I have been having a rough time of things lately, trying to figure out what the MCN world expects of me! What do people want? I mean, I love ALL of my designs, they all work beautifully ... maybe I'm just trying to cover too large a market, one that is absolutely flooded with a vast variety of products. Add to that orders that just sit in limbo until I am forced to chase them up, which often results in cancellations, or in some cases, no response at all (which I think is totally rude!)
I mean, it's bad enough having bigger businesses or large corporations ignore the communications of a sole individual, but to have a customer ignore the requested communications of a small WAHM business??? Ludicrous!
At the end of the day, I am one person, trying to evolve my passion into a successful business. And I guess that's the crux of the matter - I am only one person, who just happens to wear a multitude of hats ... sometimes simultaneously, sometimes unsuccessfully.
First and foremost, I am a mother. Everything I do is for the benefit of my children. I guess a sub-hat of being "mother" is being their teacher - literally. As we homeschool, their education is very important, and everything is a part of their learning. And yet another sub-hat is household manager. Sometimes, I really suck at this role, as distractions occur and dishes or washing pile up for days, then it seems such a mammoth task to get it all under control again. But really, no one of these roles is more important than the others, I can't prioritise these very successfully.
Then, when I have time after all of this, I am a sole small business owner (in my spare time lol!) and in this capacity, I am administrator, graphic designer, web designer, pattern maker, fabric cutter, sewer, snapper, marketing manager, ideas person, buyer, decision maker .... the list goes on! I don't have a team of co-workers, or employees, I do it all myself, which I guess makes the blows all that much harder when they come.
So, instead of giving up, I sat down, cleared my head and reassessed the cost of my materials. I don't like cheap materials, and I despise cheap quality workmanship (which I see all too often in the commercial world in general), so my main aim is to retain and maintain the high quality of my workmanship (which is another reason, I guess, why I don't trust delegation of responsibility to others right now), but reduce the price of my products.
So I came up with "Sharing the cloth love by making gorgeous cloth more affordable"!! As most of my nappies are unique, and not mass produced, I take pride in making them different, and I really want to pass on the clothy love so that you can cloth your tots butt for less but still look fabulous! I really do do it for the love!
