Hi all! It's crunch time and we've got 9 days left on our Indiegogo campaign, which can be found here: http://igg.me/at/DeborahMonaghan/x/3200822
Here is what has been happening over on my end.
I am back from a much needed break. The 4th of July festivities here in Livingston were busy with parades, rodeos, floating the river, excursions to a ranch and friends and family visiting. I’ve also caught up on some much needed sleep and nested a bit in my new home. Phew!
The opening went swimmingly. I received so much positive feedback and to see people pointing at the diagrams and then pointing at the patterns while in the throes of discussion was an incredibly rewarding experience; people were ThinkingBody and seeing their anatomy in a whole new way – success! I also sold some pillows – yippee!
Now that the opening is over, I’m turning my thoughts and energy to phase 2. ThinkBody is at a stage where it’s a bit chicken and egg. We’re not quite ready for major orders, but in order to be ready for major orders we’ve got to have at least one foot in that arena so we can scale quickly. For me, this means figuring out production logistics and taking a leap of faith financially. This week and next I’ll be nailing down sourcing fabrics and pillow forms wholesale so I can make the push into stores and the online marketplace. Everything produced for the gallery opening was done at retail, but, of course, that method is not sustainable.
After that, or running concurrently with that, is the website and pr. There is still much to do to get the website functioning and representing the products in a way that I am happy with. One of the things that needs doing in that domain is working out shipping logistics – so it’s off to the postoffice with pillows in hand and a bunch of random zip codes in order to get an idea of costs. Have I mentioned how many corners of commerce I’m learning about?
PR and marketing. I’m really excited to dive into this! There are some super cute boutiques over in Bozeman, and all over Montana in general, so I am going to approach a handful of those about retailing pillows and if appropriate, wallpaper. I’ll also be doing research into design blogs that would be interested in ThinkBody and looking into sites that curate designed products – i.e. Fab.com.
After all that – I’ve got work to do testing new fabrics and products. I’m thinking more home goods, but also some fashion pieces – and I’ve got a ton of new ideas for patterns.
Thanks so much for the support everyone and if there is anyone you can spread the word to, please do, I could use the help! 10 days until my campaign is done and it needs to catch a long wind…
