This weekend was a quick visit to Bradford city centre. It’s got its mud-throwers, but I like it a lot. I think the vibe of the city is ace, the shops are way better than people ever say they are and… the places to eat are an absolute dream.

We hit Omar’s. The size of the naan bread blew the boy’s mind, it’s almost the same size as he is! The curries are some of the best I’ve ever had. I’ve spoken a lot about this damn curry, but trust me, it’s the best.

I completely cleaned the walls, skirting boards, etc. This week is painting week, so I reckon I might have a podcast recommendation incoming after staring at walls for a week!

Onto the week…

Monday mornings, right? Surely they’re always in the enjoy pile… let’s move on swiftly.

Tesco have released their Christmas meal deal. It’s October, but apparently the stuffing sandwich is a huge hit. I know in this house it is, but cranberry in a sandwich is a no-no for me!

I’ve been taking stock of my LinkedIn posting and my weeknotes, seeing what’s going on under the hood, bringing that data out and questioning whether the work involved in writing is worth it. On that note, I’ve also been reviewing what I’ve been writing. I know deep down my weeknotes aren’t enough. They’ve been very shallow, and that’s for many reasons. I can and can’t really write about what I’m doing, I’ve been lazy and just wanted to get something out, and I’ve lacked the motivation to write proper weeknotes because maybe the format just isn’t suiting me.

Writing about design day by day doesn’t work. It’s like Kanban, design takes more than one or two weeks sometimes. It’s something you can dip in and out of whilst working on other tickets. One feature isn’t “just” a piece of work, and iteration isn’t “just” doing design. It’s reviewing user research, talking to stakeholders and involving developers. That can’t be squeezed into one day’s worth of work.

I’ve been working hard on Faire. It’s a window into wholesale and a great testing ground for finding out how our products are actually doing in the wild, in real shops. Turns out they’re popular, but I’ve always had an issue with pricing. Always.

I’ve never been massively involved in the business outside of designing the website, but with growth comes more responsibility, and one of those areas is wholesale. I’ve been questioning how we price things, looking at everything from manufacturing and shipping costs to fulfilment, VAT and retailer margins. Turns out, when you start pulling everything apart, you find a few things that aren’t quite as profitable as you thought!

Last week, I held a meeting to discuss pricing, and we’ve now got a much clearer picture of what every product actually costs us. More importantly, we’re making sure the numbers work for the retailers too. There’s absolutely no point in us making money if the shop stocking our products can’t.

Now we’re working towards consistent pricing across ALL platforms, whilst giving our Faire storefront a proper overhaul. Pain in the arse? Absolutely. But this is Business 101 when it comes to running a healthy business, and weirdly, I’m really enjoying it.

I’ve also started setting up potential next pieces of work. Nothing concrete, but the market feels a lot better nowadays. Day rates seem good, work seems good and maybe… it’s not all the doom and gloom we keep reading about?

Watch of the week

The Oddities is such an interesting watch, especially the videos around Skyrim. I watched this one about Whiterun and fell in love with it all. I’ve watched many, but I love Whiterun. Something about it is so magical. It’s easily one of my favourite places to hang out in Skyrim. I tend to just walk and walk, and I’ve found myself enjoying the game more by not stressing about doing the main quest. Enjoying the adventure is the key in life.

Let’s move from cosy to… well, murder, and discuss “A Killer’s Story”. If you’ve seen it, DM me. We need to talk. What the fuck is this about? And that episode three… jeez, how to write your own ending, eh?