China, India & Beyond

Many of you know that this season I am headed back into wholesale.  Which means for me mass production, which means I can not do it alone!  After talking with my rep in Dallas he advised me to drop my price points so that they can be actually sold in boutiques. 

So I started my adventure overseas… no not in person but via www.  I am working with  factories in China & India that I send my designs and they make them – Yeah, that easy… not really there are tons of little things that I’ve never thought about before that needs to be communicated.  For ex. – what is your GSM?  I’m baffled, what is this?  Finally I ask… Duh it’s Grams per square meter (the weight of fabric).   And I quickly think I should have majored in business or math .

Another change I’m experiencing is staying up very very late, since we are on opposite time zones (that is why I changed my store hours, I open at 11 now).  Oh yes, my store will be staying open during all this because there is no way I can bring it all back home and my husband nearly freaked when I mentioned it. 

I must say that I do love the Chinese communication style.  They are very relational, calling me “dear Heather”, asking me about my kids and greeting me in the morning (yes they seem to be working very late at night too).  And they LOVE emoticons!  Almost every other post has an emotion by it which I rather enjoy.  My favorite emoticon is pictured at the top – I was telling them I was worried about something and I got the head patting emoticon with a “don’t worry dear Heather”. 

I also appreciate India’s communication style.  They send me graphs, charts, and are all business.  They like to say “we will do the needful” which I read and really believe – thank you India!

A new adventure I’m stepping out into and it’s been fun this time around!