Meeting

MEETING



You are invited to come learn
about an opportunity in the Round Rock/Austin area
involving your
Knowledge, Skills and Experience
in the
Design, Creation & Alteration
of apparel

WHERE: Caffé Panini (Conference room)

(Next door to Faith Gift store, formerly Good Books)

1105 S. Mays Ste. 300

Round Rock, TX 78664

COST: Free

WHEN: 9:00AM
Tuesday May 22 & Thursday May 24, 2007

We encourage your support of Caffé Panini for the use of their facility.

Please, call or email number of people attending with you. If you are unable to secure childcare I would be glad to meet with you at another time. Thank you.

Si usted se interesa por obtener mayor informacion favor de enviar un email a mi cargo.

Muchas gracias

GTorresCUE@gmail.com

http://workingmannequin.blogspot.com/

Two greatly talented women

We spend years making a living using our talents as employees. We have made many an employer wealthy with their use of our wealth. That's not a complain. That's a commitment of mutual advantage called the employer/employee relationship, but I want to tell you about two great talents.

I posed the question to my friend, "What is the difference between an upscale, high-price dress at Neiman Marcus and a similar dress at an independent retail
store"? "None" I replied before she could answer. That is the Neiman Marcus dress is manufactured by an individual on the production floor. The other is manufactured by the same individual in their home as an independent contractor for his/her client, the independent retailer.

I posed this same question with my reply to my friend. She had heard me go on so many times about my business dream for creating apparel networks.

Today, she surprised me. "I used to make dresses for Neiman Marcus" she said.
"Really?" I said.
"Yeah, it was just a few of us in a small shop" she explained.
My friend had just described what I had reasoned, but never really knew for a fact. The truth is, I explained to her, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands,
of small shops like that one in Taylor Texas. The government categorizes them as "independent contractors" and they are vital to apparel manufacturers who outsource work to them.
*
I was visiting with a couple. They had left a familiar setting, lifestyle and country along with their professional careers to come to America. The living room where
we sat was filled with portraits of couples. Most of them wore the most extraordinary wedding dresses found in the best of wedding dress boutiques.
It was her husband who gave me a tour of their portrait gallery explaining, while his wife sat without comment, the wedding dresses were the creation of her hands.

She had been an executive administrative assistant for many years in her country. In America she was helping provide for their family through her custodial
job. Yet, the enormous talent and ability to design and create wedding dresses seemed as easy as boiling water. It was something she had done over the
years, not so much as a hobby and certainly not as a job, but as a favor for friends and relatives.

FOR FREE!

I will not speak of friends and family who would take such advantage. I will speak of her talent. There are many like her.

Is there not an independent apparel boutique specializing in wedding dresses who could not or would not contract such talent? How about my friend with the ability
to make dresses no differently than she made for Neiman Marcus?

Apparel networks between contractors and retailers are the creation of one vast, enormous talent pool. It is a direct model which allows retailers to market their own
label or simply Made in USA.

Don't let another year go by without the income potential of your resources; your Knowledge, Skills and Experience in apparel.

The benefits of a personal Independent Contractor Network

What do you say when your place of employment shuts down?
What do you say when your job is exported overseas?
What is your answer to a payraise which does not reflect fuel, food, rent costs?
How do you feel when your company CEO's salary numbers in the millions?

What Working Mannequin has heard and observed from people affected by these questions is that too many people just accept it all. Others take on a bitter view of the situation. These may choose to take action either by withdrawing, taking on another job, launching their sideline business. Still, others increase their "investment" in the lottery.

The consequences of the above questions affect us in very real ways: emotionally, physically, spiritually and economically. They affect our children, too.

Note the placement of "economically" as last in the list. Everyone of us can vote and cheer for an individual or a political party, but none of these can take the place of a personal resposibility on our part to change our emotional, physical, spiritual and economic situation.

As long as we look either to continue to delude ourselves with the "security" of a job or deceive ourselves that "being my own man/woman" will alter our family's livelihood, not much of any substance will really happen.

Working Mannequin is commited to calling individuals to create their own Independent Contractor Network in apparel. If you possess the Knowledge, Skills and Experience (see KSE post) why would you continue to belittle that treasure as a means to alter your family's life?

Among the benefits of a personal Independent Contractor Network (ICN) are the following:

• You use what you've all ready got: Your KSE
• You create apparel, not as an employee, but as an IC.
• You can, like corporations, leverage tax law to your advantage
• You choose, draw and select others with like skills and passions for your own projects
• You determine what apparel items you wish to create
• You set your own pace
• You control your own quality
• You decide whether to create your own or another IC's designs
• You determine which Apparel Retailers make up your business circle
• You determine if you want to grow your network
• You create the time for your family
• You determine how, where and how rapidly you grow your network
• You determine the price of your work
• You set your economic goals in terms of revenue you want to create for your family
• You determine whether workshop investments are right for your business
• You choose to take action, not just talk or act out in bitterness

Networks bring you into an association with others. A network is not a guarantee of the people who are its makeup, but you share common goals, desires which speak to each others emotional, physical, spiritual and economic pursuits. You can determine what you will do for yourself, but not by yourself; that is, you are not alone.

Working Mannequin has a vision to show people the benefits of a personal Independent Contractor Network for themselves. We begin with apparel, but their are other fields which lend themselves very well to independent contracting. Look for future Working Mannequin business presentations on our blog.

We welcome your reply to all our posts.

Thank you and may the God of Heaven and Earth enlighten and bless you and yours. WM

Share your thoughts by responding to this post.

KSE

A few years ago when I started out in pursuit of those whom I thought could benefit the most from my business model, I thought of the non-to-low skilled worker in apparel.

I did not like that designation, because while that is an oft used description by the government I thought it is not true. Those apparel workers who have lost and continue to lose their employment in the apparel industry are not non-to-low skilled.

Apparel workers, as well as their at-home cousins, have a wealth of resources. Namely, they possess KSE, the Knowledge, Skills and Experience required in the apparel industry. These are the same resources which employers have mined a treasure for themselves, and, their bank accounts. I commend those employers for their resourcefulness which has also provided employment for many.

Knowledge may be what was acquired from class, textbook or word of mouth. Skills is that hands-on ability which one picks up and masters after much repetition. Experience is the combination of Knowledge and Skills over a period of time such that one has developed a pretty complete familiarity with a great deal of the apparel industry process whether in manufacturing or retail.

However, these same workers and their cousins, estimated by the Home Sewing Association at over 40 million who possess sewing skills, have acquired, developed and retained their resources regardless of the industry where they currently make their employ.

Working Mannequin is committed to interested parties in apparel whether Independent Contractors (IC) or Apparel Retailers (AR). Working Mannequin is presenting our business model FREE for ICs and ARs, alike. The techniques and methodologies of the manufacturing floor remain with apparel skilled workers. Those same techniques and methodologies can be emulated off the floor on a smaller, private scale for personal profit by both parties alike.

Share your thoughts on this subject.