Change and the Art of Perserverance

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, “Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” At the Quacker Gift Shop, we started with a simple idea - to bring smiles to everyone we meet. What has happened has been nothing short of incredible - our business has taken flight on the Internet, at our retail store and coming in July, to a wholesale operation that will highlight our own products as well as other lines carefully selected for their whimsy, quality and dedication to the customer.

A recent post to the blog commented that it seemed the corporate offices and warehouse were empty. That's only partially true. As in any endeavor, change is a constant. As Longfellow points out, a single know rarely opens the door. When we opened the warehouse, it had a small showroom designed to allow our festival and show customers a place to see our little ducks when a show was not available. To our surprise, the same customers who came to the shows wanted to buy from the warehouse. We didn't have enough space, and that's why in August of 2009 we opened our first retail store in historic Englewood, CO. This year we were honored by Westword Magazine with a Best of Denver, 2010 award. In January we created LS2M Krown Distributing, a wholesale firm designed to distribute ducks on a wholesale level. This too has taken off, and less than a year from the date of our store opening we will be opening our showroom at the Denver Merchandise Mart. because of our continued expansion, the need for offices with our warehouse or unnecessary, as out time will be spent with our customers directly. We still warehouse, but the location doesn't require offices. LS2M Krown will allow us to reach more retail stores across the country. Our Bath Products under the Delish BodyWorks name is going national, and the ever increasing demand for duckies grows as well. We will be labeling under the name Quacker Creations and selling to other gift stores across the country. We currently have retailers for our products in

South Carolina, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Colorado in many mountain towns and the front range.


Getting back to Longfellow; as a business owner or entrepreneur it is so important to remember that perseverance is not just making it through the day by day. You have to be willing to knock on those doors, letting some close and looking for more to open. Keep on smiling and watch for our newest ventures to take flight!

It is a lot of work just to be found!

Today we went to the book store and spent hours learning how the 'experts' make blogging a good part of business acumen.  Many of the tools we already utilize, some were new ideas.  I think the biggest challenge is to keep up the balance of dailiness in the store and internet and wholesale business, along with building links and blogs and a cohesive strategy of PR and promotion.  One of the new ideas was to find more ways to register on directories and to list our b log with Technorati.  This code KJHJC7XT7FPF had to be listed to validate the identify of the Quacker team.  It sure is a lot of work, just to be found!