Sometimes you have to leap before you look, and pray that you land without breaking all 206 bones in your body ~ Carol King

The time had come for our heroine to decide which path to take. If you are new to the Blog, welcome! Or if you have missed any previous episodes you can CATCH UP HERE!

July 2014

I was just yawning and stretching in bed when my phone began to ring. I peered at it with one eye open and the other shut. It was too early for my phone to be ringing. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a perky morning person. (Think Grumpy Cat) If you want to keep all of your teeth in tact it is best for you to approach me quietly in the mornings if you must approach me at all.

I was busy moving my phone forward and back trying to bring the screen into focus. Its tooooo early! I can’t see at this time of the morning.  I was still trying to bring my phone into focus when it stopped ringing. Good! I thought. A moment later a voice message notification came through. I managed to clear my vision enough to tap the voice message icon.

I listened dispassionately.

However what I heard made me spring out of my bed (and I do not SPRING before 9am) and rush into the bathroom to wash my face. I hurried back to my phone and listened to the message again.        

Oh My God! 

Oh My God! 

Oh My God!

Seriously? Oh My God!

The message was from a journalist who wanted to know if she could interview me for a newspaper. COULD SHE? Was that even a question? Hell Yes! I immediately called back and spoke to a very pleasant lady who explained how she had found me and which newspaper the interview was for and we also arranged a time for her to do the interview.

The newspaper was a local business paper and the article would be part of an ongoing series highlighting small local businesses. Cool, I thought. This could really boost my cookie sales. What great exposure this could be, I was excited.

However during the phone conversation I was asked a question that I answered with ease but caused me to stop and think on seriously afterwards. The lady told me that the criteria for the interview was that making cookies had to be my sole source of income and not a side job as it were. It was in fact my sole source of income but for the first time I was forced to think about my cookie making venture as an actual business.

Prior to that point I considered it as something I was doing until I got a job, but now this interview would be portraying me a business owner. Is that what I was? Is that what I wanted to be? This was some serious stuff to ponder. Could this really become my business? Did I even want to be a business owner? Oh my! Brain ache! These were questions that I most certainly did not have the answer too.

I spent the day with “The Question” going around and around in my head. What to do? What to do? Was I ready for this? Was there even a market for this? Suppose I failed miserably? It certainly would not be the first time.

One thing about me is that I do not procrastinate. A decision needed to be made so I made it. I would start a business. I would stop looking for a job and put my heart and soul into making it work. I have never been afraid to try new things and I have never backed away from a challenge. I was gonna do this and I was gonna do it BIG.

Just one thing though…

How was I going to start a business by the following week?

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Stumped Again?

Join me next time to find out if our intrepid entrepreneur manages to weasel her way out of yet another sticky situation.

And be sure to SUBSCRIBE so you NEVER MISS an EPISODE!!

Carol xx

When dealing with the general public it is clear that there is great need for the patience of Job. This is one of many lessons learned by your intrepid entrepreneur on her journey to turn $50 into a successful business.

If you are new to the Blog, welcome! Or if you have missed any previous episodes you can CATCH UP HERE! So let’s get on with the story and discover if our heroine held her tongue or if she had visions of breaking out “The Chair” again J

July 2014

The response to my cookies was awesome. The operations manager loved them, the area manager loved them and it was just a matter of finalizing a few details and they would be placing their first order. Happy much? I’d say! 

There were no words to describe my joy and relief. It was so exciting to think that in just a matter of days my cookies would be selling right across the country.  This was just the kind of break I needed.

A couple of days passed and I had not heard from the operations manager so I decided to go to the head office. On arrival I was told that there was a “concern” about my cookies. I asked what the concern was and I was told. “We think there will be a lot of breakages”.

BREAKAGES?

What do you mean breakages? I thought. The great thing about my shortbread cookies is that they are nice and thick as a traditional shortbread ought to be. So I really was not understanding why they thought they would have a lot of breakages.

