Category: lessons

Posted in cookies, lessons, Life

We learned a lot at our first vendor event

Posted on by William Douthwaite

After about a year of making custom iced sugar cookies for birthdays, showers, weddings, and holidays, we decided to sell as a vendor at a fall festival. The one we picked was a big one, with a big up front fee, and a big historic crowd. We baked, decorated, and wrapped up hundreds of fall and Halloween cookies that were sure to sell like hotcakes.

That event never happened. Weather predictions, which in Florida are always accurate (lol), called for severe thunderstorms that weekend, so on Wednesday we got the message that it was rescheduled for February. February? None of what we baked would keep till or sell in February. We got our fee back, but what about all those cookies?

We hurriedly discounted our inventory for some of our faithful customers and were able to sell a decent amount of product. But driving through town, we saw a sign for another fall festival at a local private school. When I stopped in the front office, they told me they had no room for any more vendors. But when I stopped back a second time with some sample cookies, we were in!

The festival was just four hours for a single day, probably a better first time event for us. The morning was gray and drizzly, but we headed over with our tables, tent, and cookies, setting up in the school parking lot with lots of other vendors.

We got our tent, tables, banners, and cookie displays set up in about forty-five minutes. I thought our set up looked nicer than most of the others around us. Maybe I’m partial, but we had nice colors, displays, and banners. In any event, we were ready for the onslaught of cookie lovers!

We didn’t sell out, but we didn’t do badly for our first time out. Our most popular cookies were traditional ones, like peanut butter, chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, and one with M&Ms. We sold some of the printed and decorated iced sugar cookies, but not as many as we thought.

Many people came by and asked, “Are those all cookies?” Yeah, that’s all we sell! I guess some of the square cookies printed with fall designs looked like coasters. We also had lots of princesses, unicorns, and mermaids, along with sports themed cookies. Add to that lots of “drip” baseball, soccer, and football designs, and we had everything kids were looking for.

A good number of people asked about custom orders and took business cards. We saw several families I haven’t seen in years with kids who had grown up so quickly. I think the best part of the day was talking to people from the school, the community, and other vendors.

As I expected, we learned a lot from our first vendor event.

Most people paid with cash. But I also learned how to work the hardware to accept credit card payments. Some used their card for a two dollar purchase.

Basic cookies sold well. The seasonal cookies didn’t really make a splash. Cute cookies did ok. It’s really hard to figure out what people will buy. When you’re selling a product with a short shelf life, that’s important!

Our set up and tear down was easier than we thought. There are a few things we want to get for a better display next time.

I enjoyed this first vendor event. I liked talking with people and talking about our product and how we made everything. We didn’t expect to make a lot of money. Some of the day was for exposure, to secure future orders.

We asked a lot of people what we should make and how much would sell. The many different answers we got didn’t help at all. I’ll bet any vendor has great days and awful days, without much rhyme or reason. It’s all part of the adventure.

If you’ve read this far, you probably want to learn more about and order our cookies. Just go to backseatgracebakery.com!

Posted in lessons

A new perspective on partiality

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I was teaching a middle/high school class on a recent Sunday. We looked at the first part of James 2 and talked about the “sin of partiality.” I know that doesn’t seem like much of a sin, but in the early church it was a big deal.

In the adult world, partiality is huge. We place a lot of value on appearance, achievement, belief systems, political parties, wealth, race, and sexual orientation.

The students all said none of that really mattered to them. They’ve grown up in a much different world. I told them they are better adjusted than most of the grown-ups I know.

Finally, I said, “What about furries?” Everyone reacted with comments like, “No way,” “I’m not getting near them,” “Forget it.”

It took a while, but I hit a nerve, at least with this group. A furry is someone who dresses up and acts like an animal at home and in school. I never went to school with someone who had a tail coming out the back of their pants, paw-like mittens, and animal nose and ears. No one ever dressed like the cast of Cats. But you’ll find them in the schools, and they aren’t popular outside of their own private circle. It’s not just a costume, but part of their daily wardrobe.

It’s not that students are more tolerant. They just look down on different people for different reasons. We all do it. We all fall short in that area. We all have a lot to learn about other people.

Posted in lessons, Life

A classic: the cookie scam

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Our cottage bakery got an email asking about a cookie order for a corporate event. Other bakers with similar businesses had described these larger-than-usual orders as the real moneymakers.

Our excitement turned to disbelief once we read his request: “25 dozen of a 4-pack of cookies of different flavors with the company logo printed on it.” I did the math and wondered, “Three hundred four-packs?” That’s 1,200 cookies!

Our three-and-a-half inch printed iced cookies start at $4.00 each. He going to spend $4,800 on cookies? That’s too much. Let’s offer 2-1/2 inch cookies at $2.50 each. It would still be a $3,000 order, but maybe that’s what he wants.

