#045 Product launch speed, a small thing, Balancing everything (09/04/2023)

(Photo: Help take a picture of Re Pillowcase 2)

This week, I've continued working on the new products from earlier. Last week, I released a Facebook/IG post, and Re Quilt 2 is expected to launch between the end of April and mid-May. Later, I discovered a problem: some zippers were supposed to be too late to meet the deadline, which might cause further delays... This reminded me of another incident that happened this week, which I will detail below.

To avoid slow production, I might introduce a product first, then accept pre-orders. Once the zippers arrive, I'll add another week to complete the production, and then ship out the bulk orders. This way, everyone won't have to wait so long. I've been doing this for a very long time, so long that I've received well-meaning reminders that our product launch speed is too slow, and even suspicions that Re Pillow Co. might be "resting on its laurels" and not releasing anything new... I felt very wronged when I first heard that, but after thinking about it, they weren't wrong; they might indeed have that feeling. I have no choice but to take responsibility.

This week, I'd like to share a small story. A customer contacted us a few days ago, finding a bug in the website's ordering system that made the entire ordering process very difficult. Of course, we quickly discovered the problem and resolved it for the customer. They were very polite, saying that while our pillows were actually quite good, the website's ordering process really needed improvement. That's the end of the story.

The above story about the website having bugs, and the product launch speed issue mentioned at the beginning, are the main thoughts this week. It's a good thing that customers have expectations. My task is to allocate time, check everything, keep everything on track, and push other partners to speed things up, especially with the recent increase in external collaborations. Because we're relatively young and don't have much bargaining power, we can only revert to them quickly, but if they're slow, I can't force them.

If a young person aspiring to start a business happens to read these Re Pillow Co. weekly journals, here are my humble opinions: You'll be handling many things and managing many departments. For example, some renovations might go wrong, some people might have a lot to do, and some might be very free. You need to figure out how to handle these situations without causing annoyance. Here's the key point : it all comes down to balance. Balance means that you need to spend time on your main job (providing products and services), but at the same time, you also need to spend time on other peripheral tasks (hiring, store management, website design, improving the overall shopping experience, delegating tasks, business partnerships, patents, protecting your legal rights, marketing methods, understanding market needs, accounting, tax filing, MPF, etc.). Every single one of these is indispensable.

The reason I bring this up is because I hope Re Pillow Co. can truly continue to thrive. Therefore, I pay attention to the practices and outcomes of different companies. Some companies only focus on advertising or gimmicks, while their products are actually just average or even poor. When a wave hits, or a particular advertising technique suddenly becomes unusable, the entire company can't survive. There are also companies that produce products they think are excellent, but there's actually no market demand, like the "solar flashlight" situation; they'll struggle in the end. Another example is a company that's doing business honestly, with reasonable prices and quality, nothing fancy, but if the owner doesn't know how to calculate costs or allocate resources, misusing them in certain areas (redundant staff and investment aren't the key issues), when someone else calculates and corrects the situation, the company will struggle. Therefore, all peripheral work must be managed; you can't just focus on the main business...

This is also one of my initial mistakes, and I'm currently working hard to fix it. I hope you won't be like me. Try to avoid taking unnecessary detours and push the product forward as quickly as possible, but the surrounding work behind the scenes is equally important. The first priority is to survive, not to fail.

I've been writing and writing, but I don't know where I've ended up. I'll stop here for this week.