So I asked the operations manager why she thought there would be a lot of breakages.

“Because our staff members are not professionally trained and they can be quite rough at times”.

QUITE ROUGH?

Sooo, would they be throwing the cookies at their customers? I wondered.

I guess she saw the look on my face and proceeded to try to explain further. I wasn’t buying it at all. According to her, the staff, are so incompetent that she believed they would man-handle the cookies and cause breakages.

My first thought was if your staff are so terribly incompetent why exactly are they still YOUR staff? But hey, mine is not to reason why. My concern was letting her know that my shortbread was not to be trifled with. My shortbread has grit, (figuratively speaking), stamina and could stand up to the rigors of man-handling by staff members.

I had a brain wave and I decided to go with it. I asked the operations manager if I could give her a demonstration to ease her mind. She agreed, so the next day I went to her office armed with six of my Ninja shortbread, a pair of tongs and a roll of foil.

I was shown into the staff lunch room and asked to wait. After a short time the operations manager joined me. I took a piece of foil and laid it out on the table. I then opened the container and took out a cookie with the tongs.

I went to great pains to grab the shortbread as roughly as I could. I then literally held the shortbread above my head and let it go. It dropped with a bump on the foil.

IT DID NOT BREAK!

Just for effect I took it up again and held it above my head once more and dropped it. This time a few crumbs broke off around the edges but still the cookie did not break. And to make sure there was no more doubt in her mind I took up the cookie one more time and dropped it. Once again some of the edges crumbled but again it did not break.

With a smile of self-satisfaction I held out the tongs to the operations manager. I suggested she do it and handle the cookie the same way she believed the staff would. She picked up a cookie and hit it on the edge of the table. My heart skipped a beat! What the hell!

Although my ninja warrior shortbread was robust enough to take a fair beating they were not bullet proof. They were still cookies after all.

A larger piece broke off but once again it did not break completely.

In my head I was doing a happy dance. But I did notice the slight look of disappointment on the operations managers face. It was almost as though she wanted it to break. Hmmmm!

We chatted for a few minutes and she agreed that my shortbread had stamina. I had almost completed a smile when she said she was still concerned about breakages and wanted to look into packaging them individually so that the staff would not have to put them into bags using tongs.

Is she for real? I thought. Or is she just a goat? I literally just threw my cookies all over her staff kitchen and then she would turn round and tell me she still has concerns! She hit the damn thing on the edge of a table for Christ sake. How much more evidence did she need?

A jack hammer?

Across the head perhaps!

WOOOO SAAAAAHHHH!!! Breath, relax, be calm.

The operations manager informed me she would continue to try to source individual packaging for the cookies and she would get back to me by the end of the week. I took up what was left of my ninja warrior shortbread and departed.

Disappointed! Confused! Frustrated!

And worst of all…Back to square one.

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Will our intrepid entrepreneur ever catch a break?

Join me next time to find out.

And be sure to hit the SUBSCRIBE BUTTON in the SIDE-BAR so you NEVER MISS an EPISODE!!

Carol xx

Sassy Cookies Barbados has an Official Fan Page on Facebook @ www.Facebook.com/SassyCookiesBarbados GO LIKE THE PAGE BEFORE YOU CONTINUE. THANKS J

It’s amazing how someone you considered to be a good friend could suddenly become insulting, negative and condescending simply because you choose to live your life differently.  

This was just one of the many difficult situations handled with poise and grace by your intrepid entrepreneur as she attempts to turn a miserly $50 dollars into a thriving business.

If you are new to the Blog, welcome! Or if you have missed any previous episodes you can CATCH UP HERE! So let’s get on with the story and find out if that so called friend has had her teeth removed without anesthetic?

 July 2014

Driving home from town I saw a friend of mine at the bus stop so I stopped and picked her up. Chatting on the way and I told her about the café that had agreed to take my cookies. I was a little surprised about her lack of enthusiasm about my good fortune.

