Posts filed under 'Planning beyond the collection'
Isn’t everything a mixed blessing? Business is going so great that we’re really growing. Growing is painful. I remember reading some book way way way back when I first started about “growing your business”. I was REALLY curious about how I was going to make this happen - as if it was a real concern (little did I know it’d be years before I’d have to worry about that one!). But here it is - it is actually happening in real life. It’s a great, great, great thing - but I’m really scurrying to figure out how to make it all happen.
I know that we need more help. We’re even picking up more help - especially with production and sales. But the worse part is that I keep talking myself into getting “just a few more” things ironed out perfect before I seek out the help. I have to get over this glitch or it’s going to kill me. I have to be ok with where we’re at and just ask for help. I am lining up the jobs that will be easy to train on and pass off and I’m lining up the next level of suppliers. So, see, I’m working through it - even though I feel like a deer in the headlights.
I let my stress get the better of me today and had a totally uncalled for outburst. Shame on me. Lame of me. I even thought I had prepped myself for the day - I certainly prepped my daughter when she got out of school: “Mommy has a shipping deadline today and I’m already behind, so I’m going to need your patience for just a little bit.”
I didn’t make the deadline. WHAT?? I always make it. Even if I’m flying out the door at the last minute - I make it. But not today. And it cost me a pretty penny b/c it was a rush order that we promised would be there. It will be there, it just cost us for express shipping. Oh, and side-tracked my daughter’s homework for the evening.
I’ve landed a guest blog column on a business magazine site (ha ha that won’t make me busier) and since I owe them content, my first column will be about the real effect having our own businesses have on our families. Believe me, everyone in the family sacrifices to make it happen - but everyone reaps incredible benefits too.
***Have you checked out the forums? Sometimes I’m not able to get around to answering emails as quickly as I’d like, but I’ve noticed some of you are helping each other and asking questions on the forum. This is fantastic!!!
April 23rd, 2008
Where did Amber go? It’s been a crazy time in my business-owner life since I last posted. We had a fabulous celebrity gifting event in January. I will do a post soon on what a difference our “spinning cake” display made for exposure during that event. (You can see the display cake pretty good in the photo to the right, follow the link above to view more celebrity photos).
I did a great follow-up job of coming home and writing up a press release. I even stayed up late to perfect it and get a bunch of images together to send to one big-traffic site. I got that sent and it paid off. We were featured the next morning.
Then I tweaked it a little for the other media outlets, put my computer on stand-by and never saw its happy face again. That was it, my computer crashed completely. I did an ok job of backups, except for my emails and email lists. Oh what a mistake that was - what a nightmare it has been catching up.
Get an external hard drive and set up automatic scheduled backups for all of your files. That’s my big duh-I-should-have-already-known-that lesson for the day. And I wanted to say I’m back and I really have a lot of posts coming up to share about press releases, affiliate programs, preparing for the next cash-and-carry events, creating a “wow” display, and all sorts of other things I’ve learned since the great crash of ‘08.
February 15th, 2008
My husband emailed me this link to Mind Tools-Essential Skills for an Excellent Career. Specifically, he sent me to the “Time Management” pages (I won’t get into whether or not that was a hint ! ha ha), which is the section I’ve gone through.
I found the site to be an incredibly great reminder of ways to ’stay on track’. I’m already great about To-Do lists, but now, I’m applying the priorities and then re-writing the list so that only “Important” items are at the top. And then I work down the list.
What I saw immediately is that some of my most important tasks have stayed on my To-Do list the longest. By having them buried somewhere in the middle, I’m able to excuse them by not really ’seeing’ them. Now these things are at the top and have to happen first. I can also see that I “skip” over them lightly because they are tasks I don’t like doing.
We’re working on tracking how long all of our tasks take, and that’s also a real eye-opener. I spend a lot more time dilly-dallying during the day than I thought I did. But this is good news (and not to be mistaken with IMPORTANT brain breaks and kid-time). It’s good news because it means I really DO have more time in the day to get stuff done. A lot of emails can be accomplished in a “found” 15 minutes.
The best by-product of this is that by the time I reach my night, my stress levels are down because I know I took care of the most important stuff for that day. If I keep working after the kids are in bed, it gets to be on some of my more enjoyable tasks - like DESIGNING!!!!
By the way - Project Runway is back on Wed. nights!!
November 30th, 2007
Little snippets of time. Everything in my life, and business, now happens in increments of time - specifically the amount of time between “events”. We had a cash-n-carry shopping event three weeks ago, which left us two weeks until Halloween events with the kids, which left us with a week and a half until the next shopping event. It’s been this way for a few months, since the ABC Show. I think I had a whole month of nothing before the ABC Show, but since then - one thing or another is looming on the horizon.
My daughter started kindergarten (Spanish immersion no less), and so now there are two schools worth of events and stuff to manage. And somehow, having so much “scheduled” is increasing our productivity and, dare I say, our sanity?
