If you had a little business in a little town, there was a natural limit to your growth. You hit a limit on strangers (no people left to pitch), some became friends, some became customers and you then went delivered as much as you could to this core audience.

There’s no limit now. No limit to how many clicks, readers, followers and friends you can acquire.

I don’t think this new mindset is better. It shortchanges the customers you have now …and worse, it means you’re never done. Instead of getting better, you focus obsessively on getting bigger.

You’re never going to be the biggest, so it seems like being better is a reasonable alternative.

I’ll take the heat since it seems I am one of the main starters of this debacle. I sew. I’ve sewn for years. I don’t sew for a living. But because I know how stuff is made, I know, for one, that it’s a cop out to have irregulars in your product and say that they are a trait of a handmade item.

I have handmade clothes (not by me) that would make a lot of people marvel at the level of work. If your items are badly sewn (jagged rounded corners, we’ve looked at on one product, poorly mitered corners, etc) or inconsistently cut (which I often think is a result of the shaving of pattern pieces Kathleen talks about), it’s unprofessional to spread the misinformation that this is because one person sewed the product from start to finish (which is what handmade is), rather than acknowledge that there are things in your production process that could withstand improvement.

This is at the crux of the issue. It is the unwillingness to improve the process to a standard of quality, instead copping out under the terminology of “small”, “one of a kind” or “handmade.” I don’t think consumers value that “quirkiness” as much as people think and I think that brings down the perception of handmade items and actually negatively affects all who make them, though in unmeasurable ways. But that’s my opinion.

Add to that when some people are question, a lot of them respond with “but I am a stay at home mom.” You’d be surprised at the number of people doing the same, running businesses with infants/toddlers on their laps, but they don’t use it as an excuse for not having their operation or product up to par. And you’d be surprised at the number of solo operations present here who do not feel they deserve special treatment under a safety law.

Because nobody will pay that much for a diaper.

Well, I’ll say that I think this is a good example of my point. When you have an industry where a lot of producers shop retail (higher prices for materials) and have that “handmade quirkiness” (inconsistencies in production) then the perceived value of what you make is devalued. So, in that regard, it kinda proves my point. Having children how much am I going to pay for something when it comes with the warning that it might have some differences as a result of being handmade (which the REST of the sewn products industries considers irregulars)? It becomes easier to stick behind companies that stick behind their workmanship and when you get a crooked seam, they will take it back as an irregular rather than tell you that’s a characteristic of a handmade product (and this is a real example taken from previous discussion on the forum).

Interestingly, they frequently perceive hand-made as high quality even though their particular good looks, well, cheap (flimsy, uneven, unfinished, likely to fade or fall apart, etc.).

Yep.

So coming back full circle, there is value in moving up a level, but that doesn’t equate to becoming a “big corporation” either. When everybody raises their standard and steps their game up, the niche, as a whole, improves drastically. Until then, people who make those products will be pigeonholed into scraping by because they can’t raise the perceived value of their product.

Consumers show, time and time again, that they pay for the dimensions of quality that matter to them.

There are points along a continuum:
unprofessional .. learning .. professional
necessity .. hobby .. small biz .. growing concern .. large biz .. multinational
art .. craft .. industry

There are some ways of mapping one continuum onto another, but they are imprecise. So, sometimes small and unprofessional may be synonymous, but not always. Sometimes art and multinational aren’t mutually exclusive, though the nexus is rare. The map is not the territory, and this particular territory is bumpy.

When I first started going to shows with Kathleen (everything from craft fairs to professional shows), I had heard her description of some of these things, but had not experienced them for myself. After a while, even I can spot some of them. There’s the person with interesting ideas which upon closer inspection look uncrisp; they’re ripe for being knocked off, and in any case their stitchers are not going to enjoy long term employment. There’s the paranoid person who clearly knocked someone else off. There’s the socially conscious person who is exploiting some “resource” of their own while “protecting” them. There’s the moral crusader: “I embrace X values, therefore you should buy my stuff”; it’s not uncommon to find someone selling cheap, synthetic plush toys (hecho in China) while spouting the “buy local – buy organic – promote Gaia” mantra. Occasionally you come across a very small concern with exquisite work. And then there are the quilters who seem to do consistently exquisite work, but almost always as a hobby (because nobody could afford what those things would cost if you really did it for profit).

