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Notes & build log

What we’re building, what broke, and what we learned along the way.

25 posts

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Journal

You're going to be short this week: the heads-up that keeps the account

A how-to on the shortfall heads-up: the message a producer sends once they can see they won't fill an order, days before delivery, so the kitchen can re-plan instead of finding out when the box lands light. Covers what the message says, who to tell first across a handful of accounts, not over-promising, and follow-through. First person from the microgreens and chef sides. General: no research or application notes attached, no figures beyond the five-to-ten range. One link to the delivery-receiving post; light makeweek mention, no claim it forecasts yield.

#shortfall #customer-comms #wholesale #reliability

Journal

The account sheet: the fixed facts about a café you keep re-asking

A tool/template piece on the per-account record producers skip: the fixed facts about each trade account (delivery day and door, who receives and who pays, how they order, pack size and price, terms, invoice name and email) that otherwise live in the order thread. Includes a build-by-hand layout and a handover test. Grounded in the microgreens side and the decade on the buying end. General: no research attached. This revision removes the critic's blocker (the invented delivery-door hunting scene and the sharpened "order changed every week") and softens the "every third week" cadence.

#template #wholesale #accounts #onboarding

Journal

The standing order that never stood

A named-problem piece on the wholesale "standing order" that isn't: a recurring order changes just often enough that you re-check and re-key it by hand every week, and that maintenance never gets logged as work. First person from the microgreens side, five-to-ten accounts. This revision removes the critic's sole blocker, the invented "three accounts" threshold, replacing it with "when you're small", since the only account figure available is the recorded five-to-ten range. Recognition only, no product pitch. General throughout; no research or applications attached.

#standing-orders #recurring #wholesale #orders

Journal

How to approach a café cold, from the chef who used to bin those emails

A how-to on approaching a café or restaurant cold, written from the buying side: the moment the approach lands in a kitchen, why it's a buying decision about reliability, timing and channel, leading with the facts that let a chef say yes, a sample that makes no work, and a follow-up that isn't pestering. Grounded in the decade on the buying end and the microgreens side of selling to chefs. General throughout; no research or application notes attached, no figures used, no invented anecdotes. Links the one-page wholesale price list post.

#wholesale #getting-accounts #cold-approach #chefs

Journal

Chasing an invoice from a customer you can't afford to annoy

A how-to on chasing an overdue trade invoice from a customer you can't afford to lose: why the standard escalation ladder doesn't fit a producer with a handful of accounts, chasing before the due date so it reads as admin, wording the chase around the invoice not the person, and how to raise it by phone when it's genuinely late. First person from the microgreens invoicing that slipped and the decade on the buying end. General throughout; no figures, as none are recorded, and no research or application notes were attached.

#invoicing #getting-paid #late-payment #customer-comms

Journal

How to give trade customers an order cut-off without sounding like you're firing them

A product-free how-to on giving trade customers an order cut-off: why it's a production decision rather than an admin one, where to put it in the week, wording that reads as service rather than rejection, putting it in writing where the order happens, and handling the genuine exception without dissolving the rule. Grounded in the microgreens experience of planning from scattered messages plus memory; no figures used, as none are recorded, and no research or applications with notes were attached. Links the wholesale price list and the WhatsApp-threads posts.

#order-cutoff #orders #planning #wholesale

Journal

The chef who put you on the menu just left, and took your account with them

A named-problem piece on the restaurant account that was really a relationship with one chef: when that chef moves on, the standing order quietly stops and the producer finds out weeks later. Written first person from the chef decade and the microgreens side; general throughout, no figures beyond the recorded five-to-ten range. This revision applies the critique's grounding blocker (removing the decade from the supplier-choosing role) and its two tidies (restoring 'at the busiest point' on the range, and fixing a POV slip to first person).

#wholesale #customer-relationships #churn #restaurants

Journal

Setting a minimum order that doesn't cost you the account

A product-free how-to on setting a wholesale minimum order: why the cost of a drop is roughly flat whatever the order size, a three-number way to find your break-even and set the minimum above it, and how to introduce one to a long-standing under-minimum customer without it reading as a rejection. General throughout, as no research was attached and neither application left a note; no figures used, since none are in the ledger and the idea says to use the structure of the calculation rather than invented numbers. Links the price-increase and wholesale price-list posts.

#pricing #wholesale #minimums #how-to

Journal

Why a roastery can't roast ahead to get the week calm

A vertical probe on the wholesale-supplying coffee roastery: the week is two demands on one roaster and one pile of green, under a freshness clock you can't pause. The café deadline is the fixed thing worth planning from a settled list; the shelf is the guess. Roast-specifics run as the trade's own account, since no research was attached and neither of the two applications (one a roastery) left a note to quote. First-person grounding is the microgreens parallel only. Wanted URLs to cite the freshness windows and the commit-Monday/roast-Wednesday/deliver-Thursday rhythm, but none were attached.