The semester that I made the Dean’s list in college was the semester that I was also working two jobs. Both almost full-time. Because the busier you are, the more time-crunched you are, and that’s just the right amount of pressure to kick you in gear. Knowing that I only had an hour between jobs made that hour precious.
This is also exactly why I have to get better at setting incremental deadlines for the business. Instead of just end-of-the-line pipe dream goals. In corporate life, I had to do the project schedules, breaking months and months worth of a project into biweekly deadlines. We can do this for ourselves too. It will help us to hold ourselves accountable and it will help me know where to ask for help more!!!
The more we can break down our project schedules, our business cycles, our to-do lists, the more we’re going to build up our business. Which is good, because our new BIG BROAD focus is taking it to the next level…
November 4th, 2007
I have to learn not to be so reactionary. I have to learn to implement some standard operating procedures and then follow them. We’re starting with standard status meetings. Pop, pop, fizz, fizz, what a relief that is. We’re all on the same page. I never realize how much I’m keeping in my head ALL THE TIME.
I kind of expect everybody else to just know what needs to get done because I do. I kind of expect everyone to hold everything as a high priority, because I do. But no one can read my mind. And if I’m keeping it all inside, I’m getting frustrated at what’s not getting done insted of just making it happen.
I catch myself thinking that just because I’ve mentioned something in passing at one point in time, the person I mentioned it to will know that means it’s now a to-do for them. Sounds totally ridiculous when I write it out, but it is something I’m recognizing.
We’re now documenting everything. So that all the to-do’s are visible to everyone and assigned to someone. We’re setting deadlines for all the little tasks. I can’t believe how big the big picture is, how important it is to sit down and re-visit everything you have on your plate. You’ll find out what is really a priority and what can maybe wait for the zillion other things in front of it.
We’re gearing up for the holidays, so we’re trying to add as much sanity as we can before the insanity slams us.
And concretely - we’ve planned a marketing / sales campaign that we’ll realistically be able to launch by the end of next week.
September 26th, 2007
Do you ever notice how your life weaves in and out of themes? A couple of months ago, my theme was easily pegged as “get organized”. Right now, the theme of the times seems to be apologies. For phone calls never made, order sent out late, emails not responded to in a timely manner. Which weaves out of the “get organized” theme and into the “wear less hats” theme, which I can tell is approaching on the horizon.
I try to take my life lessons and my business lessons from the predominant themes. Right now, I feel like I’m trying to get to a “good” place, where I don’t have black clouds hanging over my head, or any more apologies to make. To do this, I have to first make apologies and then right the wrongs. I’ve done that for most things, free gifts with the late order and a sincere, hand-written apology.
But I’m mainly learning that I need to gain more focus, get more help, tone down how skittered-skattered I am all the time! I need to revisit the business plan, it has changed almost completely from the last update. Business plans are supposed to be living documents, because plan though you might, you can’t predict the future. But the other half of “living document” is that it is supposed to be updated consistently to reflect recent changes in the business model.
I feel like we need this update urgently, just to get a grip of where we’ve let ourselves veer off track. And to figure out whether we want to stay on the offshoot path or try to return to the original plan. Hey, our marketing plan section will actually have some meat in it, now that we’ve gotten our feet wet.
We’re exceeding our PR dreams, somehow magically, it seems. Good reviews lead to new good reviews and if I could ever get around to writing a press release, I’m sure we’d get even more coverage. With a revisit to the business plan, I’ll actually allocate time for all the things I’ve let fall to the bottom of the list abyss - newsletters and press releases.
July 9th, 2007
When I first started down this path I read in more than one reference book how big of a deal it is to ship on time. I had no idea that the reason it’s such a big deal is because it’s a really hard thing to do. I’m on it about 95% of the time, but that still leaves 5% of the time that stuff doesn’t come through on time.
As my husband said to me yesterday, about an item we’re a whole week late on shipping, “That’s TERRIBLE.” Because it IS flipping terrible. And as hard as I try, it happens once in a while. Sometimes it’s events down the line, issues with the contractors, but most of the time it’s fair to chalk it up to poor project planning. And there’s no one to blame for that but me.
We have a constant production cycle with our blankets, which are dropped into production upon placement of the order. Now we’re throwing traditional production cycles on top of that and I have to figure out how to plan it all and make sure that we are consistently on top of our shipments.
Not shipping on time to these few customers isn’t the end of the world. But I feel horrible about it. Sick to my stomach almost - and even as I say that I feel like surely I could’ve carved a few more hours out of last week to make it happen. Am I slacking? Am I doing the best I can do?
Yesterday I made the radical decision to straighten up my office - using those hours for cleaning instead of all the stuff I need to do to get above said item shipped on Monday. I’m determined to get it organized like it’s never been organized before. And this event has been sparked by two things: first, because a fellow designer recently posted her freshly Spring Cleaned office on her blog, which made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. I told her I would send her a picture of mine - but when I took the picture and looked at how truly horribly dis-organized and messy my office looked, I was too embarressed to actually send it. Second, I’ve been reading “Simple Abundance” and it’s all about Spring Cleaning towards mental refreshment right now. So, I was inspired. And desperate for the clean out.
