Inside the main office of the Strawberry Bluff Farm and Dairy, Leigh pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut. Then, she leaned back in her chair and sighed. She looked out across the rolling green fields dotted with the figures of her 250 dairy goats and down at the stack of orders on her desk.
Her husband, Kip walked in. "What's wrong?" He asked. "Kip, I just can't do this any more," she replied. "Between the website, the catalogue, our regular clients, and now the soap products, I just can't keep up with the orders. I mean, it's great that we're so busy, and our inventory is fine, but I can't do the things I need to in the cheese kitchens or with the milk-soap makers, because all I do is take orders. Something has got to change." "Well, let's hire some help then," Kip said. "I don't want to hire a bunch of sales people or office workers, because we are an artisanal family business and that's what makes us special. If we expand, then we are just like everybody else, and we lose what makes us different. But, if I don’t get back to the cheese making and soap supervision, then we lose anyway." "Do you want to drop the milk-soap line? It's really taking off, but we can drop it if it's all too much," Kip replied. "No, I don't. People are so excited about it. I'm getting calls everyday from people who have just heard about it from friends. I even got a call from a woman three states away whose sister was raving about it." Kip frowned at the floor. He knew that Leigh was a sharp businessperson, and he was proud of the business they had built together selling artisanal cheeses to gourmets and restaurants across the country. Kip knew his own skills were strongest in animal husbandry and that their herd of Saanen, French Alpine and Swiss Oberhasli goats were among the finest anywhere. Their chèvre and fromage blanc cheeses had even earned nods from the American Cheese Society. "We'll think of something. Why don't we call it a night for now?" Kip asked. The next day, Kip called to explain the problem that Strawberry Bluff Farm and Dairy was having coping with demand. In no time at all, the Dairy's telephone and Internet orders were routed directly to the customer care center. In addition, Kip arranged to outsource all of the dairy's routine business calls, and to have all messages sent directly to Leigh and Kip through alphanumeric pagers with full email capabilities. Three weeks later, Kip found Leigh in the kitchens happily planting nasturtium flowers into a sea of Crottins de chèvre. He noticed that her beltpager had a light dusting of rice flour and herbs. "Kip," Leigh called, "you are a genius. Orders have been rolling in, everything is under control, and you will not believe how great these crottins look!" Kip smiled. He wasn't too bad as a businessman himself.
