Scalability and Our Handmade Business (Part IV) - what to do when we run out of hours

follow your bliss locket - shira sela and polarity
See the previous parts of this series HERE, HERE AND HERE.

If we scale our handmade business and the thing we love most is the making of our whosee whatsee, then chances are we won’t be doing the thing we most love as our production numbers increase.

That is when we either get real with ourselves, delegate stuff we don't want to do to free up time for us to make stuff, streamline our processes, figure out a way to make our hours for dollars the highest $ possible and decide that is enough

(yes, you can actually turn away business and survive)

or we train someone else to do enough of our production that we can produce greater and greater quantities without killing ourselves.

(no matter how popular our whosee whatsee, no product has a shelf life of forever anyway)

And yes, there will be a learning curve with this and yes, production will slow at first and yes, there may be weeks when we will be paying someone else more than we are making ourselves

(owners get paid last folks)

If we dream of a really huge order and our plan if we were to get that really huge order is to "do whatever it takes" which is the kind of un-planning many of us call planning (raises hand), well, this is the thinking we want something we don't really want stuff that just makes us and our business weaker.

We send life mixed signals. Mixed signals cancel each other out.

We don't get what we want because some part of us - the part that thinks we are not ready for it or thinks it will be too much work or knows we are out of our comfort zone with this - some part of us doesn't want it.

But, what if we actually made plans for that huge order and got ready for it - what if we made it feel welcome. What if we took the time to bring that unconscious part of ourselves that feels this is outside our upper limit into the game. We could write out a plan to adapt to sudden market changes. We could calculate exactly what supplies we need to buy to produce X amount of whosee whatsees, we would draw up orders for these supplies, we would find backup suppliers and production help, we would know exactly how many hours of production such a large order would take and we would have this information ready to go. We could make files marked 100, 250, 500, 1000 so a large order brings us to our sudden market change file and we would know exactly what supplies to order, our time frames and the steps we will take to make this order happen.

(we should also have pictures of our makings with white backgrounds ready to go, too - I have used Pixc for background removal - only $2 an image and they do an excellent, fast job)

This is the kind of action that attracts what we want- not just pinning pictures of what we will do with our earnings on vision boards (although if that helps with your focus do that, too).

If your business is going to scale you might have to speak in public - how can you get ready for that? Is there a public speaking class near you that you can take? If we hate networking, how can we get more comfortable with that? If you are a "go big or go home" kind of maker, then getting ready to go big is the surest way to make it happen. Just don't pigeon hole yourself - stay flexible and available to what life offers up as you take action.

If we are a maker who is more in love with creating a business than the actual making of the whosee whatsee we are producing is it possible to recreate our business in order to scale? 

Zappos shoes is the biggest online shoe retailer. If you haven't heard this story you might be surprised at how the founder of Zappos got started.

He didn’t start by stocking up huge amounts of shoes and investing in an expensive back end website. Instead he went to local shoe shops. He asked the owner’s permission to take photos of the shoes they sold and he put those photos online. When an order came in, he went to the shoe shop, bought the shoes and shipped them ... all by himself.

This is not a scalable business model. But with this model he learned that there was a demand for the service he had created. Then he recreated his business to scale.

Maybe if we are in love with the business creation more than the whosee whatsee creation we could think of our current business as a way to test our assumptions about what people want. Maybe we can then recreate our business to scale. If our love is the business making, then we can make anything.

Can we create a service from our makings business? What have we learned that other people might be willing to pay for? Can we create an add-on that would work with the "make it once sell it again and again" model? If we love the business making more than the making - can we turn our making into a kit and sell that? Less work always = scale. Should we stop thinking product and start thinking service?

The best of kickstarter 2012 is HERE - what we can learn from them? This is my favorite project right now.

To wrap this up our handmade business (without outsourcing production and I am not even going to get into that one with this post except to say it sounds like a very slippery slope to me) may never be able to create the kind of scale that has us lying on a beach during the month of November, but there are ways we can create scale and stay true to ourselves and our makings.

Uranus Pluto Square - or battling Gods will cause the house to shake - plus New Moon Solar Eclipse in Scorpio

fox bracelet - cork and steel
If our birth charts are our contracts - our imprints of that moment we took our first breath - we literally are the universe at exactly that second -

then maybe we have set this all up already and just have to live it out, maybe some things we are going to encounter and deal with this go round are just not up to us anymore.

Of course, it is always up to us how we react and process things, the actions we take, the way we release things - not always so much the actual stuff it appears that we lose.

Some charts have a couple major themes, in other charts there is more going on as if we wanted to get a lot covered while we are here; to burn through a lot of old stuff.

When people suddenly appear to "lose it all" or life takes a total turn, often you can find in that person's chart a kind of integrated life - it's as if they decided OK when I am done with this (ie learned or experienced what I came into that experience to learn) move me right on to that.

Of course, the person living this thinks their life has just fallen apart.

