Working Until 2 am—Entrepreneur Style
Why I stayed up until 2 am, what I learned from it, and the skills I strengthened.
Last week was the biggest product creation week I have done yet.
What exactly did I create? Well, I transformed:
30lbs of suet into 23lbs of tallow
16 of those lbs into 329 fl oz of liquid moisturizer (tallow + jojoba oil)
Those 329 fl ozs into 446 fl oz of whipped moisturizer
The leftover 7 lbs of tallow were turned into soap
The entire process takes several days. This time, I started on Monday morning and finished at 2 am Friday morning. Now, I wouldn’t normally do something like stay up until 2 am (well, most of the time), but this week, I knew I had to get it done early because I was going out of town on Friday.
So, what did I learn from all of this?
I learned:
Documentation - The whole process had to be recorded. Whether that was recording how much suet I started with to how much whipped moisturizer I ended up with, all the ratios in between, or filming the process, it was all documented (even at 2 am).
Problem-solving - I was a little underprepared for that week (understatement). From realizing that I did not have enough bowls to hold the tallow to finding out my mixer was not big enough to discovering that (uh-oh!) I was going to have to work late into the night there were plenty of opportunities to problem-solve.
Attentiveness - One key point when working with suet/tallow is to be attentive. Now, if I forget to strain my suet (part of the purifying process) as soon as it is melted, the suet is ok. The problem is that the process takes a long time, so not wasting time is key. I learned to be extra attentive so the process would not take too long.
You have to write things down - It is easy for me to think “Oh, I’ll remember that.” but through the course of owning my business, it has become clear how easy it is to forget something. So, that week, I implemented a clothespin system. Basically, I would put a clothespin on each bowl of set or tallow so that I wouldn’t forget what stage it was in (purifying suet is at least a 3-stage process).
Takeaways
That week was a great learning experience! Here are a few of my takeaways and things I will change for next time:
Set timers - It can be tempting to rely on “I just check the suet in a little bit.” But in reality, it is easy to get wrapped up in other tasks. Setting a timer will help me be more accurate.
Buy bigger bowls - One big stumbling block for me was that I would have some suet ready to cool, but all the bowls were full. This caused me to waste time. By getting my own (probably really big) bowls, I can save myself time.
Calculate my whipping time - One thing that I missed calculating was how long I let the liquid moisturizer whip before I piped it into the jars. This is ok because, just like baking or cooking, you can tell when it is done, but I would like to time it so I can guarantee consistency.
Those are my three biggest ultra-practical lessons learned.
Why You Should Care
Now, you may be thinking, “Serena, those points are cool and all, but how do they apply to my life?” Good question!
While these particular lessons learned may not apply directly to you, they still illustrate the importance of review (which itself is a lesson to learn). You can see that if I did not take the time to look back and see how I could improve my process, I would continue to encounter the same issues.
I don’t know about you, but I continually struggle with finding the time for reflection and review. For some reason, it feels like I am wasting time. However, I never regret it, and I almost always learn something valuable.
So, whether you have wanted to take some time to reflect spiritually, professionally, and just on life in general, I encourage you to do it.
Pro Tip: You are not going to find time unless you do it right now or write it down. 😁
Thanks for reading,
Serena
P.S. One other thing I spent a lot of time working on this week was Areté Tallow’s website. You can see it here.
P.P.S. If anyone is interested (most likely someone with nerd-like qualities 😊), here is the math that I came up with to standardize my process of suet to whipped moisturizer:
Decide on the final amount of whipped moisturizer you want to make.
Convert the desired whipped moisturizer amount to liquid moisturizer:
Multiply the whipped moisturizer amount by 0.737 (which is 1 divided by 1.4, the ratio of liquid to whipped moisturizer).
Liquid Moisturizer = Whipped Moisturizer × 0.737
Calculate how much tallow is needed for the liquid moisturizer:
Multiply the liquid moisturizer amount by 0.81 (which is 4.25/5.25, the ratio of tallow to jojoba oil).
Liquid Moisturizer × .81 = Tallow needed
Calculate how much suet is needed:
Divide the tallow needed by 0.75 (since 75% of suet turns into tallow).
Suet Needed = 0.75 × Tallow Needed
This equation lets me look at my inventory, figure out how many ozs of moisturizer I need, and reverse engineer it to figure out how much suet I need to render (rendered suet = tallow).