A common type is the person who doesn’t want to “sell out”. Businesses are bad, artists are good. They are frequently the one with the uncrisp finish, or the t-shirt with words and/or graphics. Any attempt to help them is perceived as an attempt to kill their creativity, crush their soul. Interestingly, they frequently perceive hand-made as high quality even though their particular good looks, well, cheap (flimsy, uneven, unfinished, likely to fade or fall apart, etc.).

I think this is a result of the attempt in the last 200 years to associate manufacturing with the industrial revolution, coal-blackened skies, and child labor. But “manufacture” literally means “make by hand”. The association is one made by intellectuals trying to shore up support for the working classes, but in their elitist way they were placing their stamp of disapproval on an honorable and enjoyable way of life. As a result, they relegated it to something dishonorable, something you would only want to do if you were desperate or you could make a boatload of money off of the same people they sought to lift up without actually – gasp – becoming one of them (as long as you drive a Prius and give an unspecified percentage of your profits to save the whales, this is okay).

Today, even in this comment section, we see manufacturing associated with MBAs. Yet this isn’t the view of this blog, or of the lean/JIT community. You aren’t going to find anyone here defending the decisions of Mattel to outsource to unsupervised contractors because they were the low-bidders. Our MIA friend Bill Waddell was getting quite famous making fun of people who thought, after 4 years of Biz school and 16 months of MBA school which involved no factory experience, that they actually knew something about manufacturing. And no wonder — the MBA curriculum consists of teaching the GM approach to manufacturing in which inventory is an asset and people are variable costs. That logic necessarily leads you down the outsource path. You can check that luggage at the door before entering this area.

Manufacturing is honorable and can be very enjoyable when done right. The desire for precision and the elimination of waste of all kinds from the production process requires much *more* creativity than coming up with new t-shirt slogans. I don’t know how the rest of the world does it, but Kathleen’s approach is holistic, eliminating waste at all levels – wasted material in the marker design, wasted time for the stitchers, wasted effort and resources in the marketplace when people buy material that is never going to be sold. The goals are many: interesting and durable clothing, productive and well-paid employment, and self-expression and self-actualization for the designer-entrepreneurs themselves.

So do not be fooled into thinking that you can map “professional” onto “corporate drone” or “industrial soul-thief” any easier than you can map “unprofessional” onto “small”.

I had hoped to bring up the point that safety is everyone’s responsibility. Both the manufacturer who makes crystal-encrusted pacifiers and the Etsy seller, who copied the manufacturer, are equally responsible for what they do. This is an opportunity to proactively to address environmental toxins. I also wanted to give some credence to hand-crafted. I can be defensive in that regard and, again, apologize if offense was taken. It was not my intention.

With sincerity and with “Best laid schemes of Mice and Men”,
Nancy

No, and nobody has said it does. What we are saying is that it is not an excuse for producing a shoddy product. Professionalism has nothing to do with size. You can be professional and a micro-business. Absolutely.

The problem in the cloth diaper industry – or whatever – is that, yes, prices are rather lower than they would need to be to enable everyone to add up their costs and double them twice for a retail price. Because nobody will pay that much for a diaper. Makes one question the point of getting into a business with small margins, and I’ve pondered that decision often. But I’m proud of what I do, and of keeping MY products affordable for one-income families.

Just goes with the territory, however, that some of those numbers will use “private label” incorrectly and the salad fork with their entrée. The unwashed may bastardize the hybridized language.

I’m not in charge, it makes no difference to me. The issue is, the law won’t provide slack. That’s my point.

Professionalism and the CPSIA are not mutually inclusive, in my opinion.

I disagree. Professionalism as it is defined, is related to continual self education and improvement. One will not have the means to comply with the complex tracking requirements without improving the sophistication of their internal processes.

At this juncture, let me point out, that it was the practices of “professionals” that got us to the point where we are today.

