..on making a dollar out of 15 cents.......
It all started with a conversation with my marketing consultant......pretty inocuous really. We sat in a cafe along the fashion row of Brooklyn's Fulton Street.... As I sipped coffee and sthough aabout whether these eggs really were "Egg's Benedict", we discussed the ways in which a perosn could approacht he fashion market as a profession as oppossed to an ego-boost. She shared strategies and tips and I just drank it all in.
As our conversation drew to a close, I realized that in all of our discussion, she had not suggested print or media advertising..........what about a website (surely EVERYONE has to have a website , right?) - As a veteran of the handmade industry, with a crochet design company under her belt, she encouraged me against print or web presence......"Unless you know how many items you can get out within what amount of time - you are going to be in a world of trouble when interest hits. .......cause when it "hits" you had better be ready for it....."
I thought about all of this when I returned to work that Monday (and they WERE Eggs Benedict - this verified by my Sous Chef husband!)........With the aforementioned 15 cents in my pocket, I began surfing the web, continually looking at website designs, preparing for that fateful day when I TOO would have a website....scanning for what looked right.....seeing what the standard was and noting successful techniques for mounting picture online......and then I found them - Tara Handknits, two women, in California who had an unbelievable 6 Groups of products - I mean they had the hat, the scarves, the gloves, the children's hats, the mittens, the legwarmers, the curtains, the towel sets (with or without monogram!)
I mean really they had it ALL.......
....Wait a minnit
....how the heck did they do this.....
...I know the RULE - I heard it from my marketing consultant - you're not allowed to have a website (see how I hear things?!) unless you KNOW where and how your hand made items are going to be produced....
Riled up and ready to go, I searched their website to find out where the little 7 year old blind girls were that were being contracted to make these items (who were probably making them in the basement of an abandoned building no less!)...
....but found no such girls - blind or otherwise! - I found thatthese two sisters had developed a relationship with ACP - the Association of Craft Producers located in Kathmandu, Nepal. I began to search "knitters cooperatives" and WOW - the rest is history.
As our conversation drew to a close, I realized that in all of our discussion, she had not suggested print or media advertising..........what about a website (surely EVERYONE has to have a website , right?) - As a veteran of the handmade industry, with a crochet design company under her belt, she encouraged me against print or web presence......"Unless you know how many items you can get out within what amount of time - you are going to be in a world of trouble when interest hits. .......cause when it "hits" you had better be ready for it....."
I thought about all of this when I returned to work that Monday (and they WERE Eggs Benedict - this verified by my Sous Chef husband!)........With the aforementioned 15 cents in my pocket, I began surfing the web, continually looking at website designs, preparing for that fateful day when I TOO would have a website....scanning for what looked right.....seeing what the standard was and noting successful techniques for mounting picture online......and then I found them - Tara Handknits, two women, in California who had an unbelievable 6 Groups of products - I mean they had the hat, the scarves, the gloves, the children's hats, the mittens, the legwarmers, the curtains, the towel sets (with or without monogram!)
I mean really they had it ALL.......
....Wait a minnit
....how the heck did they do this.....
...I know the RULE - I heard it from my marketing consultant - you're not allowed to have a website (see how I hear things?!) unless you KNOW where and how your hand made items are going to be produced....
Riled up and ready to go, I searched their website to find out where the little 7 year old blind girls were that were being contracted to make these items (who were probably making them in the basement of an abandoned building no less!)...
....but found no such girls - blind or otherwise! - I found thatthese two sisters had developed a relationship with ACP - the Association of Craft Producers located in Kathmandu, Nepal. I began to search "knitters cooperatives" and WOW - the rest is history.
posted by Sue Rock at
11:25 AM
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