Just back from the new warehouse where we checked in the shipment ... handled by the new shipper ... and I am so very pleased to write this: Everything happened just as it was supposed to, if not better!
Amazing, really, to think how long we have wrestled with control over the boxes, how I have battled with the freight company, how I have actually micromanaged every aspect of my business.
When the proposal was made, the question was asked, 'What could you do with the time, once the warehousing is removed from your control?' I was speechless, started a couple of sentences but could not form just one thought because my mind was racing with ideas!
Today it all made perfect sense. Thank you, Vector Industries, for making my business more efficient and for giving me more time to work at the things I need to work at. Wonderful.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
March incoming Re-Stocking on Monday, 3/24/2012
This post lists the shipment contents for March which arrive on Monday, and give a list of upcoming April and May shipments. All in the spirit of planning ahead!
Cash DK MCN & cones
Cash Sock MCN & cones
Euro 500
Platinum Sock & cones
Single & Stunning
Ultra Meirno 3Ply
W2D4 Merino DK-SW & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW & cones
Cash Sock MCN & cones
Donegal DK
Euro 500
Platinum Sock & cones
Sheila's Glitter
Sheila's Sparkle
Sheila's Sock cones
Silk DK 50/50 & cones
Sparkle Select Lace
Traditional Merino Aran & cones ... new
Ultra Merino 3Ply & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW & cones
... SO .... where is Sheila's Gold? We had a scheduling change with this popular yarn which was moved from the March shipment to April, and pre-sold immediately when that news was released. I am sorry for this. BUT it is coming back in May in good quantities. Here are the lists for the two May shipments, which will catch us up and put all yarns back into good position.
Cash Sock MCN & cones
Platinum Sock & cones
Sheila's Gold & cones
Traditional Merino Aran & cones (new in April)
Ultra Merino 3Ply & cones
W2D4 Merino DK-SW & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW & cones
... The first May shipment will boost the popular yarns and restock several in cone presentation, especially Sheila's Gold. Go ahead and reserve now for April. (email your request to Yarnie@Wool2Dye4.com) Traditional Merino Aran will improve it's position, just in case it gets the notice it deserves. While it is a 4Ply and on the heavy side, we would expect it to perform better towards the cooler months, but there has been lots of interest in this replacement to Sheila's Aran. So, we are giving it a little more warehouse space.
Platinum Sock & cones
Sheila's Gold & cones
Sheila's Sock cones
Ultra Merino 3Ply & cones
W2D4 Merino DK-SW
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW
... cones again take a prominent place in the order, with Sheila's Sock cones returning. We have been overstocked, really, with this yarn on skeins, but entirely out of cones. This should give us plenty of cones to last into the summer.
Speaking of the summer, we ordered ten tons to last the three summer months, and will be drawing down on this order once a month from June to August. If you did not pre-order for summer months, but have some events or clubs planned, please eMail your needs to Yarnie@Wool2Dye4.com.
Plan Ahead.
You can do it.
March 2012 Re-Stocking
... (skeins, unless otherwise noted)Cash DK MCN & cones
Cash Sock MCN & cones
Euro 500
Platinum Sock & cones
Single & Stunning
Ultra Meirno 3Ply
W2D4 Merino DK-SW & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW & cones
April 2012 Re-Stocking
Cash Aran & conesCash Sock MCN & cones
Donegal DK
Euro 500
Platinum Sock & cones
Sheila's Glitter
Sheila's Sparkle
Sheila's Sock cones
Silk DK 50/50 & cones
Sparkle Select Lace
Traditional Merino Aran & cones ... new
Ultra Merino 3Ply & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW & cones
... SO .... where is Sheila's Gold? We had a scheduling change with this popular yarn which was moved from the March shipment to April, and pre-sold immediately when that news was released. I am sorry for this. BUT it is coming back in May in good quantities. Here are the lists for the two May shipments, which will catch us up and put all yarns back into good position.
May 2012: First Shipment
Cash DK MCN & conesCash Sock MCN & cones
Platinum Sock & cones
Sheila's Gold & cones
Traditional Merino Aran & cones (new in April)
Ultra Merino 3Ply & cones
W2D4 Merino DK-SW & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW & cones
... The first May shipment will boost the popular yarns and restock several in cone presentation, especially Sheila's Gold. Go ahead and reserve now for April. (email your request to Yarnie@Wool2Dye4.com) Traditional Merino Aran will improve it's position, just in case it gets the notice it deserves. While it is a 4Ply and on the heavy side, we would expect it to perform better towards the cooler months, but there has been lots of interest in this replacement to Sheila's Aran. So, we are giving it a little more warehouse space.
