It's about problem solving

 I'm launching a new newsletter, really a continuation of the most recent issues of my Perfume Strategies newsletter. The theme: "It's about problem solving."

    Want to succeed with your perfume? With your business? (With your life!) -- get better at problem solving.

    Look at it this way: You have a great idea, you start putting it together, then you hit some sort of glitch -- it always happens. Your success now hinges on your ability to solve the problem that is causing the glitch whether it be money, a person saying "no" when you need them to say "yes," a technical issue which you don't understand, some equipment you need but can't come up with -- whatever. You either solve the problem or ... or you fold -- end of project.

    Sometimes problems are really small and seemingly trivial. I had one last week. I had fabricated my own instrument cable (to hook an electric guitar to an amp) and one end of the cable went bad. Bummer, especially since I had used top of the line components.

The plug at the other end went bad

    So the next step was analysis. For some time I had been aware that my soldering techniques wasn't good and, when working with electronics, that's bad.

    I had previously addressed this problem by buying a new, slightly more powerful, soldering iron. It made no difference. The solder wasn’t melting fast enough so the components were being exposed to too much heat. Bad!

Small and larger soldering irons

    But every YouTube video I watched showed equipment that looked like mine doing a good job. My (initial) conclusion: I needed an even more powerful (and expensive) soldering iron. I started looking through online catalogs thinking perhaps my wife would buy me one for Christmas.

    Then something happened. I watched one more "how to solder" YouTube video and picked up one small point I had missed. I went at it again, this time with a different roll of solder (much thinner!) and it all worked like magic, just like in the videos.

On the right: the solution

    The point I had missed wasn't the solution to my soldering problem but it quickly led me to the solution.

    My problem wasn't the soldering iron, it was the solder. Now I solder like a pro and a few rolls of the right (for this job) solder cost nothing against what would have been the cost of (another) new soldering iron.

    Problem solving isn't about throwing money at a problem; it's about thinking the problem through and filling in the "information gaps" by doing some research and sometimes with some small scale testing and experimentation. The better you get at problem solving, the more perfume you'll be able to sell and the more money you’ll be able to make.

    You can read more about my new monthly newsletter, The Green Wave, here. Cost is just 99 cents for the first three months (3 issues).