#058 Re Pillow 2 out of stock, Re Quilt 2 one week later, revisiting Guangdong, winter edition of Re Quilt 2 (09/07/2023)

Welcome to the latest weekly journal! It's my turn to share my work and progress this week. My colleague Ben went on vacation to Japan for two weeks this week, so I've been handling the work on my own. Fortunately, things have been quiet lately (according to relatives, June to August is traditionally the off-season for bedding, as the winter weather is cold and the New Year is approaching, so people generally buy more bedding), so I haven't had much to do. I feel like the off-season is really testing my ability to handle pressure. Seeing such slow business every day makes it seem like I'm about to fail, but I have to remain calm and not waste time, and do more work for the future.

Here are this week's updates:

Re Pillow 2 out of stock

Currently, we have 4 department store locations and 2 retail stores, and we need to restock frequently. This Wednesday, we unexpectedly discovered that when we restocked Re Pillow 2 at one of the department stores, it was officially sold out. Fortunately, the retail stores still had stock, but it was temporarily unavailable online. This is great because it allows us to build a sales network, with online, retail, and department store listings, diversifying the risk so that if one location is out of stock, there's another, or we can target different customer groups, which is convenient for different types of customers.

Re Quilt 2 (one week)

Re Quilt 2 has been running for a week. This week I went to the sunset store to understand the situation and check with my colleagues to see if they had any questions or needs. I found that customer feedback was positive (although everyone was rushing to choose blue or green, and no one wanted pink). However, there is another issue. Perhaps the product involves many processes or technical aspects (e.g., stitch counting methods, how the fabric uses moisture absorption, diffusion, and evaporation to allow moisture to dissipate and be wicked away so people can sleep dry, heat fusion process, etc.). In addition, it can be deformed and worn, so some colleagues may have difficulty understanding it, and I don't know the answers, which makes me feel like I haven't done my job well and haven't been able to explain it to them properly. I know I could have done better. Sigh, even now, the results still make me a little unhappy. It's like you do something for someone, thinking it's great, but then you realize no one understands your intentions, and you feel a little regretful and angry that you didn't express yourself clearly. It's okay, knowing it now allows us to improve, and knowing it later allows us to do it better.

I used to read in books or hear from seniors that "youth is the best asset." I didn't understand it then, but now it seems to be clearer: starting early doesn't mean you'll succeed earlier, but rather that you'll make mistakes early, giving you more time to develop later.

For example, if I start a business at 40, I might not begin to understand and learn how to handle different operational difficulties and problems until I'm 41. By the time I've stabilized, I'm probably close to 50. My best period might last for over a decade, but by my 60s, my physical and mental energy might not be able to keep up, and I'll likely be retiring. On the other hand, if I start a business at 15, I can learn some basic business skills in ten years and stabilize by 25, leaving me with many years to develop my career. I think that's roughly what my seniors meant when they told me this. The more I do business, the more I discover I have to learn. Every industry has its own set of knowledge, and learning business itself is a vast subject.

So if you're thinking of starting your own business, I strongly encourage you to do it. At worst, you'll just go out of business, which isn't a big deal. It's better than just waiting for life to pass by. Besides, it's never too late to start. The guy who founded KFC was middle-aged when he started making fried chicken at KFC, and he even started in a gas station storage room.

Revisiting Guangdong

Re Quilt 2 is out of stock, and I want to make some minor modifications to improve it. Therefore, this Thursday I'll be going to Guangdong to work on Re Quilt 2 with the factory and their staff, to see if there are any difficulties or problems that need to be solved together. Although the internet is so developed now, and phone calls and video calls are so common, it's still best to actually sit in the factory, in front of a sewing machine, holding a piece of fabric and a measuring tape, and discuss things together. I was initially hesitant to go to Guangdong alone because I felt it would be awkward to be alone, without anyone to accompany me, and possibly staying there for several days. I would have to socialize with strangers, perhaps eating with them, or eating alone every day. It would be better to just discuss things over the phone. But around May, while I was still working on Re Quilt 2, I really felt that I had to go to great lengths for Re Pillow Co. How could I make Re Pillow Co. a brand that we Hong Kong people could be proud of? I couldn't be so lousy anymore, not giving it my all just because I was afraid of embarrassment. So after that, I stopped holding back. Wherever there's a need, whether it's Hong Kong, China, or abroad, as long as it's worth the cost, I'll go. As long as it can help, I won't stop doing it just because I "don't want to."

The reason for this trip upstairs is to meet with colleagues from the Japanese zipper company YKK. YKK zippers are of top quality in the industry, and we've been using their products for a long time. We're meeting with them again because we need to order a product using a less common zipper at the end of the year, so we need to have it custom-made from them. That's why we're meeting to discuss this, and we'll start sampling next week.

Winter Edition Re Quilt 2

In addition, I've already started working on the winter version of Re Quilt 2. Actually, the concept was released in April, and I've been making some samples. It's designed together with the summer version of Re Quilt 2, so the winter version can be used over Re Quilt 2. Of course, there will be some industry-firsts this time. I hope to finish it before winter arrives, so it won't be like Re Quilt 2, where people could switch to thinner blankets as early as March, and many people probably started buying blankets, but I didn't release mine until the end of June, missing out on all the transitional window blankets.

It's July now, so let's see if I can learn from this experience. I think I can, because I started early, but we'll see .