Late May 2012: Another re-stocking shipment
Cash DK & conesPlatinum Sock & cones
Sheila's Gold & cones
Sheila's Sock cones
Ultra Merino 3Ply & cones
W2D4 Merino DK-SW
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW
... cones again take a prominent place in the order, with Sheila's Sock cones returning. We have been overstocked, really, with this yarn on skeins, but entirely out of cones. This should give us plenty of cones to last into the summer.
Speaking of the summer, we ordered ten tons to last the three summer months, and will be drawing down on this order once a month from June to August. If you did not pre-order for summer months, but have some events or clubs planned, please eMail your needs to Yarnie@Wool2Dye4.com.
Plan Ahead.
You can do it.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Time to talk about price increases
We have a price increase coming up, effective May 1st. Over the past two years, we have seen the prices of some of our basic materials increase quickly. At one point, there was a change every week in the price and it was difficult if not impossible to plan ahead.
The fibers which have increased this year are the same list that I quoted last year: Superwash Merino, Silk, Cashmere, and Nylon. Now, most of our yarns contain some of each of these fibers, so we will see an increase on all yarns. In truth, up the line a bit we have had some help from both our yarn broker and the mill who have absorbed some of the cost increases we would expect. They did this because of our volume purchases.
I have been studying the list and trying to come up with a way to keep the increase as small as possible. We have had increased shipping costs, too, and everyone who ships has probably had fuel surcharges tacked onto their frieght bills. We will come up with a way to cover the fuel surcharge, yet include the courtesy discount from my manufacturers in the final pricelist.
This post is informational only, to get the word out of the planned annual price increase, effective May 1st
The fibers which have increased this year are the same list that I quoted last year: Superwash Merino, Silk, Cashmere, and Nylon. Now, most of our yarns contain some of each of these fibers, so we will see an increase on all yarns. In truth, up the line a bit we have had some help from both our yarn broker and the mill who have absorbed some of the cost increases we would expect. They did this because of our volume purchases.
I have been studying the list and trying to come up with a way to keep the increase as small as possible. We have had increased shipping costs, too, and everyone who ships has probably had fuel surcharges tacked onto their frieght bills. We will come up with a way to cover the fuel surcharge, yet include the courtesy discount from my manufacturers in the final pricelist.
This post is informational only, to get the word out of the planned annual price increase, effective May 1st
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Pricing and Undercutting the Competition
It's March, and time to talk about pricing and, yes, price increases. Over the past year, we again have seen the cost of the raw materials for our yarns and their production rise. Superwash Merino has risen almost $6 per kilo. Cost of transportation has risen. Silk, Cashmere, and nylon have all gone up in price.
So, we have to make some decisions around here, and eventually they will be passed to our customers who will go through the process, too, of deciding if or how much of a price increase they will institute; or, why they will not and how that will affect their business.
First, here's what we are doing. We are absorbing some of the materials costs and not passing all of the increases to our customer base for the third year in a row.
Now, what will my customers do with the new prices? I am going to guess that the larger customers will raise prices, the smaller ones will dig in and stay at the same price. The reason I say this is because the larger customers are able to stay large because they operate within the parameters of acceptable business practice, they understand profit, and they know about how to run their handdye business with solid business principals. Some of the smaller ones may know this and are purposefully controlling the size of their businesses, but many of them do not understand business or profit. I hear it every day. Many of my small customers are desperately trying to create a home business and to wring out every penny to contribute to the household earnings.
What is their approach? They price low, in hopes of snagging sales. And when they price their yarns at too low a point, they hurt us all. Why? Because they undervalue the product.
Let's face the fact that lots of people buy our yarns, dye them up, and put them on Etsy, or sell the at fiber festivals, or at their local yarn shops. The yarn bases may be the same, but the end products differ enormously depending on the ability of the dyers, their sense of color, their sense of current color trends, packaging and labelling, and the price put on the yarns.
