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Good morning,
Last week I inadvertently turned off the ability to purchase from the .com. This week I turned it back on by adding back the new PO address as a shippable location. Boom, orders. Ha.
Complexity is on my mind today. As are the topics of partnerships and retail.
Bit #1
Training a staff person
It struck me in a visceral way this week that I’ve built some complexity that needs simplicity at some point. I was reminded of Greg Mckeown’s book, essentialism. It’ll be time to boil things to their essential elements and be a big time self-editor.
The observation came when standing at the shipping desk training a new team member. I could feel the complexity that’s been built from the rapid iterations of the recent months. We’ve been testing a lot. When aiming to clearly describe/train what the work is right now it also revealed the complexity, the dirty nature of iteration.
We have two physical packages and four sharpening products right now. That didn’t take long. Each currently has a variation in how we support it, or what goes in the package a different steps, etc.
I don’t know if we’ll keep ‘em all, or add more, but it’s all in the name of rapid learning.
Bit #2
Partnerships
The conversations with the two groups I mentioned last issue both went very well and are advancing. So much to learn. So much is possible. Now for finding just the key elements for first steps to repeatable wins.
From these conversations I’ve become more interested in “school nutrition” more than simply lunch. And, I’m now more interested in the rural food context after hearing of supplier contract cancellations and the difficult new dynamics that are in place in the rural schools in 2021.
Bit #3
Retail
We have retail packaging in the wild. Learn more here. Do you know someone that might know someone at a co-op, a grill store or somewhere that might make a partner for the /retail package? Let us know.
Here think of the envelop sitting next to the cutting boards. Or, maybe more naturally, they’d go next to the produce and the meat counter.
Sum
As we come on the holiday I’m thankful to have a regular flow of business. I’m also readily looking for ways to increase sharpening throughput and orders by orders of magnitude. Here comes next year, soon.
Change
Attended a lengthy tasting at O’Shaughnessy Distilling. Oh my. It’s so well done. A dream, some means and vision is coming together to make that place what it is. Super exciting to see their team and talents and drive in action. Rooting for them.
I’m thinking of adding a Sus Web3 edition to this thread. It’ll track the experience I’ve been having while figuring out NFTs and crypto. Fun. Look for that soon.
Onward!