Most of the time I write about the tough side of business and the incredible number of obstactles one must overcome to become a success. Sometimes things do go right and you can celebrate an accomplishment. It is these small victories that give us hope and energy to carry on.

Two-and-a-half years ago, we sampled our product to a company in France. We believe they are similar to the Natural Wonder stores we see in the malls here. Two weeks ago, they placed a "trial" order for 300 units of our product. It will be our largest single invoice and the funds will be wired to our bank account the day we ship. Pretty exciting for our small concern!

Also about two years ago, we began doing business with the Good Catalog Company in Oregon. We contacted them because of a mention in this newsletter. We have been doing a good business with them ever since.

They recently selected our product to go into their wholesale catalog -- a catalog sent to thousands of retail buyers across the country. We pay for this with our product. Rather than sending them a large check for the catalog charge, they take the money in trade on what they do on our product in their retail catalogs. We pay them in the wholesale dollar value of our product. This seems to me to be a good deal since otherwise we would have to pay for this exposure out of profit dollars.

In any case, the resultant inquiries have been incredible. It is as if we had a large national sales force beating the bushes for us. For a small manufacturer, it's a real good deal.

If your small company has found a clever, low-cost way of getting things done, let us know through this newsletter. We all need all the help we can get.