Wholesale Because Magic Happens - Ancient Wisdom - Giftware and Aromatherapy Supplier

Greetings from Ubud, Bali

It's getting hot here.. Tomas and Raul both just arrived. Raul (our IT wizard) and Tomas (our marketing wizard) - yes the old team is together and hopefully the magic productivity will spark. Tomas met our Bali team - Ringo and for the first time Bondan. So let's see if magic happens.

Last week I was telling you about the strange noises - that turned out to be a flashback to my childhood. If you missed it you can read about it here.

Quite a few people wrote to me, advising us against getting in on the Lato-lato craze (in last weeks newsletter). Mostly on the basis that these things can break little fingers, and after the craze dies out there will be tons and tons of extra non-biodegradable plastic on this earth. Yes guys you are absolutely right, so we will leave this craze to the other wholesalers. But when you see it on every street corner.. remember where you heard about it first :)

Ubud is a hot-bed of creativity, you can walk around the streets here and see tomorrows trends unfurling their magical wings day by day. I already have a little list of awesome potential next level products and ideas to boost the businesses of you our wonderful customers.. Now Tomas and Raul and Bondan our creative magical team are on it.. lets see what happens..

Tomas and Raul get to work..

Last week I was telling you about setting up a new business here - it's going to be your superpower - and now the team is here we can really make it happen.

We need a business bank account - obviously.. and I expected to spend a few hours in the bank filling forms and jumping through hoops. But Ringo called me and said come to the office in the morning, the bank manager and assistant are coming to us... our lawyer a nice lady called Corry also came to advise and we had the meeting in our office / showroom at AW Frangipani Warehouse.

Such lovely people from PermataBank, and banking services and apps that make UK banking look so last century. I remember opening a personal account with them ten years ago and being surprised about how informal and security free the whole experience was. But this was next level service. When was the last time you bank teller bowed with namaste style greeting?

Even though there was like fifty forms to fill in and signatures on every page, they came prepared with almost everything prefilled in, the lawyer checked everything and Ringo and I just signed and signed..

The business bank account has all the usability I would expect.. multi currency, interest on balances, ability to create payments (the accountant) and approve them by another person. So absolute control.

Our dream offices are actual quite close to the warehouse.. there is a restaurant and creative hub called Masa-Masa. It's in a totally undeveloped area, pretty much standing alone in a rice terrace area not too far from the sea.

The owner is a lovely gentleman from Sumatra. He bought the land and invested in it only recently. There is an open plan area restaurant decorated impeccably in Sumatran styles and two showrooms that display a huge collection of premium quality Indonesian giftware.. yes this guy has been in the giftware business almost as long as me. He has a team of designers and marketing people working from Joglo style offices in the grounds..

Some of the space - just enough for our start-up - is available.. and I already pitched him with the idea we could rent the space for a couple of years. After a few days he sent me a long WhatsApp apologising and saying that he was sorry but they didn't feel they could host us..

So we went for lunch, Tomas, Raul, Bondan, Ringo and myself. The guy was there in the restaurant area and greeted me warmly.. I introduced him to Tomas and Raul and he granted us a second guided tour.. Tomas turned on the easy-going charm and maybe it worked.. he said he would re-think our offer, speak to his team and get back to us next week.

OK there are a few options on the table, but for me this feels good. Close to the AW warehouse, not far from the city, beautiful place, tasty food, perfect coffee, already with giftware connections and lovely people. So this is my dream location to plant and grow our new business. Well as they say.. if you don't have a dream how can you have a dream come true. Fingers crossed.

Well it's the "Season of Love" in full swing.. are you ready? Valentine's day is very soon, and then Mother's Day.. and the Wedding season.. At AW we have what you need to be ready and able to satisfy your customers.. check out our Soap Flower products, perfect and top selling.. Bath Bombs are trending again.. and we have a bigger and better range.. Candles are trending.. and again you won't find better..

Get ready for the Season of Love. You can make the Magic Happen in your business today.

More news next week - take care.

Hopefully will have good news about the new office.

David