Hubs said he's never seen me so satisfied and happy with my previous job as a management consultant. Mom jokingly commented today how she finds it funny that someone so educated ends up wanting to sew for a living. I'm not sewing for a living, mom, I'm building a social enterprise. I want to help others sew for a living, to empower women :-)
While searching for NGOs and other social enterprises to work with (we want to engage underprivileged women as sewing partners), we found that there had been many programmes / NGOs that offered skills / vocational training in sewing for underprivileged women. However, most programmes have terminated due to a lack of success. Many women who have been trained have not had any success in making a decent living with the skills they acquired.
Why?
Two main issues we see: (1) Lack of understanding of customers' needs; (2) Lack of market access.
You can be a good sewist, but now knowing what to sew (i.e. what's in demand and what sells) and not knowing how to brand and market your products will not get you anywhere. It's akin to teaching someone to fish but not giving them access to waters to fish...
Here comes Stitch.A.Giggle :-)
We do not wish to replicate the good work that is already out there. We want to leverage on existing programmes and platforms, e.g. for the provision of training. Our forte is in market research, product design and marketing. These are the areas we want to focus on.
We want to create a strong brand that is associated with top notch design and quality, to create children products that are highly desirable by mothers and anyone looking for that special gift for newborns, birthdays, etc.
That is our dream... we will get there slowly but surely. Now back to more sewing and experimenting with new designs :p
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