06/19/13

is your job making you crazy?

Do you ever observe yourself? I mean, really really observe yourself?
Why you do the things you do, why you have certain reactions to certain things, your mindset, habits, and in general, how you act? Have you ever write down your goals? What you want in life?
I was pretty lost… don’t know what to do with my life.
I’ve changed so many jobs and hated all of them…they made me feel like prisoner, and there’s no escape. Everyone around me is dealing with the same crap and I thought to myself: am I just too whiny for not willing to deal with all these shenanigans?? Is this what life is all about? Everyone shut up and work in jobs they don’t like? Am I not allowed to wish I deserve better?
I dislike being so weak and lost, and I dislike the fact that I know it’s my fear holding me back on the possible opportunities out there.  I don’t have a clear goal and dream, so I kept working like a slave, living day by day, feeling miserable.

What’s holding me back?  Fear and lack of knowledge… I just don’t know any better. Being caught in society norm and living in a given system made me a dull person that doesn’t think outside the box anymore.
As for me, the thing that changed me is travel. I just quit my job and travel my brains out. I went to 5 different countries in Asia for about almost 6 months, came back in the states, and never felt the same. Once you travel, especially by yourself, you will never be the same person again.

Don’t I deserve better? Do you have that question in your head? If you answered yes, then…are you doing anything that makes a difference in your life so that you are living better?

We are more free than we thought, seriously. Our limitations is only set by our own minds and the only thing stopping us is our own fears.

can’t believe it took me years to finally admit it and take action.
Did you find out the exact reasons why you are not doing the things you really want to do? Can they be changed? What’s holding you back?
Have you regret on things in the past?
I don’t want to live with regrets, so I decide I want to be a designer after my long trip, so I did and act, and that became my greatest decision of my life.
Although I’m still pursuing my journey, but I can kind of look back and see how each events ties to another. From failures to epiphany moments, people I’ve worked with, events I’ve been to, everything mold to who I am today. I don’t look at my failures in the past as an awful thing anymore…I see them as: “Because that happen, that’s why I…” “Thank goodness that happened because now…”
Don’t like myself? Okay, change
Don’t like what I’m doing? Okay, quit
Not getting what you want? Okay, think of a solution. Taking action is better than doing nothing. Better now than never.

Instead of dwelling on oh-I-hate-this mentality, I thought, okay, what can I do to change this? Focus on solutions and think positive makes a BIG difference. Can’t think of anything positive? Get connected with those who are positive, they are diamonds of life.


Those awful jobs I had in the past became an invisible whip to constantly remind me, I will never ever go back.
So if you are not happy with your crappy job right now, good, that’s your fuel to start revolutionize your life.

“If your obstacles is stopping you from reaching your goal, you are not desperate enough.” -My advice along with others.

 

06/13/13

How to read and keep up with 30+ blogs – blog addicts tool

This day and age, we can find incredibly amount of blogs full of valuable contents and knowledge.
Especially if you are entrepreneur, it’s a never-ending learning and new inspiration pursue.
Chances are, if you read multiple blogs or keep up with email subscriptions, you’ll receive TONS of emails.
How do you manage to keep up with them? Bookmark it? RSS feed? Email?
I personally cannot stand my email box being jammed with emails because I get highly annoyed as I go through them so I end up delete most of them, hence, missing out on valuable contents and information.
I could not be happier that I’ve found a solution – Bloglovin’

this amazing tool pretty much lets you :

  • Save all the blogs you follow.

  • Enables you to organize blogs with folder system.

  • Allows you to explore more other blogs of different interests.

  • Gives you one singe email in list of summary + picture of the newest blog post or you Bloglovin’ site

Pretty much, it’s like Pinterest for blogs.
I find it very easy, useful, and significantly reduced my email load like a charm.

let you find other interesting blogs in different topics

easy to use organizing system

Do you have a tool that you use to organize your blogs? I’m always into tips and tools to organize my life better, please let me know!

 

06/10/13

3 fundamentals to draw out your potentials

    • You are what you eat.
    • You are who you associate with
    • You are what content you expose yourself with.

If I could understand how critical this is at age 3…

Be knowledgeable on what you eat.

