We can’t full explain how good it is to be back home and settle into our usual rhythm . It’ll honestly take another week before we really feel caught up. Selling on eBay is all about creating a routine, but it’s so easy to get distracted. That productive rhythm takes time to build back up and can’t be turned on/off like a light switch.
We recently saw this video cool series on small, family businesses.
You can watch five stories of different small, family businesses and why they think they’re successful. These stories remind us of our own “Mom & Pop approach” to business (one of our personal favorite podcasts). It’s about running a business beyond just making money. We’re creating an environment for ourselves to live a challenging but healthy lifestyle. Our day to day activities must feel like we have a purpose and contributing something to the greater world. If we had kids, I imagine our business would be built around raising them and incorporating into our business as they grew older.
I love the topics they bring up:
- Family members are a great source of sweat equity. (We save money by doing all the work!)
- Plan for succession, and train your next generation of leaders. (Teaching kids how to run a business is probably the best education we could give them)
- Seize opportunities. (Being our own boss means we can take chances which, in turn, makes life exciting)
- The human touch pays off. (We never felt we could be ourselves when working for other people. Felt more like a cog in someone else’s machine)
- Running a business is hard, but it should also be fun. (This the is most relevant statement. We’re excited to wake up each day to do what we need to do for our own business)
I especially love this quote from a family that makes furniture:
“Our business philosophy is something like, ‘Every day we go to work, and we try to make something beautiful,’ ” says his son Zui Hanafusa, who has joined the business. “It’s more of an artist’s way of thinking through business.”
We’ve said before that we’ve been trained as artists that happened to enjoy running a business. This is why we’re so adamant about scavenging/selling items that we think are “special” (though we also anything “practical”). We look for items that have a crafted feel or design that are uncommon, especially if it adds to someone’s sense of nostalgia.
Anyway, that’s our deep dive today into why we do what we do. Hope you’re week is doing well.