I was really hoping to launch our new products last week. In fact I had a meeting already scheduled with a retail customer on Friday with the anticipation that everything would be ready by then. Unfortunately, I can’t because I’m waiting on labels – again!

When I’m dependent on third parties for my supplies, it really makes it hard to hit schedule especially when I made another mistake. Well, technically I made one mistake and a supplier made the other one. Either way, I had to reprint labels.

And so, I am still waiting on the revised labels even though I ordered them on Friday last week. I’ve tried to switch to a faster supplier, but I’ve found that many others can’t print the sizes that I need.

I’m so sick of the label issues – the time it takes to get them made, the lack of flexibility when I need to make changes or what to trial a product, as well as the expense. So, I bought a laser printer this week hoping that I have more options with water-resistant labels that I can print myself.

It took me a half day to get the printer set-up and for the labels to print properly, as the Avery templates never seem to be correct. Results? It worked out okay.

The only challenge is that I can’t buy blank labels in water-resistant materials in all of the sizes that I need. So, I’m still reliant on external suppliers for some of the circular tin sizes. However, I might just resize my labels for other products to fit the blanks that are available. That way, I can have that flexibility until I have a reason to order in larger quantities.

This investment into the new printer will hopefully result in less wasted time, money and plastic for future labels!

Postscript: I just realised that I could order these heavy duty labels from Avery directly in just about any size I want. Damn! Lesson learned again!