Tale of a Shooting Star…

The tax ID number for my soon-to-be ONS arrived this week, and so did nearly all of the supplies that I ordered. I’m still waiting on some more shapes and sizes of Priority Mail boxes and the confirmation of my fictitious name registration for the business name. Until that comes through, there are only a handful of people who know the name. I won’t release it until I’m sure.

So, the tax ID is here. BIG step that is over and done with. As soon as I’m sure the name is registered, then I can go ahead and start placing a couple of orders for products. I even opened a business banking account on Tuesday afternoon that I will link to my PayPal account. The card linked to the account will take a week or so to arrive and I want to give it a few days for all of the transactions to go through and the account to be truly active before I pull any money out of it.

My initial funding is fairly small and I’m not sure if the product will sell, but I’ll give it a shot (plus I have a backup plan, if all else fails). I’m starting with Dragon Floss, Dinky Dyes floss (cotton only, to start; silks will be added later) and designs from The Cat’s Whiskers Design Studio (just wait until you see her new stuff, you will FLIP!). From there, I will try to get the Margaret Sherry cat designs for all of you cat lovers and some of the latest Valerie Pfeiffer bird designs that are so adorable and realistic.

Any other design requests to start? Keep in mind that once I sell some of this initial product, I’ll be able to fund additional orders and open accounts with more suppliers so that I can get in even more diverse products. I know there are a lot of Mirabilia, Just Nan and The Sweetheart Tree fans out there, so I will try to get some of their newer releases in when I can. Any other designers you like?

I am trying to get a line on kits from a company in Scotland called Textile Heritage, but the US distributor has yet to get back to me. The same goes for Olde Willow Stitchery. I will keep trying.

I know that international designers have been mentioned and I would love to try to get some of the less available ones in for you, if you can give me names and/or websites (preferred). I also have a surprise new and very talented international designer whose designs I will be carrying, but I’m not ready to let that cat out of the bag yet, either. 😉

I know that Gentle Arts Sampler Threads and Weeks Dye Works threads are very popular, but I am going to hold off on those for a while, particularly because they are so popular and are relatively easy to get from any needlework shop. Of course, maybe I am looking at that a bit backwards… Hmmm…

Also, if I were to experiment with regular or hand-dyed fabrics in my first round of orders, what size would you be most likely to purchase? 9 x 13, 13 x 18, or 18 x 27? And would you prefer regular or hand-dyed? Linen or evenweave? What count?

A lot of questions this round. Would you prefer an easier to answer polling mechanism?

[Updated to add: I wrote to Sharon Crescent and received a very prompt answer, so I think that I will probably be carrying Crescent Colours floss, as well. That also means that I can get my hands on those adorable thread packs that Crescent Colours and Little House Needleworks teamed up for. I guess that’s another designer that I should consider – especially the coffee and chocolate menus…]

Okay, so Zohrah brough up some information about the price of Dragon Floss relative to its length. So, I will need to carefully consider having a club for that as opposed to just carrying a few of each of the available colors.

How about clubs for other threads? Like Carrie’s Creation, Dinky Dyes cottons (or silks) or Six Strand Sweets?

Any other suggestions of threads that you can’t easily find in other stores? I’d like to carry less common items, if possible.

Hi Ladies, I think that I might actually have to define a category for ONS shop talk since I seem to be doing so much of it. 😉

I have determined that Dragon Floss is going to be one of the first products that I am going to carry. Jo is an easy person to deal with and someone with whom I have previous connections through a model stitching board, plus her restrictions for starting up a wholesale account are a little less stringent. The main deciding factor for me, though, was the seeming lack of representation of her products in the US. Not many US shops seem to carry her products (which are lovely!) and that is one of the areas on which I would like to focus my initial efforts.

My question to you, loyal readers and hopefully future customers, is would you be interested in joining a Dragon Floss Club that would automatically ship a small number of her fibers to you every month? Similar to the Monthly Bits and other automatic shipment programs established by other retailers.

Would you be interested in signing up? Would you be willing to sign up ahead of time (I would not charge anything until I ship)?

I’m looking to see how much interest I might have to help determine how much I should purchase in my first order of Dragon Floss. My price per skein of Dragon Floss will be $2.00 (USD). I would probably make the monthly shipments bundles of 5 skeins of floss, at a cost of $10.00 (USD). I may consider reducing the shipment prices, though I intend to be very fair with my S&H prices and stick to actual shipping prices plus a low handling cost to cover supplies.

[Edited to add: Nicole brought up a good point about discounting the total price for each shipment. I will have to do some calculations to see what price would be enticing to you, but still fair to me. I will definitely look at discounting from $10.00 USD to something a little bit lower. How much discount would be an incentive? If it was $1.00 ($9.00 USD), would that be enough? Or maybe keep it at $10.00, but make the shipping free? What would it take for you to want to sign up?]

What do you think?

