I have many crazy business theories, some make sense and some are completely off the wall!
Here's one:
I think Universally, ESPECIALLY in the manufacturing world, MONDAYS are the hardest day of the week. All things being equal, if things can go wrong, Monday's are 3x's more likely than any day of the week for it to happen. Employees, customers, vendors, you name it.
I consider myself an eternal optimist with a high tolerance for "pain" that needs to be confronted, but even the best business owners can fall prey to a pity party!
The key for anybody is to make it a pity party of ONE, and get over. QUICKLY.
So what better way to get over it than to hit the road at 4:15 am on a Tuesday and drive for 85 minutes!
I've learned over 25 some years in business that OPTIMISM is a force multiplier, and how you inject that into your spirit is to start dwelling on all that is good around you...
Here's what I replayed at 4:30 am to extinguish the Pity Party:
I Am Thankful For The Team At PAVERART, here are some minor (yet meaningful) examples that made me smile recently
The PAVERART team, let's just say is not a bad team to be walking in a dark alley with at odd hours of the night. Each of our guys has seen their share of physical grit, and it shows. John, our newest team member has a social media handle that has 2 words in it: Barbell, and barbarian. Last week I look out into the shop and he's sneaking in some dips on the rails of a step ladder. Not envious at all, LOL.
Brian's comes in the other day: "We need to make this!" A new design for our signature Compass Rose Collection. Cool! It's fun seeing new ideas come to life and being a small business we don't need committees to move on great thinking.
Recently we had a few pieces of some designs crack in transit. Occasionally this will happen, rare and when it does we jump on it and get our customers replacement pieces quickly. It's annoying but a part of life shipping goods. The key is to move fast and make it right, than examine what if anything can be done to prevent. John said "lets do a crash test" with our existing methods and some new ideas for packaging, drop some pallets ourselves in the back, that will be fun!" I Love when new talent comes in, learns our business and takes initiative. There's always a place in the world for people that bring this attitude to work.
Mike - Mike is PAVERART's managing Partner and also a co-founder. I've been bringing my my 13 year-old son Dominic into work throughout the summer. Mike sat us both down and asked a simple question: "This 3D Landscaping Software, it's a few hundred $'s, what if Dominic learns it and than teaches us? We can figure out how to best incorporate it with customers later, but lets jump in and see what happens?"
Sometimes in business, asking the right question is more important than having great answers.
Mike has a real talent for asking the questions that propel forward action, as we team up to solve them.
The Summer Intern Experience
I've always said that the summer is a magical time in business. It presents such a wonderful opportunity to bring new blood into the business, which can inject energy, mentoring and a little fun.
Dominic's first assignment?
Clean the toilet bowls. All 4 of them. Make them shine. Do this every week. No exceptions. Fun stuff like software is great, but get the bathrooms clean first kid. It's part of the process. Old School, yes!
Than he starts getting into the software. Adding our designs to backyard scenes. Creating videos that showcase how PAVERART can make ordinary outdoor living spaces EXTRA ordinary.
Still not sure how we will implement this, but we've already engaged a few clients of ours to see how designs can look in their own outdoor living spaces. Some quick learning's:
We would not EVER profess to be landscape architects/desigers! But we do feel getting dirt under our nails will let us be smarter partners to our Landscape Architect/designer partners
Our belief in PAVERART's potential is MORE solidified: We think we have a real place in the world, and it reminds me of a former sarcastic baseball coach I once had...
"Hey Kid! Your chances of hitting the ball increase by a factor of 10 if you simply swing!"
We don't expect everyone to say yes to PAVERART. But we DO expect to be at the plate with the opportunity to swing. Seeing this landscape design software and how learnable it is, we now KNOW that there's no reason for our capabilities NOT to be showcased, so they can envision how PAVERART can bring new life to their outdoor living spaces. In other words, we should be swinging the bat.....
The little moments...
Dominic comes into the office one afternoon, and asks another simple question:
"Hey, you know how you always talk about Paint not being allowed in PAVERART?"
Yea why?
"What's with the Painted Handicap Parking Symbols in your own Parking lot?"
Show me!
Amazing how you can show up daily somewhere and not understand what's under your own nose.
So we shot a fun little video of his observations, hope you enjoy it.
Glad today is Tuesday.
And glad each day is a new opportunity to create our own story.
Have a great week,
MO
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