Over the past several weeks, I have been in negotiations with two local companies who have warehouse capabilities beyond what I can do. Both companies have some different services to offer, and I will wind up working with both of them in the end. This business, Wool2Dye4, has grown quite a bit in the past two years, and this means handling lots more inventory. We receive it and check it off a list, then lift it and put it in place. We label the outside of the box, then we open the boxes, take the yarn out and remove the mill labels, and replace them with our Wool2Dye4 labels. Then, we stock the shelves or close the boxes again, and if there is any need to shuffle placement around, we lift them again and move them around. Considering that a box of skeins weighs 44 pounds at a minimum, and cones up to 70 pounds ... well, it is a physical job requiring strength as well as attention to detail.
In the eight months since I moved the company the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, I have had two packers/stockists who both had to be let go. Oddly, both claimed they had no idea why they didn't last, and one, unfortunately, was a friend whom I kept on as an act of friendship. Sadly, he didn't seem to think as much of our friendship and it ended badly, I am sorry to say. This last incident clarified my thoughts about hiring more employees to handle stock and warehousing, and through a circuitous route, I came to consider two different options for both warehousing and the labelling of all stock as a new alternative. It is wonderful when opportunities fall across your path, and you actually recognize them as such! Advantages include no physical labor for me or my assistant, a freeing up of current space for better use, and paying for this as a service rather than employee wages. I have had both packers file for unemployment benefits, and here in Virginia, you can receive benefits without having to prove you could perform the job! Pretty amazing, really, and very disappointing, especially over the one whom I had considered a friend. I cannot tell you how many conversations I had in my mind, but, of course, can never actually say out loud.
Yesterday I decided on a part of the upcoming change, the warehousing, stock labelling, and sample creation. I am going with a local sheltered workshop, a non-profit which employs physically and mentally challenged individuals. Twice I have been to the site and both times been so impressed with the attention to detail and pride in workmanship. Nothing like what I have just experienced with people who sought out a job and then slouched through the days. I feel so happy about this decision. In addition to getting all of this work handled, I am able to give back in a small way to the community.
The efficiency part, though, is fascinating to me. For years, I have created a process for each of the elements of my business. Samples, for instance, have undergone quite a change from the original little wound bits of yarn round individual cards printed with the yarn specs. I think we had 12 yarns at that time. Today there are 39 yarns in the permanent line, 9 special purchase yarns, and 5 or 6 retirement yarns. We are about to add 8 new yarns in January 2012, too!
Yesterday I was asked to come over and help revise the process of assembling my wholesale sample pack. The most recent incarnation of the wholesale sample pack has been a layering process, two columns on the front and two on the back, in a 9x11 bag with a sticky closure. For me this presentation has been cumbersome, so I absolutely understood the need for a new way to pack all the samples into one bag in a way in which the new packers could accomplish this, and which would be pretty. (I have a running joke, which is actually quite serious, and I frequently intone, 'Here at Wool2Dye4, Rule Number Two is Make It Pretty!' If a new employee ever asks what Rule Number One is, I know they were listening. This former friend, most recently disengaged, never thought to ask that question!)
So, they asked me to create a wholesale sample pack and timed me. Of course, my fingers were fumbling and it definitely did not look very pretty. Then the first modification came: using a piece of cardboard as a center sort of spine and glue dots to affix two of the sample baggies at a time. That worked better, so we tried that. Again, I was asked to create the entire packet from start to finish, and I didn't do too well. So we three tossed around ideas, until the simplest and most efficient idea of all came to one of them. The new idea was to draw a single line down the center of a piece of card stock, and, using round clear stickers, affix two sample baggies at a time, working from bottom up. It made a spectacularly pretty, very neatly arranged set of samples. All these years, and I had never thought to try this!
They break down all jobs into a process and study the movements and method until they come up with an efficient way to perform the task. This includes much more than making samples, but in handling a large number of stock boxes and the contents, how to stack and warehouse them for efficiency. The next study will be about shipping efficiently from other countries, and there are some very exciting possibilties there, including some non-traditional approaches. More on that later.
Suffice it to say that coming into contact with these people has made an impact on my thinking. I realized that I no longer have to have total control over every aspect of the business and can learn to use the expertise of others, and to to trust the people whom I hire to handle that. This was brought home very suddenly on the day of their visit to look over the business. I was interrupted for about fifteen minutes, and when I returned, the President of the company asked me, 'What would you do with your time if we took away all the responsibilities of the warehouse?' I started to stutter, and couldn't form a complete sentence. Those who know me well will surely not believe that, but it is true. My mind was racing with flashes of marketing ideas I have stewing around in there but no time to turn into reality, of the new website almost ready to go but caught in a limbo where I just cannot move it forward, of the letters unwritten to customers in response to theirs to me, or just the very time to consider new ideas. The eMails alone used to take up three or four hours of each day, and in the past month, I have been distracted and my attention sidelined. So there I was looking like a dummy, unable to answer that simple question, but this guy recognized that my mind was busy, busy, busy with the possibilities. That was the moment I knew they were onto something which would help me and allow the business to grow. It would mean that I would have to give up micro management! I am very good at that, but in my own defense, I do feel that without control of the processes, the business could never have grown as it has. Oddly, though, I felt a sense of relief come over me, and that was one of those Bingo! moments in life when you know that a good idea has just occurred and it is time to act and act well. So, I moved forward and it is all about to come to fruition.I had another Bingo! moment seven years ago when I started Wool2Dye4. I just paused to reflect on that realization that hit me, and immediately turned my thinking towards how I could make the idea work.