That’s argumentative. If you persist in choosing to draw the battle lines between professional vs unprofessional, there’s plenty of unprofessional people producing unsafe products. The Etsy seller who glued lead crystals to baby pacifiers? Even if the lead were not bound, it’s still a choking hazard. Infighting won’t resolve this mess. Divide and conquer, the powers that be win. Why can’t you see that?

And then we’ll go eat our lunch someplace else.

And you are welcome to. Why do you presume I gain if you’re sitting at our lunch table? It’s a lot more work for me to monitor the forum weeding out spam (just as guests can now post, as can spammers) and resorting mis-posted material into the appropriate threads. I’m dense (really) so perhaps you could explain what I’m getting out of it because I don’t see it. If I stand to gain, then yes, you could be justified in feeling entitled that I owe you something.

While many crafters are chomping at the bit to take The Big Step, many others are happy doing what they do at the kitchen table and are not interested in steps. Is that so bad?

Not at all. I’m a tiny one person company myself. The vast majority of our forum members are also one person companies. But again -flogging a dead horse- professionalism is not related to size.

So, yeah, it’s a hobby (I can hear the collective*gasp*). Head for business, but not the heart. Not afraid of math, just bored with it.

There are innumerable examples of business and heart not being mutually exclusive. Many large companies have a lot of heart. I also know plenty of small guys who have none. Like professionalism, heart is not related to size either. Math bores me too, thank goodness DH loves it because it has to get done.

CPSIA is an entry barrier.

Finally, something we can agree on. That should be the focus here, not targeting us with your resentment. I mean, I could see blasting us for the blame of this whole affair if it helped matters or even if we caused it or even if we were your preferred target (large companies) but none of your criticisms apply. I understand change is hard and it’s resented. That change is necessary is something you need to wrestle with and the point of this entry. You don’t want to change? Don’t. I do not gain or lose regardless of what you do.

But many can still do their thing without a Wharton MBA or an FIT nylon tote (or lead testing?). In fact, maybe many do do a fine thing or two exactly because they “don’t know how”. Ignorance of “how it’s done” can have its advantages in the creative process. Moreover, some rewards are not found on the P&L statement. May we pursue that happiness? No? Not without a tracking label, I suppose. Have crafters really been that much of a threat to the health and welfare of America?

Again, your resentment is misplaced, I did not engender this turn of affairs. You act as tho you are the only one impacted, that we aren’t. You and crafters you purport to speak for are not the only ones. We are also affected but I’m dealing with it the only way I know how; maturely and appropriately with activism and education. What kind of leadership would I provide if I beat my chest and gnashed my teeth or found someone to blame? How would that help anyone?

I’m kind of surprised when formaldehyde was briefly mentioned once on the open forum, no professional jumped up and said, hey, I am already working to eliminate that!

Other than that your goal seems to be to flog us with your resentments, the argument could be made that if we had started talking about it, you’d then criticize we were talking about something in the future or that hardly affected anyone when there were more pressing issues at hand. The public area is but a tiny portion of our forum so you can’t know the extent of the discussion. It affects our bra manufacturers who don’t care to be assailed and criticized by the “guests” we are hosting.

Going to eat my salad now. With a cake fork. And await banishment.

While snark is a rarity around here, we don’t ban people for it. The worst that will happen is your comment is deleted.

Maybe some feel they can fly under the radar and continue to market thru web sites and craft fairs and even word of mouth but anyone can turn your butt in. There are penalties to ignoring the law aside from consumers looking for the certified label and refusing to purchase your product because you do not have one! Ignorance is not a defense.

If you do not share the vocabulary of the law, pertaining to your industry, you will not know if you comply. Being “more professional” can mean simply knowing/learning the terms and standard practices that apply to your industry, then acting on the new regulations i.e.: arranging standards, product labels, product sku’s, bar coded labels and arrange compliance testing.

The testing and associated costs may be in excess of what you had hoped to earn. If there’s no money left after testing even if you faced no penalties your passion has little purpose- there are loads of passionate out of business owners. The consumer does not care one wit about your passion- they want a good safe product. The bank wants to know their loan to you is secure.

