Taking Care of the Baby

One of the unexpectedly interesting things we've discovered in running this business has to do with how extraordinarily flexible we have to be with regard to planning. What we think we're going to be doing today, this week, this month, this year gets rearranged, more often than not, and sometimes in ways we never expected.

Six months ago, I thought the advanced kits would be out by now. Instead, I'm looking at half finished kits and spending all my time juggling rewrites of previously released instruction books, rebuilding our website and looking for new employees. I want to be working on new kits -- the prototype chains lie twinkling on my tray, luring me -- but I know that first, I have to give the baby what it needs.

That's a phrase Gary and I have often repeated to each other over the past few years. This business is our baby and rule #1 is Give the Baby What It Needs. You can't say, "The baby's hungry? Well, maybe I'll have time to feed the baby tomorrow." Oh, no. When the baby's hungry, you have to feed the baby now... and whatever you were planning to do now has to wait.

That's pretty much the way it goes when you're running a small business. I want to work on new kits but the baby needs a new website with more advanced functionality to more efficiently meet our customers' needs. The baby needs new instruction books with greatly expanded information so our customers have the information they need, always at their fingertips. The baby needs kits and kitpacks available in argentium. The baby needs more people so we can get our customers' orders out faster... and to free up more of our time to work on what our customers want, like new kits.

When we talk about what the baby needs, we're really talking about what our customers need. Right now, we're taking care of those needs. But as soon as those needs are satisfied -- for the moment, it's always for the moment -- and the baby is content, I get to go back to work on what the baby wants. *s*