Don't look back...
I’ve just spent this week doing my accounts for last year. As with all things in my life, I’m 95% of the way there, and now can’t be bothered to spend another hour getting things totally finished and ship shape. I’m already onto the next thing. This is both a blessing and a curse, but indicative of how my brain works. You are right to feel for anyone who lives with me.
In business (and life), it’s very easy to look back and analyse the past decisions or actions you’ve made. Lord knows, I’m someone who over analyses anything… But in business - and with Harriet and Rose - I’ve realised something very important. Aside from using the past as informing future decisions, I mustn’t dwell on it. On occasion i’ve bought stock that hasn’t been quite right. It’s annoying, it costs me time and money, but the only way to deal with it isn’t to chastise myself, it’s to remind myself of the brilliant stock and stockists that I have, and vow to have more of them in the future.
A very wise person who I was lucky enough to call a friend, had similarly sage advice when I finally took the plunge and decided to move to Jersey… she said that the human brain was a brilliant thing once you make a decision, it somehow rewires itself to affirm that it was the right decision to make! The problem with decisions isn’t the decision itself, it’s the indecision that precedes it.
And this is very true in business - well, certainly mine!
Last year was a challenge, and took Harriet and Rose in quite a different direction to the one I’d ‘planned’. But then I - like the large majority of the planet - had not ‘planned’ for a global pandemic.
The thing about having a business is that really have to roll with it. You can have a plan, but sometimes that plan needs to be thrown out of the window and you need to adapt. Fast. And then you can sleep when it’s January, because in retail, January is always a quiet month. It’s the time to do 95% of your accounts(!), it’s the time to reorder and consolidate stock levels. And it’s also the time to plan for the future.
2021 is definitely going to bring exciting changes to Harriet and Rose. As well as the Small Business Mentoring (last blog post and you can find it on the navigation bar too), there’s some more exciting collaborations in the pipeline, as well as lots of new local stock and creators coming to the website. Above all though, I’m looking forward to a time when I can sit down for a coffee with a friend and chat business, or brainstorm in person. I love my job, and I love the relative quiet of January, but I also love a challenge… and with a few administrative boxes ticked this month, that leaves the rest of the year for the exciting and creative stuff.
Whatever you do this January, try and enjoy the quiet. It’s not the most fun month, payday was somewhere in the middle of December, so it’s also a very long month. I’m not drinking either just to add to the fun sponge-ness. But always look forward… not sure how long it’ll take, but things will get back to ‘normal’ one day this year, and no matter the challenges of 2020 and this year, we’ll be able to plan stuff again.