Dyed in Vermont Tie-Dyes

Quick Update

2008-11-10T08:31:10-05:00

First, I want to say thank you to all my great customers who've helped me. Somehow, no matter what is thrown at me, I keep on going, and that is really how my whole life has been. But if you think about it that is essentially what life does--it keeps on going.

We're trucking along getting packed for the move. I'm going to take the dye shop apart today, and most of our inventory is already packed in plastic containers ready to go. If anyone did not get their order, or needs to exchange or return something I'll have to take care of it from Tennessee.

I am going to try to get pictures of the move to post here.

Closed for Moving

2008-11-03T07:27:19-05:00

We will be closed for about 3 weeks while we move to Tennessee. We're leaving on the 15th and expect to arrive 18-19th. I will reopen the store as soon as the truck is unloaded and I can get an internet connection.

2008-10-18T10:46:12-04:00

I'm trying a new formate for the store.

I started out with selected patterns available in all sizes of T-shirts.

But then 5 years ago I realized that I had a huge amount of stock that was not up for sale. There were boxes of clothing--seconds, patterns I wasn't offering, experiments, and many odd garments I'd bought as samples.

After Christmas that year I started photographing a bunch of that stock, and came up with the idea of the Tie-Dye Bazaar for selling indivdual items. This worked out pretty well. Many customers really liked being able to see a photo of the actual piece they were buying, and I started getting sales.

But right form the first there was a problem with having 2 parts in the store. It was confusing and customers seemed to get stuck in one part of the store or the other. I put cross links at the top of every page, but that only helped a little.

I even discontinued the Bazaar for a few months, but then I hit on the idea of having a side bar with links to the different parts of the store hoping this would clear things up. The side bar helped, but it was still confusing with 5 different sections in the store. Sometimes the same product was being sold in two different places on the site in different formats.

Meanwhile I had really honed my system for photographing and cataloging individual items for the Bazaar. First I photograph each item. Then each image is straitened, croped, color corrected, and saved in 2 sizes.

I catalog the information for each item in a spread sheet, and the actual item is stacked in numerical order in a plastic container. Information from the spread sheet is then combined with the image in a HTML file that can be read by a browser.This is complicated, but I have automated many of the steps.

Then we get to 2008, and I'm planning to move. I realized that I can put all the Bazaar items up for sale as soon as I can move the containers into a house and get an internet connection. Ah Ha, I started moving some inventory to the Bazaar by grouping similar shirts of the same size together under one photograph.

Then, just days ago, I decided that I want to move all my inventory into the Bazaar so that it is all available for sale, folded in containers, ready to go! I'm currently about half way through, and have decided to put the move off until November 8th, so that I can be pretty much ready for Christmas sales when I arrive.

I am a Victim of Fraud

2008-10-04T15:43:28-04:00

Yes, I got scammed for about $2,500, but that is just the beginning of what it cost me.I’ve lost time just as I’m getting to ready to move, and gained a lot of stress and worry. I’ve been researching credit card fraud, and found out quite a lot after the fact, and I’ve been looking at attitudes I had that made me easy pickin’s.

It’s kind of a dirty little secret of the credit card companies that when fraud takes place it is the Merchant who pays. They make big deal of it that buyers don’t have to pay for fraudulent charges on their credit cards, but they don’t tell you that they will immediately take it out of the merchant’s bank account which may overdraw her account--with no notification—it’s called a Charge-Back.

You have some resources if this happens in the United States, but if it is a foreign country there is little chance of getting the money back. I shipped these to Rabat Morocco, which was a mistake in itself. I am no longer going to ship to any third world countries, and I’ll be more careful with all foreign orders.

Last Friday the credit card processing company took $2700 from my bank account and when I called they told me that $2000 was deducted as a reserve against future charge backs. After I had gone through my usual denial, anger, exhaustion, acceptance cycle, I thought that maybe I was at the bottom. They would take the charge backs out of the $2000 and give me the left over after a few months, right? No, not right, it was their point of view that they didn’t know what might come in as disputed charges so any new charges would also come out of my account, and they would hold the $2000 as a reserve.

