The wait picks your customers

A long wait is not always a problem to solve. Sometimes it is the smartest choice a maker can make, because the wait decides who the customers are.

Picture a tailor in Jeddah who cuts and sews every thobe himself. Ask for one before Eid and he still says eight weeks. Some people thank him and walk to the shop next door. The rest come back in eight weeks and wear it for years.

That wait is good for almost everyone.

He does the work properly, never in a rush. People in a hurry find another tailor, and nobody loses much. The people who stay care more about what they get, because they waited for it.

It only works if two things are true. You have to make something people really want to wait for. And you need the nerve to tell someone holding cash "eight weeks", and mean it.

The usual advice is to make more, hire help and raise the price. Bigger is supposed to mean better. It does not have to. You get to decide what better means for your own work.

Every time you make someone wait, you are choosing your customers, and with them, your future.