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It seems strange to be chatting about Christmas in August. But the planning gurus tell me that I’m already behind schedule. Apparently launching a new range in time for Christmas is a must. And they’re telling me that I should already have decided what I’m going to be launching. Well I’ll just have to tell the planning gurus that I haven’t decided – not yet. I suppose they’ll get on their high horse and tell me I need to get busy. And I will; just after I finish writing this post.
I can’t help wondering what type of Christmas this year is going to be. One thing I do know is that for many, many families, it will be like none they’ve had before. And because of that, it seems somehow insensitive to be talking about Christmas merriment and the shopping that goes with it. On the other hand, if we all keep holding back because of the loss and waste of life that’s already happened, would we not be wasting a bit of our own lives too? Combine this dilemma with it being the first holiday season for Halo, and the complexity of my situation is complete. But in a previous post, “I Can’t Control Coronavirus…”, I’d said I wasn’t going to bow out. And if I’m not bowing out, then I must try my absolute best, regardless of the hurdles or the results.
So I’ve been thinking about what I want to launch in time for Christmas. I have about three or four ideas, and I need to pick one. But before I get to that stage, I have another dilemma on my hands. You see, a couple of the ideas I have in my mind use techniques that I’m well experienced with, but for a couple of them, I’ll need to master some of the techniques first, before I can really develop the range. So my initial decision is whether to choose familiar techniques or do something entirely different. What would you do? Most people would say that I have enough to deal with; designing, making, marketing, bookkeeping, packaging; the list is endless. I should stick with introducing a range where I’ve already mastered the component skills. It seems the obvious choice. But what made me even ask the question? It’s all because of a documentary I watched.
The documentary was about Austrian food. I must confess, I’d never much thought about Austrian food, or Austrian anything for that matter, apart from The Sound of Music. But let’s let that slide. After hearing about how amazing sausages and dumplings in Austria were, I was just about to switch off the TV. But then they moved on to the goings on inside a Michelin star restaurant, and things suddenly got interesting.
The chef was saying that he changed the menu every week. Most restaurants hardly ever change their menus, and once a week, particularly for a high-end restaurant is unheard of. Once a quarter is about as much as they can cope with. But the chef’s logic was that familiarity and experience leads to boredom and overconfidence. This leads to sloppiness and mistakes. So to keep himself and his staff on their toes, he prefers to change things often, and try out new techniques all the time. That way everyone has to concentrate, and everyone pays more attention to what they’re doing because it’s still a challenge. And the outcome is almost always better because his patrons get to try something new to which everyone has given their full attention.
And that got me thinking about my products. Would I really focus much better if some of the techniques were still new to me? Would it actually produce a better outcome? I’d like to think that I would never lose concentration. That I’ll focus just as well the hundredth time I solder two wires as I did the first. But I’m human. I’m naturally curious. I like trying new things. So maybe I should choose making pieces of a type I’ve never made before. It will make me pay even more attention to everything I do. But this would go against everything I've ever been taught: practice makes perfect; experience is best etc. etc. You know the sayings I'm talking about. Besides, aren't a first holiday season for my business, along with a global pandemic, quite enough new things to enable me to focus fully anyway?
You might also be thinking that I could choose one option and drop it if I don’t like it. I could, but you see, once I’ve decided on a design, changing my mind will be an expensive affair. I would have already ordered the silver sheets and wires that I need to make the design, and while I might be able to make use of them at some point in the future, for now they’d be useless. And with silver prices having more than doubled since its low point in March this year, I don’t want to be stuck with a bunch of silver for some vague future use. So I’m going to spend a few days glued to my workbench to see if I can come to some definite conclusion.
If you’ve read a few of my posts already, you’ll know me well enough to guess which way I’m leaning. And since I’ve confessed that I can’t help chattering, no doubt you’ll hear about what I’ve finally decided in a subsequent blog post. But for now I'm going to listen to those planning gurus and at least try to be compliant.
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Here’s a link to that “I Can’t Control Coronavirus…” post if you missed it:
And that photograph - I thought since it's still the month of Leo, I would show you the Leo necklace in the zodiac range.
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