A tale of two retailers

Here's a short tale, in two scenarios, of two local apparel retailers. Which one describes your story?

Scenario One

You close shop for the day.

1 You travel to Dallas.
2 You spend the day shopping supplier for the right item and price for your boutique.
3 Among your purchases: one dress at $50 to resell at $120, a 140% markup to yield a $90 profit.
4 Once back at your boutique you drive sales to recover your investment with a a profit.

If number 3 above before you count on that $90 profit take into account a day's closed shop, expenses (fuel and food, plus the $50 out-of-pocket) and number of days the dress is on the rack before it sells.

Scenario Two

You determine to have your dresses made locally:

1 You create your own dress pattern, or
2 You retain a contract service provider (independent contractor) to create your pattern you, or

3 You deliver the dress (whether from a thrift shop, mom's attic or discount store) to a skilled pattern-maker or seamstress who disassembles the dress and creates a pattern with whatever modifications you wish to include.

4 You make a choice of two or three different fabrics.

Leverage your tax-free, resell and discount purchase power on fabric buys. Different fabric choices allow for price choice. Additionally, because the finer the fabric the more challenging to work with you turn certain fabric jobs over to those individuals you know can handle it. You, and your other asemblers, can do quite well with the other fabric choices, still.

5 You retain a contract service provider (or do it yourself) to cut dresses segments for at-home assemblers.
6 At-home contractors assemble your dresses as you receive orders.

If you choose 2 or 3 above you compensate the individual upfront or agree to share sales profit percentage.
If you choose number 5 and compensate the assembler between $30 and $50. You may ask, "What have I saved by not shopping a supplier?"

The difference is you are not stockpliling inventory and you have a quick return on your investment because you have a customer need to fulfill.

You are able to offer the same supplier's dress for considerably less with a considerable profit margin in your accounts ledger, still.

You may also say, "A highly skilled, experienced dressmaker is not going to make a dress for that kind of money." You're right. So, don't go there. There are other highly skilled, experienced individuals who will assemble, in the comfort of their home, at their pace for that kind of money, not minimum wage or cash employees.

If number 6 consider your own local, regional, state and nationwide network of independent contractors. They are not your employees. It is more than a social "dressmakers club", but a source of income for the individual contractors as well as yourself, a pool in ever increasing numbers of others with the Knowledge, Skills and Experience anyone in the network may need to meet their contract expectations, and, yes, the priceless opportunity of an enviroment to interact with your peers.

We know where America's manufacturers have gone and they continue to turn to in the face of labor costs and operating expenses. Where do you go? Who do you turn to that will ensure not only that you survive, but thrive because you acted wisely together with others?

Corporate Lessons for Independents

I invite to click the link to read my article.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/122866/gilbert_torres.html

Regards,

WM

Army Store Closing

ARMY STORE CLOSING

The Round Rock Army Store (@ 2001 N Mays St & Texas Ave) is closing.

Come checkout the wide variety of military apparel and related items.

Discounts at register.

Carmen, store owner, wants to explore new avenues and areas in apparel.

Carmen wishes to thank all her faithful customers and clients.

Those of you who know well Carmen's exceptional experience in alterations, pattern-making

and more will be happy to know she will continue to meet your needs.

Carmen
1100 Peachtree Cove Circle
Round Rock, TX 78681
(512) 246-7033 store
(512) 748-9560 cell
Carmen will retain the store number after closing the Army Store.

Devuskha apparel - - dresses

DEVUSHKA is the brainchild of Jenny Howe and her business partner in Austin, Texas.

It is their apparel line. It's dresses.

It's about a need and an opportunity.

Got KSE?

Give Jenny a call and ask her about "cut and sew".

512.507.9176

Jennybean_13@yahoo.com

All arrangements and agreements regarding service and compensation are between you and Jenny and partner.

WM

Whitebox, whitebook markets

I ran in to a hamburger place today mainly to get out of the torrential downpour. I couldn't resist. I wolfed my hamburger down and went over to snoop at what I can only assume was an independent contractor. While his client ate her meal he swapped out her notebook motherboard right there at the neighborhood eatery in no more than ten minutes. It was his ninth one of the day. The day before he did 15, he said. Despite a bit of a nonchalantness and busyness he seemed a bit leery about what I "thought" about the white-box market. "I know" I asserted putting out just a few facts including the message below.