Through my life, many opportunities have fallen across my path, and I've followed a lot of them. While all were not good, I have learned how to let the bad ones go. Right now, though, I am sure I am onto something which will allow my business to grow in a healthy way, and allow me to enjoy it much more.
It's a good time to be coming to a new realization, isn't it, with the new year approaching. I am corny and like making resolutions and writing lists, and taking care, and for anyone who is reading this right now, I've got to say that these little oddball preferences for order are key to growing a successful business. You have to like what you do and how you do it. You have to be happy with your choices, have the guts to look hard at how things have always been and take the chance to make a few changes. That is where I am just now, and I feel it is the right place to be.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Friday, December 02, 2011
Sales tax for internet merchants? Could happen soon!
Sales Tax measures ‘to Cost Us Big’ … December 1, 2011 WSJ
By ANGUS LOTENAmazon.com wants to bring order to the way online retailers collect state and local taxes. And that has Web entrepreneur Stacy Strawn feeling anxious.
Under a 1992 Supreme Court ruling, online retailers including her aren't required to collect sales tax for purchases made in states where they do not have a physical presence.
Stacey Strawn says proposed online sales-tax rules would hurt her Silver Gallery: 'The big retailers will eventually take over online shopping.'
Amazon is backing new sales-tax proposals but some small businesses are worried it may hurt them in the end, Stu Woo reports on digits.
But Ms. Strawn, and others like her who operate with just a dozen or so employees, would have to begin collecting and remitting taxes for the more than 40 states that currently charge sales and use taxes, along with thousands of cities and counties across the country, as set forth by a Senate proposal unveiled last month.
That proposal, which has the support of Amazon, includes an exception for small-business retailers with less than $500,000 in annual "remote" sales—a sum so low that it wouldn't even cover Ms. Strawn's employees' wages.
"These are the most small-business-unfriendly measures I've seen in years," said Ms. Strawn, whose Waynesboro, Va., store, Silver Gallery, sells sterling-silver bowls, cups and jewelry. "This is going to cost us big."
Ms. Strawn isn't entirely sure what the cost to her business would be. A 2006 PriceWaterhouseCoopers study found local and state tax compliance costs small retailers 13.47% of all sales tax collected, compared to 2.17% for large retailers.
The concerns voiced by Ms. Strawn and other small online retailers highlight a new point of contention in the debate over taxing Internet sales—the so-called small-business exemption in federal proposals is now so small that even many small fry aren't protected.
"The Internet is the only place where someone like us can be next door to an Amazon," Ms. Strawn said. "If they don't do something, the big retailers will eventually take over online shopping. And that would be a huge loss."
Nearly all of the Silver Gallery's $3 million in revenue last year came from online sales. The store currently has seven full-time employees, but she may have to cut some jobs as a way to deal with the added costs.
Legislation that would require online retailers to collect state taxes has been proposed in each of the past seven Congresses, including House and Senate bills in 2007 that set the small-business exemption at a much more generous $5 million in annual sales.
Amazon's willingness to get behind the proposals—combined with pressure from states for new sources of tax revenue, and bipartisan efforts in the House and Senate—has given the movement more traction this year.
Last month, the world's largest online retailer expressed support for a Senate bill calling for standardized federal rules that would require online retailers to collect out-of-state sales taxes—with a $500,000 exemption for small retailers. Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of public policy, said at a House Judicial Committee hearing Wednesday that any small-business exemption must be kept low to protect states' rights to collect taxes, while leveling the playing field between online retailers and their brick-and-mortar competitors that already collect state taxes—typically reflected as higher sticker prices. "No one should want these online sellers to take advantage of a newly created un-level playing field over small Main Street businesses, and no one should want government to pick business-model winners and losers this way," Mr. Misener said.
"Amazon is prepared to make its technology available as a service to help sellers by collecting sales tax for them," he added.
Other supporters of the proposals include brick-and-mortar-only retailers who believe the standardization will help create a more level playing field overall in the retail industry. Without a state sales tax, online retailers "have nearly a 10% discount automatically," contends Maggie Jetter, owner of Tweed Baby Outfitters, a baby goods and apparel store in Nashville, Tenn., that doesn't sell its wares online. "We're doing the same thing, offering the same products, so the law needs to be reformed and updated," she says.
Online retail sales in the U.S. grew 13% to $176 billion last year, and are expected to grow by 12% to $197 billion in 2011, according to Forrester Research.
The University of Tennessee estimates that states and local governments will lose up to about $12 billion in 2012 from uncollected sales taxes.
Tod Cohen, vice president, eBay Government Relations, said in testimony Wednesday that the company believes the U.S. Small Business Administration should be the one to determine which small business retailers would be exempt. Forcing small businesses to take on the same costs and tax burdens as national retail businesses is unrealistic, unfair and will "unbalance the playing field" between giant retailers and small-business retailers on the Internet, Mr. Cohen said at Wednesday's hearing.
The SBA defines most small retailers as those making less than $7 million in annual revenue. In some categories, businesses such as women's clothing, book and games stores are considered small businesses if they have revenue of less than $25 million, according to the agency.
Some small and midsize retailers argue they may have to raise their prices to cover the costs of complying with a slew of new state taxes, under the proposed standardized federal rules. The risk is that shoppers looking for the best prices may then move their purchasing to larger sites that can absorb the added costs, said Joe Sponholz, president of BabyAge.com, a Wilkes-Barre, Pa.-based online baby products retailer with 29 full-time employees.
