This week, I've been thinking a lot about measuring what matters. I read lots of business books, and this week's hit parade is Measure What Matters by John Doerr, so it'd be only natural for me to ponder how to measure the things that matter in our business.
I also took a bit of time this week to interview our new Wrangler of Projects, Sue Caplan (bio coming soon). We've been trading emails for a few weeks, and we finally sat down for an interview on Wednesday. After all the emailing back and forth (most of which contained "Are you still sick?" "Yes! omg I'm dying."), I felt like we were old friends.
In our business, there are production numbers, there are sales forecasts, there are budgets, there are likes and follows and email subscribers and a hundred other things we can measure in our business, but it's very difficult to measure the qualities that make up a good Outlaw Soaps team member.
We've been building our team so much in the last year. Last year at this time, we were us two owners, plus Marci and Elysia. Full stop.
This year, we've got a whole team of folks dedicated to building inventory, handling customer service, fulfilling orders, posting to social media, maintaining the website, taking photos, and even putting together our newsletter (hello!).
Those things can be measured, but they're also immeasurable.
How can you measure the impact of a good work environment? Of amazing and supportive co-workers? Of genuine enthusiasm for our products and the customers who use them (THAT'S YOU!)? Or a steady paycheck for work you're proud of?
When you really measure what matters, you put down your calculator and put away your spreadsheets.
Thanks for mattering in our lives,
Danielle Vincent