My friend knew all about my losing my job and how difficult things had been for me financially. So when she offered no response to my news I asked her if something was wrong. A shrug of the shoulders was all I received by way of a reply.

We had known each other for a long time so I was not going to settle for that as an answer. We were pulling up to my house so I held off my interrogation until we got inside. I took out the ingredients I needed and began to make the cookie dough. I got a drink for my friend and asked her if she was going to tell me what was wrong or was I going to have to beat it out of her.

“Why are you baking cookies, why don’t you do some proper cooking? You are a trained experienced chef why are you wasting time making these silly little cookies?”

Have you ever had one of those moments when someone says something so totally inappropriate to you that you tilt your head to the side with a quizzical look on your face whilst trying to figure out if they are crazy, if they’re joking or if you should beat them around the head with a chair?

I looked at my friend for a long time and it was clear to me that she was totally serious. Because she had this incredulous expression on her face and was obviously waiting for me to explain myself.

It took me a long time to respond. I really did not have any intention of explaining myself to her or anyone else. I did not feel that I needed too. In fact I was disappointed that someone who had been my friend for such a long time would expect me too.

“Considering what I have been through this last couple of months I am really shocked and disappointed that you would say something like that to me.” I said.  

“Also I did not know that you were such a snob. I wonder if you would be so quick to condemn and judge if you found yourself in the same situation. Would you be willing to let your home be taken from you or let you children go hungry whilst you searched and waited for a job that allowed you to do PROPER COOKING?”

The look on her face told me that she felt my words deeply. So much so that she finished her drink and said she had to go. I walked her to the door and wished her a safe journey home. I went back to my cookie dough but the conversation we had just kept going around and around in my head.

Why would she say something like that to me? What’s so terrible about making cookies? It’s not like I am going to be doing this for the rest of my life and even if I did choose to do it for the rest of my life SO WHAT?

It’s amazing how arrogant people can be. PROPER COOKING! There are chefs who cook in establishments ranging from Michelin starred restaurants to fast food restaurants to hospitals and schools and the one thing we all have in common regardless of the type of food we are producing is, we all work damn hard for our money. And I for one would never look down my nose at another chef just because the kitchen he or she works in does not have any accolades. And neither should anyone else.

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And there you have it. The moral of the story...Support your friend’s regardless of what they do for a living. (As long as it’s legal J) Ours is not to judge!

Join me next time and REMEMBER to CLICK the LINK in the Sidebar to SUBSCRIBE.

Carol xoxo

And by the way head over to www.Facebook.com/SassyCookiesBarbados and LIKE the Official Sassy Cookies Fan Page.

Why are there no pawn shops here? How is a person to raise a little extra cash without selling the family silver? Assuming one has family, and silver. These are some of the burning questions our intrepid entrepreneur has to tackle in the all new installment of 50 Dollars and a Prayer.

                     

If you are new to the Blog, welcome! Or if you have missed any previous episodes you can CATCH UP HERE! So without further ado, let’s find out if the family silver is in jeopardy.

July 2014

Why do such highs have to be accompanied by such lows? For the first time since I was laid off, here was a real chance for me to make some money and what happens? I don’t have the money to buy the ingredients to make the cookies to make the money. SIGH!

AND I only had till the following day to make the cookies because in my wisdom I opened up my big fat mouth and said “Yes sure I can do that for you by tomorrow.” Why, why, why, do I do these things? Why couldn’t I have said two days instead of the following day? What was I thinking? Oh yes; that’s right, I wasn’t thinking?

OK OK beating yourself up is not going to help this situation. You need a solution. What are your options? First of all let’s work out how much money you need. I sat down with a piece of paper and pen and made a list of the ingredients I needed and the packaging I needed. As I was already familiar with all of the prices I was able to quickly work out how much money I needed.

To my surprise it was not as much as I thought. But as I had no money what so ever it could as well have been a million dollars. If I was in England I would have taken up all the valuable electrical goods in my house and taken them to the pawn shop. But we don’t have those here so what’s a girl to do to raise money in a hurry?

