Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Cast your vote.


from Crafting an MBA

Megan Auman wrote a really motivating post on the Crafting an MBA blog today encouraging everyone to "be the change." Not just because it's election day, and we should all do our civic duty and vote. But in the same way we can't complain about public officers until we do our part to elect better ones, we ought not complain about our jobs or businesses until we do our best to make them into something that works. If a craft fair sucks, don't blame the organizers unless you did your part to promote the show too. If business is slow, don't just blame the bad economy & give up - change prices, alter products, advertise to a different group, push harder. In short, don't complain until you've earned the right!
Phil and I did our small part this morning and for the first time, we sat down beforehand and looked at our practice ballots & went over each question together to make sure we understood them. It was nice to feel like we took the time to contemplate things for once, and talk them over BEFORE standing panicked in front of the voting screen with no clue what we were voting on.
In the spirit of the day, I'm looking over inventory to check out what's working and what's not. There have been some designs with us all four years of Red Prairie Press, and although we produce a few newbies each year, perhaps it's time for my own little vote-to-overhaul! In a way, I hold my own election every day - any time a shirt sells, that's a vote for that design. If a shirt sits lonely & stagnant, taking up shelf space, maybe it's time to find a replacement. Some of my favorite designs are ones that don't sell as well, but maybe keeping them is not how to go about good business. Hence, the tough decision to drop men's tees earlier this year. If 99% of our sales are ladies tees, then perhaps we'd do better to invest in more ladies tee designs, rather than more men's. Aha, I get it! Better business! What the people want! Democracy now! Or... at the very least, in the case of an election...free sticker!!

Be sure to vote today, but if you don't... be sure to suck it up tomorrow.

No comments: