Happy New Year

I’ve been a bit slack in the blog post department! However, it’s a New Year and with it comes the promise of more posts so that you can keep up-to-date on the shenanigans here at Groovy Goat. Follow our blog to learn about all aspects of our endeavor, from the highs and lows of entrepreneurship to life on a small farm to experimenting with fresh new products. It’s going to be a great 2020!

Love What I Do

If you have read any of my previous posts you will pick up on a theme that I pretty much love what I do. I enjoy the animals, enjoy the people and enjoy making product. Like everything, there is always a downside. My downside is TIME. There is just not enough time in one day to complete all the things I want or need to get done. Enter “The Help”……

Staffing a Small Business

For any business, the people you hire should be an extension of yourself. They are the person you are when you are not there. You want them to conduct themselves properly and hopefully get their tasks done efficiently, work well with others, come on time, and so on. This is a list of a good employee attributes, but far too often this is a wish list. A list that you are constantly picking one or two items off and compromising on the rest. You tell yourself  “ah I can train them to do that better” or ” it’s not that big of a deal”. Staffing is one of the biggest issues within my business community and I don’t see it getting any better. Fortunately for Groovy Goat we have sneaked by most of these issues.

Groovy Goat Joys

We rang in 2020 and with every new year comes the daunting task of hiring new staff. Not this year for Groovy Goat! We have nailed down our dream team. We have a front end clerk that is ready to learn and experienced enough to run the show on her own if we need her too. A product maker that is an artisan at heart and has business in her head. A summer student that teaches us about our website and social media, and farm volunteers that bring the largest amount of joy and happiness to the entire business. Collectively they are a creative, self motivated group that pitch ME ideas daily. It’s all I can do to keep up with them! It adds a lot of excitement to our business and letting them make decisions gives them some control over their own jobs, which I hope makes them feel like Groovy Goat is part theirs too. Not having to focus on staffing is allowing me to spend more time on other things like developing online marketing strategies, ordering material for new products and looking at overseas printers for packaging. I am feeling so positive for what the future holds for Groovy Goat. Now the only staffing challenge “How to keep them?”