When people price out of fear, they are not doing anyone favors. Yes, they'll get a few sales from knitters looking for a bargain, but they devalue our wonderful yarns by pricing them down with yarns of lesser quality. I am talking about the poorer quality of many of the commercial yarns, too.
My advice is to take a good look at the prices the competition is charging in the market where you sell. If it is on Etsy, look at all the handdyed yarns, see if you can spot our yarns there and start a careful list of prices, and note the dyers' names beside the prices. Then move to the big sites which sell mosty handdyed yarns. (You know them; I just cannot say their names here in the blog.) Go through those sites carefully and make the same kinds of notes. I will tell you what the timid pricers will find through this exercise. They'll find that they are undercutting the experienced and professional dyers. They are debasing the quality of our yarn lines by doing so, and they are pinching themselves into a corner and the only way out will be to give up. They will never make a profit if they price in to stingy a manner. They will lose their enjoyment of the craft, and they will get depressed and yell at their children.
Here is my business advice:
Don't under price.
Research the market and know the prices that are being charged for equal product.
Price accordingly.
So, we have to make some decisions around here, and eventually they will be passed to our customers who will go through the process, too, of deciding if or how much of a price increase they will institute; or, why they will not and how that will affect their business.
First, here's what we are doing. We are absorbing some of the materials costs and not passing all of the increases to our customer base for the third year in a row.
Now, what will my customers do with the new prices? I am going to guess that the larger customers will raise prices, the smaller ones will dig in and stay at the same price. The reason I say this is because the larger customers are able to stay large because they operate within the parameters of acceptable business practice, they understand profit, and they know about how to run their handdye business with solid business principals. Some of the smaller ones may know this and are purposefully controlling the size of their businesses, but many of them do not understand business or profit. I hear it every day. Many of my small customers are desperately trying to create a home business and to wring out every penny to contribute to the household earnings.
What is their approach? They price low, in hopes of snagging sales. And when they price their yarns at too low a point, they hurt us all. Why? Because they undervalue the product.
Let's face the fact that lots of people buy our yarns, dye them up, and put them on Etsy, or sell the at fiber festivals, or at their local yarn shops. The yarn bases may be the same, but the end products differ enormously depending on the ability of the dyers, their sense of color, their sense of current color trends, packaging and labelling, and the price put on the yarns.
When people price out of fear, they are not doing anyone favors. Yes, they'll get a few sales from knitters looking for a bargain, but they devalue our wonderful yarns by pricing them down with yarns of lesser quality. I am talking about the poorer quality of many of the commercial yarns, too.
My advice is to take a good look at the prices the competition is charging in the market where you sell. If it is on Etsy, look at all the handdyed yarns, see if you can spot our yarns there and start a careful list of prices, and note the dyers' names beside the prices. Then move to the big sites which sell mosty handdyed yarns. (You know them; I just cannot say their names here in the blog.) Go through those sites carefully and make the same kinds of notes. I will tell you what the timid pricers will find through this exercise. They'll find that they are undercutting the experienced and professional dyers. They are debasing the quality of our yarn lines by doing so, and they are pinching themselves into a corner and the only way out will be to give up. They will never make a profit if they price in to stingy a manner. They will lose their enjoyment of the craft, and they will get depressed and yell at their children.
Here is my business advice:
Don't under price.
Research the market and know the prices that are being charged for equal product.
Price accordingly.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Big Freight company with Big Customer Service Problems
For one entire week, we have waited for delivery of a little over 1.5 tons of Wool2Dye4 yarns. They have been sitting in the warehouse of our freight company, the largest freight company in the country, and just an hour away from my door. No one noticed that a customs form had not been attached when the shipment was received, or rather, that one of two customs forms had not been attached.
They work there every day, they handle all different kinds of shipments, yet no one noticed. The two people who made it their business to follow every document for every shipment have either quit or retired, and with some disgust, I might mention. Now, there is not one single contact who has stepped up to the position of responsibility. 'It's not my job,' rings through with every communication.
It is enough to change shippers, and this is not an easy thing to do nor is it a decision come to lightly. We are talking about setting up paperwork with me, my broker, the mill, the airlines, each port along the path between the mill and Virginia. It's a big deal. Plus, it will probably be a time of getting the path corrected here and there. Sometimes path correction is a literal process, especially with a smaller freight company who does not have a network into every town and burg. We've just got to work things out so that there are many pairs of eyes on the progress to spot issues.
