The Highs & Lows of Creating Baronfig

QUESTION

Joey, how challenging is it to lead Baronfig? What are some of the highs and the lows?

– Mark

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ANSWER

Mark, next March will be my tenth year working on Baronfig. The company started out in 2013 as a project between friends, and even now it still feels that way. Since then we’ve done a whole lot, including releasing over 100 products, being in 300+ stores, and shipping to 80+ countries.

There have been many, many challenges in that time.

The biggest challenge is handling the pulls of a dozen directions in a given moment. There’s always something that can be created or improved or fixed. It feels a little bit like Whack-A-Mole. This past week I’ve worked on things as large as the future of the company and as small as adjusting a font size on our website by updating a line of code.

Such is life in a small business, though. No doubt the other Baronfig team members have a similar experience. As challenging as it is sometimes, I’m always grateful for what we’re able to accomplish every day—we have hundreds of thousands of customers using our products all over the world.

It’s truly amazing.

The highest highs occur in very quiet moments, usually with the team, and far from the public. They happen when we finally crack the nut on a challenging product, like getting the Desk Organizer dimensions just right to double as a notebook or phone stand, or sealing the deal on a partnership that can make a real difference for our partner, the team, and our customers.

The lowest lows have thankfully been few and far between. But they definitely happen. For example, we’ve tried to hire for a particular role at Baronfig and, no matter what we seem to do, we just can’t find the right person. It’s frustrating, and makes me question myself more than usual. I’m an optimistic person, but this is one of those things that just drives me nuts.

In the end, I always remind myself that Baronfig isn’t precious.

I can’t make decisions based on fear of change or fear of failure. Over the course of 9+ years I’ve made my fair share of incorrect calls and lame-duck decisions. But the lessons I learned from them help me, and the team, make better decisions going forward.

Thanks for asking.

—Joey

Creator of Baronfig
Author of The Laws of Creativity

PS. Huge shout out to Jay, Andi, and Laura at Baronfig for doing such incredible work. Working with you is the best part of work.

One of the very first photos of our products. This is back when Baronfig was two words, and when we only had two products (standard Confidant and pocket Apprentice).