Why shouldn't I take the offer

Recently we watched someone that had an offer given to them and they simply walked away because they figured that they could do better than the offer. Well, I can honestly say that if I had of known that the patent was running out in the next 5 years, I probably would have taken the offer and run away happy. 

If you are saying that you can make $10,000 in profit in the next year but someone is offering you $100,000 for the business I think I would be thinking very hard and probably taking the offer because yes it might be something that I am attached too but can I make that profit quickly compared to what I could get right how.

One of the other issues that I have noted is that the patent is going to run out within the next 5 years so that isn’t going to help you at all and there are already people trying to copy the device so that isn’t good either. What you aren’t seeing is that you could walk away from this idea and then spend the money figuring out a new project where you could get a current patent and move it forward.

When I first found out about this product, I thought it was a newish idea, but little did I know that the project has been around for at least 19 years, and they haven’t been able to make a name for themselves. Sure, you can do the local markets and hope that you can sell some products, and you can also do some trade shows but what is the post of each of these booths versus the revenue to you making for each of these events. My biggest question is where I can purchase this project when I cannot attend an event. If you are saying that your product is only available at specific markets, you are eliminating a lot of people.

If you have a product that you would like to sell either through markets or online, you need to ensure that you have an online presence otherwise you are going to be eliminating a lot of says. If I was to purchase an idea at a market, and I like it and want to share it with friends and family, I need to know how I can purchase the item online other wise it is a failure. If I can only purchase at item at an event/show that you are attending that doesn’t show that you are willing to make it available to a mass market.

In this case, we watched someone appear at Dragon’s Den and simply walk away from an offer because they felt they could make more money. The offer was something that I probably would have accepted because the cost versus the project wasn’t worth the time and energy.

 

Hearing the works "thanks"

It can be such a challenge when you are working within a community group and hearing the works “thanks”. It doesn’t have to be publicly but at least hearing it from someone that it from the committee can make a big difference.

What made me happy is someone from within the community thanked both my husband and I for the work we do for the community and that makes me feel so good. It shows that someone sees what we are doing and appreciates it. I know that is just such a small thing isn’t that major but when you haven’t heard from the committee or other individuals for a while it makes such a difference.

We have been involved with this community for over 15 years now and we do spend quite a bit of time working on various things and donate quite a few hours a year to helping them out. I know that not everyone is going to fall all over and thank us for what we do but at least getting an occasion thanks would make a bit difference. There are times when we either can't be at a meeting, or we get to a meeting a little later than planned because of work or transit so we can't help that time and it needs to be understood that we cannot do everything every time.

I know that a lot of people think that it is a given that you are thanks for what you do, but honestly if you don’t hear the works “thanks” it is hard to know that you are appreciated, especially when someone else is fallen all over for the little bits of stuff they do. Hearing the words “thanks” or “thank you” can make a lot of difference. There are going to be times when you cannot help at an event for a given reason and needed to know that the committee understands why makes a big difference instead of feeling that you should be helping no matter what.

Yes, hearing the works “thanks” does make a big difference and it can either keep someone helping within a community or the lack of thanks can make the person walk away because they don’t feel they are being appreciated.

 

How I start most days

People have asked me how I start my day and most of my days are very simple unless we are heading out to meet clients or go to a conference. I do like my morning routine, and it has been something that I have been doing for quite a few years now and it has helped me get things achieved most days.

Once I am up and ready to start the day, it’s important that I make my cup of tea which is normally English breakfast tea. I don’t have this everyday and, but we are going to be home, I am going to be starting my day with my 16-ounce cup of tea. Once the tea is made it is off to my desk where I will start the computer and open the documents that I normally use to start my day.

Here is what I will start with each morning when I start the computer:

• Writing outline – word document
• Word count – spreadsheet
• YouTube – Port of Miami Cruise Ship Terminals (BLC Streams)
• Email accounts

These are what I will have open before I start by day and yes having two monitors, but my laptop screen helps me be able to have all these things open and available for me to check things. Now a couple of these things that I open by sound a little different, but they help me with my focus.

