The Biggest Juiciest Strawberries in the Land…
A Simple Business Story
Once upon a time there was a small company in the Land of OZ, who did wonderful work in getting fresh fruit and vegetables to their local town market each week. Their strawberries were so big, red and juicy and they seemed to have perfected the art of picking them at the exact right moment to ensure they were still sweet juicy and plump for several days after people purchased them to take home. Their strawberries renowned for being the very best on offer, and so worthy of the few pennies extra people were willing to pay for them.
One day – a handsome stranger came to town and with his sweetheart, fell in love with this company’s strawberries and sought out the farmer who grew them and offered to buy all his stock to ship them to the big supermarkets in the city.
The owner of the small company farm was overjoyed and raced home to share the news with his family. His sons were also excited, and one started packing for college right away and the other tuned his guitar so they could all sing together about how much their good fortune had improved that day. That son also started packing as he now knew he could afford to spend more time on the road singing with his band.
The owner’s daughter however was cautious. She said things like, what if they don’t pay as much as we’re getting now. What if our strawberries are not put out to sell in a timely manner so that they are not as delicious as they are supposed to be? What if this is bad for our business?
Everyone in the family ignored her pleas for caution, and the day came when the contracts arrived to be signed. The farmer and his sons saw the big dollars offered and signed the agreement and told the pickers and packers that thing would be changing so that their new big customer – the supermarket – would be able to have most of their stock, and so getting ready to sell only at the markets was no longer required. Everything would be and shipped twice a week in bulk from now on.
The farmer’s sons left the farm because they no longer needed to be there, the farmer brought new equipment to replace the time input his sons had previously been required to do, and the daughter watched as the harvest was picked up on Wednesday’s and Saturdays for the rest of the month.
After three weeks, the money was dwindling, and when the check finally arrived, not only was it late, but it was short by several thousand dollars because the supermarket rejected some of the berries that were bruised, and they could not sell 10% of the order. They also had to accommodate some of the stock not selling before it was past it’s best by dates, and that cost another 10% of their order.
One day, the trucks did not collect the order, because there was a flood in the next county, and the roads were closed. The supermarket cancelled the order for that day. The farmer called and complained and was told to read the fine print in his contract. Sadly, this was where he found the many clauses that meant the supermarket could use the floods, and also other environmental factors such as fire, storms, and transport issues to get out of an order being picked up and paid for.
The daughter found her father sitting quietly in the strawberry patch later that day, slowly weeding a row of plants and muttering angrily about how much he felt ripped off by the wonderful opportunity he thought he had been offered, but that in fact it had cost him his customers at the weekly market who had found other suppliers, and expensive equipment hire to replace his sons input into the busy farm.
The farmer turned to his daughter who was by now helping with the weeding. She said they could try and get out of their contract with the supermarket, but that they would have to grow more strawberries for the local markets again in addition to supplying the supermarket to ensure they had enough cashflow to keep their operation going and that was all there was to it.
And so that is what they did!
The moral of the story is this:
When you are a small business and a big company who does not understand your business wants to change your business, by offering what seems like a great opportunity for you at the time, you need to know how to understand their business systems, structure and operational policies so that you are able to protect yourself and your ongoing success.
The best way to ensure you can do this is to work on understanding The Gap Effect with Bronwyn Reid. CLICK here for details.
