My Cottage Industry
A recent financial crunch has got me thinking about the future and security of Brass Tacks. I’m not referring to the recession but rather my current bank balance. I’ve been ordering fabric in large quantities to feed my store as well as the Brass Tacks section at Daaram (Hyderabad), but it’s going to take a long time for sales to pick up there and for me to recover those costs. The good news is that the low bank balance has motivated me to think of new sales solutions like the new pricing scheme and the idea of brighter colours for future collections. What I need to focus on next are issue of scale. How viable are some of my measures for quality control as the company grows bigger?
Take, for example, the issue of fabric shrinkage. To guarantee my customers that none of my clothes will shrink I have them all washed once. If a fabric has a loose weave, it is soaked for an hour and then washed. If the shrinkage is very high, it is washed again to shrink a second time. This process also gets rid of surface dyes and any nasty smell that the fabric has absorbed during its long train journey to Chennai. Right now all the fabric is washed by the woman who washes clothes at my parents’ house. It started out with tiny quantities of 30 metres of fabric per week, but as the company has grown the quantities have gone up (I’m embarrassed to admit how much fabric I send home every week). It just doesn’t make sense for me to send all the fabric home- it seems so unprofessional and so cottage industry-ish for a company that wants to operate like a mini industry. However at the moment I don’t have another solution. There must be large industrial machines out there that mimic a “gentle handwash” process for handwoven fabrics, but I haven’t had the time to research them yet.
Until Brass Tacks has more creative solutions for the not-so-easy-to-scale stuff, we’re still washing all our fabric in-house (literally). And since both my parents were out of town last week and none of their domestic help came to work, the next best (and immediate) solution for some kora coloured khadi fabric to be shrunk was for me to wash it. Oh well, at least the dress ("Lady Bird") got made in time for weekend sales.
Take, for example, the issue of fabric shrinkage. To guarantee my customers that none of my clothes will shrink I have them all washed once. If a fabric has a loose weave, it is soaked for an hour and then washed. If the shrinkage is very high, it is washed again to shrink a second time. This process also gets rid of surface dyes and any nasty smell that the fabric has absorbed during its long train journey to Chennai. Right now all the fabric is washed by the woman who washes clothes at my parents’ house. It started out with tiny quantities of 30 metres of fabric per week, but as the company has grown the quantities have gone up (I’m embarrassed to admit how much fabric I send home every week). It just doesn’t make sense for me to send all the fabric home- it seems so unprofessional and so cottage industry-ish for a company that wants to operate like a mini industry. However at the moment I don’t have another solution. There must be large industrial machines out there that mimic a “gentle handwash” process for handwoven fabrics, but I haven’t had the time to research them yet.
Until Brass Tacks has more creative solutions for the not-so-easy-to-scale stuff, we’re still washing all our fabric in-house (literally). And since both my parents were out of town last week and none of their domestic help came to work, the next best (and immediate) solution for some kora coloured khadi fabric to be shrunk was for me to wash it. Oh well, at least the dress ("Lady Bird") got made in time for weekend sales.
Labels: business, customer service, growth, research and development, systems and processes
posted by Anaka at
2:11 PM
13 Comments:
hi anaka!
it wouldn't be a bad idea to invest in a couple of washing machines. when we bought a washing machine for our home the onw thing we looked at was machines with a wide variety of wash options. we found our solution in videocon. i do wash the fabric i am using for stitching in it. it has a very delicate wash cycle. it's quick and you can operate it at the production house itself.
Kalyani: Ah ha! This is why it is great to know people who have similar professions or interests :) Thank you!
So would I be able to wash handwoven ikat fabric in this delicate cycle that you speak of? What about tussar silk? My big concern with a machine, even in a delicate wash, is that it will allow the fabric to soak. And if the fabric has a print or ikat designs that bleed, then one colour could soak into another colour on the fabric.
there is an option to wash silks as well. i also wash my ikat bed spreads in the machine. i have had no problem yet. plain cottons do tend to bleed, but that happens even with hand wash. i do not use the soak option most times. i have the option to skip it. there are so many brands out there. this just seemed to have the most options. i am sure you will find the one you think is perfect! i went in for a top load so even if there is no power i could take the clothes out. with a front load i would have to wait for the power to come back as i would risk having soapy water all over the floor.
may be you should add the word 'sustainable' to your mission statement
Anrosh: Sustainable is in my mission statement! But explain how you meant it in your comment. Are you saying that I should stitch with smaller quantities so that the process does not get complicated, or that I should invest in research and machines so that scaling up is possible (and hence the business becomes financially sustainable)?
