Flying by the Seat of My Pants

Flying by the Seat of My Pants (and Maybe Finally Upgrading)

For most of my 21 years in business, I’ve run this company on intuition, memory, and a whole lot of hustle. I always knew what I had in stock. I could tell you off the top of my head how many chains I had, how many moose necklaces were made, and how many jump rings were left in a drawer somewhere. I knew where every piece of jewelry was and how much everything cost me—no spreadsheets, no software, no fancy systems.

But lately… things are getting a little out of control.

We now have two full stores, a growing wholesale business, and more designs, materials, and moving parts than ever before. And I’ve hit a wall.

I have no idea how many chains we have. Or don’t have. I walk into the studio expecting to make a dozen necklaces and discover we’re completely out of something essential—again. I get caught off guard, scrambling to place orders I should have seen coming. I’ve officially crossed the line from “organized chaos” to just… chaos.

It might be time.
Time to admit that I can't do it all in my head anymore.
Time to consider—gulp—a real inventory system.
Maybe even… barcodes. (I know. I'm not thrilled about it either.)

I’ve always prided myself on being scrappy and resourceful. I built this company from the ground up with grit, creativity, and a little bit of winging it. But as we continue to grow, it’s clear: flying by the seat of my pants is starting to feel more like flying blind. And I think it might be time to become… a grown-up company.

I’ll never stop being hands-on, and I’ll always trust my instincts—but maybe it's okay to get a little help from a computer. Maybe having a system doesn’t mean losing the soul of what we do—it just means making sure we don’t run out of chains on a Saturday morning when both stores are busy and I’m already halfway into a production sprint.

So here we go. Deep breaths. Inventory software, here we come.
(Probably. Maybe. We’ll see.)