Shipping involves a substantial financial outlay. While we are not a huge company, we are a consistent shipper of around two tons each month, and this seems to be enough for smaller companies to think that our business is attractive. Not enough, though, for the Big One to actually notice.
I cannot list the number of people who have first told me that they would find out what is going on, and promise to call me back that day, yet never contact me. Sometimes I feel that someone somewhere is having fun watching customers squirm. Wool2Dye4 is just going to squirm right on out of their clutches and very soon.
Of course, this does not get my shipment to me any faster.
I truly hate backorders. My attitude towards stock and filling orders has always been based on filling orders immediately and shipping them within 24 hours. Over the years, I thought I had learned how to gauge the arrival day of incoming stock shipments, but this past week has taught me a lesson I thought I had learned: don't count your kilos before they arrive. Oh, my. I may even have written that here in this blog when the same lesson smacked me in the consciousness!
So, here I am, a little grain of sand on the horizon of commerce who spends what we consider to be a significant amount on freight, not counting daily pickups by the same company, each year.
Customer service. For me it about each customer and getting their order out. It is about choosing samples to tuck into the package which are of yarns of a similar weight but differ slightly from the ones they ordered. It is about keeping my people up to date with news. I know that not all of my customers are on Ravelry.com, and so I publish a customer newsletter with news of upcoming shipments, new or retiring yarns, release dates of the new lines, etc. I often bring in an extra shipment of yarns which are retiring because of the complaints from those who love the retirees. Every single time, though, I wind up looking at a full shelf for months on end. What to do? I have to let those customers who complained get another chance to stock up on their beloved special ones. I want them to be happy, and to come back to us. Timely delivery and good service are basics of how we do our business.
I remember reading a book on entrepreneurship a few years ago and it was called Minding My Own Business. Don't know if it is still in print, even, but if so, then I absolutely recommend it. One of the points which stood out to me was for the small businessperson to think of themselves as a mini Fortune 500 company. Do what they do. Have a logo, a color scheme, a recognizable presence. Follow up on your promises, and get the goods into your customers' hands and fast. Plan your work, and work you plan, right?
Ok, enough rambling. I had to post here because this week's delay in receiving the shipment has caused some customers schedule disruptions because there is one yarn in the shipment which ran out of stock. It is Sheila's Gold, and it has become our best seller in the past couple of months. So, to be without it is quite a strain.
A strain, but not an impossible obstacle, of course. The shipment will arrive, and I sure hope that is today! We'll get the orders out and write apologetic notes of explanation on the packing lists, and we'll work like mad folk to get this all done. For the future, we've doubled and tripled quantities of this yarn on future orders at the mill, but that can only be affected two months out. For the next two months, we'll receive normal quantities, then boost up to the level of plenty.
Customer service. Recognizing what your customer wants and needs, and then getting it to them in the quickest, most efficient manner possible. I love good customer service, really! Giving it, of course, but receiving as well. Right now, I am not getting good customer service from the Big Guys. I have choice, though, so lack of their good customer service will cost them one customer. Maybe one customer at a time, who knows?
They work there every day, they handle all different kinds of shipments, yet no one noticed. The two people who made it their business to follow every document for every shipment have either quit or retired, and with some disgust, I might mention. Now, there is not one single contact who has stepped up to the position of responsibility. 'It's not my job,' rings through with every communication.
It is enough to change shippers, and this is not an easy thing to do nor is it a decision come to lightly. We are talking about setting up paperwork with me, my broker, the mill, the airlines, each port along the path between the mill and Virginia. It's a big deal. Plus, it will probably be a time of getting the path corrected here and there. Sometimes path correction is a literal process, especially with a smaller freight company who does not have a network into every town and burg. We've just got to work things out so that there are many pairs of eyes on the progress to spot issues.
Shipping involves a substantial financial outlay. While we are not a huge company, we are a consistent shipper of around two tons each month, and this seems to be enough for smaller companies to think that our business is attractive. Not enough, though, for the Big One to actually notice.
I cannot list the number of people who have first told me that they would find out what is going on, and promise to call me back that day, yet never contact me. Sometimes I feel that someone somewhere is having fun watching customers squirm. Wool2Dye4 is just going to squirm right on out of their clutches and very soon.
