We feel frustrated and too small to compete.
We have been at this point so many times before. We have always been so frustrated but then decided to swallow it down and just continue. But in the last weeks, we have found ourselves in this exact place again and again and it was just too much. We think that it’s important to not only speak about all the good things that happen at hejhej but to also openly communicate with you what’s on our minds and what we struggle with. Let us explain our situation to you.
Our lovely hejhej partners
We have some wonderful partners and are starting to build up a little hejhej community with some incredible yoga studios and hotels. It’s a dream to see our equipment in these places. A lot of possible partners contact us and ask for discounted prices when ordering a bigger amount of our equipment.
We are happy to offer the discount and start long-term partnerships. However, there are so many other and far larger, often unsustainable companies that offer extremely high discounts or even give away a large part of their products for free.
We can simply not compete with those.
It already happened to us so so many times, that studios or hotels reject us because they simply don’t have a lot of budget at the beginning and have to decide on the cheaper option. We don’t blame the studios and hotels either, because we know what it’s like when you’re starting out and really have to look at your financial resources. However, we blame big companies. These do not give small studios or hotels the opportunity to invest in truly sustainable equipment.
Those big companies give out products for free or for so crazy cheap prices and these products can’t be produced sustainably. When you see these cheap prices, you always have to ask yourself: How can it be possible to produce yoga mats, bolsters, blocks or other yoga equipment for so little money? You quickly come to the conclusion that it’s not possible and it is for sure that someone somewhere along the supply chain will suffer – it can be people, our planet, or both.
We need to speak about it
We have been quiet about this issue for so long but we have reached the point where we felt we need to be loud and speak about it. And we speak for all those small companies that can relate with us.
We speak for the young studios and hotels that just opened up
And we also speak for all other small, independent, and sustainable businesses. Because it’s not just happening in the yoga industry, it’s happening in all industries.
What needs to change?
Big companies need to be forced to produce sustainably and to transparently report about it. If they are forced to do so they also have to rethink their production procedures and their pricing.
How can you help?
Share this post and help to raise awareness. Support all the small, independent, and sustainable businesses out there.
The current times are really hard. We have heard from so many so amazing companies that they currently really suffer and sales dropped tremendously. The same happened to us. That’s also why we are dependent on these bigger orders from our partners and it just feels so frustrating to see so many sales not happening because big companies just overrun you. In these moments we really just feel too small to compete. Let us all support each other – we don’t want to let these big companies win and it can’t be the small and sustainable companies that can’t make it through these hard times.
We are overwhelmed by the feedback we received on our Instagram post about it. So many of our partner studios and hotels have commented but also many self-employed people from very different industries have told their stories. We are very grateful for each and every one of your comments and reactions. Click on the image to go directly to this Instagram post to read the valuable comments.