America is rank #1 in the world for highest obesity rates, that’s surely one statistic the nation is not proud of. Why? Too many fast-foods, processed foods, lack of knowledge in health diets, and poor habits all over.“A fit, healthy body—that is the best fashion statement” ― Jess C. Scott

We just don’t know any better… ever since the boom in the industry, fast food is introduced to the nation, processed foods stacked the shelf, and it all just went downhill. While other countries suffer less from heart disease, diabetes, and obesity-caused problems, why haven’t we learn anything from them? Why our nation fails to improve?
The great feeling of having a healthy and fit body allows you to enjoy life to the fullest possible and maximize productivity. Being responsible for your own body is merely an act of self-awareness and self respect.

Be meticulous on who you hang out with.

“The strong-minded rise to the challenge of their goals and dreams. The weak-minded become haters.” ― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

If you are unhappy where you are in life, you should really look around you and observe the people you hang out with, are they happy with their life? Do they inspire you? Do you want to be like them? The only way to elevate yourself is to engage in relationships with people who you want to be; interact with those who are already down the path where you want to go and wish to achieve. With that in mind, cherish family and friends that support and leverage you, but don’t waste time on those that brings you down; they are equivalent to those harmful ingredients in processed foods, you will be much better off eliminating them.

Be aware on the information you acquire.

“Ignorance may be bliss, but it is also practical. It is imperative that you learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable.” ― Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek.

Do you keep up with celebrity gossips?
Do you like to chat about the latest news with others?
Do you watch tv religiously after work, everyday, including weekends?
Although we feel obligated at times to be responsible to keep ourselves up-to-date, but are the information we acquire improve us in any way? Irrelevant information is like eating junk food, if it’s not giving you any valuable nutrients, what’s the point? Negativity in social situations does not enhance positive outcome, it is simply waste of time and energy. Although it’s human nature to be emotional upon occurrences of obstacles, at some point we must learn to let go that feeling and become aware that being emotional will not generate results. Once problem has been identified, instead of looping around the blame on the cause with emotional arousal, a better way to approach the problem is to find solutions and get it over with.

When our mindset lets the desire for pleasure empower us, we act despite the consequence. Personally, I had to built my mindset to reach these epiphanies and focus on self. What I eat, who I communicate with, what knowledge I acquire, everything matters so much. Looking back at my weak and puerile periods of my life, I’ve came to acknowledge how pitiful on the precious time that was wasted. Instead of dwelling on the feeling of regret, I must learn from the mistakes I’ve made in the past; through stumbling and failures as my experience, I’m able to build the strong mindset today, and focus on tomorrow.
I wish you too, had overcome your weakness with self-awareness and self-respect to live a fulfilling life.

06/8/13

Do you want to be a Shepard or a sheep?

In an office, the interviewer sat down with the interviewee, asking them generic questions “Tell me about yourself”, “Why you feel you are qualified for this job?” and such; interviewee respond with appropriate generic answers. Then, interviewer hands a white piece of paper to the interviewee and said, “Show us your value with this piece of paper”. Interviewee was surprised at first, uncertain how to react to appropriately to this challenge, gave it a brief thought, and starts to write his objectives, his qualities, and the values he can bring to the company; he starts to draw graphs and even gave some hypothesized statistics of company’s potential growth and strategies. “I think I ace it!” As he hands the paper over to the interviewee with full of facts, data, objectives, and his value to the company. What do you think is the outcome? Did the man ace the interview or not?

I don’t have an ending, the outcome is for your imagination.

Just like you are given that “blank-piece-of-paper” life you have, what would you do? And…are you aware there are other ways to show your value instead of document it on that piece of paper?

Before we understood what’s going on, we are already in a pattern… grow up, go to school, learn, more school, graduate, job, maybe change a few jobs before we land on a career, perhaps get married, have kids…how about the pattern of daily routine? Get up, brush and groom, breakfast, school or work, home, eat dinner, tv/internet, sleep…stuff like that. Certainly these ‘pattern’ won’t apply to everyone on the face of the Earth, but I’m talking about the vast majority of us, living in the first world with our first world problems. We are trained so well to adapt to this system that anything outside the norm will certainly make us feel uncomfortable.
Anything that we are not familiarized, we usually try to avoid.

Why?
Why are we so obedient like a sheep?
Because we are scared of uncertainty.

It’s much easier to go day by day and follow the pattern and known system than to invent your own.
but reality as we know, nothing is certain. It could be death, it could be disease, it could be love, it could be catastrophic events beyond our control. Not knowing what’s lies in our future give us fear or excitement, depends on personal view.

