It’s been a wild couple of weeks since we received the loan. We’ve facing supply chain issues, uncertainty with factories, and a recession. We also had a photoshoot for our new crop top that just launched (it’s seriously so soft, you should check it out) and I’ve had quite a bit going on personally with my health. For a business owner, there’s not much separation between personal and business; at least not right now. Realizing this has forced me to be more mindful of my own health and also realize I need to have systems in place for if I can’t work. Part of the reason we’ve had a delay with the shorts (besides the funding debacles) is my own limitations. I was in a challenging season personally that made working on the business difficult. As a result, things that needed to happen didn’t happen. Ultimately, it’s cost us almost a year of revenue. Devastating to say the least. It’s been a hard and painful lesson to learn, but a good lesson to learn early.

After 9 months of working on a restock, I can finally (hopefully) say we will have shorts in the next 3 months. We are upgrading the fabric and if all is well with the samples we’ll start production shortly after. One benefit of the delay is we are actually able to ship via air for this round. Woohoo! At one point, we were laughed at when we tried to arrange air transport. If you weren’t Nike or Adidas there was no air shipment available. Just another small business challenge.

One thing I love about running a business is there is always a new challenge and something new to learn. On the flip side, the hardest thing about running a business is there is always a new challenge and something new to learn. Google is my most trusted advisor most days. I’ve realized starting a business is the easy part. Is it scary? Absolutely. Is it daunting? Of course. However, you’ll never know everything you need to know and you’ll never grow until you start. The easy part is starting, keeping it going and growing has been much harder, but so rewarding. PHNX has not been without challenges, but we’re just getting started and we can’t wait to share this journey with you.