Fiesta for a folder.

Today we bought a folder. We're going to celebrate with a glass of champagne. We wouldn't normally celebrate stationery purchases, we've never thrown a party for a pen or a held a barbecue for some bubblewrap but this time it's different. This folder is special.

When we were in the process of creating Lanther Black, we often envisioned the milestones that we hoped to reach. "Imagine when we're in 100 shops!" "Imagine when we sell 10,000 cards!" It's a great feeling to tick off these goals one by one but we get just as much satisfaction from much smaller and seemingly insignificant events. Like buying a folder. 

When we first started, we had one folder which contained all of our sales invoices as well as our purchase invoices. Every financial transaction associated with Lanther Black fit snugly into this one single folder. Until one day it didn't. The day that we had to buy a second folder because our sales invoices would no longer fit was an unexpected day of jubilation. I don't think many small business owners dream of the day that they'll need more than one folder, it certainly wasn't on our goals list, but when the day came it was super exciting. The new folder was a small symbol of the progress that we had made.

Just like the first time that the VAT return showed that we owed money. Again, "Imagine when we pay taxes" was never a situation that we aspired to but that day prompted an unexpected happy dance. It was the first quarter that the business had made more than it had spent. Another small but significant step.

The day that we realised our next exhibition stand was bigger than our dining room and we'd have to find another place to prepare. The day that we received our 24 page brochure and remembered that our first brochure was a single A4 sheet folded in half. The day that we googled 'storage space' because we looked around the house and realised we were living in a giant box fort. It's very easy to miss these little events when we're focusing on the bigger picture but they're just as important as any sales target. The folder that we bought today wasn't just a folder, it was our 4th folder and it may sound small but clearing a new shelf for it felt pretty big. So we'll raise a glass to our little achievements and we'll acknowledge our tiny milestones. Here's to our new folder and here's to the small steps by which we cover great distances.