That offer was too much for the event budget. He countered, “How about twenty dozen cookies?”

We replied, “We can do 240 three-inch cookies for $3.00 each, a total of $720.”

He was happy with that order. So were we. That’s still a lot of cookies! Could we deliver to the conference venue in a neighboring town? We said we could.

I emailed him the invoice so we could start on the order. He replied, “Can I pay by e-check?” Of course. Our invoice takes you to a payment site with credit card and ACH options.

But his idea of an e-check was totally different than ours. He wanted to write out a check, take a picture of it, and email the picture to us so we could deposit it using our bank’s mobile deposit option.

Red alert! Defcon 5! Danger, Will Robinson! Are you kidding? There’s no way I’m doing that. A picture of a check does work like the real thing, as long as the bank clears it. There’s the catch. It takes up to a week for that kind of deposit to clear.

I learned that this is a set-up for fraud. Someone sends you a check for more than the agreed upon amount. All you have to do is send them a check for the overpayment. But when their check doesn’t clear, they disappear with whatever money you sent them.

I told him I could only take payment through our payment portal. He said he couldn’t do that, but looked forward to working with us in the future. When I looked him up on the corporate website, guess what? No such guy.

This all happened a few months ago. When I looked back at his emails, the first subject line “Cookies Enquiries” should have clued me in from the start. His request for different “flavours” should have tipped me off, too.

Apparently scams and fraud are business as usual for small businesses. Don’t ever let your guard down.

Posted in lessons

How about five bucks?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

In hindsight, it was foolish to volunteer to sell a bunch of a friend’s stuff on eBay. I only say that because it’s harder than it sounds, it’s not as profitable as you might think, and it’s, frankly, a pain in the ass.

Some of the items I tried to sell were QVC Christmas figurines. Pretty, but not all that expensive. One listing included a pretty nice nativity with about sixteen pieces. When it didn’t even have any views last fall, I deeply discounted the asking price.

In November, I got some interest. One potential buyer wanted to buy several items together to save on shipping costs. No problem. We worked it out, I gave her a good deal, I boxed it all up and sent it out.

A month later, I got a message. “Oh, one of the shepherds had a broken head that had been glued back. Disappointed.” News to me. Everything was in the original form-fit styrofoam packaging. Was it that big of a deal?

I offered to send her other items that would match the set. I just wanted to clear my shelves. Plus, my wife had said, “If it doesn’t sell, it’s going to the thrift store.”

She didn’t want that. She wanted some kind of refund. One of sixteen pieces was damaged. You only paid about $25. What do you want? I offered her some other pieces I was trying to get rid of. Nope. She wanted cash. “How about $5?” Deal.

So, she got a sixteen piece nativity. She got it for $20. A repaired piece? I’ll bet almost everyone has a piece of their nativity that has been glued back together. And I’ll bet you put it out every year and don’t even think about it.

The good news: I’ve got almost everything I tried to sell off my shelf. Some I sold. Some I donated. Some I threw away. All that stuff found a home somewhere.

Posted in lessons, Life

Listing ended: better luck next time

Posted on by William Douthwaite
I could have had this watch for $3.25

I’ve begun doing some running again after a few years off. My feet still ache a little, but not enough to keep me away from a few miles here and there. I started carrying my iPhone with me so the Map My Run app could figure out the time and distance of each run around neighborhood streets.

I don’t especially like carrying anything on a run, so I thought I’d look into getting a GPS-equipped running watch. I had a bare-bones Garmin Forerunner 10 a decade ago. It did the job, but had lousy battery life. Some of the latest model Garmin watches can set you back more than a thousand dollars. Surely I can find something in-between on eBay.

And I did. Someone was offering a Garmin triathlon sports watch. Had some wear and tear, but fully waterproof and had nice battery life. It had one bid for $2.25 with five days to go. It was tested, working, included a charger, and could be returned for a refund if I wanted to send it back. What did I have to lose? I bid $3.25, with automatic increases up to $10.

With a day to go, I was the highest bidder at $10. But you know how that goes. Bidders lurk until the last minute to out bid you. No problem. There were lots of other watches for sale.

Then I got an alert that the auction had been cancelled. The watch was no longer for sale. A note said, “The item has been lost or broken.” Oops. But, an hour later, it was listed again, with the same $2.25 bid and a buy now option of $39.95.

The seller either didn’t know what he or she was doing, or they weren’t getting the bids they anticipated. Or, they were messing around and broke the watch. Or the dog chewed it up. Or they started working out again. Or they lost it. Who knows?

I know I’ll find a bargain. I’ll bet there are as many unused running watches out there as there are unused gym memberships. I come across new listings every day.

This happened to me once before, when I was bidding on a vintage Monopoly game. The price was low, I was the winning bidder, but the seller suddenly ended the auction. I found another one in minutes. Their loss.

Posted in lessons

A servant’s heart?

