Where’s the white stuff?

In Vermont, talking about the weather is a completely acceptable conversation topic.  It’s not considered small talk, but a full on, in-depth, serious discussion.  Not this winter, though.  This winter, we’re destined for dreary, freezing days with random dustings of snow.  I’ve given up watching the weather reports altogether, except to perk up my ears and experience snow envy every time I hear talk about the mid-Atlantic states getting yet another blizzard and declaring states of emergency.  (FYI – in Vermont, the kids would be lucky if they got a full day off of school, much less a delay.  No states of emergency here.)

Don’t get me wrong; I detest snowy driving as much as the next person, and frankly would rather sit inside with a good book than be on the mountain.  I’m not one for winter activities that require you to voluntarily be cold.  But why live in Vermont and take pride in our proximity to the North Pole (this is big for a Southern girl like me) if we’re going to be able to see the grass in January? 

 I will say, though, that snowshoeing has grown on me.  It’s a great workout (especially if you’re pregnant; it’s good exercise but low impact, and you’d look great and be warm wearing our Ella Thermal Hoodie and our Ryan Everywhere Pants!), requires minimal gear that’s minimally technical, and can be done just about anywhere – as long as you have SNOW.  Which we don’t.  But we will… in May.

(Snow or no, it’s nice to be blogging – inside, warm, in my pjs –  for Steph and Jakfish!  Thanks for this opportunity, Steph!)

Rebecca

Your vacation is over…………….

Running a small business can be crazy-making.  From spreadsheets to marketing plans to networking, it all has to find a place in the big picture.  Sometimes the picture gets so big that small pieces of it have to take a back seat to the more pressing issues (of which there are many).  For a few months now, the blog has slipped from the radar and I’ve been hoping to resurrect it every week since it’s taken a hiatus (I like to think of it as a blog vacation – even blogs need a break!).  Enter my friend and future colleague (I can always dream….)  Rebecca!  She’s been serving as a strategic sounding board for me and I am so happy to report that she has agreed to help me bring the blog back.  Note to blog:  your vacation is over.  Warning to blog:  Rebecca will not be as kind to you as I have been (no more free time for you!).  Welcome Rebecca!

~Steph

outdoor kids!

Burlington, VT was just ranked #8 by Backpacker Magazine in the top 25 places to raise an outdoor kid!  See who else is there……………….

good dog, I mean colleague……………….

Since I work by myself, there is nobody to chat with, except for Emma my dog.  Although she is very good company, I sometimes find myself wishing for a water cooler to gather around.  It’s tough to sit around and bitch about your boss when a) there is no boss and b) there is no one to bitch to.  Plus, there is no one to share good news with either.

To try and break up the day I take some breaks and do some important fact-finding work, like reading People Magazine online.  I know this might not seem like work, but you never know when a celebrity might be spotted wearing a Jakfish classic.  Occasionally, I spend a little time surfing around other cool websites for inspiration or even (shocking!) peeping at the websites of the competition.  Recently, when I was snooping on a competitor’s site, I was reading through their media list to see what magazines they had been featured in.  Suddenly, my eye caught something in one of the photos – it was a Jakfish classic appearing alongside their product in a past edition of a magazine.  Who knew!

Where’s the water cooler when you need it………………………………..

this is much harder than it looks…………….

I was psyched when I found out that WCAX (a local VT tv station) was planning to film a segment about Jakfish for the series called “Made in Vermont.”  Not only is it great to sell products made in Vermont, but it is even better that people in Vermont care so much about Vermont that they bother to have a special segment of the news devoted to it.  Go Jakfish!

In any case, the news channel thought it would be good from a human interest perspective to have one of my kids present for the taping (since they are the real impetus behind the business idea).  What the reporter didn’t think about was my mental health related to having my excited 4.5-year-old son, Eamon, in tow.  Before we left home, we packed up a big bag of goodies for him for use while I was being interviewed.  We had it all:  books, Playmobil, crayons, paper, snacks,  etc.  We even stopped at the store on the way to the interview and bought a small Lego jet kit for use “in case of emergency.”  During the ride up to the factory, Eamon & I had a long conversation about how to behave during the interview when he wasn’t being filmed.  Needless to say, I felt very prepared.

When we got to the factory and met the news crew, my (sometimes shy) son decided to turn into any extremely chatty boy.  Suddenly he had lots of things to tell me as I was giving some background info on Jakfish to the reporter.  I pulled out the big bag of tricks to try to help him focus on something else while I got prepared for the interview.  He chose to have some snacks to stay quiet.

We were finally ready for the interview to begin and as the camera started rolling, Eamon stood up from his snack and wandered in front of me, sticking his face right in front of the camera sideways as if he was the Mahna Mahna guy from the old episode of the Muppet Show.  I tried to remain calm (you would too if the cameras were rolling on you) and ask him politely to sit down.  That seemed to work.  For about 1 minute.

After the 2nd incident with his face in the camera, I resorted to what most parents do in a time of crisis:  bribery.  We took a quick walk out to the candy machine and bought him a big bag of m&ms.  Although when I bought the m&ms, I failed to take into account the loud crinkling noise that happens when eating m&ms from the bag.  Ah, the joys of motherhood, plastered across my face in front of a tv camera!

