the hundred dollar business

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Ok, so I wrote about how I’m struggling/the project is struggling because we’re working too hard & not resting enough.

So, I’m still not sure how to solve that, but I’ve at least come up with some ideas as to why it’s even a problem, which must be the first step to getting past it.

The Why

1. We seriously underestimated the hours that the kiosk is required to be open during this month, and what that would be like as a reality (the mall was open 93 hours this week… and will be 107 hours this coming week. I’m not sure why I thought that would be do-able, but… turns out, it’s not.).

2. I seriously overestimated my personal capacity to be here.

3. Because we’ve been pushing ourselves, all of us are either highly stressed or sick. (Not good!)

4. I noticed last Monday that being “understaffed” was a problem, and have let an entire week go by without doing something proactive about it.
5. Going along with #3, sometimes people can’t make it in, and then we have less staff to work with.

6. I simply haven’t put the word out that we are struggling and need staff/volunteers. There are a lot of reasons for that, including:

• It can be difficult to find volunteers, especially on short notice, during finals week in a college town, etc.
• The unknown legal factors of having staff who aren’t being paid (if we were a non-profit, fine, but technically we’re a business?).
• Not wanting to advertise that we’re “hiring”, because it is just an experiment (heck, we’re not even being paid!)
• My assumption that people wouldn’t want to volunteer at a mall kiosk. (It is fun, just not when it’s marathon-style for one or two people).
• It seems like since this is our project, we should just take care of it ourselves….?

7. I’m too independent for my own good, and I dislike asking others for help.

The Bottom Line

I think at the end of it all, the fact is, we haven’t solved the problem because… we haven’t tried to solve it directly. I can keep thinking it out, or, maybe I could just start coming up with some options for how to find some volunteers.

It is both amazing & frustrating that when we started the project, that we didn’t see any of the”impossible” factors as obstacles, and found ways to make things work… whereas now, because of the effects of fatigue, all that’s obvious is obstacles, in even the simplest challenges.

I read a great article about the health care community/professional nurses– highly applicable, because they typically are overworked, long shifts, etc. It was really interesting to see the connection between fatigue and error.

It will be even more interesting if we can apply principle #8 “Be Resourceful” and #9 “Get Around Obstacles”, and hopefully move past this problem so we can focus on finishing the project successfully.

Your suggestions are definitely welcome…