"It's not the start-ups or the Amazons of the world you have to worry about here. It's all the guys in the middle," said Mr. Sponholz, whose company recently built a distribution center in Nevada rather than California, to avoid paying state sales taxes. He says the $500,000 sales limit will only help very small retailers who have yet to develop a truly national reach.
A House bill introduced in October is also limited in the number of small businesses it would exempt. It makes an exception for those whose out-of-state sales are less than $100,000 in any one state, or a total of $1 million nationwide.
—Stu Woo contributed to this article.
Thursday, December 01, 2011
Next Re-Stocking on Monday, Dec 5, 2011
New yarn in the incoming shipment, don't forget! It's Donegal Sock, and I, for one, will probably knit something out of it in the natural state. It's just so different looking and pretty! Ask for a sample if you do not yet have one!
The re-stocking shipment is definitely scheduled for delivery on Monday. We will spend all day settling it in and may get some of the orders out Monday afternoon. Tuesday, though, we'll be at 100% shipping capacity, and as usual, we ship in the chronological order in which your order was received.
Tomorrow is Friday, and I will send out the invoices for private orders, and then release the newsletter. By the time you receive the newsletter, the inventory on the website will have been updated to reflect the incoming stock. So, when you get the newsletter, you are free to browse the website and shop from everything that is coming in. What we have been waiting for is the new Donegal Sock, of course, and also the yarns wiht Stellina sparkly stuff in them: Sheila's Glitter, Sheila's Sparkle and Sparkle Select Lace. We even had most of the sparkly yarns up until last week, and I'm very happy about that change. Holding larger stock levels has definitely reduced the frantic factor around order time. Still, here we are at the holiday when everyone really wants to wear something sparkly, right? And we've got it coming on Monday, I assure you.
Here is a list of what is in this shipment. (skeins, unless otherwise noted)
Angel Select
Cash Aran MCN
Cash Sock MCN
Crazy Eight, skeins & cones
Donegal Sock
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Glitter *
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sock
Sheila's Sparkle *
Silk DK 50/50
Silk Sock 50/50
Sparkle Select Lace
W2D4 Merino DK-SW, skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted
The re-stocking shipment is definitely scheduled for delivery on Monday. We will spend all day settling it in and may get some of the orders out Monday afternoon. Tuesday, though, we'll be at 100% shipping capacity, and as usual, we ship in the chronological order in which your order was received.
Tomorrow is Friday, and I will send out the invoices for private orders, and then release the newsletter. By the time you receive the newsletter, the inventory on the website will have been updated to reflect the incoming stock. So, when you get the newsletter, you are free to browse the website and shop from everything that is coming in. What we have been waiting for is the new Donegal Sock, of course, and also the yarns wiht Stellina sparkly stuff in them: Sheila's Glitter, Sheila's Sparkle and Sparkle Select Lace. We even had most of the sparkly yarns up until last week, and I'm very happy about that change. Holding larger stock levels has definitely reduced the frantic factor around order time. Still, here we are at the holiday when everyone really wants to wear something sparkly, right? And we've got it coming on Monday, I assure you.
Here is a list of what is in this shipment. (skeins, unless otherwise noted)
Angel Select
Cash Aran MCN
Cash Sock MCN
Crazy Eight, skeins & cones
Donegal Sock
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Glitter *
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sock
Sheila's Sparkle *
Silk DK 50/50
Silk Sock 50/50
Sparkle Select Lace
W2D4 Merino DK-SW, skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted
* returning to stock
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Future of our Falkland British Merino line
We have had a look at the stock of our Falkland British Merino yarns, and feel that there is about a six-month supply if our customers continue to pick it up at the same rate. In the late spring, our U.K. supplier made nine lovely new yarns available to Wool2Dye4, all from a unique area of the world, the Falkland Islands. The wool from animals who live their lives in one of the most extreme climates on the globe reflects a ruggedness that is unique to this particular yarn. These sheep have to work really hard to manufacture that fiber, so when we source it and bring it to our customers, we know that the yarn is something special and all the more valuable for the limited supply of sheep in the British Falkland Islands.
Here are our nine yarns, exclusive in the States to Wool2Dye4, straight from the sheep on the British Falkland Islands.
Falkland 100% 4-Socking
Falkland 100% DK-SW
Falkland Bamboo Sock
Falkland Platinum Sock
Falkland / Silk Sock
Falkland / Silk DK
Falkland / Tencel Sock
Falkland / Tencel Select laceweight
Falkland/ Bamboo Select laceweight
If you have already knit with the Falkland yarns, then you know that they have a lovely hand, the twist is beautiful, and that they are all nine beautiful yarns. Too, the white is startlingly white! They don't have to be dyed, unlike most other fibers which may have a creamy or beige tone. The Falkland British Merino yarns are beautiful in their natural state.
Would you like a sample? In your next order, be sure to make a notation in the comments section requesting a set of samples of the lovely Falkland British Merino yarn line.
Here are our nine yarns, exclusive in the States to Wool2Dye4, straight from the sheep on the British Falkland Islands.
Falkland 100% 4-Socking
Falkland 100% DK-SW
Falkland Bamboo Sock
Falkland Platinum Sock
Falkland / Silk Sock
Falkland / Silk DK
Falkland / Tencel Sock
Falkland / Tencel Select laceweight
Falkland/ Bamboo Select laceweight
If you have already knit with the Falkland yarns, then you know that they have a lovely hand, the twist is beautiful, and that they are all nine beautiful yarns. Too, the white is startlingly white! They don't have to be dyed, unlike most other fibers which may have a creamy or beige tone. The Falkland British Merino yarns are beautiful in their natural state.