• YouTube – Port of Miami Cruise Ship Terminals – this is a live stream of the cruise ships that sail out of Miami, so it is a nice to have a nice relaxing view for my day. This is normally open most of the time as I enjoy just having something to look at and I usually refer to this as my window. Also, the weather is a lot nicer to Miami than it is in Toronto in the middle of the winter.
• Word count – spreadsheet – this is a document where I document the number of words that I write each day and the total word count for each blog that I write. It is for me just a fun way of tracking how the writing is going each day.
• Writing outline – this is the document where I do my journaling and I say it daily so I can see what I was thinking and feeling that day. It is also where the raw blog posts are written so it is fun to see when specific blogs get written.

So, my morning routine is quite simple, with my cup of tea sitting in front of me I start to work on my daily journal and that normally lasts for about the first hour or hour and a half of my day and then after that is when everything else happens. I enjoy having this time to myself and I must admit there are days that most of the writing for the day is completed in this time.

My routine is quite simple, and I love it because it helps me get the focus for the day and then I can move other things forward. Of course, during this time I do quickly check email to see if there is anything that needs my immediate attention otherwise, the emails wait until after I have got my writing done completed. My daily planner is also checked but again it is just to make sure I know what the day ahead looks like.

I think most people have their daily routine and it how they start their day and for me I am happy with my routine and quite often this routine also happens on the weekends, so it is nice to have that consistency. If you have a similar routine, please let me know because it would be interesting to compare them.

What Nashville Needlework Market means to a stitcher

Of course, if you are a cross stitcher and follow some designers you are going to hear the term “Nashville Needlework Market”. This is an in-person market for designers, dyers and accessories supplies to have the chance to show their projects in person to shops. This is an opportunity for you to support your local cross stitch ship or online shop and purchase the various projects that are going to be made available at this show. It isn’t a market where individuals can attend but it is a great way to ask your local shop if they are going and if they can pick up the various projects that you might be interested in. 

Shops will travel from distances to be able to see the products in person and be able to purchase the items and bring them back to their shops. Designers, and dyers are going to the market so that they can show their products in shops to leave the show with no products remaining because the shops have purchased all their products. As designers and dyers say prior to Nashville Needlework Market, we go to the show with cars and boxes full of product and we hope to leave the show with empty cars, etc because all the shops are leaving with full cars and boxes.

If you are a shop that is going to be attending the Nashville Needlework Market, make sure that you communicate on your site and with your customers that you are going and will do preorders for the various patterns that designers are making available. What I have seen is that there are shops at the last minute say that they are attending Nashville Needlework Market but don’t let their customers know how they can either request patterns to be picked up or what patterns are available for preorder.

For local shops that are attending the Nashville Needlework Market you need to ensure that you have communicated with your customers so that when you go down you have an idea what your customers are wanting to you to bring back. Sure, you might think you know what your customers want to see in the shop, but you also need to figure out what they want from the various designers. There are designers that never release a pdf version of their pattern so being one of the first people that get the pattern would be nice.

Something that you have to think about is maybe last time you went to the Nashville Needlework Market, your customers wanted a certain set of designers but have times changes and the designers wanted are different. The only way you are going to be able to determine this is by asking your customers what they would like to be made available in the shop right after the Nashville Needlework Market. The other thing that you need to do is have a special event the event after you return to showcase the projects that you brough at the Nashville Needlework Market for those that didn’t have a chance to preorder the charts that they liked and hoped you bought back.

Why "might" isn't a guarantee

There are so many times when you are saying that I "might" be able to do something and someone else thinks it is a guarantee and isn’t happy when the "might" doesn’t happen.

I have been part of community for a while and there was one person that was trying to assist in the group, and I said to them that we would see, and we "might" be able to provide a bit of a benefit for them. Well, the benefit never happened, and I never said that I was fighting for it so was surprised when this person asked me if I had been able to get them a full pass. I had never promised that at all and hearing them say that caught me totally off guard. If I had of been able to get a full pass for this individual they would have heard from me way before the event, so I was a little frustrated.

There are going to be time when someone will say to you, I "might" be able to assist in something, but you must understand that the "might" isn’t a guarantee. The "might" is saying that I will try and see what I can do but you must understand that there is no guarantee.

