Posted by Fumi Bull at 3:19 PM, January 8, 2009

Not only is this my very first blog of 2009, it's my first blog in over a month! :P

This was due to me being purely lazy and also caught up in too much other stuff like going to Christmas parties and celebrating New Years! (Happy New Years Everyone!)

Here is a little update of Davie & Chiyo since my last blog, about how I gave Chi Chi the 'go' to make the first batch. The first batch consisted of 4 different styles of the classic clutch line, about 30 bags each. I received the package all in one piece about 5 days before Christmas. This was a good and bad timing at the same time. It was good, that I was able to get my bags to those that really wanted to gift them as Christmas presents, but it was bad in that it was definitely too late for me to open my website to capture those Christmas sales.

I had mixed feelings when I inspected the bags in the package. They were all well made like the samples that they sent me earlier on, but there were different problems that I wasn't expecting. Chi Chi failed to follow my directions for the pattern placements on three of the the four styles of bags that I got made! And the one style was ok (marshmallow) because there was no way to screw up the pattern placement due to the symmetrical and consistent pattern of the fabric!

By pattern placement, what I mean is choosing which part of the fabric to cut for each side of the clutch. I gave them clear instructions on how I wanted each side to look and what I wanted each cut out to include (a flower and a leaf, per say), and they completely ignored my instructions and made up their own versions of the bags! Some do look ok, I have to admit, but I would have to say about half of them is not quite up to the standards of attractiveness that I was looking for.

This really made myself look at everything in the most realistic way possible, which lead to some changes in the future course of plans.

First of all, I am going to stay away from outsourcing production for a little while. Not only do I have enough inventory to start my shop, with zero marketing that I have done, it is quite unlikely that a 'sold out' situation will occur anytime soon. Secondly, I myself have the abilities to produce these bags as efficient and as well as Chi Chi has done without the headaches and costs that comes with outsourcing.

But the biggest issue of all that I am personally dealing with is the ethics of my business plan as a whole. I started out wanting to start a business, purely for enjoyment and to try to make a living out it, with a definite profit in mind. But somewhere in the middle of everything, other thoughts started to get in the way. With all the chaos that is going on in the world, last thing I wanted to do was be socially irresponsible. There are many issues at hand, such as:

1. production of the bags: when producing something, is the best way really to outsource it by mailing it to the other side of the planet?

2. materials of the products: where and how are the fabrics and frames made? How long is the actual chain before it finally reaches me? Is that length really necessary?

3. packaging and shipping: what kind of packaging materials am I using? Are they recyclable? Am I buying materials that is just going to get thrown out the instant the recipient opens the package?

4. product: is the product itself that I am making adding anything to life?

5. profits: when or if I make a profit of any size, what is that going to go towards? Is is just going to increase the size of my house and the size of my shoe closet? Or is it actually going to go towards making a real difference?

I can go on thinking forever, and is is definitely a good thing, but I also have to take action and make things happen. At this point, I have everything ready to open my shop with just some last minute testing and tweaking. So here goes, yay!