In 2016 I was working full time at an architecture firm but I wasn’t satisfied with my job. I wasn’t being challenged creatively, I wasn’t learning anything new and my career was stagnant. I needed to break out of that rut so I started a side hustle. Link to my Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/Belinda_Carr At the time, we were living in a studio apartment in downtown Carrollton, about 20 minutes north of Dallas. We were really close to an industrial area with lots of manufacturing plants and distribution centers. Wooden pallets were thrown out every day, piled high on the side of roads. Pallet wood furniture and signs were trending all over Instagram and Pinterest so we decided to capitalize on that style and momentum. We started a new company called Pallet Snobs with the intention of giving unused and discarded pallets new life by transforming them into well-designed, minimalist, high quality pieces of art and furniture. Reusability, recycling and minimizing waste were the core values driving the company. Those are actual lines from our mission statement. I broke down the pallets and cleaned up the wood planks with a table saw, jointer and planer. After gluing the boards together, I made custom artwork, signs, clocks, step stools, and even furniture. But there were so many challenges that I didn’t foresee, that made me close up shop in 7 months. Pallet Snobs was supposed to reject the overdone “faux-rustic” look but that style was popular, it made money. Minimalist designs weren’t in demand, so I wasn’t creating what I really wanted to. The entire process was also exhausting and labor intensive. We couldn’t compete with the price of mass produced goods that looked very similar to what I was creating. Most importantly, Pallet Snobs was very time consuming. In the beginning, I thought I would make a profit since the materials were free. But after a while, I realized that I was spending an average of 6 hours hunting down a pallet, breaking it down, cleaning it up and painting it to make a $25 sign. When I realized the value of my time, and put a dollar amount to it, I saw how flawed the business plan was. “How much is your time worth?” That is the most important lesson I learnt from running my first business. I learnt not to cheapen my worth and my value. I learnt to delegate the mundane tasks that eat up my valuable time. I learnt to focus on what I am truly good at, what sets me apart and spend my time honing those skills. With my Pallet Snobs business, I should have outsourced the breaking down of pallets and cleaning up the wood, and instead focused on design and marketing. We often talk about the value of time when it comes to relationships. You need to put time into your marriage to make it work. Hold on to your loved ones because you don’t know how much time you have left with them. The same concept must be applied to business and personal decisions like building a house. You could spend 2 years or more building it yourself if the experience is invaluable to you. Or if your time and money can be put to better use invested elsewhere, it’s better to hand it off to experts and find the quickest way to build it. The second decision might appear to cost more, but if you consider the value of your time, it’s probably cheaper. How much is your time worth? This concept now drives all my business decisions. I weigh the amount of time spent to earn money versus the amount of money earned during the time while enjoying, learning from and appreciating the experience, obviously. -------------------- SOURCES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glPmxeVMgyg Fluffy by Smith The Mister https://smiththemister.bandcamp.com/ Smith The Mister https://bit.ly/Smith-The-Mister-YT Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/stm-fluffy Music promoted by Audio Library https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM9G3nyLT_w --------------------- Disclaimer: This video was created for educational/informational purposes and qualifies as Fair Use. If you are the creator or own the footage featured in this video and have reservations please notify me via Youtube comments or email and I will accommodate you #business #palletwood #money #time #failure #pallets #diy #etsy