No one owed me money so there was no calling in a debt. My gold jewellery was not nearly heavy enough to even consider the cash for gold stores. And no my family did not have any silver. I paced up and down my living room. Something had to be done and fast.

An hour later I was still pacing and I was no closer to a solution than I was before. It was just after 8pm and I decided to relax. I knew from experience that stressing never brings about solutions. I turned the TV on and started watching an old episode of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Damn Avery Brooks was sexy as all hell though.

Half way through the episode Dr Bashir was reminding Major Kira about the 100 Bajoran litas she owed him from the “friendly” wager they’d had the week before and as usual Kira displayed her anger management issues by arguing that the bet was only for 50 Bajoran litas.

That was when it hit me; the check, the bank. How long has it been? I went running into my bedroom to find the receipt. It seemed to take an eternity to find it but eventually it turned up. I rushed to my calendar to check how many weeks had passed and to my joy it was five.

My aunt had sent me a check for my birthday but because it takes 20 working days for an overseas check to clear and I had totally forgotten about it. I took a quick glance at the clock and I still had time to get to the supermarket before it closed. So I jumped in the car and headed out.

Smiling all the way home I could now get up in the morning and bake the cookies ordered and I would be able to rush into town and get the packaging that I needed also.

It was a good day!

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And there you have it; good news for a change. Lol J

Join me next time and REMEMBER to CLICK the LINK BELOW to SUBSCRIBE.

Carol xoxo

“Don’t worry about funding,  you don’t need it. Today it’s cheaper to start a business than ever.”- Noah Everett, founder Twitpic.

Just as well because this crazy newbie entrepreneur took it upon herself to try to turn $50 dollars into a successful business. That said at the end of our last installment our heroine had just about managed not to hit a man with a chair at a posh hotel in a bid to secure a job.

Strange way to go about securing a job you might say. But there were extenuating circumstances. If you have not read the last episode or have missed previous ones “CATCH UP HERE”. Otherwise scroll down for the latest installment.

July 2014

You’re too old. You’re too old. You’re too old. 

The words kept ringing in my ears.

You’re too old.

How could I be too old for goodness sake?

Yes it’s true I am over the age of 30 but how could I be too old? How could they be so stupid, unfair and unwise to turn away the best candidate for the job for the sake of a couple of years? I got home and flopped on my bed. I suddenly felt very old indeed.

What would I do if I didn’t get a job? How was I going to survive? I certainly couldn’t sell cookies for a living. Who ever heard of such a thing? There had to be someone willing to give me a job. After all I had plenty of great experience and I was qualified and I had great references. I just needed to apply somewhere that recognized quality when they saw it and would not be foolish enough to let that quality slip through their fingers.

So what to do next? Send out more applications? Go back to the coffee shops I had given samples too? Go back to my previous place of work and beg for my old job back? Those were all possibilities, well, all accept the last one. Wild horses could not drag me to back to working for “Pinky and the Brain.” Sending in applications would take some time, so while waiting for replies I could try to see if I could sell some cookies.

The next day I mailed my resume to 25 hotels and restaurants. I was determined to get a job. I knew there just had to be someone looking for an employee just like me and I was going to make sure that they found me.

That afternoon I set out to revisit all of the coffee shops I had left samples with. When I got to the first coffee shop I was informed that the supervisor had gone home for the day but I could call her the following day. At my second stop I was told that they make their own pastries and do not buy from outside sources. (Errrm, so why did you take the sample?). Greediness I’m thinking.

At coffee shop number three I was told that my cookies were too buttery. I was speechless. I truly did not know what to say. “They are too buttery.” That’s like complaining that your lasagne has too much pasta.  The whole delectable beauty of shortbread is that it is rich and buttery and delicious. The owner then proceeded to ask me if I could make them with margarine instead of butter.

