Shipping 101

So you want to know about shipping? 

It's hard. The journey to get a can in your hand is a long one. Let's start with importing and exporting.

Step 1. The export team and import team exchange about 450 emails and texts between us and ocean logistics companies.

Step 2. Money gets sent around the world, paint is purchased, and by the time the money clears, we've gotten to 500 emails, the paint goes to a boat, and the boat sets sail.

Step 3. The boat arrives, if its busy, it can wait in a harbour for days, sometimes weeks. There is even a charge for this. Yes, we have to pay for a boat to float.

Step 4. The paint gets unloaded, a broker tells the customs agent what it is, gives them more emails, and sometimes they inspect it, sometimes not.

Step 5. The paint vanishes into thin air then reappears somewhere and you get an email saying its now in some facility waiting to be put on a train or a truck. 

Step 6. Choo choo, the train or the truck bring it to a place where it gets put on to a million other truck and it eventually lands at our warehouse. 

Step 7. You wait for your logistics company to tell you it will arrive on your February 29 at 9am, and then it doesn't, and then the trucking person says they will be there at 3pm, and then they show up at 7am the next day calling you non stop. Congrats, the paint has landed. Better hope it isn't broken. Take pics and videos.

So now it's in Canada.

Step 1. Your paint is in a warehouse, your back yard, your grandmas garage, or wherever you've decided to stash it. You did it. Sort of.

Step 2. You have to decide how much paint you will sell, as you are a business. How the products are going to move it around a giant country? Gas isn't cheap, and paint can only be shipped a certain way. Start calling companies to see who will take your paint on their trucks.

Step 3. You found a company who will ship your paint, but within safe legal limits for small amounts, but for large amounts, you have to find someone else. Fire up the search engine and start calling people.

Step 4. Negotiate your rate and hope you sell enough to keep it. Grandma needs to ship presents? Do it through your shipping account. Keep that rate low.

Step 5. Buy shipping supplies, tape, printers, and a bunch of other things you don't want to spend money on. You might even need a fax machine.

Step 6. if you sell to customers directly, build a website, and get the shipping cost of every shipping zone your shipping agent offers, call the help desk, and do your best to average out the price of shipping so people don't get mad at you. (They will)

Step 7. Accept the fact Canada is huge and you will lose money when you average out the cost. Ask yourself why it costs so much to ship to certain regions. Ask your courier account manager too, they won't have a clue.

Step 8. Do a bunch of math, make spread sheets. Enter data. Start to think you are an accountant.

Step 9. Hope people understand and don't yell at you about things you can't control (they will).

Step 10. Realize you're going to take a haircut on some rates and maybe make up some of it on others, realize shipping is the biggest obsticle in getting your business of getting paint into someones hands and that they understand this shit isn't easy.

Step 11. Wonder what you are doing with your life, but know you have a good product and you've done your best to shop around, negotiate, hustle, and try get it to people because you believe in it. Otherwise, why are you even doing this? 

Step 12. Ignore the instagram DMs from people you don't know who are saying they get paint for less that any distributor pays and say they will pay a maximum of $1.00 and demand sponsorship with their 22 instagram followers. You'll get a lot of these. Sometimes they even photoshop old price lists (this is great as many of us doing distro already know what we pay, so you can all laugh together).

 

Get it in and get it gone.

Step 1. You made spreadsheets, you did math, you convinced someone to make a spreadsheet formula for you, now you you think you have a set price. Wrong. you don't.

Step 2. You average out different rates and realize you want to keep prices fair but all these costs sure stack up. You've got a good product, you wanna get it out there. You work through your spreadsheet again, do some more math, see where you can take a loss, where you can get a win.

Step 3. You set your price and keep it transparent so everyone knows they are all paying the same from you, you don't play favourites, you get some wins, and you get some losses but you think you'll do ok.

Step 4. You set up rules, set fair pricing, and hope you can get as many cans in hands as possible and that people understand a country as big as Canada will vary with pricing and that if you buy more, you pay less, if you live remote things just cost more and trust your supplier will lower their prices if they catch a break.

Step 5. Hope your customers understand how it works and that you're doing the best you can for them because you believe in what you are doing and risking it all trying to make a small business work. Make sure you try something new before you write it off.