I really thought that I would be up at the LA Textile Show today. However, my daughter’s playdate fell through yesterday and today was the only day to re-schedule. This is something the kids have been looking forward to all week, and the kids are absolutely my priority. And today was the only day I could have made it up to LA for the show. Ah well. When it all fell apart yesterday, I did what all good little entrepreneurs do, started thinking of plan B, what would be crucial to me about missing the show, and what I would do about it.
I wanted to go there to identify some new organic textile suppliers. I have lists of companies from shows past, so sourcing this time will involve a lot of phone calls and header /swatch / referral requests. But it can be done.
Really, the more I thought about missing the show, the more I realized how much I wanted to go for the fun of it. I love visiting the trending section and saying hello to existing suppliers. I love visiting new booths because nothing compares to having the entire collection in front of you to see / touch / ask questions about. It’s a fun part of the job.
But I also realized that I probably would have done what I always do and get running on different tangents and design ideas that aren’t realistic to implement this year anyways. We have taken great care over the last year to hone our product lines down to the best-sellers. The next design that I will put out is already sourced. We’ll keep adding new blanket prints and new designs for our organic collection, but the supplies and vendors for both of those are already sourced. Even the tools and equipment we’ll need to take us to the next level have been identified.
So, it’s not world-ending that I didn’t make it up to the textile show this week. I’ll definitely be itching to make it to the October show and at that time, I’ll really need some new woven organics (I want prints!!). I’ve finally learned the true calming beauty to taking everything one day at a time. It’s the only way to operate with any sanity as a mom, wife, and business owner.
Anybody out there make it to the Textile Show? Did you find some good new vendors? Anything to share about trends?
I was also wondering about the new show at the convention center - is anyone attending that one? I think it’s later this month.
April 16th, 2009
I’ve been working my fingers to the bone. My dialing fingers that is - and it’s paying off! We’ve picked up great new accounts this week and I’ve made a ton of new connections.
We have finally honed our product line down to the four collections that consistently sell great for retailers. Our ponchos, our organic onesie sets, the Name in Brights blankets, and the cover-all bibs. Having existing retailers re-order all previous designs and add all new designs has really given me the assurance that our stuff flies off the shelves. To potential clients, I can say, in all honesty, “these are going to sell really well for you, no matter which style you choose”. I finally believe in (or remember) the reasons why I started this business - because I believed in our creative abilities. I believed we could / would be the best.
If you read between the lines there, you’ll see that I didn’t give much thought to our admin abilities, but I did 100% believe we had what it took to make it big time. I can honestly say I lost sight of that self-confidence somewhere between figuring out what a pattern maker does and showing at our first trade shows. It’s crazy-making.
My confidence is back, I’m feeling good. Business is picking up for our retailers, we’re updating parts of our house, I’ve started yoga, I’m making more time for friends, I’m feeling happy. And it all came down to me deciding that I really want this and yes, I’m really willing to work as hard as I need to so we can sky rocket up up up n’ away.
I was just telling my husband that I feel like I’ve been through a train wreck (last half of ‘08) and somehow, miraculously, came out on the other side of it still smiling, still shinin’…
Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right - Henry Ford
March 20th, 2009
I feel like sharing a break through I’ve had recently. I don’t know why I feel like sharing it here, since for once, it’s one I haven’t really voiced out loud too much. And I think it will sound funny coming from someone who started their business over two years ago - because damn if it doesn’t take a lot of guts and perserverance to not only just go for it, but to keep going, and going, and going, and going…(right, you get it).
Let me back up just a teensy little bit here - this last six months has been a crazy journey. I’ve felt very lost and unsure about whether or not I was doing the right thing. I was looking for answers and motivation anywhere I could sop them up from - books, friends, business seminars, meditation, prayers - you name it. All the while plugging on - all the while feeling in my gut that we couldn’t have come THIS far for nothing. The company was getting featured and having great sales. So, really, business was good for a lot of that time of uncertainty. It wasn’t that.