Would you like a sample? In your next order, be sure to make a notation in the comments section requesting a set of samples of the lovely Falkland British Merino yarn line.
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Soft introduction of two yarns this month
Without much fanfare, we are doing a soft introduction of two yarns, a higher yardage sock/fingering yarn and a non-superwash in 100% merino. I'll tell you about the yarns and then about the possible future of each.
The Basics about the Yarns
Euro 500
100% superwash merino
6-ply fingering weight, 500 yards / 100 grams.
Presented an 150 gram skein of 750 yards
Sold by the skein for a short time
Priced as Crazy Eight.
W2D4 Merino non-superwash, fingering
100% merino, 2-ply yarn, 438 yards / 100 gram
looser twist than sock yarns
Presented on typical 100 gram skein
weight and pricing to be determined
Looking forward with these two yarns ...
Euro 500 is one of those yarns which fell into my lap, a happy surprise. The yardage of 500 yards/100 grams makes it a very lightweight sock yarn, or, for lace and garment knitters, a heavy fingering yarn. It depends on what kind of knitter you/your customers are, and the sort of fabric which will be created from it.
Six plies. That is sort of a European thing over the years, a thin yarn of many plies, and it makes for a strong yarn. The fibers used, of course, determine whether it is soft on the skin and easy to wear. I mean, we hate to wear scratchy yarns next to our skin, so shy away from knitting cowls, scarves, hats, turtleneck sweaters with scratch yarns. This is not a scratchy yarn, but is made from our usual springy superwash merino. It's the same yarn that goes into Sheila's Sock and Merino DK-SW, for instance, but it will feel different because there are so many plies. So, it is an aquired taste. I dyed my first skein last night and it rested overnight in the dyepot. Today I will wash it and give it a bath in some wool wash. I did two baths of purple, one I mixed and one straight from the dye manufacturer, and I think I am in love with this purple. Hope I can do it again.
I can see machine knitters coning this one up and using it.
I can see knitted sock blanks from flatbed machines.
I can see antique circular sock machine (CSM) owners loving this one.
I can see fine gauge sweater knitters going nuts over it.
I can see complete vests knit from one skein of 750 yards/150 grams.
I can see some great possibilities for this one.
Non-Superwash Merino
Now, this time I am doing something entirely different. I am sampling a yarn that I am not sure will be the final yarn we'll spin. That's because the weight hasn't been decided yet. So, I will invite everyone who samples the fingering skeins we'll have available to give feedback. What I need to know is this:
Do we need to add a non-superwash to our line?
Do we want it to be another sock weight? (Current sample will be 438 yds/100 gr)
Do we want or need a sport weight in the non-sw? (I tried this a few years ago, and it languished on the shelves in a noticeable manner. Picture yarn languishing; now, picture it calling attention to itself? Hmmm...)
What applications will my customer base make for a sport yarn, if we go to the sport weight?
Do I have the customer base to support bringing in a new yarn in sport weight?
Good questions. All will be answered as we sample!
Want a sample? Write to me and I'll send you a little butterfly.
The Basics about the Yarns
Euro 500
100% superwash merino
6-ply fingering weight, 500 yards / 100 grams.
Presented an 150 gram skein of 750 yards
Sold by the skein for a short time
Priced as Crazy Eight.
W2D4 Merino non-superwash, fingering
100% merino, 2-ply yarn, 438 yards / 100 gram
looser twist than sock yarns
Presented on typical 100 gram skein
weight and pricing to be determined
Looking forward with these two yarns ...
Euro 500 is one of those yarns which fell into my lap, a happy surprise. The yardage of 500 yards/100 grams makes it a very lightweight sock yarn, or, for lace and garment knitters, a heavy fingering yarn. It depends on what kind of knitter you/your customers are, and the sort of fabric which will be created from it.
Six plies. That is sort of a European thing over the years, a thin yarn of many plies, and it makes for a strong yarn. The fibers used, of course, determine whether it is soft on the skin and easy to wear. I mean, we hate to wear scratchy yarns next to our skin, so shy away from knitting cowls, scarves, hats, turtleneck sweaters with scratch yarns. This is not a scratchy yarn, but is made from our usual springy superwash merino. It's the same yarn that goes into Sheila's Sock and Merino DK-SW, for instance, but it will feel different because there are so many plies. So, it is an aquired taste. I dyed my first skein last night and it rested overnight in the dyepot. Today I will wash it and give it a bath in some wool wash. I did two baths of purple, one I mixed and one straight from the dye manufacturer, and I think I am in love with this purple. Hope I can do it again.
I can see machine knitters coning this one up and using it.
I can see knitted sock blanks from flatbed machines.
I can see antique circular sock machine (CSM) owners loving this one.
I can see fine gauge sweater knitters going nuts over it.
I can see complete vests knit from one skein of 750 yards/150 grams.
I can see some great possibilities for this one.
Non-Superwash Merino
Now, this time I am doing something entirely different. I am sampling a yarn that I am not sure will be the final yarn we'll spin. That's because the weight hasn't been decided yet. So, I will invite everyone who samples the fingering skeins we'll have available to give feedback. What I need to know is this:
Do we need to add a non-superwash to our line?
