Editing The Pen Addict 252/transcript (section)

== Inventory ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so when you started, when you were starting to collect inventory and start the online store, did you still have your day job at that time? Or did you just like up and quit and just put yourself into it? Or did you just kind of work both things, getting it ready?

'''Caroline Weaver:''' I had quit already. I really like just went for it. It was very risky in retrospect. I don't know what I was thinking. I was like 23. So I guess that probably helps.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's amazing. I didn't realize that. I didn't realize that there was just like, okay, we are done with this and now we're all in. But that's, you know, kind of, and I don't want to ruin the story that we'll get to later. You mentioned this in the book that, you know, you just kind of made the jump and went for it. How many people told you you were insane or this is a terrible idea or, you know, you can't do this or any of those things that, you know, a 23-year-old starting their first business doesn't want to hear who has an idea and a dream and everyone's, you know, shooting you down. Did that happen a lot?

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Oh, yeah. Pretty much everyone told me that. Even my own mother. No, yeah. I don't know. But, but, and I don't know. Nobody really like straight up told me like, you're crazy. You shouldn't be doing this. But, yeah. My family and my friends, they were all supportive, but I could definitely sense hesitation.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Yeah. They were all definitely very nervous for me. And only after it became a success did they admit this to me. So I'm grateful that they didn't try to crush my dreams at the time. Yeah. But it was pretty scary. I don't know. I think that might be one of my personality flaws is that when I have an idea in my mind, there's like no, there's no other way than just to just do it and do it really fast and just like do it 100%. And it's, it's been problematic. But in this case, I think it worked to my advantage.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I think, I think in this case, it's, it's pretty good. It was, it was a good move. So your online store, you started that. Were you just running that essentially out of your apartment? You know, this inventory in the, in the closet. How did all that work?

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Yeah. Like really actually in the closet, stacks and stacks and stacks of boxes. My whole apartment was just full of pencils. It started to smell like pencils too, which was really nice. But yeah, it was just in, in my apartment, just backing up orders on my dining table.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' When did that start? Like what was the date that it started? Not the exact date, but just in general.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' That would have been fall of 2015.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. So yeah. Gosh, it's amazing how fast this has gone.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Fall of 2014. No, I'm wrong. It would have been fall of 2014. Yeah.