Of course, this does not get my shipment to me any faster.
I truly hate backorders. My attitude towards stock and filling orders has always been based on filling orders immediately and shipping them within 24 hours. Over the years, I thought I had learned how to gauge the arrival day of incoming stock shipments, but this past week has taught me a lesson I thought I had learned: don't count your kilos before they arrive. Oh, my. I may even have written that here in this blog when the same lesson smacked me in the consciousness!
So, here I am, a little grain of sand on the horizon of commerce who spends what we consider to be a significant amount on freight, not counting daily pickups by the same company, each year.
Customer service. For me it about each customer and getting their order out. It is about choosing samples to tuck into the package which are of yarns of a similar weight but differ slightly from the ones they ordered. It is about keeping my people up to date with news. I know that not all of my customers are on Ravelry.com, and so I publish a customer newsletter with news of upcoming shipments, new or retiring yarns, release dates of the new lines, etc. I often bring in an extra shipment of yarns which are retiring because of the complaints from those who love the retirees. Every single time, though, I wind up looking at a full shelf for months on end. What to do? I have to let those customers who complained get another chance to stock up on their beloved special ones. I want them to be happy, and to come back to us. Timely delivery and good service are basics of how we do our business.
I remember reading a book on entrepreneurship a few years ago and it was called Minding My Own Business. Don't know if it is still in print, even, but if so, then I absolutely recommend it. One of the points which stood out to me was for the small businessperson to think of themselves as a mini Fortune 500 company. Do what they do. Have a logo, a color scheme, a recognizable presence. Follow up on your promises, and get the goods into your customers' hands and fast. Plan your work, and work you plan, right?
Ok, enough rambling. I had to post here because this week's delay in receiving the shipment has caused some customers schedule disruptions because there is one yarn in the shipment which ran out of stock. It is Sheila's Gold, and it has become our best seller in the past couple of months. So, to be without it is quite a strain.
A strain, but not an impossible obstacle, of course. The shipment will arrive, and I sure hope that is today! We'll get the orders out and write apologetic notes of explanation on the packing lists, and we'll work like mad folk to get this all done. For the future, we've doubled and tripled quantities of this yarn on future orders at the mill, but that can only be affected two months out. For the next two months, we'll receive normal quantities, then boost up to the level of plenty.
Customer service. Recognizing what your customer wants and needs, and then getting it to them in the quickest, most efficient manner possible. I love good customer service, really! Giving it, of course, but receiving as well. Right now, I am not getting good customer service from the Big Guys. I have choice, though, so lack of their good customer service will cost them one customer. Maybe one customer at a time, who knows?
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Efficiency Startles Yarnie Company Owner into Action
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.
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.
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.
Friday, September 16, 2011
New Spam
There is a new form of spam hitting my mailbox lately, and it hits right where it is the scariest, my bank account. This one looks absolutely legit with a message that a recent ACH (automatic clearing house) transaction was denied on my business account. Scary because this is how I pay and receive payment in my business checking account.
The first time I received the message I forwarded it to my bank, who had not yet seen this type of spam before so we were both thinking something was wrong with my account. They searched for like transaction numbers and dates and amounts and found nothing, and came back to me with the spam diagnosis. I deleted the eMail, after first forwarding it to the government agency which purportedly overlooks the spam industry.
Then, for a while, I didn't get a single spam message at all, until this week when the same ACH failure notice has come daily. Today my security program scanned it and alerted me that this eMail has a Downloader function attached to it.
So, here is my message, loud and clear: if you use ACH services and receive an eMail like this, do not open it. Forward the eMail to your bank manager or service rep and tell them to look out for other spam messages like this. Then forward the eMail to: SPAM@uce.gov.
The first time I received the message I forwarded it to my bank, who had not yet seen this type of spam before so we were both thinking something was wrong with my account. They searched for like transaction numbers and dates and amounts and found nothing, and came back to me with the spam diagnosis. I deleted the eMail, after first forwarding it to the government agency which purportedly overlooks the spam industry.
Then, for a while, I didn't get a single spam message at all, until this week when the same ACH failure notice has come daily. Today my security program scanned it and alerted me that this eMail has a Downloader function attached to it.
