Today I spent a lot of time catching up with friends on the eastside, and dedicated only a fraction of the day on my business. I ordered labels for my bags (thanks Tony and Nikki!) in the morning and then had a colorful discussion with the sales rep supplying my recycled nylon in the afternoon.

Several months ago I had requested that the nylon fabric be split into 2 shipments (because I had more than one manufacturing destination), and today the rep informed me that my entire order of 500 yds of fabric would actually be sent to my apartment. This gigantic roll of fabric will likely be taller than me, wider than me, and weigh more than me. I am not looking forward to getting that package. I’m not even sure how I’ll mail this unwieldy package to my manufacturer. I guess I’ll ask UPS to pick it up since I won’t be able to carry it anywhere.

And speaking of UPS, I just applied for a Chase-UPS credit card with UPS cashback rewards. Chase and I go way back– I hope I get approved because I have a personal Chase credit card with a pretty high limit, and I’ve had that account since 1997. If I don’t get approved, I’m blaming everything on Obama.

Tomorrow will be my last day of Microsoft contract work (yippee!), and I’m taking the rest of the day off from my bag business. I’ll get back to blogging on Monday, I promise!

Have a great weekend.

This morning I had a good conversation with the east coast manufacturer. After comparing his costs to other competitors, he’s more on the pricey side, but his stitchwork and craftmanship are much higher caliber than anyone else I’ve seen. In short, I’m paying more for higher quality. If you’re into home design, he does domestic manufacturing for the Barcelona chair, so this should give you an idea of what type of quality we’re talking about.

Now that I have all of my materials ordered and manufacturing figured out, I can say with certainty that my bags will be competing in the mid-to-high range category. Many people have let me know that they’re in the market for a new bag (I love hearing that!) but I want to let everyone know that if you’re in the market for an inexpensive bag, unfortunately I won’t have any bags in a low-end price point, at least not at the time of launch. But I hope you’d be open to considering a good-lookin’, durable, functional, water-resistant, eco-friendly bag made of recycled materials with vegetable-tanned leather trim. Did I mention that the bags will be made in the US? 

I’m extremely happy that the manufacturing got sorted out. If I can get all of my materials shipped in August, then I can start production in September. Cool!

Well, I finally heard back from the local manufacturer. The only reason they got back to me was because I emailed them the cost estimates from the east coast manufacturer and asked if their costs would be comparable. It turns out that the local manufacturer would be 50% more expensive than the guy on the east coast! I still have one more vendor to speak with, but right now the east coast guy is lookin’ pretty good to me. His stitchwork is higher caliber than the everyone else too, so I really hope this works out. Once I get the samples and patterns from the contractor we’ll be able to have a final conversation about my production needs. I’m hoping he’s the one!

It’s been insanely hot here in Seattle and I finally turned on the air conditioning unit in my bedroom. Now I do all of my business operations from my bed. My computer, cordless phone, cell phone, and invoices have been placed in a semi-circle around me. I’m pretty sure I’ll find binder clips and missing post-it notes under the comforter when I go to sleep tonight.

See you tomorrow!

What’s worse than someone flaking out on you once? Someone who does it twice! Oh yes, the local manufacturer that I gave a second chance never got back to me with a final decision. Luckily in the meantime I got a quote from a manufacturer in the Northeast who said he could do the production, so that made me feel a whole lot better. At least there’s someone who wants my business!

I am also pretty close to finalizing some purse organizer and laptop sleeve samples. I’ve been working with 2 small contract sewing shops in the Seattle area over the past month. These sewing shops have required much more hand-holding and day-to-day involvement than I thought they would require. Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that smaller products = easier manufacturing process. Many of these sewing operators only do sewing, and you have to supply everything else (pre-cut pieces, trim, etc). This whole manufacturing process has been eye-opening– maybe when I am done I’ll write a book about this!

Only a 10 more hours left of my Microsoft contract, can you believe it? Milking the free air-conditioning while I can, let’s hope the Seattle heat wave ends for good this Friday.

See you tomorrow!

I was officially notified today that the last day of my contracting  job would be July 31. All along I had planned to work 15 hours a week for the entire month of July. But there was still discussion on whether they’d ask me to extend my contract. Ultimately the decision had nothing to do with performance, it was purely a financial issue. They just added another FTE (full-time employee, in MS lingo) to the team, and also added a contractor who works 40 hours a week. They just couldn’t justify spending additional budget on a part-timer like me.

At first I took it personally (REJECTION! ME?!). I think that’s a very natural human reaction. But that only lasted about 10 seconds. Luckily a few days ago I had discussed the “What ifs” with my husband, so I was prepared:

“What if they extended your contract?”

“What if they extended your contract but offered you less pay per hour?”

“ What if they give you even more pay per hour?”

“What if they axe you?!”