Why so unsure girly? Because I felt like I was getting wholloped left and write - watching some of our retailers go out of business, the whole doom-and-gloom every single flippin’ day on the news (I’ve pretty much stopped watching - I get it!!), and most especially the CPSIA passing and how / what to do about that, could we even afford to stay in business? It kept me up at night. My jaw was tight from grinding my teeth at night (I’ve since implemented stress-management programs).
Then - la-dee-da, the breakthrough this week. It isn’t about whether I “should be” doing this crazy thing, or whether it’s what I’m “meant to do”. It is about whether or not I WANT to do this thing. Once I realized that, and everything from my heart to my head shouted “YES”, I felt a huge sense of relief. I felt unstoppable, I felt happy. I felt, well, like I knew what I was meant to do. But right now, I’m meant to run my kids over to the gym where my husband is coaching. Will blog again soon - I have to share the cute little skirt I’ve designed my daughter since deciding to play more and let the fabric “speak to me” too!
March 1st, 2009
A dear friend of mine has started blogging again and this morning, THIS showed up in my inbox:
What is play and why do I care?
Here’s a part that really struck a cord with me (direct quote):
I have a choice about the attitude that I bring to my art, and that is what determines whether it is play or not. It also is what determines whether I’m available to the flow of inspiration.
If I let my art be about the result, it isn’t play. When I’m focused on the outcome, I’m out of the moment and not available to the spontaneous flow of inspiration that, for me, is a big part of play.
Those two paragraphs hit me like a ton of bricks - I’ve been WAY to focused on the result. I’ve been ignoring my own natural creative process. I blame a lot of it learning!
When I was first discovering that I had a talent for this whole baby clothing design thing, I literally let the fabric speak to me. I would get my hands on it and jumble it around on the table into interesting shapes, until a picture of the perfect little design would emerge in my mind. Then I decided I had a talent for this, a passion for this, I loved it. So I set about learning the process of fashion design and that’s where I chinked my creative process a bit.
The need for technical illustrations and pattern makers has made me sketch first. I don’t think that this is the most natural for me. The lack of fabric availability and minimums hasn’t helped either. I used to just grab any fabric that spoke to me off the shelves, now I have to purchase from suppliers and wait until trade shows - or until samples come in the mail- to see the fabrics.
The post at Reinvention Revolution made me remember how much I love to sit and get lost in creative fun, get my hands on the fabric, let it speak to me, dance for me. I need to get back to that. Doing it my way.
Take a moment to read the whole post at ReinventionRevolution.com, you won’t be sorry. Gorgeous collage and inspiring thoughts…
February 18th, 2009
I feel like I’ve been taken to the cleaners by a used car mechanic, only it was a pattern grader. The fit for the original sample size is great, it’s as the pattern gets bigger that it has problems. Mainly in the sleeve length. Everything else seems to be graded ok, but by the time the pattern gets up to a size 6x, the sleeves are almost 5 inches short.
This guy has since gone out of business, and thank goodness I only tried him out with one pattern. But it’s still a waste of money and time. It might have been a waste of money and time anyways because of course I want to change the pattern. Just call me never satisfied.
So why didn’t I notice the grading issue sooner? Mainly because we only produced two small sizes for the first production run. At that point, the original size was a good fit and the sleeve issue on the one size up was, I guess, imperceptible. Now I want to produce another run w/ the larger sizes too and just happened to make a sample in my daughter’s size. It was as if the sleeves had shrunk, and I was shocked. I’m happy we didn’t have them made, especially considering I pretty much just assumed the grading was right on.
This really drove home for me how important it is to double-check everything and also how important it is to gain enough knowledge to know what you are double-checking. If anyone knows any tricks for verifying that a pattern has been graded correctly, can you share??
February 4th, 2009
Oh crazy first month of 2009, I love you! This month was incredibly stressful scurrying to figure out CPSIA compliance, taking in some of our biggest orders to-date, and going on the roller coaster of having a best-selling product sell out (this is a fabric availability issue).
