newsletter

Bloated Overhead, Lean Start, Grief, and Small Steps

Javier Feliú

Jul 6, 2024 — 3 min read

I have come to terms with the fact that my writing, consistency, and commitment to delivering content in this blog is not what I wanted it to be, but it is what I can currently manage. Zero is better than none. I just need to be careful not to use that as a lame excuse not to do anything. There are moments in life when you need to prioritize, and this is one of those for me.

I need to triple down on my efforts to make our new life in the USA a stable situation, moving to a new country with family is harder than I expected. If you do not have a stable foundation to work from, you could be swamped with worries.

A few updates:

On Grief

I am still healing from my dad's departure. I think I am moving into a new season of grief, where I was consistently remembering his last hours but now am starting to be grateful for having had him, which has eased the pain. There is still a very present sadness about not being able to share moments with him, but I am grateful for the ones we shared and for having had him as my dad. I will not get tired of saying, enjoy your parents while you have them.

On Business

I have been reading "Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business" by Paul Jarvis. (No links to it, just google it.) So far, it's a great book.

Two comments Paul Jarvis made have stuck with me: "Overhead = Debts" and "You will never be as lean in your company as you are right when you are starting."

I think they go without explanation, but here’s my take:

Overhead = Debt

We all have overhead, even if it's close to zero; you will always have SOME overhead. That could be as simple as your internet service provider. So I will rethink this more as bloated overhead = debt.

You can make money in two ways, by reducing costs or increasing profits, or ideally both. Back with JEFH Woodshop, our overhead was almost equal to our revenue, not even our income. In our best year, we sold about $120K/year, which for Panama, by LATAM standards, in a small operation like ours, was "decent". Saying that our profit was minimal would have been an overstatement 😩.

Bloated and unnecessary overhead leads you to borrow money you do not need to borrow in the first place. I can think of at least 10 easy ways we could have reduced our overhead and doubled profits. Focusing too much on growing, based on expected clients and revenue, can easily lead to unnecessary expenses that you do not need.

"You will never be as lean in your company as you are right when you are starting."

Following the same thinking, when you start something—let's say this blog, a tech startup, or a craftsmanship business—we (or at least I) can be very quick to start adding new features that consume time and resources, or trying to be too perfect and never getting things done, or adding too many clients when we are just not ready to handle them. Do not be too eager to exit that season where not too many people know about your services or products. That is THE PERFECT TIME to focus on improving what you are already doing and profiting from. The moment you grow just a bit more, then you need to grow your operation to fit that demand.

Here the adage of firearms training holds true: "Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is Fast." Do not rush; rather, let's focus on smoothness. Here I am preaching to myself as well 🫢.

On Woodworking

I will just go back and read what I wrote right above this section⬆️ . As I said, I am preaching to myself. I have all the hand tools, the space, and probably the time to get started on crafting projects for myself, and likely I could use the sawdust therapy, but I do not have the mental bandwidth to do so.

I finally bought some diamond sharpening stones, a hand router, some files to sharpen my saws, and some card scrapers. Anything else will be an excuse; I think I have all the minimum required tools for hand-tool-only projects.