In Times Like These

We are interrupting our usual blog topics for a blog that is more small business focused.

Being a small business owner is by far the most challenging job I’ve ever had, outside of being a parent maybe. Everyday I’m in charge of this business and what happens or doesn’t happen. (Arctic Lynx remains a very small team of people, there are NOT other individuals making big decisions, it’s me, Michelle.) Switching multiple roles throughout the day, completing tasks that in larger organizations have entire departments or at least multiple employees, and constantly trying to separate what started as a passion into what the passion needs to thrive as a business. It’s tough and work days can be head spinning.  Sometimes I yearn for a boss to just tell me what to do.

Even though it’s challenging it is also incredibly rewarding. Interacting with customers will ALWAYS be my favorite part of the job. But today I write this blog to share what we are doing behind the scenes at Arctic Lynx to adapt in times like these.

For months now, I haven’t talked about tariffs on our social channels or in our emails because frankly, I didn’t want to. But here we are. The tariffs are expensive. They are an additional cost to our business OVER and ABOVE what we were paying prior. The fabric that we order is now more expensive. And fabric is a big part of our business, it’s what we use to make products. So now, as we order fabric to replace current items or test out a new item, that cost has increased roughly 20% over what it was in the past. Increased costs hit all businesses but for small businesses it can often be the difference between a business staying open or closing or offering a new product or not. Small businesses don’t have the same resources as bigger businesses.

Customer experience and satisfaction is important to me, so for now, we haven’t increased our prices and we still offer free shipping and returns within the US. What that means is we are just making less for every item we sell, maybe not the best for the business, but this choice feels the best to me for our customers.

We’ve spent our time over the last several months really looking to collaborate with other brands and offer our products in limited physical store fronts or online shops. To name a few, you can now purchase 3 products from our friends at Kindred Bravely on our website (www.arcticlynxmaternity.com). For years customers have asked for a nursing bra or nursing tank and we haven’t had the resources to create one, but now you can order one right through our shop and it will ship directly to you. We also have partnered with Molly and her amazing team at Baby Booty in Portland, ME and Dedham, MA. Both locations carry a limited amount of our products and if you’re a Baby Booty member you even receive a special discount in store!

We’re working on other partnerships behind the scenes and hope we can offer more value to YOU with each specific and intentional collaboration. 

Take good care,

Michelle