Do we want it to be another sock weight? (Current sample will be 438 yds/100 gr)
Do we want or need a sport weight in the non-sw? (I tried this a few years ago, and it languished on the shelves in a noticeable manner. Picture yarn languishing; now, picture it calling attention to itself? Hmmm...)
What applications will my customer base make for a sport yarn, if we go to the sport weight?
Do I have the customer base to support bringing in a new yarn in sport weight?
Good questions. All will be answered as we sample!
Want a sample? Write to me and I'll send you a little butterfly.
Winter Re-Stocking
Below are lists of our incoming stock lists for November and December. Some of our winter popular yarns are shown in Red. One new yarn will be introduced in each shipment -- Single & Stunning in November and Donegal Sock in December -- and those yarns are shown in Green. As usual, I will send out a newsletter when the shipment is about to arrive. That is when we also send out private invocies for any yarns which have been reserved. If you need to reserve any of the yarns in Red or Green, then please eMail me, at your earliest convenience: Yarnie@Wool2Dye4.com.
Incoming stock: expect it mid-November
(skeins unless otherwise noted)
Cash Sock MCN, skeins & cones
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sparkle
Crazy EightCash DK MCN
Single & Stunning *
W2D4 Merino DK-SW, skeins & cones
WD4 Merino Worsted-SW, skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted, skeins & cones
*Single & Stunning... NEW ... a superwash DK in Singles construction
Incoming Stock: Expect it mid-December ...
a little early to predict ...
(skeins unless otherwise noted)
Angel Select
Cash Aran MCN
Cash Sock MCN, skeins & cones
Crazy Eight, skeins & cones
Donegal Sock *
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Glitter
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sock, skeins & cones
Sheila's Sparkle
Silk DK 50/50
Silk Sock 50/50
Sparkle Select Laceweight
W2D4 Merino DK-SW, skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted
* Donegal Sock ... NEW ... 2-ply with flecks of dark NEP (nylon) sprinkled through in the tradition of Donegal Tweed fabric
Incoming stock: expect it mid-November
(skeins unless otherwise noted)
Cash Sock MCN, skeins & cones
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sparkle
Crazy EightCash DK MCN
Single & Stunning *
W2D4 Merino DK-SW, skeins & cones
WD4 Merino Worsted-SW, skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted, skeins & cones
*Single & Stunning... NEW ... a superwash DK in Singles construction
Incoming Stock: Expect it mid-December ...
a little early to predict ...
(skeins unless otherwise noted)
Angel Select
Cash Aran MCN
Cash Sock MCN, skeins & cones
Crazy Eight, skeins & cones
Donegal Sock *
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Glitter
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sock, skeins & cones
Sheila's Sparkle
Silk DK 50/50
Silk Sock 50/50
Sparkle Select Laceweight
W2D4 Merino DK-SW, skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted
* Donegal Sock ... NEW ... 2-ply with flecks of dark NEP (nylon) sprinkled through in the tradition of Donegal Tweed fabric
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Creating a 'line' of yarns
From time to time things change. Seasons, shoe sizes, availability of my favorite brand of potato chip. And what is there to do but change myself, roll with the punches, adapt. There is a life cycle for everything, including business. We live in a world where options and possibilities offer more change that we can sometimes handle, and in order to keep up and not flounder or let our business become stale, we simply must change when the time comes.
In my business, we have to come up with new lines of yarns to meet the demand of our dyers. The knitting world has done a quick catch-up in how it reacts to trends in color and style within the clothing industry, and the immediate interaction afforded by the Internet means that the old laws of supply and demand are constantly running at top speed. The demand is created, in the fiber arts world, by designers who distribute their looks and sell their patterns through Internet outlets. People buy the 'look' of a pattern or sample and try to duplicate it, so a colorway and/or a fiber blend will become popular almost overnight if the original garment is hot enough. It used to be that yarn manufacturers controlled the speed with which trends changed. They brought choices to local yarn shops who picked and chose what they would buy for their shop according to the buying history of their customer base. The Internet has changed this approach and speed of introduction of new choices.
Producing the yarn and getting it to market is not quite as quickly accomplished as the flash of an image around the world. We run three months behind, at a minimum, and six months, to state things realistically. So, we hover at the fringe of top fashion exhibits held in the fashion capitals of Europe to see where designs are headed, and if/where knitting appears on the fashion scene.
Every year we look to the future and plan out how we will produce and bring to market a new yarn or fiber blend or yarn construction. Something new to attract and keep the interest level of our handdyers. And, when a trend hits the knitting world, our dyers want what they want immediately. We scramble and schedule and figure and meet and calculate and do all sorts of things in the background to get the demand met, to balance our lineup of yarns with current trends, tried and true classics, and fading trends.
Achieving balance means that all things cannot be produced at all times, and that we must recognize the time when the lifespan of a yarn is approaching it's end. That is when we make the decision to retire a yarn, and it is a decision not lightly taken. We always know that someone is fully vested in that yarn and that they believe that their market absolutely demands that yarn. Usually, it is with difficulty that we convince those dyers to introduce something new to their own customer base. If they've had success with a yarn going out of production, they sometimes panic and try to convince us that they will fail if we retire a yarn they use.
