Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Trying to recall all the things

My intention and urge to write a new post died almost as soon as it appeared, every single time. Mainly because I want the blog to have good content, to have rich emotion and to have essence. But i think I've been missing for some time, and it kinda defeat the very first intention of starting this blog. Just like how each chapter is being name, entrepreneurship #n, I wanted to write down just about everything i met along the journey, no matter how big or small it is.

So let's see what i can recall since my last post in Feb.
Things turned a bit sour after we got back from Chinese New Year. The sales wasn't performing but we were still pretty chillax. We assumed that it's due to post CNY. And I proceeded with my plan to go Bali with Chuckie and KJ. Sales dipped even further the and we started to get panic. On top of that, there're so many things to plate to be done. The expansion plan, our B2B sales, our KPI etc. Out of sudden, I felt so lost. 

I began to wonder what's our forte, what's our USP, what are we good at. All these questions did not help to reduce the pressure, they did the opposite. In the accelerator program we joined, CGP, we faced the same question too. 8 months in the program, we're supposed to be very clear about our direction and it's about time to take off, but we were not!

Actually we were told about what we are good at and what we should be focusing, but we just refused to face it. We are simply a retail company, but because it doesn't sound sexy enough, I personally don't quite like it. However, there's something we are good in. We are good in lean management, we are pretty innovative, we have good brand, we know that reducing friction in buying process is the key, and more importantly we've been profiting since the beginning.

We had to convince ourselves to accept this truth and work from here. So we did. The moment we accept the fact, everything becomes so clear. It's about proper execution to get things done efficiently. 

Sometimes I really think that it's super hard to create "sexy" business that make money. But when I change the perspective that the sexiness is about running a validated business efficiently, epiphany moment appeared. 

22nd of July marked the birth of the 3rd outlet. Same old thing, quarrels among the team and miscom, but we were aware that it's part of the process. Let it happened and let it past. 

How do I feel now? Mixed feeling. I am trying to build and build and build. The team, the company, the customer base, hope to harvest the result in one year time. In terms of pay check, good enough to live by. Gotta delay the gratification and believe that the direction that we're heading towards is the right one. 

Till then, see ya!