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Yesterday was a typical Bank Holiday Monday in London yesterday, it was wet and windy, interspersed with some rays of sunshine. As I walked back along my road, from my local pitch and putt golf course, feet wet, belly empty and mind free, I was reminded of a conversation I had last summer.
The memory led me to make an oblique connection with my fledgling business, which got me thinking about the connection between opportunity and necessity.
What triggered the memory was the sight of a Suzuki Smart car, without any windows, and soaking wet seats.
You see, last summer, which as I remember was a particularly pleasant one by English standards, I was playing out in front of my house with my six year old daughter and the ten year old son of my downstairs neighbour.
I was wowing them with the fact that I could still do an "ollie" on a skateboard and various other (half) tricks. The looks on their faces told me that they were suitably impressed that a 44 year old man could still operate a skateboard without breaking his neck and several other bones in his body.
As the children were watching the show, up pulled a young man in his 20s in his Suzuki Smart car. We were all suitably impressed at just how small the thing was. I started questioning him about various aspects of the car, from what it felt like to drive, to whether it was legal to take it on a motorway (freeway).
The last question I asked, was where he kept the windows, and how he put them on. He looked at me with an expression that I couldn't quite interpret, but left me with an impression that I shouldn't push it further.
He said; "The windows were an optional extra".
Of course I was incredulous that windows, which have been an essential part of the motorcar for the best part of a century now, were something that a car maker felt that they could now charge extra for.
I was just about to point out to him that not having windows in a car, in a country that could boast rain as a national pastime was perhaps a bit shortsighted. However, it was then that I interpreted the earlier look on his face as that of a person who had made a grave mistake, and so decided to not bring attention to what he already knew.
So as I walked past his not-so-smart car yesterday, with waterlogged seats that were surely going mouldy by now, it got me wondering if there were any essential things, disguised as "optional extras", that I had ignored in my business.
I felt that recently the dilemma I had faced as to whether to ship by sea or air, my first products was a similar quandary. In the end I saved money by boating some over and flying the rest, simply because I realised I couldn't afford to wait 2 months to start selling. So I paid the "optional extra" and got those widgets onto a plane.
So my question is to you; both experienced and inexperienced; in the hope of helping others like me who are just starting out, and may not realise that something that appears to save money is in fact risking giving our ventures mouldy seats in the future.
What crucial optional extras have you bought or ignored in your business?
The memory led me to make an oblique connection with my fledgling business, which got me thinking about the connection between opportunity and necessity.
What triggered the memory was the sight of a Suzuki Smart car, without any windows, and soaking wet seats.
You see, last summer, which as I remember was a particularly pleasant one by English standards, I was playing out in front of my house with my six year old daughter and the ten year old son of my downstairs neighbour.
I was wowing them with the fact that I could still do an "ollie" on a skateboard and various other (half) tricks. The looks on their faces told me that they were suitably impressed that a 44 year old man could still operate a skateboard without breaking his neck and several other bones in his body.
As the children were watching the show, up pulled a young man in his 20s in his Suzuki Smart car. We were all suitably impressed at just how small the thing was. I started questioning him about various aspects of the car, from what it felt like to drive, to whether it was legal to take it on a motorway (freeway).
The last question I asked, was where he kept the windows, and how he put them on. He looked at me with an expression that I couldn't quite interpret, but left me with an impression that I shouldn't push it further.
He said; "The windows were an optional extra".
Of course I was incredulous that windows, which have been an essential part of the motorcar for the best part of a century now, were something that a car maker felt that they could now charge extra for.
I was just about to point out to him that not having windows in a car, in a country that could boast rain as a national pastime was perhaps a bit shortsighted. However, it was then that I interpreted the earlier look on his face as that of a person who had made a grave mistake, and so decided to not bring attention to what he already knew.
So as I walked past his not-so-smart car yesterday, with waterlogged seats that were surely going mouldy by now, it got me wondering if there were any essential things, disguised as "optional extras", that I had ignored in my business.
I felt that recently the dilemma I had faced as to whether to ship by sea or air, my first products was a similar quandary. In the end I saved money by boating some over and flying the rest, simply because I realised I couldn't afford to wait 2 months to start selling. So I paid the "optional extra" and got those widgets onto a plane.
So my question is to you; both experienced and inexperienced; in the hope of helping others like me who are just starting out, and may not realise that something that appears to save money is in fact risking giving our ventures mouldy seats in the future.
What crucial optional extras have you bought or ignored in your business?
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