Bad choices - story 3

Me (and my secretary Panda) at work in 2015.

When I started with my own fabric production rotary printing was the most common printing method. But the problem with this method is that you can't order just a few meters - you have to order hundreds or preferrably thousands of meters of the same design - at least if you want to make it worthwhile. This is very difficult for a small business with low budgets. I had to put my faith in a small number of designs but selling them turned out to be very challenging. Wholesale customers usually want larger collections and private customers more alternatives. So I got stuck with a pile of fabrics and couldn't quite move forward.

I was also not quite satisfied with the fabric qualities. I wanted to offer my customers only the best and didn't want to settle for less. I worked like crazy to find new contacts in the fabric business but it turned out to be very difficult. If the price was right the quality was poor. If the quality was great the minimum order quantity was too big. It seemed to be impossible to find the perfect match in regards to price, minimums, quality and customerservice.

Often when things start turning for the worse you easily panic and start making bad choices. I made a lot of them - choosing wrong designs and bad partners to work with. I tried desperately to correct past mistakes but just ended up making new ones. It was difficult to move forward with all the old crappy baggage with me. But on the other hand if I had to make all those choices again I am not sure if I could do any better ones. I did my best with the resources I had at that time and most obstacles were out of my control. Sometimes things just go wrong no matter what you do.

Common sense told me to give up but I couldn't. I didn't want to waste all the hard work I had done and I still believed that things could turn for the better - with a bit more work and perhaps a little luck as well.

Was luck finally coming my way? Stay tuned for more SHALMIAK stories...