The Love Behind The Want

Does it not feel that the want list is never ending?  There is always something shiny and new to fixate on, a void in your life that will only be filled with the thing you don’t have.  I wrote an article once a long time ago about how the reason I wasn’t a published author was because I didn’t have the right desk, the better laptop, the Herman Miller work chair, and an unobstructed view of the ocean.  It wasn’t my fault, per se.  I didn’t have what I needed.

You dig?

The right question (honestly for a LOT of things), but specifically for this topic, may not be what you want.  Instead, try to think in terms of what you love.

Get behind the want - because whether your customers realize this or not, the love is what propels the want; very rarely does the want propel the love.  Why is your product better?  Your company stronger?  Your service the right one to choose?  What does it intrinsically do?  How does it make your customer’s lives better?

To look at your competition and analyze what they are doing to gain or retain market share is important.  If that is the only thing you are doing, you will stop remembering what your company’s angle is and you will look like a copycat.  

I have wanted to start manufacturing blankets for a while now.  A few years ago I would import Mexican Serape blankets in bulk and resell them.  It was a teensy but lucrative side hustle and I got so excited every time my little cash register would ding in my Etsy app.  

That experience got me thinking about designing my own blankets.  I want to make blankets.  I want to make money, and I think it would be really exceptionally great to have my own business, applying what I know to something that was mine from conception to execution.  

And I can start building my business plan and looking at competition.  I can price compare, review photo layouts and online merchandising.  I can research shipping costs (that is one thing I did realize in my Etsy days - shipping blankets can be pricey), and review what retailers my competition are selling into.  I can plan marketing campaigns and get a budget going for new customer acquisition and SEO.  And I can get with potential vendors on pricing, quality, lead times, and minimums.  I can do all of this. I should do all of this.

But I should not ONLY do this.

Asking the question about the love behind the want can get very BIG.  It’s a big question. It may not come out very clear at first.  I think sometimes the hardest parts about questions and ideas like this one is that there is no right or wrong answer.  And really,  no one is holding you accountable for this.  Which may be why it’s so important to have as a foundational idea to your business.  You should be holding your company accountable to this.  This “love”,  this backbone behind the want...it can really open your eyes up.  It can help solidify the “why” behind what you are doing.  It can give you competitive advantage.  It can make what you do stay authentic to why you started.

I thought of this question with my blankets.  I know what I want: a small, profitable company that is in select retailers and with a strong direct to consumer presence. 

But why blankets?  What’s the love?

I was born and raised in Southern California.  The beach, picnics, backyard pools, and sunny days are all part of the life I live.  I love that.  I love that I can be at the beach in the morning and the mountains by lunchtime.  I love that I can live outside 90% of the year.  I love that as organized and scheduled that I am, there is something really beautiful about having nothing on the calendar; to get in the car and go explore - and that there is so much to explore all around me.  And really, when I think about it - all these day trips and bike rides, poolside afternoons and weekend football games - I pack a blanket.  I always have one in my car; it’s always packed in a day bag or tote, and it’s usually one of the most borrowed things from our house after an impromptu dip.  

This desire to start a blanket company comes from my love that in so many things I do, a blanket is part of the package.  I’m not sure I would have connected those two without this question - I certainly haven’t before writing this.  And it’s powerful.  In rereading it, so many memories and fun weekends are remembered.  I can see outlines of marketing stories and lifestyle shoots; I’m reminded that I need to make sure my blanket is well traveled and easy to throw in a bag, thick enough for sand and to throw on wet grass.  

All that insight just because I asked myself what was the love behind the want.