Cold Shower, Anybody? Or Managing Expectations and Reality

***Disclaimer- I am not trying to be a negative Nancy in this post, swear. ***

This morning I learned that the stationery shop in Frederick, MD that I have been in contact with since 2010 is closing.  The reason being that business has been slow and financially the owner can no longer keep the shop running. She intends to still do stationery and invitations, just not have a shop with inventory and overhead.

Now, I’m ecstatic that she is going to continue to do invitations and stationery sales, but I’m sad that her shop will cease to exist after April. I’m even more sad because she was the shop I was intending to send my invitation look book to as my way into the realm of not-so-custom, but different and easy to assemble invitations that shops could carry, wouldn’t cost a ton and would hopefully generate steady business.

Knowing that she will remain in the stationery business is great and I am happy to hear that, but I was bummed to hear about her shop. It is cute and small and inspirational to designers like me.

When I first heard the news, I was immediately sad. I mean, if shops like her’s close, then what are the chances that someone like me, or any other stationer for that matter, stand a chance in getting our products out there to the writers and stationery lovers that are in need?

I love the window that the internet and Etsy have opened for vendors and artists to sell online at a minimal cost and without serious overhead, but part of the appeal of shopping is picking things up and touching them. I’ve had several customers tell me they like seeing my products in person before buying. Okay. Maybe I need to take better pictures, but honestly when it comes to paper crafted items, real touch wins out always.

What hit me the hardest was realizing my high expectations. Never in the almost two years since I met her, did I think her store would close. In my little head, I thought oh, no worries, her store will be around and she’ll be a great contact for me as I grow. Now, however, reality has hit.

As I stood in my room this morning, I looked at my look book and all the pieces I have in various places around my room and wondered if what I am doing is in vain?

Yes, there are people who still use paper and who love my work, but isn’t that just going to stop one day? I just read an article a few weeks ago about how handwritten signatures don’t even matter any more, it’s the pin number you select that does.  By the way, I am not against technology or advancements in it, but I am against people not using their brain or losing a sense of who they are as individuals.

I know you’re going to say, but Sara, you’re following your dream and you’re creating things people like and you want to save the world. And while, yes, these are all true and following my dream is the biggest aspect of this all, what if I’m following it to only follow it. What if I end up homeless living under the Brooklyn Bridge, like my Mother used to threaten us with as children?

I truly believe that paper is the way for me. Actually, I have no doubt of this. Communication is my calling and providing the means to communicate is the solution, BUT if I can’t sell the products that make me happy, if there’s barely a market for them, then why am I so adamant about doing this?

Normally, when I don’t like something, but I’ve accepted the reality of the situation, I move on. In order to move on, I often times just stop giving the person/thing/issue any attention. Once that happens, I’m free to move in any direction, and I won’t be angry with the fact that the person/thing/issue doesn’t meet my expectations or desires.  To some this may not be the healthiest way to handle my feelings, but it has worked and it has helped me out quite a bit. The only thing here is that this is not a person/thing/issue, it is my passion, belief, and calling. It is as much of me as my hair and my glasses and my heart.

I’ve learned that I have high expectations of every one and even situations and that ultimately they are unfair to me because I end up angry and hurt and upset when the person/thing doesn’t meet them. On the other hand, the person/thing isn’t aware that they were expected to meet a standard to begin with and often times they don’t (or never did) have it in them to meet those standards. Yes, they may suffer, too, when I decide that I can’t deal with them, or want to be friends with them, or leave, but in the end, I’m the one who ends up dealing with the stress and the frustration while the other person goes on unaware.

And that is what I realized, I need to manage my expectations better not just of others and situations, but for myself.  I am still going to push through with my look book (as a matter of fact, I had some friends suggest places to send the look book to) in the time line I created for myself. For the sake of creativity, sanity, and business development, I must, but I also have to look at the business model I am developing and look at the longer term picture.

In other words, how am I and the expectations I have for myself going to change to grow this business differently? So that in the face of disappointment, I pick myself up, dust my leggings off, and keep moving?

