I have been selling peanut butter so that I have a source of income that is a little bit stable. There are some pressures that come in my life financially that slow down progress at the plot, and this is my conscious attempt to reduce these. The business is growing slowly, and growth is slow because of my marketing belief. What I do is to let people know I have peanut butter, I do not necessarily become aggressive, with a mission of convincing people with no intentions of buying my product, to buy it. I want to fill up an existing need, as opposed to creating one. Those that taste it, come back for it, and the number of people is increasing steadily. There are areas that I am looking at, adding on to the quality of the product:
Finding a way of keeping the prices stable.
Maintaining the quality of the product.
Making sure it's always available.
Reducing the cost of production ( including recycling what we can).
These are things that are out of my control, and the peanut butter business owner is the one who can control most of these things. Already, the price of the peanut butter rose a few weeks after I started selling, and the quantity within the container was reduced. I asked if I could still buy at the same price, and he agreed. I have started asking my customers, who are my neighbors, if they can give me back their empty containers, and some of them are willing to do this. I can go with these containers back to the peanut butter guy at no cost, on his part.
The fortunate part is that we have a relationship, which is making us look beyond just making money. I started buying extra peanut butter to fill up the bottles to the original level. This reduces my profits, but it has helped in keeping my product a stable and consistent brand, and I now have regular customers.
It became obvious that I needed to meet with the peanut butter guy to see how we can help each other out, to make our businesses genuinely stable, including looking for cheaper sources of nuts or capital to stock up nuts and as a result, prevent effects of fluctuating raw material prices in the market. A few days ago we talked about things that make any business in our environment so difficult to grow and we came up with a map on how, from his side he can stabilize his business, which in turn will make my small business stable.
Some days after our discussion, he met someone from Women's Affairs who saw his project, and she thought it was a really good one in comparison to business they usually try to help. She wondered if he had women he was working with so that he could be assisted in growing his business. She had seen the bottle neck in his production process. The person he thought to call was me, and this was because of the talk we had. For him, I was already involved in his business, but it was just not formal. If he starts getting help, it means stability for my small business, too. So I am considering being a part of this. Of course, it will be after I hear what it means to be involved and whether it aligns with developing a regenerative business.