With no one to guide us ahead to lead us through uncertainty, we fear from lack knowledge, experience, and confidence to overcome it.
Often, we feel comfortable doing what everyone else is doing so we fit in, we are ‘normal’, we ‘belong somewhere’, and we ‘can relate to the people similar to us’. Contrasting, those who are labelled ‘weird’ go against the crowd, follow their own instinct and judgement gained valuable experience and priceless epiphanies.

So…are you flexible to changes?
Can you adapt to uncertainty?
Are you capable of doing stuff that’s outside of the norm?
What’s holding you back to not going after what you desire and make the most out of your life?
Most people are not comfortable and not willing to do so… I was there, I know the delusional feeling of ‘safe’, ‘comfort’, and ‘stability’ from following the same pattern or system that everyone is following, but after stepping out of my comfort zone and explored what’s out there, I was irritated by the old system and don’t want to go back.

Remember those school days, kids are taught with various topics in the same room. The teacher would ask them to solve the equation, they solved the equation. Ask them to read the books, they read the books, do the homework, get good grades, complete academics, achieve excellence, give them all the tools they need to enhance learning and stuff them with knowledge to face the world.
After the kids graduated, they are thrown into the society facing the reality.
Now what?
There’s no textbook to guide them anymore. There’s no simple solution or one answer to help them live a ‘successful life’. There’s no book that teach kids what ‘their happiness’ is or what they should value. Those intangible things will only be acquire through experience. 

Ask yourself, if you stripped away the norm, the responsibilities of bills, the urge of obligation for social norms, the daily routine of rituals, and realization that you could really have full authority to choose what you want to do, escape from the cookie cutter life, absolutely free to do anything, what would you do?

06/8/13

why you should take different approach to fashion design industry

Traditional fashion industry pattern goes like this: every year focus on 2 seasons, one Spring/Summer, one Fall/Winter; designers prepare their collections each season by acknowledge trend, research target audience, design collection, source materials, make patterns, make samples, present them in fashion shows for buyers, take orders, tag/pack/ship orders, and then follow-up with re-orders. So the game plan pretty much boils down to build brand-awareness and interest the buyers.

Emerging designers most likely want to aim for small boutiques for orders instead of large department stores because large department stores like Bloomingdale’s or Saks Fifth Ave expect large quantity orders at the demanded delivery time, which means the designers MUST understand every details from production price, wholesale/retail price, FOB (freight on board shipping cost), duty fee, gross profit, net profit, delivery time, quality control, shipping company, reorder windows, along with preparation for press kit, press release, line sheet, editorial specs, and so. If designers start off with small boutiques, they will have to negotiate with the boutiques to see if they are buying wholesale or consignment. If consignment, designers won’t get paid until boutique stores sells their designs. What I covered here is very brief as to what fashion designer do, but gives you an idea.

So yes, I see the traditional system very challenging for the new emerging designers.  As I observe in the competitive fashion industry, there are so many talented designers trying to ‘make it’, everyone buried their face in their work space to create the most unique, most beautiful, most stunning designs to stand out. When given the chance to present their blood-tear-shed designs to the audience, they are either in, or out. Really? That’s the ONLY way you present your talent and skills and make money? I strongly object. As I notice this corrupted pattern, I also realize the whole world of possible opportunities out there that’s blind to these talented designers.

Why is this happening?
because the Fashion Industry is already over-saturated with designers, and everyone’s doing the same thing.

What if we take a different approach?
From entrepreneur point of view, their purpose is to resolve problems and bring value to a very specific audience. So instead of competing with the large name brands, do anything to get the buyers attention, or track down the consumer that goes to particular store  for certain styles, how about pick a very specific niche that have an unsolved problem? Not that the designers that are trying hard with the traditional path is completely wrong (After all, Bloomingdale and Saks Fifth Ave needs stuff in their department stores…hopefully they help boost economy), it’s just not my style to hustle as a designer. Why doing what everyone else is doing?