Much like I have realized that I either like things, or I don’t and it is okay to have these feelings and to adjust my expectations appropriately, I have to adjust my expectations of our technology driven world and the fact that I never decided to go into stationery to amass a small fortune, but enough to live comfortably through my living years.

I’m sure I’ve discussed this at length before today, but I was faced with looking in the mirror when I read the news about this shop. Please know that I am not quitting or stopping myself from following my dream and passion, I just sort of need to get my plan tweaked and ready to go.  I can’t thank the stationery shop for teaching me this extremely important lesson.

Production, Uniqueness, and the “End of Scarcity?”

I came across this article on Mashable.com a while ago titled, “Why the End of Scarcity Will Change the Economics of Everything [Opinion].”

I remember bookmarking it because I naturally had an opinion about it, but I wasn’t quite sure what. Clearly, I needed it to simmer in my brain until today, when I know exactly what are my thoughts.

The first time I read the article, I disagreed completely, but I think my perspective was a bit cloudy (hence the bookmarking), but upon the second reading, I decided that I agree with the author to an extent. The extent is technology. In the past 10+ years, technology has advanced and continues to advance at a rate that can at times be overwhelming. Clearly, I am old enough to remember when computers were integrated in classrooms, although to be honest, I didn’t start actively using a PC on a daily basis until the 10th or 11th grade.  I also remember getting our first computer at home.  That computer was just a box with a dark screen that had a typing program where I typed almost all of my high school papers.  I also naturally remember when we got the next generation of computer just before I went off to college. Our internet connection was modem and I can hear the AOL connection noise in my head as I type this sentence. It really is amazing how in the last 12 years, things have changed. I got my first desktop my sophomore year of college and then two years later, having grown tired of having to move it, got my own laptop. Now, my laptops are skinnier, way cooler looking, and made by Apple.

All of the above doesn’t even touch upon the changes in the last 12 years that the internet has created in how we read and write content, receive our news (whether it be correct or not),  purchase items, plan our vacations/trips, share news with friends and colleagues, and interact on the whole. I know I’m missing a few things here, but I remember when I first signed up for Friendster. Then it was MySpace and eventually went into Facebook. I remember when Facebook was just for college students and I, already a college grad,  had to listen to my younger friends talk about the world of Facebook. Then I remember joining Facebook and the onslaught of other social media platforms that have essentially changed the way we think, or as some would say “enhance the way we share”.

I also remember the immediate love of the share, knowing what was going on and updating my life every minute that I could.  Now, I also am aware of the backlash of all of that. I have changed the way I share. Yes, I’m still open. Yes, I share my thoughts, my activities, my vacations, but I’ve also become a bit more secretive. I don’t want you to know that I’m sitting in a bar with my best friend, and I really don’t think you need to know what I am eating for lunch right now.  This doesn’t mean that I don’t use social media because I do, but I’ve learned to share what I REALLY want to share, what seems genuine and unique than sharing my every movement or photo.

This is where the article comes in because the author is correct that as we generate content on the internet, access is not scarce. The more she share, provide, and create, the less scarce content becomes. No longer is news just created by professional journalists who write for newspapers. News comes through Twitter and on Facebook by average citizens of the world. And now journalists are in the position of being on the front lines even more than before to get news before the average citizen does. They may have a better skill set in reporting the news, but they’re in a race against the average citizen to still be relevant. The same goes for photography. I know on any given day as I walk the streets of NY, I see every second person with a SLR camera. They are documenting, or attempting to document the nitty gritty of life.  Pictures are uploaded to Facebook  at rates that are ridiculous (750 million photos uploaded to Facebook over New Year’s weekend)! Yet, there’s still that skill level that differentiates an amateur from a pro, and yet there are more photograph options. Average people are capturing moments faster than the pros.

And then there is blogging (myself included!).  Almost everyone has a blog, although that doesn’t always mean they are good, but it makes finding thoughts, perspectives and opinions (like this) abundant and never-ending.

