March 23 2008 / (4)

On quitting.

My friend Jenni gave me a book recently: The Dip, by Seth Godin. The basic premise is, there's a dip (or plateau) in the progress of almost every endeavor, and the truly successful people can recognize whether it's worth powering through the dip and on to greater success, or whether it's time to quit.

Since I'm a serial project starter, this is an issue I face regularly. The trouble is, it's often difficult to let go of a good idea, even when I rationally know that I'm not interested or capable of making it through the dip. In some cases I'm too attached to the project to let it die; in others, the possibility of great success is too alluring, too tantalizing to let go.

Take El Boton. It's a decent business concept that got a lot of attention early on, and rode that momentum for quite awhile. It continues to scrape along, even though we've done nothing new in a year. We get a couple sales a month, and everything's fine. It could be so much more, though. If Naz and I gave it more attention, created some new sets, and put some effort into sales, we'd be in great shape in no time.

But we've hit the dip, and we've realized that we're not interested in powering through. Powering through, in this case, would mean doing sales -- and neither of us is interested in doing that. We're not salesmen, we're creative types. We're not interested in pounding the pavement, making sales calls, working out wholesale prices and all that. So we're letting the project die a slow death. At some point we'll run a sale on our remaining stock and be done with it. Or maybe someone will offer to buy the business from us and take it to that next level (if you're interested, email me).

I Star Chi could meet the same fate; we're thinking of rolling it into Gapers Block's shop. [UPDATE: they're in there now.] Or, because the sales work on that project is potentially so much less time-consuming than El Boton, we might finally draft a sell sheet and do a little salesmanship to get the shirts into a couple stores. (It helps that the margins on t-shirts are a bit more conducive to profits at wholesale compared to buttons.)

In the meantime, we've moved on to a new project idea. We'll see what the next dip is like.

4 Comments / Leave a comment

March 23 2008, 06:24 PM / Bethany

So, as a writer, that is keen on new book ideas constantly--this dip thing is constant in my line of work too. Do I rewrite the book? Continue on with the current work in progress that is over half-way done, or do I move to another topic? I could go on....

Let's hope that I can sustain the dips until I get a book on the shelves!

March 27 2008, 10:30 AM / Brian

Guess I'd better get my I Star CHI shirt and hoodie, and my set of El Boton buttons soon! That's a shame, too, as these could both be things that continue on successfully with just a little work. Just the whole I Star CHI line alone - market it to the City of Chicago stores and a few tourist traps on the mag mile, and it would be set.

March 27 2008, 10:57 AM / Andrew

That's our plan for I Star Chi; it's a matter of getting out there and doing it. Big hurdle, that, considering all our other projects.

April 05 2008, 10:07 AM / Patrick

I must say that Seth Godin seems to have some very great writings that make the reader brainstorm. But I really don't think it is direct advice.
With that being said, the best business decision is to stick to your gut, and to stay on a positive path. Whatever your decision will be, will ultimately be a positive one (hopefully). Good luck, I know that Gapers Block is widely used in newsrooms these days.! :)





    

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