Let me give you an example how you can be a fashion designer with entrepreneurial approach:
Fashion designers select a target audience of females age 25~35 living in metropolitan area, working status with 55,000~70,000+ annual income, likes to shop at Saks Fifth Ave and Bloomingdale for quality goods, likes sophisticated classy style, like brands like Coach, Prada, or Chanel, works 9-5 office jobs such as administrative or corporate, enjoys social gatherings in the weekends, and eats out 5~6 times a month, go clubbing 2~3 times a month, likes certain types of movies…things like that. The designers design their collections as closely to the style of the department or boutiques stores without losing their own style, have their line being picked up, and hopefully the buyers will continue the business. Or, they can sell in their own store physically or digitally.
Fashion entrepreneurs select a niche of females that have allergic reactions to spandex materials but needs fashionable workout clothes for the gym that is comfortable and sweat-friendly. To resolve the problem, fashion entrepreneurs will seek textiles that is free of problematic allergic materials and create fashion sportswear with it.

See the difference?

Although both designer’s goal is trying to sell their designs, fashion entrepreneurs tends to select a very pinpointed niche to resolve their problems whereas the fashion designers are more broad. Those women with allergy problems will certainly appreciate there’s a product designed just for them to solve their issues whereas the regular designs are nice to own, but not much significance, and almost disposable.

In the end, I don’t want to conclude the right or wrong way to approach fashion business..I just think that if you are a designer, you should really ask yourself:
“Who am I designing for?”
“Do I resonate with my authentic self?”
“Am I putting values in my designs to help my customers?”

Seriously, ask yourself.

 

06/8/13

my manufacturer experience, learn to avoid

First Attempt – Manufacturer founded by a friend.

The very first manufacturer experience I had was…well, more of Kyle’s experience actually. He’s a good friend of mine who helped me out a lot at the beginning stage of my business when I was completely clueless what the hell I was doing. He researched and found a manufacturer oversea, I sent over my ‘thought-it-was-clear-enough’ designs over, and of course, the outcome failed miserably. Of course it’s my fault for not being as detailed, it was my first attempt with manufacturer and it was a painful experience learned.

There’s no handbag manufacturer around my town…so I started to search in domestic manufacturers mostly in NY or NJ.

Lesson – It’s important that you find your own manufacturer.

 

Second Attempt – Manufacturer recommended by a contact.

After NYC Cine et la Mode fashion show last June, I pre-scheduled appointments to meet with some manufacturers in NY and NJ. As I sat with them face-to-face, newbie as I can be, asking questions as I go. Through our interviews, I learn that the samples are about $500-$800 per design, materials all on me.


When I came back to my hometown,  I started get in touch with a manufacturer that was referred by the show organizer for Cine et la Mode. I’m very thankful to get referral from a contact, since it’s quite a headache to find manufacturer myself base on my own experience. As I get in touch with the manufacturer, I have the experience in mind from previous lesson, I know I have to be VERY specific so I listed everything I can, from every inch and centimeters, the nuts and bolts, the threads, the materials, colors, types of leather, the whole sha-bam.

It was around July when this whole communication started, little did I know it could last till December with yet another unfruitful outcome.

At the beginning, I emailed them my designs, we talked on Skype, went over the specs, they physically mailed me some leather samples, I picked out the ones I want to use, shot them the sample photos, then on to the hardware, they email me similar ones to my designs, I’ll pick out the ones I like, email back. So this went back and forth until we finally nail it down all the materials I want to use, FINALLY, the sample making process begin. It was about October when we got the whole details down. Around mid November, my designer friend Mandi Gallegos of Maikailee Alton invited me to collaborate with her for Nolcha Fashion Week, of course my mind was blown for this opportunity, I want to create new designs for Nolcha to collaborate with Mandi’s designs, yet I still haven’t got my sample. Not good.
It was around late November, I’ve worked almost everyday because of the holidays, I would work during the day, came back home and draw my brains out on the new designs until about 2am, and wake up around 6am to go to work, that cycle lasted till mid December when I finally finished 4 designs for the collection. I killed lots of brain cells and seriously triggered some hormone imbalance during this time.
Back to that manufacturer whom I’ve already emailed and Skyped numerous times to see what’s up, the rep first had tons of issues on their end and just announced they ‘messed up’ my samples and had to re-do them. I informed them I will be attending a show and need to start making other designs, let’s just get this one over with. Things are just not looking bright, and then the communication just dropped. No emails, disappearing status on Skype, no one can be found, no money back. Of course, I have fault, I should have visited the manufacture site myself to understand the whole production.

