CHANGE IS IN THE AIR

At the beginning of 2013 I made a life decision that caused me to move from Toronto back home to Vancouver – a city I had left 5 years earlier. The move has been a huge success for me personally and, as it turns out, has been a great change for Scout & Catalogue as well. I relaunched the line almost exactly a year ago (July 1, 2013) with lots of new product and all of you responded amazingly to it. As always I am so grateful for your support – it makes my journey possible.

Over the last year I have, very naively, been working on every aspect of the business by myself. Because so much changed in the move from Toronto to Vancouver I thought taking on all tasks would be the best way for me to understand and address the challenges I faced in relocating a small business. As the response to my line grew and grew (thank you!) I have spent most of the past year buried under mountains of production and admin work with very little time to dream, design and reach out to you, my online community. I’ve felt drained and frustrated as I worked within a very flawed business model and on more than one occasion (perhaps weekly even) I have considered throwing in the towel with S&C and heading back to work. After quite a bit of soul searching I’ve come to the conclusion that I am not quite ready to give up on the brand – especially when, with a few fundamental changes in business structure, I could end up both with a more successful company and a happier daily work life.

The first big change I’ll be making is getting support with my production. Moving forward I’ll be working with a small factory in Portland that aligns with S&C’s values – livable wage labour, ethical sourcing and high quality craftsmanship. It is incredibly exciting to think that I could design items for the line and then have a TEAM of people help me to execute my ideas. A team that knows more about manufacturing and materials than I do AND has the technical resources to create a far larger range of items for the line. Exciting times ahead, people!

In a week I’ll be heading down to Portland to work through the first set of prototypes that the factory will be producing for me. Of course there will inevitably be a learning curve in this change but I can’t help but feel excited that Scout & Catalogue is one step closer to being a sustainable, functional business. And, as always, I’ll make sure to document my journey as I go, taking you along for the ride…