First of all, I haven’t been on vacation. Oh boy, no I wish! It might seem awfully quiet around Rosie’s headquarters, but believe me I have been busy!
Trying to get the business internationalized and professionalizing some of the processes is more work then I had imagined.
Perhaps things like translating a website, tutorials, patternbooklets, updating website inlog accounts for wholesalers, transforming paper patterns to downloadable pieces is not the kind of work that I really really really enjoy all the time.
A lot of the technical stuff I have no clue how to go about it, so it takes a lot of searching, networking, resourcing to get where I want to be.
My hands ache to create and sew and share new pattern design ideas (what I like to do most!)….but for now I need to first concentrate on getting more professional, that will help me where I want to be in the future. Once that is all straightened out I can get back into the more enjoyable things of work again. Yay!
So to give you an update:
- Website is almost completely translated to English….except for the Tips & Tricks page. Half the tutorials are now in English, but as you can see there are a few that are only available in Dutch. While going over the Tips & Tricks translations, I found that I still really needed to write a Glossary of Sewing Terms. This has been on my wish list forever, but was always pushed aside a little. Now was the time! I wrote all the terms that I believe are handy to know when sewing Rosie & Me patterns and added it to the Tips & Tricks page. Especially for beginners, I believe this can be a helpful tool. And yes both in Dutch and in English of course.
- Up to this point, Stockists could only place their order by sending me an e-mail. At the moment, I am working with my technical support on making a wholesale login area within the website. Here, it is possible to buy the patterns against wholesale prices. See your history, find billing information, and ….well really just finally prefossionalising the website. This is going to save me a lot of manual administration and will be so much easier for our Sellers as well.
- Then as mentioned: pdf patterns. Another big big thing for me. When going international you also want to give people a choice between a printed paper pattern or a digital pattern. If you live in the Bahama’s and want to make something for next week, it will be nice to know that you can start right away. It does take a bit more work (printing & assembling), but it will save you shipping time and also a little money as the pdf patterns will be cheaper. The lay-out, formats & design, is all decided upon and the existing Dutch patterns are being transformed as we speak. There are a few technical things that need to be sorted out still, but the pdf option should roll out soon soon soon.
- Finally, I have received several emails from sewists that are anxiously waiting for the patterns to come out in English. The above three steps truly need to be finished first (sorry) before the patterns can be printed in English. So please hold on just a little longer….. I am grateful for your patience and knowing that there are people waiting for it, really does help me get through this little less creative stage of work. Thank you!
I also can’t wait until all of the above is done. I think there needs to be some sort of celebration then. Ow, what a good idea…yes I’m going to think of a fun YES WE DID IT – celebration already. Without getting tooooo distracted of what I actually should be doing of course….
Will keep you posted! Have a lovely sunny weekend!