#roastery #coffee #vertical-probe #wholesale

Journal

The one-page spec a chef needs before your product goes on the menu

A how-to on the one-page ingredient-and-allergen spec a trade buyer needs before they can put your product on a menu: what goes on it, why the exposure is theirs once it is in their dish, why single-ingredient producers are not exempt, and a plain layout you can build by hand. Written from the decade on the buying side and the microgreens side. General and not legal advice: no research or applications attached, no statute named, no figures. The piece states plainly the producer writes, keeps and sends the spec; makeweek only carries the handover.

#allergens #wholesale #getting-orders #product-spec

Journal

The one-page run sheet: what actually goes in each box this morning

A product-free, build-it-by-hand one-page pick-and-deliver run sheet for a small-batch trade producer: one row per customer, packed in delivery order, a change column and a total to tick against. Distinguishes it from the production plan and the price list. Grounded in the microgreens experience (packing and delivering off scattered messages, five-to-ten accounts); no figures beyond that range, as none are recorded and no research or applications with notes were attached. Wanted a real anecdote of a wrong box going to the wrong café but none is in the ledger, so kept it general.

#template #packing #delivery #orders

Journal

What a chef does with your delivery in the two minutes after it lands

A how-to on wholesale delivery written from the receiving side: what a chef checks in the couple of minutes after your boxes land — order match, quality, a docket that reconciles — and the one or two things that make a busy kitchen stop and inspect. Grounded in the decade on the buying end and the microgreens packing/delivery side. General throughout: no research or applications attached, and no figures used beyond the ledger. Light makeweek mention as where a docket or invoice is produced; no claim it labels, tracks stock or reconciles automatically.

#delivery #wholesale #receiving #reliability

Journal

The account that goes quiet: how a kitchen drops you without ever complaining

A named-problem piece on the trade account that stops ordering without ever complaining: the chef quietly calls someone else, and the producer finds the gap weeks later. Written from both sides, the decade on the buying end and the microgreens producer side. General throughout: no research attached, no figures beyond the "five to ten accounts" range. This revision applies the critique's sole blocker, changing "once or twice forgot them" to the ledger's wording, "sometimes forgot them".

#churn #wholesale #reliability #customer-relationships

Journal

A microgreens week starts before the orders are firm

A first-person walk through the shape of a microgreens week selling to trade: sowing before orders are firm, the cut window, packing, delivery and the invoicing that slipped. Kept qualitative because the numbers were never recorded. This revision addresses the round 2 blocker by cutting the ungrounded product-mechanics sentence, leaving the problem-framed makeweek mention and the honest disclaimers intact.

#teardown #microgreens #production-planning #waste

Journal

Telling a café your prices are going up, without losing the account

A how-to on raising a wholesale price with a trade customer: give notice, state the new price and start date as a decision already made, and move it onto the price list rather than negotiating account by account. Written from both sides — setting a wholesale list as a producer, and receiving these notices as a chef. General throughout, as no research or applications were attached; no prices, dates or volumes are used because none are recorded.

#pricing #price-increase #wholesale #customer-comms

Journal

How a small brewery plans its week, and why the taproom is the guess

A vertical probe on the small brewery: booked keg orders are the part you can plan against, and taproom pour volume is the guess you plan production around, with one fermentation calendar under both. Written as a probe that states plainly brewing is not Phil's trade and asks brewers to correct it; the transferable part is the fixed-cycle-vs-variable-demand structure from microgreens. General throughout, as no research or applications were attached, so no brewery figures are used. Links the production plan template.

#brewery #vertical-probe #production-planning

Journal

A bakery runs on two clocks: the wholesale van and the counter

A vertical probe on the wholesale-supplying bakery: the morning is two demands on different clocks — a fixed café delivery deadline you cannot miss and a counter you can only guess at — and the wholesale side is the one worth planning from a settled list rather than memory. General throughout: no research or applications were attached, and the delivery time in the opener is illustrative, not sourced, as the idea instructs. Grounded in the chef/receiving-end and microgreens experience for the deadline and waste-versus-shortfall points.

#bakery #wholesale #planning #weekly-rhythm

Journal

The week a wholesale account doubled its order and nearly cost me the account

A microgreens teardown built around the decision, not the outcome: what happens when a wholesale account asks for close to double on the next order and a fixed growing cycle means you cannot make more in time. Kept qualitative because the ledger records the situation but no figures; the only numbers are the recorded "five to ten accounts" range and the "doubled" framing from the idea.

#teardown #capacity #wholesale #lead-times

Journal

The invoice you never sent, and why it is always June

A named-problem piece on the trade invoice that gets delivered, eaten and never billed — why it slips in the busy months, why no buyer chases a bill that never arrives, and the habit that closes the gap. General and second-person, grounded in the experience ledger (microgreens, five-to-ten accounts, chef/buying side). No monetary figures exist in the idea, research or applications — the idea itself notes the ledger carries no amounts — so none are used.

#invoicing #cash-flow #admin #named-problem