For my mental health, I needed to carve the time out yesterday to start getting the office into some kind of working condition. It’s finally organized into stations: embroidery station, shipping station, my main work table and my designing desk. And then there’s the loads and loads of fabric I have that I’m not supposed to have because I wasn’t supposed to buy it until orders were placed. ha ha -
How we’re going to sell through all that fabric almost needs to be a seperate business plan. I laugh, but really, it’s not so funny. At least I can see it now. I see many bibs and mini-blankets in that fabric’s future.
May 20th, 2007
Since we’re now in the sprint to Spring ‘08 sales, the designing must begin. This means we have to have the major milestones (deadlines) figured out. Each season, there are things that need to be done on the design side of your project, and things that need to be done to prepare for the sale of your collection. Manufacturing happens after you go to market, so we’ll start tackling that project schedule mid-design-season.
The following design deadlines need to be defined and met in order to have a successful season:
- Select Fabrics
- Create Technical Sketches
- Order sample fabrics
- First, Second, and Third Pattern drafts
- First, Second, and Third Style Prototypes
- Sample fabrics and spec sheets dropped for manufacturing
- Salesman samples complete
The following sales deadlines need to be defined:
- Product photography
- Catalog (either updated from previous season or recreated)
- Price Sheets
- Line Sheets
- Season Launch Press Release
- Create your Terms & Agreements form if you don’t have one already
If you can start with the above major milestones, and map out a deadline by which each of them MUST happen, you’ll be in good shape for a good season. It’s a good idea to set your market date a week earlier than it really is - to see if your season schedule is realistic. Remember, work backwards from your market (start of sales) date!!
And keep in mind that your deadlines should be realistic based on the number of styles you are creating for the season. This is one of the main development decisions you will make, and everything in your project will be based on how many styles you decide to design. If this is your first season, I highly recommend that you stick to just a few designs. Highly, highly, highly recommend it.
Our project schedules should be complete by Monday. I will share mine on Monday. I have already been requesting swatches from suppliers and sketching out designs. I’m hoping, that by tracking where I’m at in the season, it will A) hold me more accountable to my own deadlines and B) prevent others from making some of the costly start-up mistakes I made in the past.
Spring ‘08, here we come!!!
May 4th, 2007
I’ve been determined to tackle my priority list - in order, and that means that today I’m not going to make it up to the LA textile show. There’s too much to do before our next event (now only a week and a half away), plus aspects of running the business that got pushed back by taxes, and to wipe a day to go up to the show today doesn’t seem like it’ll happen.
But I really want to go. I love getting the color cards and seeing the trends, getting inspired. See, as I write that I’m tempted to jump in my car and get the heck out of here. Maybe I can swing it for tomorrow if I get some stuff done today. Anyhow, I won’t get to meet my friend from Baby Nika until the ABC Show.
This is a realistic business decision for me to make, I have the books from the last two textile shows, so I have plenty of contacts to call for swatches when I’m ready to get new fabrics. I did want to source some new types of fabrics, so I was hoping to find a few new suppliers, but by the time I’m ready to do that product development, I’ll have plenty of time to make phone calls.
Can you tell I’m going back and forth between need and desire? I need to stay here and hammer out a lot of the “to-dos”; I want to go play and go shopping, meet my friend. Ah, it’s like torture. Of course, I’d sit in traffic for literally hours before getting there. But, I could still make it.
If only I’d planned my time better up until now, so I could be breezing out the door worry-free. Instead, I’ve got a ton of stuff hovering over me.
April 17th, 2007
The advent of yearly taxes has forced us to finish up our spring cleaning. I couldn’t be more thankful. I feel like we’re getting a little bit of control back. Going through this exercise, coupled with mis-placing important papers over the last couple of months, has been just the slap-in-the-face we needed to get the business paperwork together.
To create a method for the madness, for the madness will never subside.
I’ve learned that I need to keep much better records of our every move. I’ve learned that there is a lot I don’t know, so “bookkeeper” is high on our list of must-hire goals / priorities. But we’re alright for this year considering we’re still a small company. And I kept receipts and bank records help on the double-check.
Taxes are this great big black cloud that just hovers until the fateful day arrives. The silver lining is that mounds of papers have now been properly filed and it feels like my head got de-cluttered at the same time. We’ll be going back to our tax accountant next year, guaranteed. Especially since we plan on being a much larger company. I guess this isn’t much of a helpful-post business-wise, unless someone out there gets motivated to keep track of everything from the get-go. Every thing, every thing, every little thing.
I can’t believe how stressful it is. We’re in the home stretch. And we have to be, because I’d really like to make it to the textile show tomorrow.
Besides taxes, there is so much admin stuff that has to happen today it’s crazy. Go girl, just keep going.
April 16th, 2007
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