New items arrived last month and I've been so busy, I just
haven’t had time to catch up on my blog.
I try to post at least once a month, but the time has flown by!
So, here’s what’s happened over the last two months:
We received our Youth boy jeans, the Alex and Patrick. These two styles have been selling very well and
customers have been very happy with them.
The fabric is amazing and they look great. I’m so happy to have another age group
available. The Youth girl styles are
still not in production which really saddens me to say. The last samples that came from the factory
still had some design problems but I think we've finally solved them and we may
begin production very soon. This means
they won’t be available for about two months or so and that’s if there are no
complications
.
Two more styles for the ladies are now in stock - the Diva
and Sheryl in black denim. We completely
redesigned these styles so they will need another “try-on service”by our customers. We made these two lades styles in much bigger
sizes and I’m happy to have them available.
We also have 5 sizes of the Timmy style in black denim. We originally were going to make another
style for the ladies, but we had some design problems and chose not to make the
third style. With the leftover fabric, I
had the factory make the Timmy in black in size A, B, C, D and E. They look great and make a nice casual dress
pant but the sizes are limited.
So, how’s our Staples prize coming along you may ask? I must say it’s taking a little longer than I
had expected. A portion of the prize was
an agent from Gannet Local and that part has been a little slow. They finally assigned us an agent and we've
been working on a marketing strategy which should start to kick in sometime this
month (October). I’m anxious to get this
going as the Christmas season is just around the corner.
I have some more exciting news: Last month I was contacted by Karen Watts who
owns a hair salon in Arkansas especially designed to cater to children and
adults with special needs. As a mother
of two boys (one with autism and one with Down syndrome) and a hairdresser, she
saw the need to create an environment that would address the challenges of
getting a haircut for people with disabilities.
Her salon helps make getting a
haircut a more pleasant experience.
Besides doing hair in her salon she carries many items that
cater to people with disabilities and thought our jeans would be another great
service she could offer. So we decided
to set up our first “try-on” station. I
sent her one of each size of our children’s, youth and teen jeans. She won’t have to carry stock or do any
sewing, just determine which pair fits the best, then help place the order. She’s an incredible lady and I’m proud to be
associated with her.
Getting the new jeans in last month (September) really
boosted sales. I was so busy with
shipping I was struggling to keep up, so when we entered into Down Syndrome
Awareness month (October) and we had a store wide sale and things really picked
up. Our turn-around time is taking a
little longer these days, so please be patient.
With the increase in sales I hired someone to help me in the
shipping department. I’m happy to
introduce our newest member of the team, Mary Diemert. Mary
has a lot to learn about our unique business and I’m so confident that she will
do a great job.
Well, that about sums it up, I’m glad to report that sales
have improved and we've added new styles.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we can finally complete the youth
girl style and hope for a busy holiday season.