I also lost my Merchant Account which means that I can no longer process credit cards directly, and my customers will have to use PayPal or send checks through the mail which will lose some sales, take longer, and be more complicated. Fortunately I have wonderfull customers who love my work and really want me to stay in business.

At first I felt some shame about it, and tormented myself with questions like “How stupid could I be?”, and “What was I thinking?” But then I realized many people are taken in by fraud every day, and shame keeps them from talking about it which only helps the perpetrators. So I decided I’d write about it, and maybe help someone else not go through this.

I’ve noticed an almost subconscious attitudes I had that made this possible. First I’d never had a Charge-Back, and felt reassured that the credit card had gone through and been accepted. Subconsciously I thought that if the charge went through the card must be OK. Now I know that they can yank that money right back out of your account. I also didn’t realize that it could take 2-3 months before the first Charge-Back, giving me plenty of time to screw up in, or I should say, plenty of time to be defrauded in.

How it works.

The person who did this was very clever. First I got an order that was legitimate. About a month later I got another small order, but with Fed Ex Priority shipping of about $150. I emailed him that I could ship it much more cheaply with US Post Office. He wrote back that he doesn’t understand English very well and just wanted to go on holiday with his friends leading me to believe that he was just a rich kid.

A week or two later I got an order from another person in Rabat. My business often grows in clusters. I send a shirt to someone along with a thank you letter and a packet of business cards. Their friends like the tie-dyes, and orders, and so on The last order had seemed to go through alright so I sent it to him. This kept growing with more people and repeat orders. For a few orders I included notes about cheaper shipping, but got no response.

I had to start using Fed Ex online shipping, and ordered a supply of their free Fed Ex boxes to keep up. I thought I had a nice little cluster of customers until the first two Charge-Backs came in the mail and said,

“YOUR ACCOUNT HAS ALREADY BEEN DEBITED.”

I had thought that what he got out of it was the tie-dye shirts which he probably sold, and that he had put the sale on someone else’s credit card that he had stolen until just last night when I was researching to write this post.

He (they) is also the person contesting the charge on “his” account and that the charge backs go to him as well, and that was a kick in the butt. He is getting paid back for that expensive FedEx Shipping that I paid for.

My only recourse would be to file a fraud charge with my local police. I’m considering it, but it seems to me that this guy probably moves around, and there is little chance of it having a real affect in Morocco.

I’m also working an insane amount of time just trying to actually make this move to Tennessee. I am getting ready to have a sale starting this evening or tomorrow morning to make up for some of that money so we can move, and if I have to I will have another sale next weekend.

Going Away for the weekend

2008-09-11T11:16:05-04:00

I'm leaving today for a few days visiting family, and will be back on Monday.

Labor Day Sale

2008-08-30T20:58:32-04:00

We are currently holding our Labor Day sale--25% off bazaar items and 15% on everything else. No coupon number needed--all sales from August 30 though September 7 will be discounted.

We are going to stop taking new orders after the sale, and close completely on September 19th until we reopen from Tennessee.

I'm going to try to do the blog a little differently with shorter more frequent posts especially during this move. I'll try to post to the blog after we close to give you updates on how it's going.

I was amazed to see that the last post before this one was from Memorial Day, but that is how my summer has been. I've been working so hard to pull off this move that I've barely been able to poke my head up to look around.

I've especially wanted to make a second post about Diabetes and I've been gathering some ideas together about a new topic--how to deal with short term memory loss, or more accurately how to deal with short term memory recall problems. These will have to wait till after the move, but they are firmly in my head; if only I could remember...

2008-05-23T10:06:57-04:00

Memorial Day Sale
10% Off Store Wide
20% off ALL ITEMS in the Tie-dye Bazaar, and Tapestry Gallery

May 22nd through May 26th only!
NO COUPON NUMBER NEEDED!
All orders in this time period will automatically receive the discount.

This is our third sale to prepare for moving to Tennessee this fall, and we still need your help. This move is quite a project. We’re going to load the whole business on a big truck, move it 1200 miles, rent a house, and put it back up. And we hope to do that in about 2-3 weeks and quickly reopen for business.