Ah, the CPSC has issued a one year stay on testing regulations for certain products. This was the news as of yesterday. Here is a link to the press release. Anyhow, what this does is let us go ahead with the testing we are doing and go ahead and keep selling the blankets. I think it’s important to note that you still have to comply - you can’t sell products with lead over the limits, but it seems you can decide how you’re going to do your due diligence and test your products, or accept certifications from suppliers (such as Michael Miller recently declaring all of their fabrics are CPSIA compliant).
We have new organic onesie designs and they are selling like mad. There was finally a noticable pick-up in January. We’ve seen so many boutiques go out of business in the last year, that it seems (cautiously optimistic) that those that have managed to stay in business are finally picking up some of the customer’s from the boutiques that are no longer around. For example, one boutique in the center of town just placed their biggest b*Fab order yet - they have watched no less than six competing boutiques go out of business in the last eight months (most of those were our customers too). At some point, even if all those businesses had less customers, one out of seven boutiques should now have more customers. This pendulum has to start swinging this way at some point, right? It seems to be for us.
We had a cute little poncho featured in the January issue of Pregnancy & Newborn magazine and that sucker
sold out almost immediately. Between the boutiques that managed to place wholesale orders and the online sales, it wasn’t even in stock for two weeks. The reason I’m bringing this up is because I ran into the good old fabric is now out-of-stock issue again. This time, we wanted to do another production run - it’s selling like mad, it will sell well through the Spring - but the fabric is no longer available. So, instead of being able to keep it available on the site, we are scurrying to replace the print fabric. The bright side is that now I know more about our potential and that informs me for ordering increased yardage and supplies for the next go round.
I can honestly say we’ve never worked as hard as we did in January. This could well be the year of the 16 hour days, but we’re up for it, because the business is growing up to it. I don’t let myself watch much news anymore either, it is seriously too depressing. I get it. I’m proceeding with more caution than I ever have before, I’ve learned a lot of lessons from the economy hitting the skids. But I have to focus on the positive and how I’m going to keep us going through this. It’s nice to be bringing in a great flow of business again - that definitely helps to see the bright side of things.
Here’s to the launch of a great February. And for me, a happy weekend when we’re actually doing some painting around the house.
January 31st, 2009
This post is in response to all the emails I get from buyers wondering where they can find unique products, and vice versa, from manufacturers wondering how to find buyers. So I wanted to share with all of you a great resource, no matter which side of the coin you’re on - the boutiqueup.com newsletters.
Lisa, from CreativeWritingStudios.com, has put together an bi-weekly email, similar to HARO, but aimed specifically at connecting buyers with manufacturers. There are two separate emails that go out - one where manufacturers list their product offerings and another where buyers who are openly buying list their product requests and contact information.
This is an invaluable resource for all of you who are looking to target your pitches at buyers who are actively seeking new lines. If you’ve been involved with any of the sales aspect for your company, then you know how hard it is to get the buyer’s attention, and even harder to find buyers who are looking for exactly what you’re offering. BoutiqueUp! is a free service (yes, I really said that and yes, it’s really true!), so make sure you sign up to receive the updates (sign up is at the bottom of the page).
Boutique UP! has a lot of additional services that you will want to look into - including a wholesale directory and wholesale catalog, and unique product reviews (she’ll create an amazing one-pager for you to send to retailers).
You should also contact Lisa if you are in need of writing services - she has incredible rates and I am familiar with her work, which is outstanding. She can write you web copy, your marketing materials, your press releases, etc. And like I said, the rates are reasonable for start-ups. Visit her at creativewritingstudios.com.
Keep on moving on!!!
January 24th, 2009
Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I’m still here and hanging in there. I’m doing great actually, I feel the new year is off to a good start. I spent a lot of December doing business planning. I hashed out my total financial goal and then broke it down into monthly goals.
Create a time line for 2009
My 2009 time line is different than my master business plan (which is in desperate need of an update too). Starting with the main financial goal, I mapped out not only how much the sales should increase each month, but also what it will take to make that happen. I have a plan for release of new designs, monthly advertising and pr, rate of increasing sales reps, and even the number of units (by product) that we need to sell each month.
