My manufacturer received the leather today. Hooray! Production should get back on track next week. You know, I actually think that the purse organizers might get finished before the laptop bags now. Sad.
My website developer went MIA this week, so all of the steady progress we had made came to a halt. I finally got in touch with him and he said he got sidetracked by other projects. Ugh, the story of my life! Now I am back on his radar, and he’ll be working on the next round of changes. My web designer is away until next Wednesday, so I am hoping that these changes are implemented soon so we can wrap up the website stuff within 2 weeks.
Between the website delays and the production fiascos, I feel like I’m playing the “red light, green light” game. Except someone else keeps calling “red light!” all of the time. Green light, damn it, GREEN LIGHT!
I’ve managed to find lower-cost vendors for my vegetable-tanned leather, lining fabric, and my metal hardware, which is great! These other suppliers are high-quality too. I’ll have to brush up on my negotiation skills to see if my current vendors would be willing to drop their prices, otherwise I might go with my back-up suppliers. Unfortunately, although I’ve managed to find some potential cost-savings in some areas, I am still looking for a good manufacturer who can make bags at a competitive cost. If I end up dropping my current manufacturer (or he drops me), I may have to count on lowering my materials costs just to offset prices of other high-quality manufacturers who are a bit more expensive. In the end the cost savings may be a wash.
Time to shut down. See you tomorrow.