The law as currently written applies to all manufacturers. Kathleen’s point has been if you cause ‘IT’ to be made and sold- you are a manufacturer and need to comply.

Rather than get all miffed and feel personally challenged by what has been posted– read, learn, do some research on your own and make your decision if you want to go forward or close down. Placing blame may feel good but does not do anything to resolving the issues facing us. Get over it. The choices are to amend the law or comply with it or cease doing business. What you do is your decision.
Kaaren Hoback

I think you have something with the lunch table thing. Except I don’t think it’s the cool kids, I think it’s the nerds. It’s true, if you sit at the nerds’ table and you don’t get the “Kelvin is absolutely OK” jokes you’re going to feel out of it.

You’re sort of right about the salad forks too. Except there are contexts. When you’re a diner, knowing which implement is the salad fork is only of consequence to your own convenience. Anybody who is snarky to you about selecting cutlery at random is being an a##hole. When you’re working as a caterer and your boss says to pack 24 salad forks for the Fledgling order and you pack 24 steak knives because that’s what you call a salad fork, don’t be surprised when your boss says you need to learn standard terminology if you want to continue working in the industry. It’s a matter of effective communication. (Your boss shouldn’t be snarky to you either. But blunt would be very appropriate.)*

I don’t think Kathleen has said “go big or go home.” Not once. Ever.

If you were a forum member, you would be able to participate in the forum thread where the benefits of a crafter business model that generates very little income are discussed.

Kathleen doesn’t support CPSIA. She’s spent a lot of time and [her own] money trying to understand it to fight it effectively. She’s thought hard about all possible outcomes. One of them is that the small and micro businesses Kathleen nurtures on this site will be forced to close. (See Kathleen’s site http://nationalbankruptcyday.com/.) Another is that there could be an upside to being forced to use all these stringent tracking processes. Kind of like the upside to starting a business in a depression means that if you survive the depression you have a solid foundation to build on once the depression is over. The depression isn’t a good thing; a business model that can survive a depression is a good thing.

And just as we can’t argue away the current economic downturn, we can’t argue away CPSIA either. We can focus on the business model that will get us through the hard economic times, and we can learn what we need to do to allow us to survive CPSIA. Kathleen can help with both, and wants to. But arguing with Kathleen isn’t going to make either the economic downturn or CPSIA go away.

*(I attended a workshop for apprentice midwives once. The topic was Rh sensitivity. One of the apprentices referred to antigens as “antibodies,” and when corrected by the midwife said “yes, well, I call them antibodies.” The entire workshop got an impassioned lecture on the importance of caring about words, because in this context not being able to distinguish between an antibody and an antigen could result in death. In this context, vocabulary is not a matter of individual convenience. It matters, and it’s not a question of being in the in-crowd. Even if you feel insulted when someone corrects you, it matters. Now one of the really nice things about clothing design is that it is extremely unlikely to result in death! But knowing the standard vocabulary helps you communicate effectively with your peers, suppliers and customers. It helps you generate an income, and it can even help you generate an income for someone else. It matters.)

I can’t wait for the day when everyone wakes up and realizes what a waste of time this whole CPSIA is, when compared to the economy and the new rules in retail. Kathleen, I really think you are asleep on the economic front and its going to sneak up on you…

Michael, even tho I am an economics major, I am not qualified to address this topic that you repeatedly flog in the forum. I’ve addressed these core issues of your arguments but you have steadfastly refused to review those entries as well have you ignored suggested reading material as to the content of what I propose as being economically salient. Before you decry my positions, why don’t you read what they are? Judging by your comment, you still have not. Don’t criticise me for a lack of intellectual rigor you are unwilling to assume yourself. You are free to start a blog to pillory me for my failures.

As far as CPSIA is concerned, how can one worry about an impending famine months to come when there’s nothing to eat for dinner tonight? We are besieged on all fronts. One is here now, the other is yet to come (coming surely). By turns beseeching, cajoling and teasing, I can’t compel one to become a lean manufacturer -and you still don’t know what that is yet.

On a personal level, nothing is “sneaking up on me”. Other than a mortgage at 4% interest, I have no debt. I don’t even have a credit card.