I firmly believe that all customers at every point along the route will change if change is presented to them -- from our production to the handdyers who turn it into the beautiful finished yarn to the end consumer, the knitter who holds the yarn in their hands and has an idea of how to turn it into a handknit fabric. My customers mostly sell over the Internet, and many are regular vendors at fiber festivals, and some supply their local yarn shops with their handdyed yarns. They often feel that they have a certain expected 'look' which their customers will seek out and which they are comfortable with providing. And, sometimes, they do not want to change what they have to offer possibly because they do not trust that they will achieve current level of sales.
I also firmly believe that the ease of distribution which the Internet offers has made it so easy for anyone to go into business that people jump for the sale without doing their homework. Marketing. It's all about marketing, which is very close to Psychology 101. It is as much about what you have to offer in the moment as it about how you promote your ability to forecast trends, how you keep up with them, how you adapt to change.
About two months ago, in a newsletter to my customers, I announced that we would cease production of five yarns. Oh, my. What an outcry and barrage of eMails with the same message: I cannot change. My customers demand that I stay the same. I must give them what I perceive that they want. So, in an effort to respond to these requests from my own customer base, I decided to produce one more round of most of these yarns, and to bring in one more shipment of each one. My broker, who is one of the top yarn distributors in Europe, offered to supply the fifth yarn to me on a special shipping arrangement. If I could put together enough private orders to fill one box from the folks who had been traumatized by the possibility of losing that one yarn, he would ship them to me with my weekly order of his special yarns, the Bluefaced Leicester British wool. Not once have we been able to fill a box. I've had to take space from my weekly BFL orders to bring in one kilo here and two kilos there, and even that small amount has dwindled down to nothing.
I have one more theory about how the Internet has changed my own business plan, and that is that it is hard to gauge a real demand from a perceived demand. Those customers who say they love that yarn will not be able to find it anywhere else and they may just fall in love with something new that we introduce. I have a tendency to take these complaints seriously, especially when they reach the point of hundreds of eMails. Sometimes I get tired and in my answers I speak too honestly, and sometimes people take offence and write back eMails painting a picture of how my honesty in speaking of the market in general has belittled their sense of individuality. The Internet allows people to say just about anything they want to say to me in an eMail without a single bit of compunction that they may be dramatizing their case.
When I started my business, I wrote a business plan. Every few years I revise that plan to include new ideas, and also to clarify my approach to the dealing with people over the Internet. How I present myself, how much of my personality I reveal, how I use humor, etc. Actually, the use of humor in the written word is a dangerous thing, and something I struggle with. From time to time, I try to diffuse high emotion in my customer by using humor to bring us back to the situation at hand and putting a new focus on dealing with the problem, and it sometimes works. When it does not work, I know that I'm in for yet more of an explanation of how my insensitivity has affected their business. The use of humor is a lesson that is hard to beat out of my personality, because I pretty much see humor in all things. I remember a wonderful Scottish gentleman I met years ago in Texas where we were both working with a school system to set up a bilingual program. He was in his 80's and he travelled around the States writing federal grants for school systems looking for funding. He told story after story of the towns where he had lived for six months here and there, and the bottom line of every single one was this: don't take yourself so seriously!
That's a good lesson. In the context of looking at a line of yarns, it translates, in my mind, as another lesson. Be open to change, look forward and plan, and keep your line fresh. That's what we are doing. I know that some people are slightly dismissive that the world of knitting yarn could actually be fresh, as it still has a reputation of being great-granny's pastime and what is cool about great-granny, after all? I am here to tell you that this is not great-granny's crafty world any longer. The Internet has made shop keepers in the virtual world of the Internt of hundreds of thousands. How they choose to stand out from the rest is up to them. We are the background folk who offer change. It's there for the taking.
In my business, we have to come up with new lines of yarns to meet the demand of our dyers. The knitting world has done a quick catch-up in how it reacts to trends in color and style within the clothing industry, and the immediate interaction afforded by the Internet means that the old laws of supply and demand are constantly running at top speed. The demand is created, in the fiber arts world, by designers who distribute their looks and sell their patterns through Internet outlets. People buy the 'look' of a pattern or sample and try to duplicate it, so a colorway and/or a fiber blend will become popular almost overnight if the original garment is hot enough. It used to be that yarn manufacturers controlled the speed with which trends changed. They brought choices to local yarn shops who picked and chose what they would buy for their shop according to the buying history of their customer base. The Internet has changed this approach and speed of introduction of new choices.
Producing the yarn and getting it to market is not quite as quickly accomplished as the flash of an image around the world. We run three months behind, at a minimum, and six months, to state things realistically. So, we hover at the fringe of top fashion exhibits held in the fashion capitals of Europe to see where designs are headed, and if/where knitting appears on the fashion scene.
Every year we look to the future and plan out how we will produce and bring to market a new yarn or fiber blend or yarn construction. Something new to attract and keep the interest level of our handdyers. And, when a trend hits the knitting world, our dyers want what they want immediately. We scramble and schedule and figure and meet and calculate and do all sorts of things in the background to get the demand met, to balance our lineup of yarns with current trends, tried and true classics, and fading trends.
Achieving balance means that all things cannot be produced at all times, and that we must recognize the time when the lifespan of a yarn is approaching it's end. That is when we make the decision to retire a yarn, and it is a decision not lightly taken. We always know that someone is fully vested in that yarn and that they believe that their market absolutely demands that yarn. Usually, it is with difficulty that we convince those dyers to introduce something new to their own customer base. If they've had success with a yarn going out of production, they sometimes panic and try to convince us that they will fail if we retire a yarn they use.