Sadly, I found out through this exercise that I was lukewarm about the more favorable outcomes. My husband thought that this meant I shouldn’t accept a project extension, because my heart wasn’t really in it. I reminded myself that left Microsoft in the first place because I was tired of having all decisions made by consensus. Some of the email threads I’m CCed on have about 10+ decisionmakers who need to give their approval before we can move forward with something. I like having the ability to call the shots. I know I’ve made a few bad business decisions here and there with regards to my business (*cough* trademark problem *cough*) but I learned from these mistakes and have grown a lot during this entrepreneurial process. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything (well, maybe except for a sh&tload of money).

I am grateful that the contract work gave me a cash boost. Thank you Microsoft.  Now it’s time to go put that money to use! Woohoo!

If I end up using local manufacturers for my production, I’m going to need to remember to drive a decent-sized car. I had to haul around huge rolls of fabric this morning (about 30-40 pounds each), transporting them from the sewing contractor’s facility to my car, and then I had to carry them to my storage closet. Cramming four 5-foot long rolls into my Mini Cooper was a daunting task. Out of frustration I considered putting my convertible top down and letting the fabric rolls hang precariously over the side. Somehow after 10 minutes of rearranging the rolled goods I was able to put everything in the passenger seat.  I am now curious about the engineering of the clown cars you see at the circus. How do they do it?!

I’m feeling really good about my business momentum again. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from the challenges I’ve faced thus far. Now that the second wave of samples are getting made, the materials have been ordered, and there are manufacturers who might actually want my business, I think things are finally looking up. Onward ho!

As I had schemed yesterday, I went to the manufacturer’s offices determined to get my sample back.  I went in through the back entrance of the building, passed through the sewing workshop area, and then opened the door to the corporate offices. In short, I trespassed. I asked a passerby to help me find the production manager, and she led me to a 15-person meeting in a see-through conference room. Apparently they were having a production meeting, and I crashed it! I made eye contact with every single person on the production team (awkward!) as the production manager stood up to walk me to her desk to get the sample.

I found out that they were still interested in producing the bags, and she had only one more person to check-in with before they could say yes. And they didn’t get back to me sooner because my point of contact was on vacation. She told me to contact them again on Thursday. I kinda feel like a paranoid idiot.

Could it be possible to do all of my manufacturing in Seattle? You’ll find out Thursday!  Stay tuned!

I brought my husband (a.k.a. CTO and webmaster) to a meeting with my graphic designer today. We were kicking off the website development and I wanted him there to provide his suggestions on SEO and web usability. I was a little worried at first– I thought it might be weird to be in a meeting with my husband, because we hardly ever argue or fight, and I didn’t know if things would change if we were in a work setting. Well, rest assured that everything went just fine. No drama really at all. Our biggest argument today was over what type of fish to eat for dinner (I won– mackerel!)

Still no word from the local manufacturer. I find it a little rude that my email and follow-up call went unanswered. I sent him an email message this afternoon saying I was coming by to pick up the sample at 10 am tomorrow. I’m not kidding about using that back entrance if I have to– I want to make sure that I get my sample back! I had a feeling that he wouldn’t get back to me, so I sent the back-up sample to a guy in New Hampshire today to see if he can do my manufacturing. He’ll get the package at the end of the week, and then he’ll let me know if this is the type of sewing he can do. 

I have a pounding headache, so I’m going to try to sleep it off tonight. I hope it’s not a headache caused by stress, because there is plenty more stress coming up the next few weeks!

Adios!

This morning I had a conversation with my contractor, and it looks like I might use him to make patterns and samples for both the briefcase and the totebag. A lot of my angst is gone now, because I know I can trust this guy to get the job done.

I left a message with the local manufacturer this afternoon– he said he’d let me know by the end of this week whether they’d be able to help me out with production, and I haven’t heard a peep out of him. I figure I’ll give him till mid-day Monday to contact me, and if he is still MIA, then I’ll go ahead and mail the other samples to other manufacturers. I am disappointed that this guy didn’t call me back to give me any kind of update. And what’s worse is that he is holding my sample hostage! When I met with those guys a week ago, the main door was locked so I walked to the back of the building and came in via the private seamstresses’ entrance. Worst case scenario is that I enter the premises via the back door again and demand that they give me my sample back. Sure, I might be trespassing, but they’d know that I mean business!

OK, it’s too hot to type. The fan on my computer is blowing hot air and contributing to the hot temperature in my apartment.

Have a good weekend!

So far every vendor I’ve partnered with has been wary of accepting new customers, and they have all asked for full payment before the final delivery of goods to help minimize their risk. In the past week I’ve had to pay all of my fabric vendors in full just before final shipment instead of being invoiced later. This week alone I’ve paid for over $5000 in raw materials, some with payment by check or wire transfer, others with payment by credit card. 

A few months ago I was able to secure an Alaska Airlines business credit card with a whopping $5000 limit (I shouldn’t complain– I know other small businesses are denied credit), and based on my forecasted accounts payable activity, it looks like I’ll be earning many more thousands of bonus miles in the next few months. My Alaska Air MVP status was slowly slipping away because I hardly ever travel now, but my guess is I’ll be bouncing back in no time. I typically use my miles for first class upgrades, so I foresee many, many trips next year with complimentary toasty mixed nuts. And I’ll probably get sloshed every now and then too, just because I can.

See you tomorrow!