Want to know why I sweated through my nicest suit in Dec 2014?

This is the story of my 4th quarter crisis in 2014 which I sent to email subscribers last year. I found it while looking through other things and decided it was worth re-posting in honor of Small Business Saturday. It's the perfect small biz story! 

And all the holiday deals that result are happening again in 2016 -- Enjoy! 

HOLIDAYS 2014 WAS TOTAL CHAOS

First, I want to tell you why almost had a panic attack a year ago. It's a funny story.

After that, I'll tell you about why this matters for YOU. Because it does. You're getting something free out of this whole ordeal!

Last year was the first holiday season for Deck Around. I had a feeling it would be big but I had no idea how huge it would be... I completely sold out two weeks before Christmas. (Sorry! Get your order in before that happens again!)

I won't bore you with the details but juggling warehouses, logistics and manufacturing left me with no choice but to hand pack and ship some of last year's holiday orders myself. I thought, it'll be simple: pack, box, label. And that part WAS pretty simple. It was actually sort of fun to drink a six-pack and pack boxes with my girlfriend.

The problem comes next -- when you have hundreds of games packed into individual boxes and you need to mail them out. It's kind of unwieldy. It took me 30 minutes just to move them all downstairs.

I found a solution! USPS provides free "pickup" for large shipments. Great. I scheduled a pickup.

And another. And another. And another... because the USPS never showed up, not for a single appointment. I couldn't call them -- they wouldn't answer or return calls -- it was DECEMBER afterall.

So, hours before the shipping deadline I manned up and hauled hundreds of games to my car. I was going to do this pickup myself. And I was in a full suit, about to head to a holiday party. Fuck it. These games needed to go out.

When I arrived at the post office with my first haul, the staff was shocked. They're thinking: How many people is he giving Christmas gifts to? Is this guy Santa Claus?

It didn't take long for the manager to come out. And she made an ultimatum: the only way she was taking all these games in time for the Christmas cutoff was if I sorted them myself. She led me back to the smelly loading dock and I literally sorted hundreds of games according to which part of the country they were going. It sounds insane, but the pics prove it.

I HAD to get your orders out. And I did it!

The next day, I got an automatic email from the USPS: USPS Pickup Complete... This is to confirm that a successful Package Pickup was made as requested.

SOMEONE HAD THE NERVE. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

It's kinda funny though. I'm not complaining AT ALL about it.

I'm just never doing that again. I'm never going to be that sweaty and panicked in my holiday suit again.

I spent a lot of time this year finding a warehouse that could handle Deck Around's volume. And here's the hidden benefit: their shipping is cheaper! TAKE THAT USPS.

This means shipping Deck Around to you is a little less expensive (overall, I still lose money, I'm just losing less money this way). That's why I'm doing the promotion that Amazon and Best Buy and all of them do -- only this time, I won't have to get as sweaty over it:

FREE SHIPPING on Deck Around in the USA* until Christmas! Don't miss it.

*Sorry, international folks, that's a whole other story! But you're still getting new discounted shipping rates.

Head over to deckaround.com and buy some copies for the people on your list before it's too late!