That was late November, Nolcha Fashion Week is in February. Just awesome.

Lesson – It’s important to go find your own manufacturer, but you must understand and study a bit about the manufacturer production, learn from other experienced personnel that went through production phase, every better, visit the manufacturer site and learn their working environment yourself. Do not assume when you have not seen everything; even if you seen it all, don’t jump to conclusion.

 

3rd Attempt – Manufacturer founded by myself (Finally, right?).

I panic and started to search all over the web, searched on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Alibaba, Google, some friends responded with suggestions and recommendations, the hunt is on. Truthfully, manufacturers are actually not that hard to find, you post a design project ad they’ll flood your inbox with their company bio and portfolio, filter them out is the problem. I’ve found a handful of response from LinkedIn, emailing each of them back and forth reading their company website and show them my designs to get a quote. After filtering about 20 of them, I went with this one because of the outstanding communication. The rep and I Skyped over my designs, the specs, the quotes, and sample price. She gave me another rep’s contact in case she’s not available and even urge me to rest when we Skype late at night my time, wow…how nice! It’s like after experienced an abusive relationship you almost don’t know how to react when the next person acts nicely (okay a little exaggerated but you know what I mean).

Typically, the production of a sample is about 10~15 working days. Note that since it wasn’t until late December when we finally had all the specs and materials set, it’s gonna be some serious crunch time here. Literally, I have exactly 15 days to get the collections done and ship to me because Chinese New Year holiday that’s coming soon which the whole nation practically shuts down for an entire month. I sacrificed my sleep to nail down all the final specs to them in email, and hold my breath. Jan. 16th 2013, I got 7 out of 10 samples that was requested. Other 3 was not sent because the rep states that the designs did not seem to match my drawings so they just sent the 7 and awaits for my correction to further complete the project. Now, this is actually a professional way of handling projects if we weren’t as rushed on time frame. Usually, samples will take SEVERAL trials before it’s EXACTLY like the way you want it. In fact, it’s rarely to nail it the first time (it’s like lottery if you think about it). Designers can make ‘dummy sample’ out of plain canvas fabric or other stiff, cheap fabric, along with all the hardwares and details to show the manufacturers. Even with that method the sample could still come out different from your design and the process usually takes up to 3 months. So with those 7 samples that does not look like my design, I am still very grateful for the flexibility of the manufacturer, their professionalism, communication, hard work, and service was very remarkable. Although they are locate in a small town that’s not easy access like other large handbag factories, I would consider them again next time for the wonderful service I received. Again, the outcome was not perfect, but I learned another experience and glad I did it all by myself.

Lesson – It’s important to find your own manufacturer, interview several of them like a HR, view their portfolio, Skype them, ask them tons of questions, know their location, check for their manufacture operation license, and visit them in person(don’t do crunch time like me coz it’s just not gonna work).

 

Side project attempt

Around March/April in the beginning of the year, as I was ‘recovering’ from the Nolcha Fashion Show, I came to learn about Handbag Designer 101‘s handbag contest. Out of various categories the contest have, I am particularly interested in the one: “Most Socially Responsible Handbag Design” in which the qualifications are : “Bags that are made in a country where the proceeds are given back to the country of manufacturing or people that are employed to manufacture handbags to better their lives and/or conditions” Sounds very interesting. So I started to brainstorm some ideas, contact my friend in Tanzania to see if they have some handbag manufacturers but my friends said they’re not reliable…ok, scratch off…. then I got the inspiration to search production in Guatemala. I got on Alibaba.com to research the manufacturers in Guatemala. I’ve read all of their company bios, went to their websites, checked out their company culture, and finally collect all the gut juice I have and emailed this one manufacturer I like because their mission is to help the community. First trial, no response…ok…I emailed again after a week or two, still no response…ok…maybe because it’s in English that’s why, I emailed them again in Spanish thanks to Google translate, still no response….. at that time, life got busy so I just drop it.

Lesson : Manufacturers on Alibaba may or may not respond.

Looking back, I admit I’m very newbie, to the point I just look at the sky and laughed out loud at how ignorant I was…well, yeah, from a cookie cutter 9-5 OL to hustling businesswoman, it’s unavoidable for some turbulence along the way, but what the heck, I got out my comfort zone and took action, and was really glad for the experience I learned.
I’m making my life not boring.
At least now I know what NOT to do to find manufacturers, you can read this and avoid all that.

