How things change in a month - sourcing manufacturers round 4 in Small Business Startup Journal - The Journey To Starting My Own Brand of Travel Clothing and Handbags

So, it has been almost a month since my last update and I have still not recieved a pattern or a sample from my new manufacturer. I sent a follow up email and I received a response stating that it would be another week or two as they were working on it.

It has been 3 weeks since that email now, and I have decided to follow my gut instinct and start searching for another manufacturer.

I sent an email on the weekend to two more manufacturers in Australia after compiling a list of 20 more possible manufacturing companies to reach out to. I had not heard back from any of them, so I called one of them as their contact number was listed on the website (unfortunately the other was via a form and had no phone umber that I could reach out to them with).

I spoke with the owner of the business and he said it is a very hard climate at the moment and a lot of companies are losing machine operaters. He siad he had not seen my email come through, but after doing a search of my business name he found it. He told me he was in the middle of either closing or selling his business and that he would let me know in a weeks time. He said he would keep my email for the person who possibly would take over the business as my design seemed simple enough and that he would let me know for sure by Friday next week what the outcome would be.

I think that is great timing, as I will know by next Friday for sure how I feel about my current manufacturer Karen who is taking to long to get back to me. If I have not heard back from the other company I have contacted and get a no from this new manufacturer, I will simply move on to the next manufacturer on my list.

I can’t afford to miss my deadline to launch next year and exhibit next August, and it has already been 6 months since I first met with Karen and still no sample.

I am at the point now where it is looking like I will have to possibly launch my bag first, which is something I did not want to do. I had hoped to have my scarf launch first, to then use the list of contacts and customers I had to be able to generate a lead for my bags - the reason being my bags are going to be quite expensive as they are hand made in Australia.

This is the other thing I must look at. I need to consider how I advertise my bag and if I take the approach of it’s a* travel bag or a luxury bag with travel features. *

I am honestly so frustrated at the moment, and getting a little challenge fatigued. I need to just mentally ground myself a take a breathe as I want to achieve my goals no matter what.