How to get yours started: Make a list of the top ten things you want to have accomplished by the Dec. 31, 2009. Write this in past tense (ie: We made $8 zillion this year). Next, get 12 pieces of paper, and starting with your MAIN goal, work backwards from Dec. Make sure you cover all the development, sales, and marketing steps it will take to reach the monthly goal. Think about potential obstacles you could encounter each month and create a plan for overcoming them (including laziness and de-motivation!).
Meeting my January goals
One of the first things I need to help meet my January goals is MORE HELP, and thankfully, I’m getting it already. We’ve brought on some fantastic new sewing contractors for the blankets. This is huge because it will decrease our turnaround time without effecting the quality. This will translate to even happier customers, which will translate to more good word-of-mouth for the company.
Stay committed to your goals and plan
The hard part about goals is staying committed to them. So I make myself look at my January plan every morning. So far I’m on track. Had some great conversations with existing retailers today, will be visiting a few of them next week because they are ready to re-order (yes!!). We’ve got new designs for them too - which the retailers always love.
So that’s how I’m starting the year - optimistic.
Other ways you can stay connected to your goals include posting them on the wall, creating a vision board, and having an accountability partner.
Side note on the CPSIA - I’m not saying much about how we’re handling this because I’m not in any position of authority on the matter. I’m weeding through the information and am talking to whoever I can and am forming a plan. I’m not panicking, I’m not panicking, I’m not panicking…please visit Fashion-Incubator.com if you are looking for more detailed information on this very pressing topic. Also Get on twitter and search #cpsia to follow the conversation.
Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/babyfabulous
Have a great new year!!
January 6th, 2009
I’ve recently received a flurry of emails asking if I was aware of the new CPSIA testing requirements which will go into effect in February 2009?
Yes, I am, - but thank you and kudos to all of you who are “on it” and are actively spreading the word. Since we pick up new readers everyday, I’m posting a couple of links to THE main source for the CPSIA information on Fashion Incubator.
The archive for all posts relating to the new CPSIA requirements:
http://www.fashion-incubator.com/category/cpsia/
The link to the CPSIA forum section:
http://www.fashion-incubator.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=32
Good news - Fashion Incubator CPSIA forum open to everyone!
This section of the forum has been opened to everyone in the hopes of spurring more action and preventing mis-information. Kathleen is doing an incredible job of spear-heading this movement, it’s great to have a central location for everyone effected by this new legislation.
If you manufacture consumer products, please get your head around this information. It’s very important and yes, it all applies to you!
Note - so, now, in the “events” section of your 2009 business plan / calendar, you should add “CPSIA testing requirements in effect” to February and “certified third party testing requirements in effect” to August. Then back up from those events to schedule out all the little steps that need to be taken in order to be ready in time.
Happy Weekend!
December 12th, 2008
It’s the end of the year! Already? Yes, yes, yes - already. I’m looking forward to a NEW year. We’re getting deep into the annual planning for 2009. This will be the first time we’ve really done the nitty gritty planning, month by month - with personal goals for each of us.
It’s been really really good for me to work with my partner on creating the master goals (the big financial one). Now, we’re in the midst of working backwards through the year from December towards January. Starting with December enables us to see where we need to be on the path towards our goals each month. By working backwards, you can increment the steps and sub-goals realistically through the previous months.
Tip: Make sure you add important events to each month as you make your plan. Include monthly marketing / development / release plans if applicable. Also include what you should be pitching (july could show “make holiday / gift guide pitches”. You want a map of everything that needs to happen each month in order for you to reach your goal.
I personally feel more attached, committed, and engaged with my goals than ever before, because we’re down to the level of specifics I’ve never been at before. I’m good at the high-level goals “want x number of reps by x month” - but then I don’t do the follow-through and plan out the work and time it will take to reach that goal. Until now.
I feel so proud of us…
I’m also doing a lot of end-of-the-year cleanup and organizing so that we can truly hit the ground running towards our goals.
December 11th, 2008
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