 

01/24/13

How Did I Get From 9 To 5 OL To Entrepreneur?

Coming as a total introvert…I never would’ve guessed that I’ll be pursuing the path of entrepreneurship…how did it all happen?

Join the ‘Clueless-What-The-Hell-To-Do-With-My-Life Club’

It all started with a goalless life after graduating from University, I pretty much immediately went in the same boring pattern of 9 to 5 job and lived miserably.
Sounds familiar? How about the feeling of lost and depressed? Yup
Repeat the boring cycle of curse at the alarm, stuck in traffic to work, come back home tired as hell, eat, surf internet, sleep, and repeat? check
Feel like a living dead, soulless, and wasting life? check, check, and check.
If you feel this way, you are not alone. Join the club, we got members globally, in various age, gender, size, and race.

Cultural Shock Popped My Comfort-Zone

Yup, with little knowledge for the fashion industry, I just dive in. It certainly was lots of obstacles and challenges, but I just ‘do it’, and engaged to any opportunities I could find. Throughout the past year or so, I’ve switched from apparel to handbag design, created lots of designs with my sewing machine, attended local charity fashion shows, community fashion shows, collaboration projects with photographer and models. I built more confidence and experience as I go, learned as much as I could. Reading books, websites, blogs, connecting to other designers…pretty much just throw myself in the industry. I realized SO many things that I would never know if I were a regular consumer.When I finally got my green card about 5 years ago, I first visited my sister that lives in Taiwan. Throughout the trip, I’ve experienced major cultural shock and was certainly dragged out of my comfort zone.  But then…visiting my sister became my excuse to travel, I slowly came out of my shell and became more open-minded from all those priceless experience. I built confidence through my solo travel and got very motivated to pursue my dreams. Life’s too short to waste on doing things we don’t like. So I decided I want to be a designer that can make living from my designs and travel.

The Fashion Industry

Although I’m still learning and building experience as I go, I’ve came this far from never attended any fashion design schools. I’ve met many inspiring people that broaden my view. The more I learn about this industry, the more I understand myself too. What I want to accomplish, what’s my strength, and my weaknesses. To be honest, a lot of the times I just feel lost and overwhelmed, but I just kept on learning and being (stubbornly) persistent. Aside from family issues, I completely changed my lifestyle in many ways. I became more frugal to better invest in my business, I don’t go out unless I’m working, and I am constantly working.

Maybe you already knew that designers have to fight for opportunities to present their designs in well-reputable shows like Nolcha and Mercedes-Benz, but do you know the fee to get in could be more than $10,000 just  to present around 15~20 piece of designs? I’m not even counting the supplies and materials, just the participation fee alone. On top of that challenge, buyers usually wait a couple season before they pick up your line to test if you can make it that long, according to their standards. You can try to get sponsors…but how do you get sponsors when you are start-up that’s scraping everything you have to buy materials to make stuff? It’s almost like that same ol’ pattern from fresh grads: graduate from college, not able to find a job because you have no experience, and can’t build your experience because you don’t have a job. Certainly you can get internships, but if you did not have a chance to get internships, does that mean you are screwed? Well…maybe.

For the most part, whether you want to work under a company or run your own biz, internship experience is always good to give you an insight to the workforce. I didn’t do internship when I was in college because I had international student visa and worked for my parents to pay my sky-high tuition.

Anyways, I still manage to find an opportunity to collaborate with other designers in Cine de la Mode at New York City. Sound astonishing? Working day and night, nipped my hands with wounds, insomnia, and restless, I made all my designs myself for this show, collaborated with other emerging designers, had the craziest backstage experience, and met some really inspiring people. Yes…coming as emerging designer, paying for the experience is a must, and it truly was a great learning experience. At this point, my income from my designing business is in the negative zone, everything out-of-pocket from my current job.  After that show, I had to think more realistically, what other ways will be more effective? Up until this point, I followed the traditional fashion industry pattern, start from the bottom, keep working, get connections, and somehow one day I will build myself a well reputable brand.

Opportunity is always there, whether you are ready for it is the question.

I understood at the beginning that making handbags by myself was definitely not the way to go if I want to make profit. It takes a lot of time, effort, money, and energy…and the finished design does not look ‘professional’ enough for the buyers. Unless you are a retiree sewing for hobby, you would be wasting WAY too much time making each piece and try to make profit out of them, a Mexican factory worker is surely making more than me.

