trying blah blah

I think part of the problem with blogging is convincing yourself you have something worth saying for public consumption.   I'm not really convinced that I do most of the time - even when it's relevant to Row West.   Anyway, since blogs are kind of pointless unless you update them regularly, I'll give rambling a try and see how that works.  

So, the 1.5 man show continues here in the midst of Fall madness with crazy deadlines and requests for new gear.  I've had to develop a women-specific quickdry shirt design which has been pretty successful overall - a close fit in the upper body and looser at the waist - kind of opposite to what I'm used to with the spandex designs.    If I had a decent female mannequin, I would post a photo of it.   Mannequins - let me tell you - the perfect one doesn't exist.   Emaciated weird body types are all that's available.  Apparently athletic mannequins (especially female ones) are in very low demand because the only ones I've ever seen are the roid-monster ones at Sport Chek.   The only nice mannequins I've ever found are by La Rosa in Italy and I can't really afford to import those.   A market with a missing product - I'd do it if I wasn't getting killed by lack of sleep from filling rush orders for rowing gear (not complaining - it's better than being unemployed, that's for sure).  

Finding good help is hard but it's universal from what I hear from other small business owners.  I'm friends with Andy, the owner of Vancouver Island Salt Company and after just a few months of employing helpers, he's got a bank of stories to curdle the blood of any entrepeneur.   I really need two more people - a fast serger jockey and a fabric cutter who has the necessary skills of head-math, spacial strategizing, and manual dexterity with a cutting tool.   Ideally; people who like the kind of media I have on while working too.   But that's a tall order since, aside from mainstream tv, I like cartoons, documentaries, audiobooks, CBC radio podcasts and sci fi movies.

If I can ever get my workshop finished enough that it's not visually embarrassing, I'll give a photo tour of the madness here.   It's kind of like someone put a sweatshop in the middle of the matrix.

Anyway - Chris Clay at Digital Bloom just finished a sweet website update for me so I'll be back to adding products in the wee hours when I'm needing a break from sewing.  

School is coming. Fast.

Welcome to the month of September.   It was a busy summer at Row West.   In early summer, I got the equipment to do Dye Sublimation - the process in which you can actually dye fabric with the output from a inkjet printer.   Not just any printer, mind you.   Mine takes rolls of paper 44" wide and it's only a medium sized printer.   Lots of experiments and ideas have been bubbling.  The kids have been enjoying the test garments - lots of comic book images and so forth going onto drifit shirts.  

Running Row West as a tiny backwoods company is always a challenge in terms of juggling workload and family time but it's also fun a lot of the time.  This summer, the kids have been living half the time in the loft of the workshop, building lego and playing with Transformers while I've been down below getting the orders out the door.  

This time of year is divided between getting the earlybird orders out to the schools and preparing uniform packages for teams who are yet to have their first crew meeting.  New clothing ideas are on the table and I hope I can find the time to get more of the Row West website posted so that some of these new ideas can make out into the open.

Jeff Somerville in Peterborough is ready to rep Row West in Ontario (and beyond!).  I'm working on getting the infrastructure out to him so he can make a presence at this Fall's regattas.   I will post information in the regatta attendance section of the site once I'm sure where Row West will show up in Ontario.   I'm excited to work with Jeff.  He's got lots of inspiring ideas.

In Victoria, as a side-interest to making clothing, I also love toys - and designer toys in particular.  As a result of this, I've got a good relationship with Cherry Bomb Toys - a vintage (and new) toy store on Broad Street downtown.  They retail a jacket designed by owner Biagio, and myself and made by me.   Same fabrics as the Row West Helo jacket but a much different fit - with lots of pockets for action figures.  It also has velcro removable arm pockets.  At their upcoming October Toy Show, I expect to have a vendor table there with a product line never before seen by rowers.   It may have nothing to do with clothing at all.   Cherry Bomb is my kind of company - family run 7 days a week, raising their baby amidst towers of GI Joe and Transformers. I do love small business.

