Let’s kick this off by getting it out of the way - THE SUN HAS ARRIVED; THIS IS NOT A FALSE ALARM.

I live near a woody area—in fact, I live a short walk away from farms, fields, and green grass - which means I can take the kids (not the dog, unfortunately; he’s about 105 years old at this point) on lovely walks near streams, wildlife, and pubs - pubs with great food and football on the TV.

Instead of talking about my 9am-5pm, I thought I would talk about my 6pm-whenever, my wife’s business, keeping an updated status of this; think of this more as a milestone or a flag on the moon declaring we landed here.

It’s been an interesting time within e-commerce (is it still called that?). In the olden times, we could say for sure we’d have x amount of sales a day and call it a night, but now it feels like it’s more about funnels, grabbing the users’ attention, getting in their inbox, and offering them a steal of a deal and becoming more understanding about what is it they want and HOW do they want it.

This means, for my role within Bobbin and Bumble, a more hands-on approach for emails and the flows, designing the website based on data (data doesn’t lie!), and seeing what else can be done in and around the wholesale area, I’m the designer, nothing more on this project - I just happen to be married to the owner. The other parts of the running of the business, and the most critical parts, are always owned by Emma; she is the linchpin of it all - without her, I’m just colouring in so to have her leadership and her single mindedness of the company is key for me not to “design for the sake of designing”.

I’ve also been reviewing our costs for adverts vs profit vs traffic, etc. Say it with me: data doesn’t lie! It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for Bobbin, and I’m excited to see this next chapter, where we take things even more seriously and start to investigate past wins, tone of voice and all those things that needed to be done years ago but we’ve never had time.

I had a great chat with Andrew from the Candid Founders; we chatted all things business (and much more), swapped stories, listened to each other’s questions, and, more importantly (for me at least) confirmed it’s a slog, but a worthwhile and, I think I can say with him - one we wouldn’t change for anything.
The skill set you have to earn and learn is much broader than any role I’ve ever been in; I’ve learned about organic SEO and effective copywriting (still learning), more focused e-commerce design (I do have a history in this, but not as recent), email flows, TikTok (it’s a world that still impresses me) and much more. While in my day job, I am classed as a specialist in my area, this feels much more different - neither more enjoyable nor unenjoyable.

Anyway, this is more of a ramble of sorts, but if you have an idea or a dream, just do it. Unless it’s a competitor, then bugger off!