The whole point is to get buyers interested. From designer standpoint, I am building connections, brand awareness, and gain experience, but from the business standpoint, no cash flow, not good. Besides, how long and how much do I have to put in to ‘make it’?

So I started to think how to make my handbag designs more professional.

Well…I certainly don’t have a factory in my garage to make it happen, so I started to source manufacturers to make my samples. Domestic handbag manufacturers starts off around $600 for 1 sample, yes you heard me, 1 sample at $600+, not including the materials. International manufacturer costs around $150+, then you’ll have to add the shipping, and minimum order is usually 100 per design.  That’s why a lot of crafters couldn’t make it big, self-production is not scalable to make profit for the effort, material cost, and valuable time you put in, and manufacturer hunting is a PAIN.

 Something doesn’t feel right…

Up till this point I just put myself in what I call it “shut up and work” mode. The truth is, I’ve created a job for myself and it was a nightmare. That was certainly NOT the reason why I created my business, to tie myself in endless day and night hard work and that almost killed my health.  What was I doing wrong? Everyone told me to work hard from the bottom, get connections, do shows, create designs, and just make it work, that’s the way to go, but I am starting to loose that momentum…
My purpose is to make living with my given talent and help those I care about! Not that I was afraid of hard work and hustle, but putting all those efforts, sweats, blood, and tears in the wrong direction that’s not giving any fruitful outcome? Why?

Beginning of the year I worked with a manufacturer, got my samples, and was lucky to collaborate with an apparel designer friend in a well-reputable Nolcha Fashion Week in New York. I’m very very VERY thankful for this opportunity and was glad I gave it all I’ve got to learn from the experience.

It was a big deal type of event. I had great experience, learned a lot, inspired a lot, cried a lot, thought a lot…there was a sprout of feeling that’s growing…something inside me is whispering “You struggle because you don’t love it”

I’m almost scared to admit it because I’ve already made my parents ‘disappointed’ for not doing what they want me to do.

the photo shoots I’ve done, designs I’ve created, shows I’ve attended…for some reason…it just feels…..suffocating

if I have to describe this feeling, it’s almost like: you are in a relationship but it doesn’t feel right. I can do the things I do, but do I love it? hmm….not sure, it’s hard to pinpoint my feeling but I don’t ‘feel it’. I know what I don’t like… I was never a fashion-fanatic at the beginning, I am not the type of fashionista that can name brands A-Z, subscribe to all the latest fashion trend there is, I don’t get excited when certain designer’s collection is out, and truthfully, I don’t even like shopping.

Well, at least I am more truthful to myself more than ever at this point.

I need to open up my horizon more, so I started to broaden my iTunes podcast selection to not just in Stuff You Should Know and other business marketing stuff, but a new type of business called ‘lifestyle business’. According to Wiki, “A lifestyle business is a business that is set up and run by its founders primarily with the aim of sustaining a particular level of  income and no more; or to provide a foundation from which to enjoy a particular lifestyle.”

The key points about lifestyle business entrepreneurs that attracted me is that they are:

  • location independent

  • freedom of mobility

  • big-time travelers

  • operate most of their business online

I listened to all Topical MBA at www.lifestylebusinesspodcast.com, read Tim Ferris’s The 4 Hour Work Week and was completely blown.
I am normal! It does exists! THIS is what I want, work and travel. I do like designing because I am capable, but looking back at how I hermit myself in front of my sewing studio all day everyday is just another dreadful 9-5 job. I feel like I’m hustling like an artists…creating all these designs and hoping there’s a market that will like my designs, but that, of course, is not how business rolls. I need to implement the ‘designer’ with ‘lifestyle business’, and think like an entrepreneur.

Now that I understand myself better, I am more truthful to myself, and approach my business from a different mindset. Life is more than what we’ve been taught, the rest is for us to explore.

My lifestyle business journey has begun. Now that you see where I am coming from, hopefully my story inspired you in some way.

Don’t ever settle for less, don’t ignore your inner voice, don’t gave in and not try.

I’m still hustling and figuring out how to build my lifestyle business, but I won’t give in until I reach where I want to be.
Please feel free to email me if you have any thoughts, comments, suggestions on my story, I would be more than happy to hear from you