I firmly believe that all customers at every point along the route will change if change is presented to them -- from our production to the handdyers who turn it into the beautiful finished yarn to the end consumer, the knitter who holds the yarn in their hands and has an idea of how to turn it into a handknit fabric. My customers mostly sell over the Internet, and many are regular vendors at fiber festivals, and some supply their local yarn shops with their handdyed yarns. They often feel that they have a certain expected 'look' which their customers will seek out and which they are comfortable with providing. And, sometimes, they do not want to change what they have to offer possibly because they do not trust that they will achieve current level of sales.
I also firmly believe that the ease of distribution which the Internet offers has made it so easy for anyone to go into business that people jump for the sale without doing their homework. Marketing. It's all about marketing, which is very close to Psychology 101. It is as much about what you have to offer in the moment as it about how you promote your ability to forecast trends, how you keep up with them, how you adapt to change.
About two months ago, in a newsletter to my customers, I announced that we would cease production of five yarns. Oh, my. What an outcry and barrage of eMails with the same message: I cannot change. My customers demand that I stay the same. I must give them what I perceive that they want. So, in an effort to respond to these requests from my own customer base, I decided to produce one more round of most of these yarns, and to bring in one more shipment of each one. My broker, who is one of the top yarn distributors in Europe, offered to supply the fifth yarn to me on a special shipping arrangement. If I could put together enough private orders to fill one box from the folks who had been traumatized by the possibility of losing that one yarn, he would ship them to me with my weekly order of his special yarns, the Bluefaced Leicester British wool. Not once have we been able to fill a box. I've had to take space from my weekly BFL orders to bring in one kilo here and two kilos there, and even that small amount has dwindled down to nothing.
I have one more theory about how the Internet has changed my own business plan, and that is that it is hard to gauge a real demand from a perceived demand. Those customers who say they love that yarn will not be able to find it anywhere else and they may just fall in love with something new that we introduce. I have a tendency to take these complaints seriously, especially when they reach the point of hundreds of eMails. Sometimes I get tired and in my answers I speak too honestly, and sometimes people take offence and write back eMails painting a picture of how my honesty in speaking of the market in general has belittled their sense of individuality. The Internet allows people to say just about anything they want to say to me in an eMail without a single bit of compunction that they may be dramatizing their case.
When I started my business, I wrote a business plan. Every few years I revise that plan to include new ideas, and also to clarify my approach to the dealing with people over the Internet. How I present myself, how much of my personality I reveal, how I use humor, etc. Actually, the use of humor in the written word is a dangerous thing, and something I struggle with. From time to time, I try to diffuse high emotion in my customer by using humor to bring us back to the situation at hand and putting a new focus on dealing with the problem, and it sometimes works. When it does not work, I know that I'm in for yet more of an explanation of how my insensitivity has affected their business. The use of humor is a lesson that is hard to beat out of my personality, because I pretty much see humor in all things. I remember a wonderful Scottish gentleman I met years ago in Texas where we were both working with a school system to set up a bilingual program. He was in his 80's and he travelled around the States writing federal grants for school systems looking for funding. He told story after story of the towns where he had lived for six months here and there, and the bottom line of every single one was this: don't take yourself so seriously!
That's a good lesson. In the context of looking at a line of yarns, it translates, in my mind, as another lesson. Be open to change, look forward and plan, and keep your line fresh. That's what we are doing. I know that some people are slightly dismissive that the world of knitting yarn could actually be fresh, as it still has a reputation of being great-granny's pastime and what is cool about great-granny, after all? I am here to tell you that this is not great-granny's crafty world any longer. The Internet has made shop keepers in the virtual world of the Internt of hundreds of thousands. How they choose to stand out from the rest is up to them. We are the background folk who offer change. It's there for the taking.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Yarn Lessons
I am in the middle of learning new lessons about the importance of matching the right yarn to the right pattern. I don't think I will be spoiling any of my sister's holiday expectations if I talk about their gifts because I don't think any of them know I even have a blog, and one may not know what a blog is. I could be wrong about that, and she might have one of her own that I don't know about.
In early September I decided to begin my holiday knitting with enough time to allow me to change my mind, unravel my work, and generally get sidetracked if that is what it would take for me to actually finish their gifts this year. They are accustomed to getting handcrafted gifts from me, and I do not want to disappoint them. I am not sure that they always appreciate the item or the amount of work which goes into their gifts. One year, for instance, I worked like a demon to produce wrist warmers on my antique circular sock machine. The items themselves were simple; it was the learning process which was time consuming. They only knew of the end result, so they might have been a little underwhelmed when the moment of truth arrived. One even called me up and asked me how to wear them ... well, maybe not expressed in such a blunt manner. After all, we are Southern women and we suggest rather than come out and ask when what we really want to know is 'what on earth are these two tubes of knitting for?' She did, however, suggest to me that they were a little loose and odd to wear, but I just love my own and could not understand what she was talking about.
This year I decided to knit something specifically chosen for each one, and each gift would fall within the same range of difficulty of knitting. I decided to knit three shoulder shawls, all one-skein products. The plan included only yarns from my own line, i.e., Wool2Dye4 yarns. Too, they would be yarns which I hand-dyed myself. These last two qualifications are not difficult as my personal secret stash is impressive. I dye up all of the yarns we sell and they yarns we consider selling.