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A close friend of mine shared with me a conversation she had with one of her work superiors. She wanted to do better. He wanted to help her do better. It wasn’t an easy conversation but it went better than expected. At one point he said, “You’ve got a servant’s heart.”

A “servant’s heart” is something usually referred to in a spiritual context. But this moment was strictly secular. In the sacred realm we “serve” by spending our time or resources to help someone. In the secular world, it’s more about caring and helping someone.

I once had someone describe me as having a “servant’s heart.” A member of the church credited me with that attribute because I was willing to move tables or clean up a mess or carry out some trash. They meant I was willing to do a menial task usually assigned to someone else, like clean a bathroom. I never thought of such tasks as heroic, but it sure sounds good to have a “servant’s heart.”

I’ve been pondering this compliment. If I were a servant, I wouldn’t have a choice. Whether my heart were in it or not, I would have to do what I was told. My tasks would not be optional, but expected. My heart or feelings or spirit would have nothing to do with it. I would have no option.

So, a “servant’s heart’ has little to do with willingness and much to do with understanding who you are. You are not the boss of your life. Someone else is. Your tasks are not negotiable. You are a servant. You aren’t commended for doing your job. It’s your job.

If I’m a servant, it’s my job to care, to clean up, to be unappreciated, to be unnoticed and to be invisible.

That doesn’t sound like me. I like to be noticed, appreciated, compensated, commended, thanked and complimented.

If you are one of those who attribute a “servant’s heart” to me, I thank you. But I would also suggest that you don’t know me very well. My heart tends to think mostly about me rather than others. I doubt I deserve that title.

But I know many people who do. And I know someone who is the servant.

Posted in dying, Gospel, lessons, Ministry

SunPass, Jesus and me

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Florida_Toll_PlazaMy gospel illustration of the day popped into my head (thank you, Holy Spirit!) during a hospital visit with a friend who was pretty scared about her discharge, prognosis, treatments and eventually death itself.

I assured her that she would continue to receive good care from her doctors and nurses as well as from our Lord. But there was the rub. Not only did she believe she was being punished for past mistakes, she was worried about what purgatory would mean for her. I’d be scared, too. Technically, she identifies as Roman Catholic, but I’ve known her for a long time. I reminded her that Jesus had already been punished for her sins on the cross, so that was all taken care of. To illustrate, I said it’s like driving on a toll road. You don’t have to go through the toll booth and pay anything. You’ve got a SunPass, so you can cruise right through. I had just driven back and forth to the Orlando airport on 417, so the image was fresh in my mind. And it seemed to make sense to her.

She said, “Well, I trust you, so I guess that’s the way it is.” I replied, “Well, I got it from Jesus, and I know we can trust him.” The respiratory therapist finishing up her chart in the room concurred, and after a quick prayer I was on my way.

The SunPass stuck to my windshield had a powerful message to preach this week. Who knew?

Posted in fountain pens, joy, lessons

A moment of joy: from loose to snug

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Jinhao-X750-Shimmering-Sand-Medium-Nib-Fountain-PenOne of my favorite fountain pens is a Jinhao x750 that I guess you could say I actually got for free when I took advantage of a BOGO deal at the Goulet Pen Company. It’s got a medium nib with a really cool looking Shimmering Sands body, writes really smooth and has a little bit of heft to it, which I really like.

Unfortunately, after I had only used it for a few days, it wouldn’t cap snuggly. Now that’s not a big deal, but it was annoying. Capped, it would rattle just enough to bug me. But hey, it was free (even if  bought it, it costs less than $10), so whatever. I put it away, then got it out again when some other pens were out of ink. And that’s when it happened.

As paused while journaling, I was fiddling with it while posted, twisting it around, and when I capped it, it fit snuggly. I tend to twist a pen just a little when capping/uncapping, and that is how it worked loose. Again, this is pretty small potatoes, but I felt such joy in that moment. An ever-so-small annoyance solved. Just like that.

I had promised myself I would chronicle those instances in my life that bring me joy, and this is one of them. I find this fascinating. I don’t need something big, spectacular, expensive, or mind-blowing to bring me joy. Just something simple, small and even trivial.

What other simple things bring joy? Finding a dollar in a pair of jeans. Finding marrow bones for Samson in the freezer at Publix (lately, this has been a rare find). Reaching in the bag and finding one more french fry. Feeling a little hand grab my finger to walk with me.

What simple, ordinary moments bring you joy?

Posted in lessons, prayer, Rant

“After prayerful consideration…”

Posted on by William Douthwaite

umit-bulut-143016It’s certainly not a new way to begin a thought or statement, but lately I’ve been reflecting on the phrase, “After prayerful consideration…” I’ve heard it a lot of times and have always given credit to those who pray about whatever it is they are considering. However, I want to share a few reactions to those words.  Continue reading ““After prayerful consideration…”” →