The American Dream in Recession

I have lived through 2 recessions, or at least the ones I can remember as a child growing up in Malaysia. One in the early 80’s and one in 1997. This current one will be my third. Unlike many who seem to be in denial of our current capital “R” situation (you can call it [...]

Order fulfillment - lead time

A fan wrote in asking what is the expected lead time when buyers place orders at trade shows. Our answer is that it depends on what type of products and the logistics of your fulfillment; if your products are Build-to-order (BTO) or Make-to-order (MTO), or if you already have a warehouse of stocked products ready [...]

Working with sales reps or agents

Before you continue reading this article, let me warn you that Joe and I have a biased opinion on working with sales reps and agents. This is because we have worked with super amazing people and really unethical crappy people. So the experiences that we share here with you come from both sides.
Firstly, there [...]

Price Points - Wholesale, Retail & Distributor’s Pricing

A fan that is also interested in establishing her own line recently emailed us asking us about price points. This is definitely a tough question but we will try our best to answer.
Wholesale pricing is generally 50% of the MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Pricing). Sometimes wholesale pricing can be more than 50% and up to [...]

E-Commerce and shopping carts

A fan wrote in yesterday asking what e-commerce site we use. For the time being, we are using Mal’s E commerce. It’s cheap; $8.00 per month for their premium cart and free for their regular cart. It has all the functions we need at the moment for our very simple HTML site. There is another [...]

The Young and The Restless by Cindy Ng

Origami Bijou by Cindy Ng

No, it is not an article about your favorite soap opera. It’s an article that is literally about the young people and the restless people. My name is Cindy Ng and I run Finger Magic / Origami Bijou as well as an origami design boutique based in the San Francisco Bay [...]

Working with vendors - reality bites

The biggest challenge other than collecting money from clients, is finding the right suppliers and vendors. Most designers including us are anal retentive, obsessive compulsives and we want everything to be PERFECT. Unfortunately in the manufacturing business nothing is perfect.
You can try your very best to cover all basis, to make sure the materials [...]

How to find retailers or buyers?

Some of us may start by visiting store to store or what we call road sales. It’s a great way to meet the store owners in person and get personal attention. Sometimes, store owners are welcoming and sometimes not. You have to also understand, they get a gazillion emails, phone calls and mailers every day. [...]

Top tradeshows - listings

With so many tradeshows in a year, it’s hard to keep track, but we’ve managed to compile this list for you. Some we have attended as both buyers and exhibitors. Some we’ve heard nothing but great reviews. To find tradeshows that are geared towards your own product line, visit INFOMAT.
Design + Lifestyle - I Saloni, [...]

When buyers are rude - how to react.

Talking buyers

Design is personal to any designer. It is hard to accept when people tell us, oh don’t take it too seriously; it’s JUST business.
We agree that it is business, hence when we are told that our products are NOT a good fit to a store, we understand completely. You can not expect a Kmart [...]