I started Misc. Goods Co. 7 years ago. It erupted from a particularly low point in my career. Its immediate success sent shock-waves through my whole life and I often wrote about them in updates to my supporters. I haven’t written in a while. I would like to start. Beginning today I will release a journal entries called “A Moment Passed By”.

A Public Journal of Thoughts, Lessons, Interests, Etc.

From the Field

01

What we’re designing , where we’re going and what we’re facing.

Questions & Answers

02

Submit your questions here and we'll answer them in the upcoming journal.

Inspiration

03

Take a listen, have a look and experience some of the things we're into right now.

Preparing to Take our Misc. Goods to the EU.

As I get older and gain experience through the toil of work I become more aware of how much depends on perseverance. I'm not simply talking about the work of business. I'm talking about the work of life. The struggle of daily tasks, friendships, marriage, parenting, mental health and on and on. This year has been a year of unexpected growth for Misc. Goods Co. We've doubled our sales from last year and the new success can be most simply attributed to ... perseverance. It has been a discipline to keep showing up, to keep pushing into new territory and to try new things.

We've been traveling to tradeshows for over 7 years but we've never gone over seas. I almost shut shows down altogether two years ago. They're extremely expensive and exhausting. I would bend my back getting all the products to NY or LA or LV, crash on people's couches ... counting every expense hoping to offset them with a sale. The traveling and constant breaking-even (or worse) over 5 years was beginning to wear on me and I was about to shift all my energy towards selling more online when out of nowhere we had a miraculously successful tradeshow. Instead of abandoning shows we decided to double down and that's been a big part of our growth and why we're able to do our first international show.

Tradeshows gather the most intriguing brands in one place, giving buyers and shop owners the best opportunity to meet and do business together. I've had the opportunity to meet buyers from some of the most influential stores in the world. We're currently in conversation with a huge retailer and hope to send them a big order in October. If it all works out, then we'll share details as soon as we can.

Another benefit of going to shows is meeting other designers and people who have built businesses like mine. Connecting with others in this small community often leads to encouragement, sharing of ideas and resources and sometimes collaboration. For instance, our friends at Studebaker Metals, whom we met at a show in Las Vegas have been coaching us through how to best sell things in Berlin.

For our first international show, we want to find this same type of audience of buyers and makers in Europe. Selvedge Run in Berlin gives us a great opportunity to do that. It brings together creative brands from all over the world in one of Europe’s artistic multicultural centers. We’ll spend three days there meeting buyers, learning as much as we can about the European market and hopefully starting some new partnerships. We'll give an update in the next journal.

Have something you want to ask? A question about Misc. Goods Co., design, me, my family or community? Submit them here and I’ll try to answer it in the next journal.

Thanks for taking the time to read and I hope these journals are something you’ll enjoy each month, It's been good for me to slow down and reflect. I’ll try to keep the format consistent and the content fresh. Feel free to send feedback — what you like, don’t like etc. Keep working hard, persevere and we'll try to do the same.

— Tyler

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