(When I first started looking at charts when I was in banking, over 15 years ago, I looked at charts of many senior citizens because most of my clients were long retired and I didn't see many integrated charts - mostly all charts had a couple major themes. Now I see almost all integrated charts. Recently I saw a couple baby charts and they looked less integrated and I wondered if they would be growing up in a simpler time. So maybe simpler times are coming but what that looks like depends on what all of us do now. Freedom and oppression are both simple states in a way.)

Anyhoo, we have all been living with this intense revolutionary changes and karma burning stuff that is Uranus Squaring Pluto for a while now. This started in June 2012 and continues into March 2015. Right now we are in the exact peak energy of this. We have controlling Pluto and freedom loving Uranus engaged in a 3 year war! At their most extreme, Pluto digs in his heels and Uranus leaps without thinking - so many people are scattered and unsure of what direction to take. And because this is karmic for all of us - it is felt as deeply personal.

If we are tearing something down (Pluto is the phoenix rising from the ashes) we need to allow ourselves the space and the time to soul search and get clear on why. We can use the best of Uranus and the best of Pluto to create positive change. We don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater now.

I had to do the exercise below for a class I am taking and thought it might be helpful to someone else to post it here - this is the place the current square hits your chart based on your sun sign, if you know your rising sign check that also.

If you are an Aries - Uranus/1st house of your identity vs Pluto/10th house of career - I don't think it is a coincidence that two Aries I know both told me the recent changes at Etsy made them feel like they were 'fired'. This square will be about male authority figures vs your own voice, staying true to yourself while fitting in with your career, breaking out on your own in some way vs maintaining the company line.

(and this is not a judgement that one way of being is better than the other way - there is no right or wrong with Pluto and Uranus - both sides will come away from this battle changed - if I was a betting woman I would bet on Pluto though)

If you are a Taurus - Uranus/12 house unconscious, fear, karma vs. Pluto/9th house education, philosophy - this is about dealing with unfinished business before moving into a new space, getting stuck in the past, old fears keeping you stuck, more compassion for yourself, probably hiding or leaving vs actually dealing with what is happening

If you are a Gemini - Uranus/11th house friendships, opportunities vs. Pluto/8th house sex, shared resources - this is the struggle of getting close with people, feeling safe with intimacy, the me vs us struggle of relationship, this can be about dealing with jealousy issues - when to fight for what you want, when to let go

If you are a Cancer - Uranus/10th house career vs. Pluto/7th house of relationships - you have the balance of work vs relationship, also the power struggle within a work hierarchy or a relationship, standing up for yourself within your career or a close relationship, career vs marriage issues

If you are a Leo - Uranus/9th house education, philosophy vs. Pluto/6th house health, work, service - this square for you will likely be about claiming your own power, tooting your own horn (time to roar Leo) , not saying yes to things you don't want, over-committing and not following through vs keeping your word, honesty, service to others vs your own health

If you are a Virgo - Uranus/8th house sex, shared resources vs. Pluto/5th house pleasure, children, art - you will be dealing with letting your walls down and trusting others, how you make money from your creative ventures, recognizing when you are being manipulated, revealing more of yourself through art, creation issues - children and creations that are like children to you

If you are a Libra - Uranus/7th house relationships vs. Pluto/4th house family, home, roots, physical structures - you might be dealing with pregnancy or children vs relationship, moving out of the space of needing your family's approval or working with how that approval fits into your life, becoming secure and rooted personally, changes in your relationship affecting your foundation

If you are a Scorpio - Uranus/6th house health, work, service vs Pluto/3rd house communication - you are dealing with your words literally creating your reality now - you need to be walking your talk now, thoughts literally making you sick, adjusting to change, letting go, allowing systems to work instead of being a control freak

If you are a Sagittarius - Uranus/5th house pleasure, children, art vs. Pluto/2nd house possessions, earnings, values - this square will be shaking out any fears about money, being creative in spite of money fears or needing to get serious about money, confidence issues, keeping a cool head, stepping into your power, handling the spotlight, finances vs creativity

If you are a Capricorn - Uranus/4th house family, roots, physical structures vs Pluto/1st house identity - you are probably dealing with your role in the family changing, moving, uprooting yourself or creating a new image for yourself, women shaking up your world, letting your voice be heard, identifying with issues involving women's rights and children's rights

If you are an Aquarius - Uranus/3rd house communication vs Pluto/12 house unconscious, fear, karma - so this square is about healing, the connection between the mind and body, the law of attraction, forgiveness, compassion, overcoming fears through communication

If you are a Pisces - Uranus/2nd house possessions, earnings, values vs. Pluto/11th house friendships, opportunities - the issues of your self worth vs what your friends think of you, standing up for yourself, not being dominated by someone, working freelance or in a less structured way, dealing with issues of your work in the world, working with technology or learning new technology

Realize these are the spaces in our lives where we may find more questions than answers right now and that is OK. We are all in this space between the old and the new and wheels that feel like they are spinning in sand will find something to grip - when Mercury goes direct and this latest exact square moves by mid November we should be able to be a bit clearer on all of this or it will just not feel as important.

AND we have a New Moon Solar Eclipse this weekend, but I will have to get back to that because I got carried away with this square - I blame Pluto! xo all