Rapid blinking ensued. I could not quite comprehend. I told her that I could indeed make them with margarine but if I did I would not be making shortbread cookies. The owner said she did not mind. I told her I did mind. If I am to attach my name to something then it has to be the best quality that I can produce. I could already tell that this lady was not someone with whom I needed to do business.

All she wanted was a cheap cookie to sell. I was not the person for her and my shortbread cookies were definitely not the cookies for her. I left and went to coffee shop number 4.

For the first time that day I had an encouraging response. The lady I spoke too said she had shared the sample I left with the other folks in her office and they all agreed that they were fantastic and they definitely wanted my cookies for their coffee shops.

Note I said coffee SHOPsssssss!

I was ecstatic! Elated! Relieved beyond measure; the lady said she would need to get the final approval from the area manager and asked if I could bring another sample later in the week for said manager to taste on her return to the country. Of course that was not a problem for me and I hopped skipped and jumped happily through the door and onto coffee shop number 5.

I am continually amazed at how complex and how simple life can be from one moment to the next. I had spent 45 minutes earlier that day trying to get a woman to understand the purpose of sticking to an original recipe and it just wasn’t sinking in at all, and then a couple of hours later I walk into another coffee shop and am told yes we loved your cookies can we have three dozen for tomorrow.

Just like that!

Needless to say it was a good day! I travelled home happy in the knowledge that I had one definite yes and one probable yes. I just had one ity-bity problem; where was I going to get the money from to buy enough ingredients to make three dozen, 3 inch shortbread cookies?

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Join me next time to find out if I had to sell the family jewels to scrape together the money.

CLICK THE SUBSCRIBE LINK TO MAKE SURE YOU NEVER MISS AN INSTALLMENT

Love

Carol xx

Have you ever had one of those moments when someone makes a statement that hits you so hard you feel as though you are the recipient of a Mike Tyson sucker punch? Well our intrepid entrepreneur was all caught up in one of those moments at the end of the last installment. Scroll down to find out if it was K.O. or a standing count.
If you are new to the blog, WELCOME, thanks for joining us. You can “CATCH UP HERE” on previous episodes before continuing on.

 July 2014

“Miss King, Miss King Can you hear me?”

I snapped back to the present. The food and beverage manager was waving his hand in front of my face. I looked at him with complete disdain.

“Yes I heard you”

Never in my life had I wanted to hit a person with a chair more. I was angry, livid in fact. Disappointed and annoyed. This this this…. Person had just informed me that I was the perfect candidate for the job but………. I WAS TOO OLD!!


WHAT!! Is this man for real? Too old? What the hell! Is it even legal to tell someone that? I asked him if he was serious and was told that they wanted someone under the age of 30. The look of disdain swept across my face once again. I gathered up my bag and portfolio, and was about to leave but I did have just one thing I wanted to say.

 I asked the food and beverage manager if he understood basic arithmetic. Now it was his turn to look incredulous. So I asked the question a second time.

“Do you understand basic arithmetic?”

“How could I possibly have with job if I could not add and subtract” he snapped.

“Then I assume you slept your way to the top. You have had my CV since yesterday; you have walked around with it in your hand the entire time I’ve been here. My CV clearly states my date of birth. If you were someone who could comprehend basic arithmetic you would not have wasted my time and yours with this second interview.”

With that I swept out the room with great dramatic effect, the only thing I had left to use as ammunition. To say I was a trifle upset would be like saying the Sahara desert is a tad warm. GROSS UNDERSTATEMENT! If it was possible for a car to run on anger I would not have had to refuel for at least a month.

Why was youth more important than knowledge and experience? Why was light skin more acceptable than dark skin? Why was it that in 2014 questions like that still needed to be asked? And more importantly, will a time ever come when sexism, racism and ageism are no longer an issue?

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Join me next time to find out if this is the end of the line.

 **CLICK THE SUBSCRIBE LINK ON THE RIGHT TO MAKE SURE YOU NEVER MISS AN INSTALLMENT**

 Love Carol xx