I am in no position to complain. Some things were great, some not so much, but we faired better than most. Starting a company during a pandemic was at the same time a perfect time and a terrible time to do it. Good because I had some spare time early on, but bad because there are shortages of everything, long lead times, delays, and borderline chaos out there! Now that might be a little dramatic, but it has been much more complicated than it should have been getting the parts and pieces we need to make tents…or even getting tents here! Recently, we lost our first order because we couldn’t deliver and it was my fault. It is unfortunate and disapointing, but if we learn from it and grow because of it, I can accept that defeat. The good news is that the customer could get a high-quality product from one of our competitors so at least they are taken care of. Sure, I would have liked to be the person who sold him his tent, but in the end, it’s not about me. It’s about the customer… it’s always about the customer.
We have some exciting things we are working on this year. I thought half of them would be released by now, but gosh darn it if things don’t always go as planned. Products that were so clear in my head and what I thought would be a couple of weeks to get out the door have turned out to take months and still are not available for sale. I’ve been snake bit so many times that maybe I should make and sell snake-proof chaps…wait a minute!
What I have learned in the last year+ is you need to stay positive, keep grinding, and don’t lose faith. It will work out if you work it out, so that’s what we are doing here at Narwhal. We are plugging away, keeping our eye on the prize (and lots of other tired-out cliches as well). And I believe we will get there. By this time next year, we will have made ourselves into enough of a company that buying from us won’t just be an experiment by a curious customer or a kind gesture by my aunt in Wisconsin trying to support the cause, but real customers buying products from us because our products are better than our competitors It will happen, you just got to believe!…oh and work very hard!
A Startup In A Pandemic