Finally, the interview was mostly done and the news guy said he would like to get a shot of me with Eamon.  To have something for my son to focus on, the news guy asked me it we could take out the Lego jet and start putting it together.  That was no problem, until they decided that they were going to use the metaphor of building a jet to compare it to building a business.  At that point they decided that they wanted me to put the entire jet together with the camera rolling.  Talk about stress!

As my husband will attest, I tend not to read directions for anything.  For whatever reason, I have a hard time following directions and have determined that they are only included for people who can’t intuitively do things.  At that moment, I began wondering (although thankfully not aloud), “Who is the dumbass now?”

This is what I learned that day:  putting together a (very small) Lego jet in front of a rolling tv camera is much harder than building a business.  Thank goodness for film editors.

Want to see the clip of the interview and the footage of me, my son and the jet?  Here it is.  Just don’t focus on the sweat stains.

pump it up!

Want to know how fit you are (or at least how fit your neighbors are)?  Check out the latest American Fitness Index study just published (http://www.americanfitnessindex.org/#quickview).  Fascinating.  Remember, it’s just a comparison of urban areas, so all of us small-towners don’t show up in the comparison.  It’s nice to be off the hook for something…………..

do you know who makes your clothing?

Get up, take a shower (or not!) and put on clothing.  Sound familiar?  We do it every day and sometimes (if you live in Vermont and the weather can vary by 30 degrees from morning until night) multiple times a day.  But when is the last time you thought about the PEOPLE who make your clothes?  Probably infrequently (relative to the number of times you get dressed in a year) and quite possibly, never.  One of the best things about owning a company which does all of its manufacturing in the US (and more specifically in Vermont) is that you can know the people who make your clothing.  You can put a name and a face to the ambiguous concept of clothing manufacting and you can find out interesting things about the person who is actually MAKING your clothing.  Meet Leslie.  If you’re wearing Jakfish, now you know who makes your clothing.

I have seen the future………………….

Jakfish clothing has always been made in Vermont, but as the company continued to grow I was having deep worries about how to keep all of the manufacturing in the state that I love so much.  Since most manufacturing happens overseas, it is difficult enough to find a domestic manufacturer, let alone one who has the capacity and proper machine capability to meet the needs of a garment business (add the Vermont factor in and you’re bordering on hopeless, or so I though).  Although I have never considered overseas manufacturing as an option, I felt that I would eventually have to begin manufacturing in another state to keep product inventory levels where they need to be.  This would have been sad for me and sad for the Jakfish brand.

Well, all that changed last week when I got word of a little known (to me at least) manufacturing facility in a far-flung location in the hills of VT.  After a visit to the factory, I felt a wave of relief wash over me.  For such a small state, there are an amazing number or resources here (and many more interesting people).  With any luck at all, Jakfish clothing will always be made in Vermont.  Take that China.

for all the runners out there (or walkers)……….

Found a great site that helps you identify good running routes that you designate and lets you see the routes of others in your area (you can also log in your training stats).  It’s called Map My Run.  See you running around the ‘hood (I’ll be the one fooling with my ipod)!

truth: I love high school career fairs.

Recently I was asked if I would like to attend a high school career fair and talk about my job/business/education/career training with groups of students as they learned about different professions.  Since I love to chat and I find high school students fascinating, I agreed to attend.  When I got to the high school gym, my table was placed under 2 big signs saying, “Fashion Designer” and “Entrepreneur.”  I littered my table with as many colorful fabric selections and chocolates as I could, hoping to draw the students in for good conversations and then I waited.  When the students finally started filing by my table, they were curious, but not very talkative, and they were mostly young women (drawn in by the allure of the words, “Fashion Designer”).  Most conversations went something like this:

Me:  “Hi.  How’s it going?  Do you have any questions?’
HS Student:  “Um, good.  No.”
Me:  “What year are you?”
HS Student:  “Junior.”
Me:  “Do you have any idea what you would like to do for a job later on?”
HS Student:  “No.”
Me:  “Do you have any questions?”
HS Student:  “No.”
Me:  “Do you have plans for college?”
HS Student:  “I’m not sure yet.”
LONG PAUSE
Me:  “Would you like some chocolate.”
HS Student:  “O.k.”
And then they would walk away.

After dealing with a similar conversation for a couple of hours, I was very happy when a boy named Alex came along.  He seemed to be genuinely interested in talking to me.  He talked about his ideas for businesses, his plans for college and his hope that he and his future college roommate would be the next Facebook young millionaires.  He was the fascinating high school student I had been waiting to talk to.

After about a half-hour of chat with Alex, a group of his friends came up to him and tried to get him to join them.  He did not stop chatting, he just waved at them and continued on this his questions and conversation.  The group of boys came back a few minutes later with a couple of them snickering at Alex and one of them said, “So you want to be a fashion designer?”  I immediately had this sinking feeling.  Was Alex actually making fun of me with this entire conversation?  I could feel myself beginning to get flustered – I felt like I was back in high school again.  Suddenly, Alex turned to his friends and said, “Guys, shut up!  This woman is an entrepreneur.  Do you know what that means?  It means she owns her own business!”  My hope was restored.  I love high school career fairs.