Yes it is very true… We would be the first ones to admit that we have indeed been very bad at updating our blog…. We are sorry fans… However we have a really good reason…. We have simply been too busy….
Our LUNA candles are rocking, reaching more and more people monthly…Our Lifestyle candles have also been very successful… And we are about to launch a new line of candles…. Called the HEAVENLY candle…. It is designed for the export market and hopefully will be coming to a retail store near you…
Oct
21
we have been slacking on the CM blog postings
Jun
15
Can’t believe it is already June 2011
We have been very lazy in updating our blog.
Really it hasn’t been lazyness, more busyness…
To bring you all up to speed:
We have designed a botanical wax that uses all natural vegetable waxes. We have designed this to be competitive with the toxic stuff coming out of China. It is about the same price and of course all natural. We add essential oils for delicious fragrances.
Our LUNA line is up and running, and we are very excited about this prospect.
We have also been concentrating on exporting our candles to the USA, Europe and Australia… Look for them soon and more information on our website.
Apart from that, we are just busy busy busy….
Dec
11
November came and went
And it was our busiest period yet. Our B2B as well as our Exquisite lines were in high demand.
We launched our Flower candles (made with 100% pure flower essential oils and our eco wax).
We are in discussions with many importers from other countries and the prospects are looking good.
We have simply been so busy that we have been unable to update our blog.
However we though a quick word would be nice.
CM
Nov
28
From ™ to ®
We are pleased to announce that the name Crawford Market has had a final transformation. It has gone from a trademark (™) to a registration (®).
This is a very happy occasion and we would like to thank all of our customers for keeping us going these 2 years.
Hurrah for the ®!
Nov
02
Commercial Clients addendum
We are pleased to announce an agreement between Mumbai’s largest event management company (weddings, parties, events in general) and us. We have become the exclusive supplier of candles of all sorts to National Decorator. Our first job was the Vivek Oberoi wedding reception held at the ITC Maratha on the 31st of October 2010.
Mr Oberoi designed a scent with National Decorators and us, and we supplied over 1500 candles for the event.
We are pleased to hear that is was a success and look forward to the future with National Decorators.
We would also like to thank the Oberoi family and to wish them all the greatest success.
Oct
25
Commercial Clients
Commercial Clients
And how we deal with them
Commercial clients are our second most valuable asset, after our employees.
They are the ones that in the end pay our bills.
Our job is to service them with the highest professionalism and promptness.
Our job is to exceed their expectations and create value in the service we provide to them.
We are pleased to announce that our company is poised to become the exclusive supplier to one of Mumbai’s largest wedding planners. We look forward to working with them and helping them achieve their goals of creating unique environments of light and smell for their events.
We are extremely pleased to have this opportunity and look forward to exceeding the clients expectations.
Hurrah to the sales team and technical team for supporting the company and following through with this very important client.
Oct
24
Product shows
Product shows, also known as shows are great
Well,
the busy ones anyways…
Today was our second year at Candies diwali BAZZAR & BLING in bandra.
It was a very positive feedback
We covered our costs
Met our clients
Had one client that swore by our products
It was great.
We introduced our candles to some new customers
Fragranced the space with our lemongrass and hoped for no rain
(we were lucky this day)
Got some good directions and understanding of our strategy
(Missed kd)
Oct
14
Give them an inch they take a mile
Something I learnt a long time ago, when I was in my early twenties doing graphic design work and desktop publishing, is that if you charge someone for your time they take your time seriously and respect it. If you give them your time for free, they don’t respect you or your time.
This lesson has needed to be revisited just recently for our company and I am glad it has as I think it is an invaluable lesson to learn.
The philosophy
We are a company that believes in customer care. Someone is dissatisfied with a product we have made, we replace it. No questions asked.
Someone wants to customize our product range, also known as third party manufacturing, we do it if the economies are right.
It is simple, we are a company that wants to have a great customer care ethos and we work very hard to achieve it.
We supervise printing of boxes with company logos, as we have found in our dealings good printers. We supervise custom stickers for our glasses, as we have specs for those. And we do all of this simply because if we take a job on we want our clients to be satisfied.
The details
Recently, a client of ours has designed a specialty box for one of our products that they will sell in their establishment. Not a problem. They have hired a design firm
To do the work opting not to have us design the box for them. I can understand them wanting their own design firm as it probably ties into their whole identity and is easier logistically for them. Again not a problem.
The problem lies in the design firms passing off the not finished job to us and asking us to complete it.
The small error
The error that I personally, the owner of the company did, was to accept the incomplete job a while back and help them in setting it up for printing. A one off was fine as I simply wanted to kick start this relationship which seemed blocked at this juncture. However, alas, the client had changes. Which of course is their right and completely in line with their process.
The big error
The larger error in this design kick around was the design firm. They effectively, it would seem to me, outsourced the work to someone else or hired a freelancer, and that person is no longer around to complete the job.
So now the design firm is putting us in the middle of their mess and asking us to change colours etc in their design.
My hesitations
Taking responsibility for someone’s design by helping them finish it, put the company in a situation of responsibility. A place I do not want to be in for a few reasons, the biggest being that we are not getting a design fee plus I always feel too many cooks spoil the broth…. So after many e-mails and kick arounds and a few conversations by myself and our head of sales, I sent off an e-mail stating my intent to divorce ourselves from this process. Asking the clients design firm to simply provide us with a final design from which we will coordinate with our printing people.
Conclusion
It is fine to try to help someone along in a process. Just don’t get in too far and don’t take on a responsibility if you do not want to have it.
Oct
11
projects
There are many details omitted from this blog posting
Projects are like destinations,
camping trips
or long drives between cities…
I like to look at them like sailing trips
From the idea to the product…
It is a very exciting time for the company
I would like to congratulate our R&D division and the production team for a job well done….
Lots of hard work and not in vain 
Oct
07
Save a rupee forego a lahk
Indians are funny!
Well, by funny I mean, they would rather save a rupee in the short term than spend that extra rupee and make a hundred thousand rupees, also known as a lahk.
1 lahk = 100,000 (one hundred thousand)
1 crore = 10,000,000 (ten million)
Now I do not blame them for doing this. They have been, and in many ways still are, a very poor country. And the mentality has always been save what you can see instead of spending it to potentially make more. Perhaps it has to do with the fatalism that permeates the culture here.
The USA, or rather, the American mentality is not like that. It is always about the potential and not about the now. Perhaps, as the current economic situation might reflect, that too is a little extreme.
Perhaps there is a happy medium?
Perhaps somewhere between the save a rupee but forego a lahk and spend now for the potentiality of more later, there is a balance.
Perhaps I have to frame the question differently?
Let me give you a scenario:
Person A works for company X.
He is in charge of a project 1 for that company.
Company X wants to move the project 1 along at a quick pace as they have a company Y that is interested in helping them expand the project.
Person A makes decisions that save company X a few thousand rupees, but push back the development of project 1 but weeks.
Now I ask…. Which is more efficient? Saving the few thousand rupees immediately and pushing the project back, or moving the project along?
I suppose the answer lies in the priorities given to person A by company X.
However, even though the priorities have been laid out clearly, the mentality is still the same…. Save a rupee… It can be almost akin to cut off your nose despite your face kind of scenario if one isn’t careful….