The Bazaar 1s huge-- 23 Doctor Coats   20 Girl's Dresses   23 scrubs   8 Cotton Dresses   16 Rayon Dresses   9 Dormers   10 Pants (109 Total)

And Check out Ladies' tops-- 30 Womens Tops   29 Girly Tops   6 Womens Tanks   10 Maternity Tops (84 Total)

Long and Short Sleeve Ts in Many Patterns-- 44 Spiral and X-stripes      24 Wing      16 Star-Yokes (121 Total)

If you still haven't found what you want, you can still get 10% off in the regular store. Explore the Side Bar--You can find everything from the side bar.

Almost all of the items in the Bazaar are one-of-a-kind items so shop early before your choice is gone. If you get an error message when you try to order that says "Item not Available" you are already too late. The shopping cart will not let you add an item that has already been sold.

My Trip to Tenessee

2008-04-03T09:30:07-04:00

APRIL MOVING SALE--15% OFF

Last month I made a trip to Tennessee. We're moving to Murfreesboro which really a good city for me and the business. It has a large University (23,000 students) and a mixed multi-cultural atmosphere. We’ll finally have a broad band internet connection, more space for the business, and a large pool of possible employees and customers.
I also visited with my daughters and grandchildren in Jackson, Tennessee. They will probably move to Murfreesboro and I may have one or two actual apprentices who can take over some of the production. This will also set me up to actually start publishing the how-to tie-dye books.

We need your help!! This move is quite a production for us. We’re going to load the whole business on a big truck, move it 1200 miles, and put it back up. And we hope to do that in about 2 weeks and quickly reopen for business.
I don’t usually take any money out of the business for projects until after Christmas—I’m usually pretty much building inventory for most of the year. But this year we need a few thousand dollars in September for the move. We really need your orders over the next few months so we’re starting off with the--

APRIL MOVING SALE--15% OFF

Just type “MOVIN” in the coupon box when you order for a 15% discount during the month of April.

Back from Tennessee

2008-03-21T10:04:54-04:00

I've been back for a few days from my trip to Tennessee. I've caught up with orders, and pretty much recuperated from the 2500 miles of driving. I found Murfreesboro TN to be a really good place to move. Middle Tennessee University has about 23,000 students and Murfreesboro is a big sprawling town which means plenty of part time workers and sales events. The cost of living is also less than Vermont and I will be able to afford more space for the business.

I also visited with my ex-wife children and grandchildren in Jackson Tennessee who will be moving to Murfreesboro. They are all interested in learning to tie-dye so I may actually have an apprentice who can take over some of the production. I hope to make time to write and promote my how-to tie-dye books.

I'm planning the move for September. I just turned 66 and I'm hoping this will be my last long distance move. The next year is going to be very very busy and I'll be working long days every day.

Why tie-dyeing has not made me rich.

2008-02-16T13:50:11-05:00

A while back I had someone ask me why I charge such “high prices” for my tie-dyes. I’ve thought about that a lot, and I just want to say that tie-dyeing has certainly not made me rich.

Tie-dyeing is a very labor intensive enterprise. I know of many tie-dyers who have quit and gone to work at regular jobs. As one of my friends told me, “I really love it, but it is just too much labor. I wish I could charge twice as much and keep doing it, but I can’t.”

I’ve always refused to compromise quality, and quality takes time. It takes checking, and constant vigilance. You would not believe how many ways dye can get on the wrong spot. When I’m dyeing, I spend half my dyeing time checking to make sure the right amount of dye is in the right place. Not to

I experiment constantly—I look at every shirt that I make to see what I can improve next time. Experimentation and observation have become a way of life for me. But, again, this takes time, and time costs money.

Consistency takes more time. If you’re in business selling tie-dyes you can’t necessarily sell whatever comes out of the washer, although eBay will show you that many try. So it is a matter of survival to develop consistency if you’re in business, and especially if you want to sell to more than just your local area.

Ok, that’s my rant for today.

I am going to blog about the ways I’ve changed my business to increase efficiency and make it work in spite of the above difficulties. And I’m seriously thinking of publishing a book on How to Run a Craft Business and Survive.