Hi! Though I know nothing about fabrics I know enough not to trust the washing machine with stuff I buy in your store! They are too precious! I was wondering if your friend meant 'sustainable' in the sense that it isn't a bad idea to be a bit 'cottage-industry-ish' even if you do want to be a mainstream industry type business. Wouldn't it be good idea to have a couple of women paid just to come and hand wash your fabrics for say 2 days a week or so? That would be maybe be more fair than sending it all to the poor maid at your mom's? Just thinking aloud Anaka - and I'm all for investing in research for such small seemingly inconseqential tasks that are time consuming but necessary for the overall health of your clothes/business. All the best.
Jerich: How lovely to have a customer read my blog:) I'm glad you find my clothes precious, although there are a few mill made and powerloom clothes from Brass Tacks that I wash in the machine (cold wash).
The reason I asked Anrosh what she meant by sustainability is because staying small is not the most financially stable place to be. I need to be producing and selling slightly larger volumes than what I am currently doing because with my profit margins (not very high), I can't survive unless I make more of each style.
I could have 2 women come in to wash clothes, but my current production unit does't have the facility for me to dry yards of fabric (my parents have a large garden). So while my poor parents' maid suffers now (I do pay her though), it will be a while before I can afford to move into a larger factory type set up with a large wash area and place to dry fabric. I appreciate your thoughts though- keep them coming!
jerich -- you said it.. her handloom clothes are precious. i always hand wash my cotton and linen clothes even if it is very inconvenient.
anaka practises sustainability by giving a new life to handloom fabric minus a few odd pieces - so when everybody out there is looking to include things that are more green and earth friendly she should include it loud and clear in her mission statement, which she says it is in her mission statement. that's all. full stop. -
no anaka i am not talking financial sustainability and viability - that is a ball game altogether different.
my only concern is with machine washing - will the weaves of handloom withstand ?
without handwashing and without absolute machine wash - there is a hand powered washing machine - have you heard about it ?
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/02/hand-powered-po/ - is this feasible for you with you scaling up? i don't know, but may be worth checking out ?
when it comes dryer, dryer is the one which destroys the fabric. even mill made fabrics suffer quite a bit. -
Anrosh: Now all is clear. I do not have the word "sustainability" written somewhere clearly where customers can read it. It's in my personal mission statement for Brass Tacks, but that's not written all over my site or on my hang tags. But there is a reason for that- something I will elaborate on in another blog post perhaps- I am a little wary of flaunting the brand's eco friendliness. I just feel a bit.. well...hypocritical perhaps because the cotton industry is filled with chemicals and so many of my silk garments require dry cleaning which is not great for the environment either.
I did check out that link you sent, but it seems like the hand powered machine got a bad review for not providing a rinse! The rinsing is the toughest part- and for fabrics that bleed it is important to do it right. I think Jerich is right in suggesting manual labour- it's just that I can't afford to have it done at my production unit because there is no space for it.
I am going to check out the videocon model that Kalyani has suggested however. I think that if a washing machine could mimic the handwash process without using too much water, then every other Indian household would be thrilled! Handwashing is a pain- I do my own laundy and I keep putting it off until the last minute because it's the last thing I want to do at the end of a long day.
The dryer is bad for everything. Convenient yes, but bad for fabric.
anaka,
i din't know if you will get any of this first hand but my neighbour has a manuaaly operated washing machine which also rinses the garments. this is an old model she purchased in delhi. if you look around on sulekha.com or something you may be able to find one. the videocon i have allows you to skip the spin cycle.
Kalyani: a manually operated washing machine? Wow... if you get a chance to find out the brand name, let me know. Our washing machine at home is packing up so I might buy one (perhaps a videocon) soon and once I experiment with larger yards of fabric at home I can consider buying one for the production unit.
Thanks a lot for all the helpful info!
Since you will be ordering in decent quantities.. ask your supplier if you can get the fabric before sizing is done or if they will preshrunk the fabric for a little extra cost.
It gets tedious for the fabric to get washed sometimes twices and then get it ironed before cutting and sewing.
ofcourse you can look at top load machines which are not fully automatic... manual machines will all the controls under the hand maybe suitable for you.
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