I want to limit this post to one question, for now. Maybe I will create a poll that you can answer. I have ideas of how I am going to set my ONS apart from others, or at least a set of business ideals and ethics by which I will operate the business. I would like to run these past you in another post in the near future, as you will be my initial customer base, with hopefully some added word of mouth. 🙂

It’s a case of “hurry up, then wait” right now with the ONS. I spent Thursday, Friday and Monday with my brain totally rattling off all of the things I need to do, points, I should consider, etc. I’ve approached distributors, suppliers and trade organizations. I’ve purchased packaging supplies, shipping supplies and accounting software. I’ve filed and faxed paperwork to establish a fictitious name for the business and to obtain a sales tax license. I’ve written down pages and pages worth of notes. I’ve filled out an application for a Post Office box (but not taken it in yet), opened a PayPal merchant account and have an appointment with the business accounts manager at a local bank next week to setup a business checking account.

All of that, and now I have to wait. . . .

I’d love to start placing orders, but I need to open and fund a checking account to link to the PayPal account before I can deal with one supplier and I need the tax ID number in order to deal with another supplier and one distributor. Then, once I have those 3 trade references, the whole world opens up to me because only then can I open a wholesale account with Hoffman Distributing Company. That’s the big time. I can also register for a buyer’s account for the April edition of the online Needlework Show.

Get your wallets ready ladies, because I’m coming soon!

In the meantime, I have to sit and wait. And I’m not a very patient person. It’s a good thing I have stitching to do and a storefront to design. 😉

The fog is coalescing quite a bit faster around the ONS dream now. I appreciate all of your supportive comments and have already talked to two distributors and ordered a start-up guide from TNNA (The National NeedleArts Association). I need to talk to our friend who started his own business a little while ago and find out how he went about incorporating and doing some of the other things that I need to worry about for starters.

I need to start thinking about what products I want to carry. I want to start with just a couple of designers and a couple of fiber manufacturers and slowly start to build up, especially as I build business relationships and gain enough credibility to get accounts with the distributors, attend trade shows, apply for buying privileges at cash and carry markets like Nashville, etc. If you have any input on what designers and manufacturers you would like to see me carry, feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email. I’m especially interested in those things which are more challenging for you to find elsewhere.

So, the fog is still misty, but I have more of an idea of what it will take to make this dream a reality. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish in a short period of time when your body reacts as strongly to caffeine as mine does. 🙂

With the encouraging comments that I’ve received so far in response to yesterday’s SBQ, I wanted to sit down and chat about the concepts for a moment and see if I can’t gain some additional perspective.

The LNS/ONS would most likely start as an ONS. We have a friend who recently started his own brick and mortar business last year and have learned a lot by observing him. I simply don’t have the stamina at this point to be able to be at a store all day, 6 days a week, with no money to hire any employees to help. It’s just really a rough ride for a brick and mortar store. An ONS would be less intensive from a physical standpoint, but would require careful business planning in order to draw traffic. Why would people buy from me rather than another ONS? In order to turn a profit, I wouldn’t be able to offer lower prices in the beginning, so how would I make my shop stand out and be unique? I have some ideas, but I’m not sharing right now. 😉

So, I think the LNS idea will have to remain a pipe dream, while the ONS is a slowly coalescing fog. 😆

Don’t think that I haven’t thought seriously about designing, as well. I’ve even looked into large format printers (and almost bought one when I bought my new photo printer last year) for printing larger charts. Really, with so many designers now doing self-publishing, it’s becoming more reasonable to get a design business started, but keeping it going and making it a success are as difficult as ever. Especially while working full time. I model stitch for one designer who is in just such a situation and it’s very tough for her. I get the sense that she is often frazzled and that burning the candle at both ends is really taking its toll on her.

The relatively minimal startup costs of a design business don’t daunt me nearly as much as a retail store. If I can muster enough creativity (and Terry has had some great ideas as to how he could also contribute design ideas) to keep a steady flow of designs, even if it’s a trickle, I will probably make the leap.

The thought of being in the red with a small business doesn’t phase me anymore, as long as we’re both still working full time. After all, we’ve had our web business for nearly 8 years now, but have never turned a profit. We have several steady customers whose websites we host, but the real money is in the designing of sites, not the hosting. We can’t even begin to compete with the big hosting companies out there who make their money in other ways, so most of our customers are loyal friends and family. We have a good idea of what it would take to make the business profitable, but we haven’t been brave enough to take the leap and have at least one of us stop working full time. Besides, my strong self-doubts about my own abilities are still hindering me from being successful in any creative venture right now. I need to work through those issues, hone my skills, foster my creativity and boost my self-confidence first. If I can develop my drawing skills, I’ll be in much better shape because I pretty much guarantee that if I can draw it, I can chart it. 🙂

I just had a long discussion with Terry over lunch about this whole subject and he’s heartily in favor of taking the plunge. Because we already run a web company and I was of this same mindset when I purchased my latest printer, the startup costs will be near zero for a design company. I even came up with a company name a year or so ago and have had the domain name reserved ever since. I won’t reveal the name until I have a logo to go with it and am nearly ready to go, but it’s a generic name that will allow me to market multiple product lines like needlework designs, dololly/marking pin sets, even jewelry, if I so desire.

Oh my gosh, I am really buzzing now. The caffeine rush from the Excedrin that I took a while ago for my headache doesn’t help, but it does get the ideas coming out fast and furious! Where’s my planner? It’s time to jot down some notes.