miss. Many times an expensive or time consuming marketing campaign results in no sales. I've mostly stuck in my B2B sales bubble, as it's easier to sell to shops, they always reach out when they are getting low on product. I find new shops by checking my vendor's stockist maps or I'm introduced to new shops by existing clients. 
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Today is the day EVERYTHING changes

The interest accumulated from the business debt and the other costs associated with my business have forced me to decided: Do I really want to building and launch Elk Grove's FIRST refillery? It's been my dream for 6 years, I was always just too scared to make the leap. I have to ultimately decide by the end of April: Do I dissolve my business, cash my retirement savings to clear out my debts and get a full time job to just start my career over and support my family? Or do I start hustling, growing my business, reaching new customers, and build this into something glorious?
Is it better to go down swinging? 
So this is it, I'm going to give the next 35 days my best effort. I'm setting a goal of $38,000 in sales. If I can reach that by April 30th, then I will have what I need to start fresh and use the immense knowledge I've accumulated about the low-waste living industry to build and launch Elk Grove's first refillery. 
I know the number seems high, but in the current rental and retail costs environment, this is actually the minimum monthly sales that would be needed to operate a brick and mortar location. 
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Will you help?

I am going to add more products to my site weeky and I will be resuming pop ups every weekend at A Seat at the Table from April 13th, 20th and 27th. And most importantly, I am going to post... a lot. I need shares. I need more eyes on my business. I need sales to be able to justify continuing down this road. The clock starts now. 

Reach out to me with questions or if you want to talk about ways you can help! Thank you for reading!

​- Stephanie