So, here is my message, loud and clear: if you use ACH services and receive an eMail like this, do not open it. Forward the eMail to your bank manager or service rep and tell them to look out for other spam messages like this. Then forward the eMail to: SPAM@uce.gov.
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
September welcomes back Sheila's Sock ... lots and lots
Instead of our usual multi-yarn monthly stocking, September is a transitional month for us. We have now completed six months' worth of orders which were placed in the springtime, and are about to embark on a new system of re-stocking Wool2Dye4 website inventory. This means that we will begin to hold consistently higher levels of stock, and this begins in early October.
September will be a month to catch up on orders for Sheila's Sock, and to introduce a new yarn ... Sparkle in DK weight with a bit of silk added to it (priced as Sparkle Select lace, as it is the same blend). Too, we welcome to the line a yarn which we introduced in limited quantity a month ago, Single & Fabulous!
We have a major shipment of our most popular yarn, Sheila's Sock, due at the end of the week, and are only waiting on notice from Customs that the shipment has passed through Customs and will be delivered on Thursday or Friday. When we hear, we will send out the newsletter to registered customers and post the new inventory of Sheila's Sock for sale. There will be no private orders taken for Sheila's Sock since there should be nice stock for the next few weeks. In October, even more Sheila's Sock will arrive. So, lots and lots of Sheila's Sock and enough to go around.
September will be a month to catch up on orders for Sheila's Sock, and to introduce a new yarn ... Sparkle in DK weight with a bit of silk added to it (priced as Sparkle Select lace, as it is the same blend). Too, we welcome to the line a yarn which we introduced in limited quantity a month ago, Single & Fabulous!
We have a major shipment of our most popular yarn, Sheila's Sock, due at the end of the week, and are only waiting on notice from Customs that the shipment has passed through Customs and will be delivered on Thursday or Friday. When we hear, we will send out the newsletter to registered customers and post the new inventory of Sheila's Sock for sale. There will be no private orders taken for Sheila's Sock since there should be nice stock for the next few weeks. In October, even more Sheila's Sock will arrive. So, lots and lots of Sheila's Sock and enough to go around.
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Restocking: October and November 2011
Here are two lists of incoming stocking orders, skeins unless otherwise noted. You will notice that some of the yarns which we have announced as discontinued yarns are coming in one last time. They are marked with an asterisk.
October 2011 arrivals
Bamboo TwoStep* skeins & cones
Cash Sock MCN skeins & cones
Platinum Sock skeins & cones
Sheila's Glitter (goldtoned Stellina)
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sock
Sheila's Sparkle (silvertoned Stellina)
Silk Sock 50/50
Cash Aran MCN
Tweed Aran* skeins & cones
Cash DK MCN
Silk DK 50/50
W2D4 Merino DK-SW skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW skeins & cones
Angel Lace*
Boo Select (a unique purchase of bamboo/merino select weight lace)
Butterfly Select lace
Ultra Select lace
November Incoming Shipment
Cash Sock MCN skeins & Cones
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sock
Silk Sock 50/50
Sheila's Aran*
Cash DK MCN
W2D4 Merino Worsted
Ultra Select lace
* = last shipment and then will be discontinued
October 2011 arrivals
Bamboo TwoStep* skeins & cones
Cash Sock MCN skeins & cones
Platinum Sock skeins & cones
Sheila's Glitter (goldtoned Stellina)
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sock
Sheila's Sparkle (silvertoned Stellina)
Silk Sock 50/50
Cash Aran MCN
Tweed Aran* skeins & cones
Cash DK MCN
Silk DK 50/50
W2D4 Merino DK-SW skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW skeins & cones
Angel Lace*
Boo Select (a unique purchase of bamboo/merino select weight lace)
Butterfly Select lace
Ultra Select lace
November Incoming Shipment
Cash Sock MCN skeins & Cones
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sock
Silk Sock 50/50
Sheila's Aran*
Cash DK MCN
W2D4 Merino Worsted
Ultra Select lace
* = last shipment and then will be discontinued
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Step away from the programming language ...
Step away from the programming language ...
I simply should have a padlock on the part of my computer which allows me to tinker with the behind-the-scenes programming features. Every once in a while I get a mad and uncontrollable rush that cannot be stemmed or guided, and nothing will do until I have had my way with the website's background. Simply stated, I think I know more than I actually do about my program.
