As many of you are aware, the Bar Soap Box that we make with olive oil are quite popular. Our soaps have won over the hearts of numerous customers and retailers over the course of our company’s history. One piece of feedback that we got from a relatively tiny portion of our clientele was that they would prefer for our soaps to be completely wrapped in Bar Soap Box rather than just having a sleeve around them. To be honest, we did take that criticism into consideration. When you’re trying to expand your hair care business like we are, like us, making modifications for a small number of individuals can sometimes demand a considerable commitment of time, study, and money. This is especially true when you’re in the same position as us.
Well, only recently, one of the members of my team had the strong conviction that if we wanted to expand the company and get to the next level, we would need to devise a better and more durable technique to wrap our soaps, while at the same time keeping our costs in line with where they needed to be. This was one of the main reasons why he felt so strongly about this.
Take note that this was not something that I initially supported
My ability to concentrate is one of the most valuable skills I bring to my role as CEO. My ability to focus is one of the most significant flaws that I have in my role as CEO.
Although our shea butter and soaps are wonderful, I frequently try to steer my coworkers’ attention toward our hair care products when they express an interest in devoting more time and resources to improving their quality. Sometimes I get the feeling that I don’t want to be one of those KFC or Taco Bells, so I try to limit my attention to just three or four things and become completely obsessed with those things. Because of this, we at tgin have a tendency to focus all of our efforts on creating a fantastic hair care line. As a result, we do not always have a lot of time or money to devote to the research and development of new products or improvements in Bar Soap Box for other elements of the company’s operations.
This is gradually starting to change, but it also needs me to become less of a control freak and to delegate more work. This is because I am unable to concentrate as intently on each and every process improvement and detail as I did when the company was first getting started.
This entire experience on the Bar Soap Box has demonstrated it to me. As CEO, there are times when I choose not to move forward with extremely fantastic ideas that come from my team. These ideas have the potential to bring about major improvements; however, I frequently wind up being the one to carry out the execution of these ideas. But I’m coming to the conclusion that my team is more than capable of handling anything comes their way, and that if I would simply stay out of their way and allow them some leeway to experiment with new strategies, it would be to everyone’s benefit. Well, my experience with Bar Soap Box proved to me that they were right, and that as a business leader.
There are times when you have to let your staff go left even though you have the inclination to go right
In other words, this was a test. After spending several hours together as a group conducting research on Custom Bar Soap Boxes, papers, weights, and designs, we finally decided to go with a box. During the course of the project, we fell in love with a variety of various ideas, but each had their own issues, which we confronted and talked about. In the end, we settled on using a box as our option. It is free of dirt. It is prepared to be used. It’s durable.
After selecting a provider, we had to concentrate on actually designing the box and liaising with our printer to generate a sample of it. This required a lot of back and forth between the two parties. As a necessary step in the procedure, you must meticulously measure everything to ensure that the results are accurate. In order for it to be cost efficient, a minimum order quantity of around 5,000 boxes is required. But we did it. Now that they have arrived, they are just stunning. The credit for this idea goes to my team, and all I can do is sit back and remark that it is a brilliant idea. We still need to make some small adjustments to the structure, but other than that, it is complete. My Assistant Operations Manager has also informed me that we will be rolling out the custom bar soap boxes over the entire soap line by January 15, 2014, and in response to that, all I can say is: Yes, Maam! 2015 is going to be an amazing year. I have the impression that this is going to be a fantastic year. We have some incredibly smart and diligent people on staff that, when they consider the large corporations who have been doing this for years, have the mindset that we can do it too. It’s weird because we’re figuring things out as we go along, and it’s all happening so fast! It only needs a lot of work and effort in the form of research, but we all have it in us to pull it out.
So, what do you think of the new look that we’ve gone with?
Chris-Tia Donaldson is the proprietor of Thank God It’s Natural and the author of the best-selling book Thank God I’m Natural: The Ultimate Guide to Caring for Natural Hair. Chris-Tia Donaldson is also the founder of Thank God It’s Natural. You may find her on Instagram under the handle @SirePrinting and on Facebook under the handle @thankgodimnatural. Keep checking back here every Monday for the latest Target news until our March X launch in stores around the nation.