Behind the scenes: how our fulfillment has evolved

For the first year of Tiny and Snail, Bobby and I were still moving North-South every 6 months for his golf career. Since we were a teeny tiny company at that point, I carefully boxed up our inventory and packaging supplies and packed it in the car.

I fulfilled orders from our bedroom in Fishers Island, NY and then again from our dining room in Miami Beach.

It became pretty clear that this wasn’t going to work for long since we wanted to grow our company…so it was a happy day for Tiny and Snail when Bobby got a position in Milwaukee.

We still planned to live in Miami for a couple months during the winter, so the days of hauling inventory weren’t totally over…but it was a step in the right direction.

We moved to Milwaukee, WI in 2018. We lucked out with the most amazing house to rent.

I set up shop with some baskets and shelving and fulfilled from the front room of the house. When we drove down to Miami for Bobby to teach during the winter, it was fun and also stressful. I had to guess at how many orders would come in during our time down there.

I estimated how many packaging supplies I’d need and how many of each card design I should take with me. If we ran out of a certain card during my time down south, we’d order more of that particular design. 

This stage was

fun,

scrappy,

and made me want to scream all at the same time.

At the beginning of 2020, Bobby was offered the Head Pro position at his golf course (yay!) and so we knew Milwaukee was going to officially be “home” for a long time.

We bought a place that was a huge fixer-upper (a four-plex!) and called the front units Sage House and Sunshine House.

First, I fulfilled from a tiny room up in Sage House:

Once we had finally renovated the downstairs unit, we moved into Sunshine House. Once again, I shifted all of our inventory.

It wasn’t a giant room, but Bobby helped design a layout with IKEA Billy Bookcases that maximized every inch of space. 

Things finally felt more stable and I expected to send packages from that space for quite awhile. But then…

Two years later I became pregnant with our first child, Everett. Sunshine House only has 2 small bedrooms…and one of those bedrooms was the home to 1000s of greeting cards.

We had exactly 9 months to figure something out. 😬

For months, I researched various fulfillment centers to see if I could finally outsource this giant part of the business. Every path turned into a dead end or was full of red flags.

So Bobby got to work deconstructing all those amazing bookcases and creating a new studio in our basement. Oh my word, it was SO much work.

One of the problems with fulfilling from our basement was that it would be impossible to grow and scale.

I could only get so many deliveries of 1000s of envelopes before we were maxed out on space.

I started researching fulfillment options again and, this time, the stars aligned. We found our perfect match with Carolyn – her family owns a printing business in Milwaukee.

Carolyn loves fulfillment, is energetic and detail-oriented, and had some unused rooms in their building that she was able to convert into the “Snail Lair.”

So exactly a year ago, we packed up every single card, envelope, and packaging supply from my basement and moved it over to Carolyn – in a snowstorm, no less. 🙈

The IKEA bookshelves were suddenly freed up, which was a good thing because I was pregnant with baby boy #2! Suddenly, the shelves got taken over with baby clothes, bottles, and toys. 

And now, 1 year after moving Tiny and Snail out of our basement, we’re deconstructing the bookshelves AGAIN because we’re moving to a new house with a bit more room.

(This house is also literally a 5 minute walk from our driveway to the edge of the golf course which will be a giant work/life balance upgrade for Bobby and our family.)

It’s been 3 years in a row that we’ve been doing MAJOR work in that basement and I’m tired. 🤣

I asked Bobby what he’d like to be doing this time next year and he immediately said, “Sipping a Mai Tai on a beach somewhere.” YES PLEASE.