This time came on one of the busiest days we have had lately. We were preparing for a really big incoming stock shipment, and putting up all available stock on the shelves. Too, we had to prepare at least a hundred receipt packages so they would be ready for order filling on Thursday and Friday. Then, we got in a shipment of a new yarn (which is a secret for now and will be sold in September), and of course, there was the off and on search for any earthquake damage from yesterday. So, all in all, a busy day.
Today appeared to me, for some strange reason, to be the perfect day to rearrange the payment methods that a customer would see on the Wool2Dye4 website. I do these things because I am incapable of learning from experience in certain areas of my work life, and maybe in life in general, come to think of it. So, off I headed to the very serious list of modules which control the important aspects of the website such as payment and shipping, and I decided to start accepting checks. This, in total disregard for previous bad check experiences, but never mind. Today I decided, for about two hours, to accept checks. Then, I noticed that the order that the payment choices were appearing on the website seemed not to be very pretty, and here at Wool2Dye4 we like to make everything pretty. So I rearranged the order of checks/credit cards/PayPal to a pleasing array on the payment page, clicked 'Save and Update' and went back to work with the packers.
About two hours later, in checking my eMail, I got a shock of seeing letter after letter with one common word in the subject line and that was, 'problem.' Nothing, absolutely nothing is less welcome on a busy day than an eMail with the word 'problem' in the header, and this was not one but many eMails screaming about a problem. Oh, No. Quickly, I read various descriptions of the same issue: the website was frozen in place and was accepting no orders at all.
There could only be one reason. I'd been fiddling around in the secret depths of the program and caused this mess myself. But how to fix it? I thought that undoing my changes and restoring the original choices would do the trick, so I undid the choice to accept checks and reordered the payments to the original lists, I thought, ... but, no. So, I tried it again with the same results; however, this time I knew how to take a screen shot (because of my new online class in Adobe Acrobat, no less! See? I am trying to learn how to fix my problems). Quickly I fired off two screen shots to WebGuy with a short and sweet confession of my errors. Then, I called the credit card processor.
The young man at the other end of the line was insistent that there were only three errors which could yield the Error Message Number 13. It had to be thirteen, right? Numbers one and two were not applicable, he said, but I just couldn't believe that choice number 3 was right! That one was that I had changed the log-in name. I had not, or so I thought. I continued to try to bring his attention back to reasons one and two. Eventually, he made a deal with me that if I would just try to reset the log in, and if it didn't work, he would take care of setting everything back to normal by himself. But I had to give his way a try ... and long story made short, of course his suggestion worked. In practice, I had not reset the log-in, but in reality I had inadvertently done just that. That is to say that the program had an automatic reset to the default login of the program, not the card processor's coded login, and that was how the error message came to show on the website.
While I was at the crucial point of understanding what all of this actually meant in plain English, my call waiting feature started to buzz and buzz and buzz. So, we quickly got off the phone, and there was WebGuy to the rescue, hoping he was not too late and that I had not reset the basic code. Luckily, I had not, but it was an opportunity for me to ask him when the new program would be ready.
The new programs are a lot easier to handle for a natural born fiddler like me. There are checkmarks where the changes are immediately shown in example format. I am guessing that some smart programmer came up with that idea to stop people like me from ruining the delicate programming features they work hard to create. At any rate, when I turned eMail on again, there were zip/zip/zip several orders posting one after the other. Two, of course, were my own from the testing, but I didn't care. Orders again. Ahhhh.... that lovely sound of the soft little ping when the order notices come in.
I'll admit to a moment of panic, OK, yes. But, I must say that I had a moment of pride, as well. When I realized that I had a hand in fixing the problem, I was really proud of my day's work.
I simply should have a padlock on the part of my computer which allows me to tinker with the behind-the-scenes programming features. Every once in a while I get a mad and uncontrollable rush that cannot be stemmed or guided, and nothing will do until I have had my way with the website's background. Simply stated, I think I know more than I actually do about my program.
This time came on one of the busiest days we have had lately. We were preparing for a really big incoming stock shipment, and putting up all available stock on the shelves. Too, we had to prepare at least a hundred receipt packages so they would be ready for order filling on Thursday and Friday. Then, we got in a shipment of a new yarn (which is a secret for now and will be sold in September), and of course, there was the off and on search for any earthquake damage from yesterday. So, all in all, a busy day.