With so many options, scarcity in the technological realm does not exist and companies that do attempt to create it are fooling themselves. So score for the author! But what about art in other genres? What about the validity of the content and the production?  More importantly what about the lack of scarcity on the environment when it comes to tangible items? You may or may not have been expecting me to go this angle, but again, as I sat last night surrounded by paper, I really understood where my initial disagreement with this article began.

As you know, I make stationery and invitations. I’ve recently run into the issue of not having inventory. Why? Well because I’ve created custom products for many clients. I’ve done so much custom work that I haven’t needed to actually create pieces that I can wholesale or just have available for tabling events.

So what did this girl do?

Well, she, I, started designing, creating and recreating pieces. She started imagining things she could make and might be of interest for her first tabling event. In other words, she started to produce inventory.  And it was exciting! It was exciting to go through bins of paper she’s been hording for two years to see what she could create.  It was also exciting to set a limit. To realize that these are custom pieces, without being customized, and they are unique and therefore scarce.

Oh no! Have I created the idea of scarcity?

No.

First of all, there are a million stationery designers in the world, so clearly everyone is operating on a no scarcity level, but my products are scarce because of a decision I’ve made and because of a few external issues beyond my control.

The materials I work with are subject to discontinuation, discoloration, and more importantly lack of inventory. If I buy handmade paper from India tomorrow, there is no guarantee that six-months down the road that paper will still be available. Or that the paper if it’s handmade, will be the same color as the first time. Handmade products that are dyed often have an issue where they were created in different batches and can result in the coloring being slightly off. In that case, what am I to do? Keep creating? Well, yes, but in a different way.

My designs change based on that materials I work with.

Additionally, I get a lot of inspiration from nature.  Often, colors in the sky at sunrise and sunset and flowers dictate colors that will be used in my palette for days, weeks ,and months.  Often times, I will recall them through memory or thanks to a photo snapped at that moment. Yet, I’m completely aware that as time moves, I forget the exact colors and that photos, even with the best lens, can not always capture the bright pinks and oranges that your eye does in the moment.  Therefore nature has also created scarcity.

Which brings me to the next point that everything on this planet is not forever. We have a tendency to believe that it is. Our attempts to outmaneuver death don’t really work and yet we are vigilant in trying.  I don’t mean to get on a soap box here or to force my philosophies on anyone, but having worked in a position that has required me to learn and understand Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) and becoming an eco-warrior as I’ve aged, I’ve realized that we are running out of natural resources, which makes the lives we lead now unsustainable for the planet and all living creatures.  As an entrepreneur, paper passionista, and stationery designer I wonder, often, what I can do to conduct my business in a respectable manner for everyone.  I’m still figuring out my plans and my future commitment to CSR, but I know it is one of the strongest considerations as I move forward.

To return to last night, where I sat surrounded by paper (to be honest it was more like the paper blob slowly seeping out of my room into the living room), I knew that I had purchased enough paper to create a certain amount of sets to sell at Celebrate Brooklyn!  Should items sell out, then I’ll know I need to create more, but until I know for certain, I will not produce more product “to be safe”.

I’m not going to lie and say that I have not freaked out by thinking that I won’t have enough product for Celebrate Brooklyn!, because I have. But for each of those moments where I have freaked out, I have also been brought back to earth with the realization that I: 1) have a limited amount of funds (anyone who wants to give me a grant, can by the way!) and 2) I have a limited amount of time. I did not purposely set out to use scarcity as a tactic, but as an artist, I’m instead embracing that sometimes things have to run their course and no one thing can run on forever. Not to mention, I don’t really want to have product sitting around that doesn’t sell, which is a risk that any business runs into.

What I’ve felt all along is that scarcity is not a bad thing. Nor is it something that should be feared. It’s something that should be accepted much like life and death. It is something that reminds us that we are individuals with different tastes and preferences. As consumers, we should also be unique, just as our existence and experiences on this wonderful planet we call home.