Also, if you are trying to assist with some things within a community, please remember that the person that you are dealing with isn’t going to be totally available when you want them to be available. It can be a challenge for someone that is doing their own duties to be available when you expect them to drop everything and just do something.

There are so many ways that someone can help within a community and just knowing that people do appreciate your assistance, but you also have to understand that there are limits to everyone’s availability to walk away from their duties just because you think it "might" help the community.

So, if I say I “might” be able to do something, please remember that I used the word “might” as that is not a guarantee that I am going to be able to do something and don’t expect me to drop everything when I do have my other duties and responsibilities. Any individual can only do so much and you cannot expect them to do more than that and don’t get upset if the “might” doesn’t happen because there are other things beyond the control of this individual.

Knowing when to slow down

For a lot of us knowing when to slow down and take some time for ourselves can be a challenge. I know for me being able to understand that I have just been doing too much and giving my time to everyone else can be such a challenge.

There are times when you are going to have to just slow down and understand that you have to be there for yourself and that is the most important thing. It might not be on a schedule that you want it to be on, but you still need to understand that you are going to have to slow down no matter what. It is better to see it coming up so that you can start the slow down before your body just says I have had enough, and you are slowing down if you like it or not.

For a lot of us there are things that we want to keep doing and you don’t want to accept anyone telling us it’s time to slow down even just a bit because we think we know better than anyone else, well including our body. There are times that people around us are going to see the warning signs that we are starting to deal with burnout before we know that we are dealing with it.

Being able to understand that we all need some time to just slow down and do some of the things that we enjoy doing, such as crafting, can make such a difference on how to handle the stresses and demands that life throw at us on a continual basis. In a lot of cases being able to set aside some time each week where we do something that we enjoy can help us from totally burning out and that is, so important.

For me, I make a point of a few days a week to find a little bit of time to do some crafting, so that I can make sure that I have taken some personal time. It doesn’t have to be hours but at least knowing that you have taken that bit of time away from the demands that we all deal with is important.

If you are someone that keeps going until you totally burnout, remember that just taking bits of time for yourself no matter what you do is important. I know people that will just curl up in front of the TV and binge watch something as their break. At least it is taking some time to do something that you enjoy doing and making sure that you are recharging your personal battery before it tells you it’s empty.

Why some companies are still encouraging remote working

Something that has happened over the last couple of months is some companies have required employees to return to the office. In some cases, it is all 5 days a week and others are requiring all employees to at least be in the office Tuesday through Thursday. One of the situations that has happened is some companies have resized their office space so that few employees can be in the office at the same time.

Being able to figure out what is best for the business is very important. Do you need the employees in all the time or can you have them working remoting part of the time and then in the office at other times. So many people over the last few years decided that they wanted to escape the big city and they moved away from their office location because they figured they would be working remoting and only having to go to the office occasionally. This has happened for some people, but a lot of people have found out that they are required to be in the office more often.

What has happened to some companies was that given the change in business they had to downsize their location and that means that not everyone can be in the office at once. This is something that companies had to consider but, in some cases, it was either downsizing their location to stay in business or keep the big fancy offices and possibly must close the business. For businesses that had to downsize their location this means being flexible with how staff are going to be working.

We know businesses that have done both things of getting people back in the office either full time or most of the time and then companies that have downsized their space and now have a routine set up for various groups of individuals to come into the office or a specific day or two during the week. By doing what works best for the business is what every business needs to do. Some staff may not agree with the decision that is being made but they must respect the business owners as they are doing the best for both the staff and the business.

Being able to understand that not every business is doing to do the same thing is something that everyone must understand. Of course, there are businesses that are people facing businesses and yes, those people need to be in the office where people come to do business. For employees that have had to make decisions about their jobs because they have moved away from their former location that was something they did and must accept that will have to either move back or maybe find another position that is closer to where they now life.

The new business operation is going to depend on the actual business, and everyone must accept that there are going to be times when employees aren’t going to be happy because they must commute again maybe every day or even a few days a week. One thing employees must understand is that at least they still have a position given how many companies over the last five years had to close their doors.