Fearless (38)

For over a decade everyone at Soft Touch has worked hard to make our gloves and our brand known. But our appetite is bigger than this. During the last few years our customers have asked us for a wider range. They would like to buy all work wear and PPE from one supplier. This seems to be the trend right now.

The office in Hongkong gives us the opportunity to go out and search for more. We can smell the possibility of earning more money and have a larger turnover. We dream of being the best choice at whatever our customers ask us for.

Lots of ideas get realized. We create new brand names and start importing clothes, shoes and even technical PPE. We are being innovative and new like we have always been. It is fun to see all the new products and we really feel like we are going in the right direction. Hello world, here we come!

When I now twenty years later, look back I shake my head thinking about the younger me. He was fearless, but reckless. We didn't do our research as it should have been done. We certainly bit off more than we could chew. At first it was fun, but the consequences hit us hard.

Expanding to Asia (37)

We have just survived the transition from 1999 to the year of 2000. The New Year's Eve when everyone expected the computers to collapse and that everything digital would stop working. Apparently all went well and we can continue without worries as we did earlier on in December last year.

2000, just tasting the number of the year. So much promise! A new millennium with endless possibilities. It is also the year of the golden dragon according to the Chinese zodiac. A very lucky year and a lot of babies will be born. You learn a lot of new things doing business with China!

For Soft Touch it means a new era. After 14 years of building good relationships with our suppliers we now take a new step. A company is formed together with a partner in Hongkong and we open an office in Central, Hongkong. This will put us closer to the market of gloves and it will facilitate the quality control and distribution chain of our gloves.

Why Hongkong and not China, you may ask. Well at this time Hongkong is a hub for a lot of businesses and English is widely spoken. Easier for us and for our customers. Now we look forward to new and even more exciting times for our company!

The future (36)

It is 1997 and my business has been up and running for more than ten years. So much has happened. The development from a one-man-show to a full working team. From an office in my parents' house to our own office in Gothenburg. We have gone from doing everything manually to using computers and creating a website.

Privately we have just had our second child. A boy this time! We have been truly blessed. To have a family gives new purpose for running the business. Today they are just toddlers, but in twenty-thirty years, will they be the one's running the show? Who knows? Right from the start I decide that I will teach them what I know. My wife, for sure, will lead them down the academic path. I, being more of a self-made man, will give them wisdom to be street smart, teach them how to negotiate and do well in business. And as I experienced in the home of my parents, there will be discussions around our dinner table. Speaking freely, teaching them everything from baby steps to large decisions.

Then one day, they will be old enough to make their own choices. be it my business or something completely different, I don't mind, as long as they bring the wisdom from us, enhanced by good schools. They will be prepared. I can already feel it.

A homepage is born (35)

Sometime ago we bought a computer and my father was not so impressed with what it could do. His imagination stretched much further than the technology at hand at that time. But the evolution has been amazing.

We are now thinking of new ideas and ways to reach our customers and there is this thing called a homepage, a place on internet where customers can log in and see what we offer. All our gloves will be on display. We can show everything in an easy way instead of travelling around with large bags, visiting customers all over the country.

We are probably a bit early, because there are still a lot of customers who don´t have computers or know how to work them. It is truly a question of which generation you belong to. A lot of people cannot see what use it will do. They want to see the gloves, touch them and try them on. Talk to us and discuss quality, advantages and disadvantages. Others get excited and want to try to order like this right away. It saves time.

We decide to give it a go and with a lot of help we launch it in the mid 90's. Exciting times lie ahead.

Half full or half empty (34)

I am standing by the window in our office looking out over KL Sentral. I am free. I know that I can just turn around and walk out the door and no one can stop me. After two weeks in quarantine the feeling just lifts me up.

To be in quarantine, something many of us experience now, is worse than being in prison in some ways. When you are in prison you are normally allowed to leave your cell for some time every day. The most important thing when you end up locked up in a hotel room is to bring the right attitude.

As you all know, attitude is one of my lead words, both when it comes to work and privately. For two weeks I am in quarantine with my wife and we both do our best. It is work, exercise, date night when it is weekend, movies and a lot more.

Sometimes it is stressful, but at the same time it gives us time to think. There are no musts during these two weeks. I have time to think about what I want for my business and we have time to really talk about the future to come.

The last day is a Sunday when we finally are free to leave. We have a lot of good ideas with us. The attitude has helped us. As the saying goes: Is the glass half full or half empty? I think mine is always half full!