ORC orders on schedule for ERA's

Due to the postal strike, all ORC orders were held back for couriered shipping.  The package is expected to arrive in Ottawa today , June 28.  Order numbers from 29 to 87 are included.  The only items missing from a couple of these orders are headsweats caps, which will ship asap.  My apologies to anyone who requested shipping directly to their homes - this was the only way to guarantee your uniforms would make it to Ottawa in time for this weekend.   All orders are individually packaged and labelled with athlete name and contact information.

Kingston RC senior athlete uniforms should also be arriving about now.  The junior order, which was just recently placed is not expected to be ready for this weekend but should be shipping soon as well.

Halifax RC uniforms are shipping out shortly - likely by Express Post if the mail system seems to be operating properly.

So, here's what sucks about using couriers for shipping.  Shipping to a business is ok - the rates are only a little higher than post.  But shipping to a residential address ? Yikes.    I sent an envelope to Vancouver with a singlet in it that normally could go as a heavy letter (about $3 shipping) and had to pay $19 to send it by Greyhound Express delivery service.    I guess I can take comfort in the tax write-off of exorbitant business expenses.  My post office is still open but the staff is bored to tears since they can't really do any work.

Just did my first dye sublimation prints yesterday.  SO COOL.   First day of printing I also sold a contract printout (to a customer with their own heat press).  So that will be another avenue I'll look at for getting the machine to pay for itself.   Looking forward to sending out sales info to all the clubs I've had to pass by because of their designs that require a dye sub print. 

I'm starting to feel a little concerned about the ongoing Postal Strike.   As a business located in a rural location, I depend heavily on the postal system for outgoing packages.  Using a courier is immensely expensive when dealing with rural pickups - generally 3 to 4 times more expensive than post. I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been more talk in the news about this kind of problem.  Here in Shawnigan Lake, there are many many home based business that I see sending packages out every day.  I'm sure this must be the case across Canada in small towns.  

I can't say that I have a strong opinion about which way the strike should go - I can understand the concerns of both sides.   It's obvious that letter mail has had it's day.  That being said, Canada Post has amazing infrastructure to dominate the package delivery system - just too much bureaucracy to get it done.   I think the only thing that could really devastate Canada Post would be the invention of matter transport (like Star Trek).  That's probably a little ways off.

It's a busy month - June. Lots of summer crews are off to the races at the beginning of July and on the west coast, people are heading to Portland for racing this month. For them, it means training. For me, it means bustin' the hours in the workshop getting everyone's gear out on time. Just got a large format heat press and let me tell you that a 1200lb crate doesn't move easily on a gravel driveway. But it's in the shop now thanks to Pat and Doug. Now I'm waiting for my dye printer to get out of Customs in Calgary (why Calgary??). So once both units are up and running, it's time to play with artwork and stretchy material. FUN. You know, in between working on all the orders. With those two items, I should be able to print just about anything into white fabric. So complex designs and custom colours will be much easier to deal with.

The ecommerce site seems to be working well. It's a quick learning curve - sorting out how to add all the products and also sort through in the incoming orders. Still have a ways to go for all the products but the main thing right now is working on posting for all the teams who want their gear online.

Anyway - back to unisuits and dragon boat shorts with the soothing background of CBC podcasts. Or sci-fi and anime movies. Whichever.

Oh one more thing - last week there was a really good CBC radio piece on groupons gone wrong and why they can be a disaster for small businesses. See if you can find it - it's worth listening to.

Just finished adding most of Vancouver RC's uniforms to the shopping site.   Working on some dragon boat shirts today as well as working up computer visuals for Corporate Challenge crews.   Also putting together some super cool Fillipi unisuits for the folks at GO Rowing and Paddling Association.

Should be adding boat name decals to the decal options soon - just have to figure out how to cost them and what options to include (fonts, etc).