The Pyjama Shop Online

If I had to give advice on what I would do differently if I started a business today, I would say it has to be people. The people you surround yourself with. Not just staff, in that department, I have been extremely lucky. But in the things that you outsource. My strengths lie in design and fabric technology. Understanding what will work in a particular fabric and what wont. It is more of a gut feeling that you can’t really teach. You either have it or you don’t. The key thing is to outsource what you can’t do, but in my experience, it is the outsourcing that can trip you up and erode your confidence big time.

It is sort of a life lesson and one that I have tried to teach my sons, though oddly, I did not apply it to myself in business. I have always told my boys to find “their people”. People that will support their endeavours, not be intimidated by them or negative. To me the cup is always half full and I try to surround myself with half full cup people rather than the half empty cup scenario.

I am always amazed at how some people who are not in either a small business or in retail, think that running a shop is easy and not a lot of work. Sure, if you are simply buying product from Overseas and reselling it, it is probably not too much work, but then you still have the calculations, stress of importing, duties and customs clearance and the like.

But working retail is a proper business and the hours are long and some tasks arduous. It is not just sitting in a shop and selling to anyone who walks through the door. There is a lot more to it than that. From sourcing the raw materials, to manufacturing the product to a quality level you are happy with, to marketing, importing, setting up a website, social media and getting footfall to your store. As well as maintaining and training staff and constantly managing them, their needs and expectations, and having a company ethos that everyone buys into.

I am amazed at how many of the big supermarket chains still use polystyrene and plastic in their packaging of fruit and vegetables. Especially with the information worldwide on the damage to our oceans and the landfills that are full and overflowing with non bio-degradable waste is frightening.

We visit a friend’s fishing cottage in the Eastern Cape regularly and in this remote spot, we find so much rubbish washed up on the beach every time we visit, mostly plastic.

Tolerance - Perhaps I am mellowing with age, or perhaps the world is changing and taking me along with it, but to me, thinking of how I want to live my life, the word TOLERANCE comes to mind. To be tolerant of the things we cannot change, to be tolerant of people who may irritate us and tolerant of those who are ignorant or naïve. To be tolerant of ones family, work colleagues, and tolerant of other drivers on the road.

And I have to say, that since I have taken on this stance of tolerance, I am sleeping better than ever, and therefore happier. To take something intolerable, make it tolerable and add a dash of humour, can change your life.