Who says there's no room or money in the white-box market for private enterprise? Only the naysayers (oh, I'm sure there's more) who read my message I posted on Dellideastorm a while back.

Dell expects the same low cost components which enhanced the company's 2nd quarter profits will hurt its profitability with slow costs declines in the second half of the year. It's not like Dell to sit still and be overrun or to let opportunity pass. The recent opportune acquisition of Silverback puts Dell in the role of virtual IT department for small business. So, why wait, given low-cost component prices? The opportune moment for Dell to take on the role of white-box component supplier for private enterprises is ripe for the taking.

Mere months after Dell abandoned its 2 year foray into the white-box its own team recommended the following in pages 47:

Since white boxes increasingly use the same components as brand computers, their functionality differs little from those sold by the Tier 1 and 2 vendors (Graham-Hackett, 2005). The recent trend towards consolidation and the decreases in component prices has led to the intense competitive pricing now facing the industry. Given the long-term downtrend in PC pricing, vendors will need to continue to cut costs from their operations. The growing ‘white box’ market will require the Tier 1 and Tier 2 vendors to maintain competitive prices. Companies with more favorable cost structures increase their chance of profitability.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Strategic+analyses+and+recommendations+for+dell

And page 50

Race and age is also a factor in computer usage, according to the U.S. Census Bureaureport. Blacks and Hispanics have the lowest rates of computers at home of any U.S. racial group—providing a market opportunity for computer hardware companies which target these groups. Further, people 65 and older had the lowest rates of computer (28%) and internet (25%) use of all age groups. As the baby boomers age, this demographic is likely to increase its use of both technologies, partially due to exposure at younger ages. However, the current 65 and older population is also a market opportunity for computer hardware companies.

(Note: Dell, like HP and Acer [who just acquired Gateway] is Tier 1.)

Check out what Equus is doing with whitebooks thanks to Intel's push for standardization. I have urged Dell do much the same as Equus _ for resellers_ by stepping into the role of components supplier to white-box builders.

http://www.crn.com/white-box/201807253;jsessionid=MXTCSQHG3HH1KQSNDLPCKH0CJUNN2JVN

Bottom line is you don't have to wait for Dell, HP or any of the major manufacturer. Contrary to common perception it's the hundreds or thousands of mom&pop, resellers and solution providers who have the lion's share of the white-box market, not the mega manufacturers. Next best thing to you going it alone as a white-box custom builder, whether desktops, notebooks, (or servers) is going in with and building your own Independent Contractor Network.

Regards,

GT

A real poetic piece of work

Cotton is to textile what textile is to fabric what fabric is to apparel.

Letters are to words what words are to poetry what poetry is to God.

Little things make big things. Big things make little things.

What you do is not important, but it is important that you do it.

It is written, "You are the workmanship of God created for good works". That big word, "workmanship" is a translation of a small greek word which is variously translated in english as "poem", "poet", "poetry", "poetic". ("works" is "energy")

It's fair to say poetry, whether or not we are versed in it or is not for us, is a putting together of many letters to create a few words which can say so much. No less, the spinner who spins cotton to make yarn to create a piece of cloth.

Certainly, no less did God spin in his hands to create a piece of work, a "poem" when he created man. No wonder, then, that we discover such great joy with the work, the creation, the poem, the tapestry woven by our hands. It's not that it's big or small that makes it important. What is important is that you do it, because thereby you reflect the image and glory of our maker.

Truly, we are a real poetic piece of work.

Be of good cheer.

IC-Networks presentation poll at Orkut site

Dear Friends,
I would like to extend an invitation to visit my Orkut site. Follow the link below, scroll down and take the IC-Network presentation poll.

http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=39182128

Thank you

China Quality Problems and their Lesson for Alterations Boutiques

I want to state outfront I am not a party to bashing China for its export quality problems of late. However, these issues provide some lessons for US independent apparel designers and retailers.

Despite China's great need for development and implementation of quality standards and regulations quality is not something to be injected at the end of a process.

