In the early days of a startup (is three years in still considered early days? It feels like it to us), things rarely go as planned. It has taken us 13 seasonal launches to nail down and manage to stick to a schedule that sets us up for success. N&C Spring 2020 has seen record low amounts of last-minute scrambling, a (relatively) smooth design process, and an on time (early even) PO. We didn’t hit any major snags during production, and then the biggest surprise of all, no logistical issues in the shipment process. All the merchandise arrived at our warehouse on time and oh baby was it pretty!! We’ve got snappy greens and day brightening pinks. There’s a balmy marigold that I was a little nervous about but now that it’s here, I’m smitten.
But here we are, 24 hours from launch, and the world is about as chaotic as we’ve seen it. We’re one of the lucky small businesses that’s able to integrate social distancing into our operations with little to no interruption to service. Our team will be working from home and our fulfillment will be handled by one person at a time to ensure that there’s no unnecessary contact. While we’re all young and healthy, we know it’s important to do what we can to mitigate spread for the high-risk people in our lives.
Then came the discussion of our spring launch- do we push it back? Is it callus to move forward when there is such uncertainty? But the world marches on. While we look to the next few weeks and adjust behaviors and habits to quell the spread of COVID -19, we also must look beyond that. It is important that those who are able, continue to run their businesses. Those of us that can continue to contribute to the economy, should do so. It is important that we still shop small, that we still support local businesses in our community and those in service industries.
So, in keeping with that sentiment, we bring you our Spring 2020 Collection. We hope it brightens up this week a little bit. We hope that it makes you all think of sunny days ahead, because there will be sunny days ahead. It is a challenging time to run a small business, so in the spirit of giving back, we will be donating 15% of proceeds to the small businesses that aren’t able to run uninterrupted over the coming weeks or months – restaurants, bars, those without an online presence.
All our love, Chloe and Neely