Today appeared to me, for some strange reason, to be the perfect day to rearrange the payment methods that a customer would see on the Wool2Dye4 website. I do these things because I am incapable of learning from experience in certain areas of my work life, and maybe in life in general, come to think of it. So, off I headed to the very serious list of modules which control the important aspects of the website such as payment and shipping, and I decided to start accepting checks. This, in total disregard for previous bad check experiences, but never mind. Today I decided, for about two hours, to accept checks. Then, I noticed that the order that the payment choices were appearing on the website seemed not to be very pretty, and here at Wool2Dye4 we like to make everything pretty. So I rearranged the order of checks/credit cards/PayPal to a pleasing array on the payment page, clicked 'Save and Update' and went back to work with the packers.
About two hours later, in checking my eMail, I got a shock of seeing letter after letter with one common word in the subject line and that was, 'problem.' Nothing, absolutely nothing is less welcome on a busy day than an eMail with the word 'problem' in the header, and this was not one but many eMails screaming about a problem. Oh, No. Quickly, I read various descriptions of the same issue: the website was frozen in place and was accepting no orders at all.
There could only be one reason. I'd been fiddling around in the secret depths of the program and caused this mess myself. But how to fix it? I thought that undoing my changes and restoring the original choices would do the trick, so I undid the choice to accept checks and reordered the payments to the original lists, I thought, ... but, no. So, I tried it again with the same results; however, this time I knew how to take a screen shot (because of my new online class in Adobe Acrobat, no less! See? I am trying to learn how to fix my problems). Quickly I fired off two screen shots to WebGuy with a short and sweet confession of my errors. Then, I called the credit card processor.
The young man at the other end of the line was insistent that there were only three errors which could yield the Error Message Number 13. It had to be thirteen, right? Numbers one and two were not applicable, he said, but I just couldn't believe that choice number 3 was right! That one was that I had changed the log-in name. I had not, or so I thought. I continued to try to bring his attention back to reasons one and two. Eventually, he made a deal with me that if I would just try to reset the log in, and if it didn't work, he would take care of setting everything back to normal by himself. But I had to give his way a try ... and long story made short, of course his suggestion worked. In practice, I had not reset the log-in, but in reality I had inadvertently done just that. That is to say that the program had an automatic reset to the default login of the program, not the card processor's coded login, and that was how the error message came to show on the website.
While I was at the crucial point of understanding what all of this actually meant in plain English, my call waiting feature started to buzz and buzz and buzz. So, we quickly got off the phone, and there was WebGuy to the rescue, hoping he was not too late and that I had not reset the basic code. Luckily, I had not, but it was an opportunity for me to ask him when the new program would be ready.
The new programs are a lot easier to handle for a natural born fiddler like me. There are checkmarks where the changes are immediately shown in example format. I am guessing that some smart programmer came up with that idea to stop people like me from ruining the delicate programming features they work hard to create. At any rate, when I turned eMail on again, there were zip/zip/zip several orders posting one after the other. Two, of course, were my own from the testing, but I didn't care. Orders again. Ahhhh.... that lovely sound of the soft little ping when the order notices come in.
I'll admit to a moment of panic, OK, yes. But, I must say that I had a moment of pride, as well. When I realized that I had a hand in fixing the problem, I was really proud of my day's work.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Honeysuckle Patterns
We took the samples of the patterns developed for The Honeysuckle Project to Sock Summit 2011,and we had so many wonderful and positive comments. These ten patterns will be sold on HoneysuckleProject.com and the site will be up and active in the next week, by August 17th. Please check back and after a week or so to see when the site opens up for sale of yarn, patterns, and kits.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
The Honeysuckle Project at Sock Summit 2011
What a wonderful reception for The Honeysuckle Project, our breast cancer awareness campaign, at Sock Summit! Caught a couple of new designers who want to be added to the project, a major magazine is going to mention THP in the magazine's next editorial. So many breast cancer survivors came by the booth to thank us for getting knitters involved at any level, and I gave skeins of Honeysuckle pink to each one. I heard stories and shared tears and laughter. It was wonderful and moving and made me so very proud.
Pictures from Sock Summit
Our booth 
A closeup of the yarn display ... 
Sharon G and Barb B burst into song! 
Our booth stood out on the marketplace floor! 
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