In recent years major apparel retailers have done away with backroom alterations departments choosing instead to "outsource" these duties to independent alterations boutiques. It is these boutiques who took on the task (and economic opportunity) of injecting quality into a product which, had it been tested before it left the factory, would have failed the quality test. The market will sustain neither designers nor retailers who compromise quality for productivity and sales.

I contend quality problems are related to lack of, or, inferior training.

You can not shortcut the training process with assumptions a trainee knows what is expected in your operation.
Training in method is best followed up with the voice of experience to provide valuable advice and tips on improving flow.
A well-learned process results in quality with productivity yield increases as familiarity becomes second nature for process operators.
Further, I find too many independent retailers assume they cannot compete against low-price imports. The assumption is that since these sell as big as they do through Walmart and the like consumers neither care nor pay for quality. Wrong. Consumers buy what mega corporations decide will turn the biggest profit FOR THE CORPORATION, not the consumer. Corporations then proceed to squeeze out their competition by flooding the market with their low-price imports. If corporations were to decide they would sell high-price quality-only items and proceeded to market their quality-only message to the consumer they would soon squeeze out their low-quality competitors. The reality of corporate decisions is that when it comes to sales a wider, diverse target market is preferred to a small, exclusive one. Hence, for mega corporations, low-price holds the greater promise for bigger profits.

Finally, too many independent retailers want to play like the major retailers. They shop their goods at merchandisers (whose goods are low-price imports they rachet-up for resellers, typically) buying bulk quantities their boutiques cannot handle tying up precious large sums of capital.

Quality control is not a subsitute for inability or unwillingness to teach quality to those who would enable you to grow your business.

The solution to quality and supply issues in apparel is not China size. It's small, local independent contractor, or designer, networks which supply quality apparel for local independent apparel retailers.

Making enough money

A friend enquired after church wanting to know about my apparel business. After hearing my tale and with a bit of bewilderment in her face she confided. Seems she is quite talented in terms of making apparel as well as purses (or handbag, forgive me ladies, but I won't profess to know the difference).
She does not do it out of need, but simply because she can and is able to immerse herself in the creative garden of her imagination.
It's the reality that intimidates her.
"I'm not sure that I could make enough money to make a living at it" she says.
Therein lies a vastness of doubt and aloneness, not that my friend is a person of doubt or aloneness, but that there are so many people with similar talent as her, and,_ doubt.
True. It's the exceptional person who can go at it alone, with doubts and all, and come out doing quite well for themselves financially.
Herein is the good sense of Independent Contractor Networks. Although I have been told lately "designer" is actually the more accurate word than "contractor" either way I am talking about:
An individual who makes apparel in
their home either by themselves or
with someone else for a retailer.
When one or both of them are in the Network they are in business for themselves, but not by themselves. How can you put a price tag on being in an environment and part of a Network where you interact, share coffee or a meal and exchange ideas and business projects with designers and retailers?
PLEASE! Do not misunderstand the IC-Network model. It's not just a social club of apparel makers. IC-Networks extend to many other areas including computer builders, satellite dish installers and more. This is a Network that generates income for you in addition to what you yourself make personally with your own hands.
What you need to decide for yourself is how important it is to you and your family that you find and take advantage of the means that will make enough for you to make a living. . .and then some.
Thought of the day shared with a friend: Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

IC-Networks: Your private enterprise

Dell's recent wise decision to revisit the retail experience in partnership with Walmart may revive an old flame for the company.

Dell has yet to announce a return to its white-box sales experience. Where might Dell find a suitable partner for such a return?

The answer is much more widespread and abundant than all Walmart stores and employees combined. The suitable partner for Dell's return

to the white-box sales experience is through the smaller, unentangling partnership of Independent Contractor Networks.

A colossus like Walmart is impressive, but a nationwide IC-Network of technicians, engineers and computer savy individuals is

far more diverse and widespread.

While it may be true many people who dream of their own business never do it the low investment costs of a white-box

enterprise that puts computers in the hands of the US low income population segment is a huge gain for Dell, America and private enterprise.

This is at-home/small white-box business support and a revenue maker for Dell.

Dell, more than any other computer manufacturer is best equipped, qualified and stands to gain more (and quicker) than its

competitors; not in the conventional retail sales model, but through IC-Networks.