The Diary of The Longest Stay - January 29 2016
It's the end of the week. I could hardly believe we have hit Friday. It feels like yesterday Georgina and I were at Maison & Objet in Paris sourcing great product. This week we looked over our new 50 brands and thought about where to begin adding new product, updating current brands and pricing. A small team but with power. I must say I noticed that other competitors have teams of 15 and higher, we are 5. We produce our own in house magazine, have 250 brands, 7,000 products and trade globally. We also work with architects, interior designers and property developers on all size projects. So it is busy, fun and very challenging. When I see others copying something we have done, I sort of smile and say wow that just gave me a nice boost.
We hired a new member today called Marcus who will be supporting T in loads of operations, marketing and content management. Although he studied philosophy, economics and law we felt he has the right vibe and intelligence to make a great contribution.
This week had some troubles, trying to deliver a set of chairs to a hotel that doesn't seem to be ready to receive this lovely order and so we needed to find a place in between to keep them. One of our cabinets that we had a problem with needs a home, and can't be shipped back to Italy to our factory. We may have to sell it a discount or store it in my house!
As I was cleaning up my hard drive I went back to remembering 2010. I took T back to my original business plan where I showed the first Click to Buy home interiors magazine in my business plan. He said wow you have been at this awhile. I thought damm right. Shop-able content in an editorial styled digital magazine and website for the home came straight out of my research at Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne. Six years later it is still the core of what we do. Thanks to all of you on LinkedIn for wishing me a happy anniversary, technically it is 8 years today that I left Symbian, a mobile operating company, to pursue being an entrepreneur.
Oliver suffered this week from an injury and from eating a beef burger, he is a vegetarian, so that didn't put him in the best of moods. He came in quite shocked that he had eaten beef. I told him I grew up on beef burgers in USA and I'm ok. But he didn't take that well and coupled with an injury, it wasn't a fun day for him. My highlight this week was meeting a wonderful potential investor from Italy where I could see myself speaking Italian and of course growing our business into the large global player we all envisage.
On the way to the courtyard of our office I watched Oliver Proudlock taking a photo of himself and his products. He looked good and I forget how our office neighbours are celebs.
I'm glad everyone is getting paid this week, so sales should be good over the weekend. Although February is known for low furniture sales, I expect with some of our new brands we will have quite an attractive offering.
This weekend, as retail never stops, I will be taking calls from customers and processing orders, but I am also writing my speech for the United Nations on February 11th representing Women in International Science. Science includes technology, which I have a good background in. Otherwise I would never claim I have a science background, quite the contrary. I'm a person who bases everything on gut and not on scientific evidence necessarily. It will be a real honour. Lots to prepare. Enjoy your weekend everyone.