Two shawls are now complete. I'll post pictures when all three are complete and blocked, but two are knit and bound off the needles. They are a little scrunchy looking now, and this is normal. I know they will grow when the finishing is, well, finished. That is always such an exciting time, the day of blocking, but I really need to be in the right mood to actually get to it. I have a wonderful blocking table set up, all padded and covered with a muslin gridded fabric left over from quilting days. The work area is stocked with blocking wires -- which are the very neatest knitting accessory I have found in years! -- and blunt pins which are sold in the floral arrangement aisle and which are sold in quantities intended for a lifetime supply for at least two persons. So, I'm set up. It is the mood which needs to strike me. The things and stuff are in place. I decided, as I greedily grabbed up wool and pattern for Shawl #2, to finish all three items at one time and to hop on immediately to the next project. I mean, that's the fun part, isn't it? Instant gratification of casting on a new project? Of course it is!
BUT, Shawl #3 turned into a scarf somehow when my eye went to a sport weight superwash merino from years ago, one which I had ordered from a mill as a sample. I had just purchased a pattern online that caught my eye, and I tried to put the pattern and the yarn together into the same project. Those yarn trial samples are not cheap or easy to come by and this fat ball is the last of that lot of yarn, something that made me consider getting a run of this yarn actually made up for the Wool2Dye4 line. The dye job on this yarn is really neat, too, because it is the result of one of those lazy days when your movements are slow and your consideration is long, so the end product is actually deeply layered and interesting. This one started off with two overdyes and ended with eye-dropper applications. Really fun.
That's a fuzzy quick shot of the yarn, and you can see that it has a big bump of unravelled length that will be a mess to knit from, but I am saving this yarn for a future project. Back into Secret Stash it goes, and may possibly emerge as Shawl #3 ... not sure. Actually, I just made that decision as I typed the sentence before this one I'm typing now. I think I won't consign it to an indefinite future, but use it for the third shawl and cast on this afternoon after the orders for the day go out the door. Something wonderful and delicious to look forward to, and Sister #3 gets the Shawl #3. It is decided. This will mean that the rule that all three shawls would be made from W2D4 yarns will be broken, but will it? I bought the trial run and dyed it and it is owned by Wool2Dye4, so I think I will consider it a proprietary yarn, after all.
And, what will I do with the lovely, smooth and luscious Silk Sock 50/50 waiting for become a circular scarf, the same which almost was substituted for Shawl #3? I will make the unique garment for myself ... or make one just for the fun of knitting that pattern and then add the scarf to the Gift Cabinet. This is a good resolution to the problems of the day. My life is simple at this moment.
In early September I decided to begin my holiday knitting with enough time to allow me to change my mind, unravel my work, and generally get sidetracked if that is what it would take for me to actually finish their gifts this year. They are accustomed to getting handcrafted gifts from me, and I do not want to disappoint them. I am not sure that they always appreciate the item or the amount of work which goes into their gifts. One year, for instance, I worked like a demon to produce wrist warmers on my antique circular sock machine. The items themselves were simple; it was the learning process which was time consuming. They only knew of the end result, so they might have been a little underwhelmed when the moment of truth arrived. One even called me up and asked me how to wear them ... well, maybe not expressed in such a blunt manner. After all, we are Southern women and we suggest rather than come out and ask when what we really want to know is 'what on earth are these two tubes of knitting for?' She did, however, suggest to me that they were a little loose and odd to wear, but I just love my own and could not understand what she was talking about.
This year I decided to knit something specifically chosen for each one, and each gift would fall within the same range of difficulty of knitting. I decided to knit three shoulder shawls, all one-skein products. The plan included only yarns from my own line, i.e., Wool2Dye4 yarns. Too, they would be yarns which I hand-dyed myself. These last two qualifications are not difficult as my personal secret stash is impressive. I dye up all of the yarns we sell and they yarns we consider selling.
Two shawls are now complete. I'll post pictures when all three are complete and blocked, but two are knit and bound off the needles. They are a little scrunchy looking now, and this is normal. I know they will grow when the finishing is, well, finished. That is always such an exciting time, the day of blocking, but I really need to be in the right mood to actually get to it. I have a wonderful blocking table set up, all padded and covered with a muslin gridded fabric left over from quilting days. The work area is stocked with blocking wires -- which are the very neatest knitting accessory I have found in years! -- and blunt pins which are sold in the floral arrangement aisle and which are sold in quantities intended for a lifetime supply for at least two persons. So, I'm set up. It is the mood which needs to strike me. The things and stuff are in place. I decided, as I greedily grabbed up wool and pattern for Shawl #2, to finish all three items at one time and to hop on immediately to the next project. I mean, that's the fun part, isn't it? Instant gratification of casting on a new project? Of course it is!
BUT, Shawl #3 turned into a scarf somehow when my eye went to a sport weight superwash merino from years ago, one which I had ordered from a mill as a sample. I had just purchased a pattern online that caught my eye, and I tried to put the pattern and the yarn together into the same project. Those yarn trial samples are not cheap or easy to come by and this fat ball is the last of that lot of yarn, something that made me consider getting a run of this yarn actually made up for the Wool2Dye4 line. The dye job on this yarn is really neat, too, because it is the result of one of those lazy days when your movements are slow and your consideration is long, so the end product is actually deeply layered and interesting. This one started off with two overdyes and ended with eye-dropper applications. Really fun.
And, what will I do with the lovely, smooth and luscious Silk Sock 50/50 waiting for become a circular scarf, the same which almost was substituted for Shawl #3? I will make the unique garment for myself ... or make one just for the fun of knitting that pattern and then add the scarf to the Gift Cabinet. This is a good resolution to the problems of the day. My life is simple at this moment.
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