Over the past month I have been travelling around Europe, mixing business with leisure. With my i-phone, a small laptop, Dropbox, and other applications, I assumed it would be so easy to keep working seamlessly.
I was wrong. Firstly, being away is hugely distracting; urgent emails or failing downloads seemed less important when the family was off to the beach or someone handed me a G&T.
Secondly, no matter how much technology I had, wifi was sketchy, huge downloads didn't like my i-phone, time-zones delayed decisions, I forgot passwords to access various sites etc etc. In hind sight, I should have taken my large MacBook Pro, which has everything I need to run my business. Instead, I thought it would be too heavy and packed more shoes in its place.
But, I managed to keep things running; before I left I outsourced a few vital jobs and made progress with printed fabric sampling in Portugal, where craftsmanship is very high. I am moving printing production out of Australia due to high costs. I tried very hard to support the local economy but the bottom line really speaks loudly. The upholstery of the bespoke chairs will remain in Sydney though I shall be looking to add workshops in Europe and North America once we expand and sell internationally.
The building of the My Bespoke Chair website and e-designer has come on leaps and bounds in my absence - though I suspect my web developers are glad I'm back at my desk in Sydney. Our face-to-face meeting tomorrow will achieve more in one hour than 20 emails ever could!
So now I am back in my office and studio. Happy to be physically present in my business. The 'To Do' list is large but satisfying; I embraced my MacBook Pro like a long-lost friend. Never again will I sacrifice connectivity for shoes.
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