Owner Maker Spender Spy- Balancing Worklife for the Owner-Maker
Owner Maker Spender Spy- Balancing Worklife for the Owner-Maker
This is Part three in a series of posts geared towards owner-makers that are looking for a system for ensuring balanced progress in all the aspects of making a living while making stuff. Scroll back to part 1 and 2 if you have read them, you'll want to go in order.
Recognize and Challenge your Assumptions
Other than "Make a system" and "If it's important do it everyday," "Challenge your assumptions" is the most powerful phrase I use. Once you realize what an assumption is you'll notice them all day long.
What's an assumption?
You think you know something but you don't until you put it into words. Try it. What's an assumption? What have you assumed to be true today already? For me an assumption means this "a statement of fact, current or future, without evidence"
"Commercial rent in my town is around $1000/month."
"No one will buy this."
"Everyone will buy this."
"It takes five hours to make the widget."
It's ok to make assumptions. Our brains do it naturally. It's how we start seeing the sides of the coin. But the mistake we make is not in making assumptions but our failure to recognize them as such and then using them to make important decisions. If you don't make a system to prove/disprove your assumptions, you're screwed and you probably won't even notice.
An assumption I lived with for a long time was that renting real shop space would be too much money. I tried a couple places, they didn't respond so I took that to mean, "Rent is expensive and no one will lease to me in my town for less." I didn't need space anyways, I thought. I'll just stay in the basement and rough it out. I stayed in a 20x15 basement room with one little window for THREE YEARS. I shelved the idea of space until I hired two people and NEEDED to move. I was coming around to this idea of challenging assumptions at the time, so when I went looking I recognized the ones I was making. So when I went looking I said 'I want 1,000 sq ft. for free'. Saginaw has plenty of empty suitable space. This was a fact because I looked. I wasn't going to assume the price I would pay, I wanted the least amount, which was free. When I disproved 'free', I looked towards my second choice which was 'less than free'. I found 1600 square feet in a beautiful old warehouse in Saginaw owned by a man who loves guitars, loves helping starting business people and he said "Pay what you can pay, we want you here forever." He was here three years ago, where was I? Holed up in the basement with my assumptions.
I don't want opinions, I want facts. You get facts by making a system. You get numbers, you get anecdotes, you get timelines. If you recognize assumptions in yourself and people you work with, defer to a higher power-proof. "It takes five hours to make a widget." Really? Why? Have you timed the steps, including time you get distracted and mess up the work flow, check instagram, run out of supplies? Maybe you are just plain not working hard and fast enough. Maybe you're working too fast. Maybe you think there is a certain amount of virtue in spending five hours on something that could take two. You're assuming that means you're doing a better job, that people will value it more. There are numbers there and until you find them you're assuming five hours is what it takes.
"No one will buy this" Why? Because you in this room five seconds after an idea was proposed analyzed all factors involved in making it a success? Prove it. Less thinking and more doing. Make a system. Make the part. Call 50 different suppliers. Assumptions identify possible outcomes. That's it. Recognize them, and then stop talking and get to work.
The short of it:
- Recognize assumptions - We assume things constantly. Just because our brains think them doesn't mean its true. Our impulsive reactions are us trying to figure things out without having to do the hard stuff. Get out of your head.
- Challenge them. Ok, tough guy. You say we won't find a place to rent for under $500? Prove it. Either you do and we can continue moving forward, or you dont and we have cheap rent. Both are wins.