Greetings from rural Australia!I often think my business is a barometer for the mood of Australia.
Disasters affecting human lives, like the Bali Bombing, September 11th, the invasion of Iraq, the Indian Ocean tsunami, major earthquakes and the Mumbai attack, have a direct effect on my internet and mail orders. It’s obvious that grim news dampens the desire to shop.
But this time, the tragedy is very close to me. Because I have customers in the fire zones of Marysville, Kinglake, Churchill, Healesville, Whittlesea. My fingers are crossed, hoping they’re safe.
On a different note, I’m always gob smacked at how people rev up their business.
Heather Smith is a MYOB consultant in Brisbane, QLD. I met her in cyberspace through comments she leaves on Valerie Khoo’s Small Business Enterprise Blog for the Sydney Morning Herald.
Heather has an interesting twist on how she perceives her role as a MYOB professional.
Her belief is
that Australia will be a much better place if people are living lives they enjoy and operating businesses they love that are making a profit.
And she’s set up a website to empower her clients to transform the businesses they love into profit makers. Much of it is self help, with Heather stepping in when asked.
Heather’s EXTRAS page is full to the brim with useful, self help links, checklists and information. ALL FREE.
There’s some awesome added value here! Go see!! Visit Heather at Anise Consulting and click on EXTRAS.
Simple solutions for a difficult problem
Packaging is a contentious issue for all designers. Especially if it adds to the cost of a product AND is thrown away.
When researching packaging for The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, we were told by packaging companies there were minimum orders of 10,000 units. We didn’t know if we would sell one cover, let alone 10,000!
But adversity brings out the best in us.
There was a wide strip of fabric left over after cutting out, that was being wasted. And this bothered us.
So we transformed that fabric into a very stylish pocket to pack the cover into. And then reuse as an accessories bag to hold a clothes brush, spray bottle, etc that hangs under your ironing board.
One more simple solution is found for a difficult problem.
Roll Call Of Products At www.interfaceaustralia.com
Do you like to see your luggage dotted with plastic shopping bags posing as laundry bags? Not me. And it’s a sentiment shared by more than a few people.
But nor did we like any of the laundry bags on offer. So we crafted our own.
Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag is different. The neck is like an open shirt collar, and it stays open while you’re filling it because it doesn’t hang by a drawstring cord that keeps snapping its jaws shut.
Once it’s full, you simply close the neck using a wooden button slipped through a brass ring. And you can easily carry the bag over your shoulder or in your hand, using the hanging cord.
How simple is that?
Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag is featured in Jeri's Organising & Decluttering News Blog as one of the ten best laundry bags in the world.
John Ray, Senior VP of Capitol Records in Los Angeles believed Jeri. His wife travels. It’s so perfect for her, he had it sent Express as a surprise gift for her.
Lois Howell of John Heine & Son says her Mr Chin’s was admired by every hotel maid on her European business trip.
The Story Of Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag
I learned about laundry bags as a little girl in New York City. From Mr Chin and my mother. We lived on East 82nd Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenue. Mr Chin’s Laundry was around the corner on 2nd Avenue.
Our home was on the 4th floor of a 5-story walk up apartment building, with no garden or accessible outdoor area.
My mother did her laundry in the kitchen using a wringer washing machine. She hung her laundry on the clothesline outside our kitchen window, which was strung from one telegraph pole to the next. It all worked on a pulley system. And a prayer that you wouldn’t fall out the window while you were hanging out the clothes!
The wringer was OK for sheets and towels. But wasn’t appropriate for the finer fabrics of my father’s shirts and my mother’s hand made dresses or me and my sister’s hand sewn Sunday best.
That was taken in a laundry bag to Mr. Chin’s Laundry on 2nd Avenue. And Mr Chin was very fussy about the quality of the laundry bag you gave him.
I accompanied my mother to Mr Chin’s every week until I went to school. He always met us at the door to his laundry. I was mesmerised by the way he would reverentially take my mother’s bag, embrace it with both hands, and tell my mother, in his broken English, how strong and beautiful her laundry bag was.
Strong and functional were Mr Chin’s criteria. He didn’t want the bag to break on the walk to his laundry. And he marvelled at her carry handle. So easy to manage, he would say.
My mother’s one of a kind, hand made laundry bag exceeded Mr Chin’s criteria.
It was made of tapestry and had a rope carry handle, so she could easily manage the rough and tumble of the walk up and down 4 flights of stairs, up 82nd Street and around the corner to 2nd Avenue and then half way down 2nd Avenue to Mr Chin’s.
We had no car in New York City, so we walked everywhere. And this handle was crucial to making it very easy for her to carry her laundry bag.
And it had one extra special ingredient. It was beautiful!
My mother was a couture dressmaker and my father was a commercial artist. Between the two of them, they designed and made a bag of beauty just for laundry. But the essential ingredients were its strength and its functionality.
My mother took great pride in knowing Mr Chin approved of her bag and always referred to it as ‘Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag’. I’m sure it started out as ‘the laundry bag to take to Mr Chin’s’ and over time was shortened to ‘Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag’.
And this is the bag we replicated for you.
Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag is strong, beautiful and functional. You can take it anywhere with pride. Hang it in your apartment, take it on a short break, slip it over a hook in the best hotel, or show it off on your weekly trip to the Laundromat.
And just to make it easy for you to use, we designed a special collar that stays open while it’s hanging, so you never have to struggle to get your clothes inside.
When you want to take it with you to your Laundromat or downstairs to your laundry, just slip the button on the hanging cord through a brass ring, and you have a perfectly closed, secure bag with a strong carry handle.
The fabrics are outstanding. You can choose between luxurious tapestry or richly textured cotton. As with all our fabrics, they’re fully colourfast, machine washable and very durable.
Just as my mother added her special ingredient of beauty, we’ve added a special ingredient just for you. The hanging cord is finished with a distinctive glass bead for good luck!
What more can you ask for?
You only need one for the rest of your life. And Mr Chin would approve!
Visit Mr Chin's at www.interfaceaustralia.com.
The Friendship Factor
How important is colour to the way you look? To the way you feel? To the way others perceive you?
As we learn more about the brain, we now know that colour affects all aspects of your life, even if you’re not aware of it.
My parents knew a great deal about colour. My father was an artist and my mother was a couture dressmaker in New York City. My mother dressed me in cool colours and my older sister, Janet, in warm colours. We always looked sensational. And our home was welcoming, comforting and so very classy because of their skills in using colour.
Chris Rewell, Australia’s premier Image Consultant, has a book and website devoted to What Colour Am I. Into its second edition, her book teaches you that
you have a colour palette that honours who you are and ensures that you SHINE!
A visit to What Colour Am I will change your life. Go see!!
Snippets About Us
How many times have you complained about the poor state of ironing board covers in 5 and 6 star hotels? Too many covers look like Nanna’s worn out underpants, don’t they?
Beginning in March, the much awarded, luxurious Westin Hotel in Melbourne will be replacing their worn out covers with The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover. Not all at once, but eventually all 262 rooms will have boards with a cover that Fitz Like A Glove™.
In NSW, HolySheet! in Greenwood Plaza in North Sydney and Chatswood’s Westfield Plaza now stock The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover. If it’s convenient, stop in and have a look. It’s cheaper to buy from HolySheet! than pay p&h from me. But do tell Millia and her staff I sent you.
Until next time, keep safe and take care,
CAROL
Carol Jones
Director
