Now that it’s been a few weeks since I did the pivot, I’ve been working through my strategic growth plan for the Harvestcare hair and body line. Unfortunately, the numbers don’t add up to enough.

While I had run cost accounting numbers before, this time I was looking at potential revenue now that I have a sense of both consumer and retail customer orders. The challenge is that there just isn’t enough retail customers available right now, and direct to consumer orders is slow work with a new brand that I need to build even though larger margins.

On the retailer side, I have largely been targeting gourmet food places and natural grocery stores. All have shown interest in the line, but so far it’s the gourmet grocery stores that seem more willing to take a chance. However, they are largely only interested in hand soap and sanitiser which makes sense for their own customers.

The natural grocery stores are more interested in the full line, but some are worried about their own sales during these Covid-19 days and are not willing to take on new products right now.

When I map out a list of potential retail customers, I really need the domestic travel industry to come back to life which brings me back to the hotel line issue that I was trying to pivot away from. Ugh!

So here I am again trying to figure out how to make this business work financially. I mentioned my frustration to a friend today, and she said that I’ll probably figure out something else. That has turned my brain on again.

Now, I’m trying to give my mind some space to consider other ideas with small investments. Surely, there’s something else I can add to my product lines quickly that reduces plastic waste and where the numbers add up by itself or when combined with Harvestcare.