3 years ago, on this very auspicious day picked by my geomancer,
Tian Fen Lan unveiled its first collection on Blogspot. =)
Gosh, amazing that 3 years fly past just like that!
That means I have been living with my stocks, envelopes (hundreds of them), oppt tapes, markers (I've boxes of them!) and all the other barangs for 3 years!
2011 has been a year of hits and misses.
I felt that I didn't bring TFL up to higher grounds as I wish in last year's
post.
Yet, there were so many unbelivable opportunities that came knocking on TFL's inbox!
So here's a quick recap of what TFL has been up to from last Nov till now!
That's TFL's 1st media feature in Nov 2010, thanks to Lifestyle magazine and its feature writer, Rachel Xie!
It was a great way to start TFL's 3rd year and it was a sign of many more good things to come!
After a 7-month hiatus from manufacturing, TFL launched her very first pair of shoes in Matte Champagne & Matte Silver, inspired by
a previous pair I bought from Charlotte Russe at Los Angeles!
My mum and my mum-in-law have a pair each!
Then,
the bags came in just in time for CNY! Took me months, but I was really happy to find this new bag manufacturer!
I remember the photos for the bags were done at a new studio, not our usual studio as the photographer was away or something. Gaah, that threw me into a ball of frenzy! I was worried how the quality would turn out and whether the customers would be used to it. Thank goodness, everyone loved the bags!
For the first time ever, TFL offered a courier delivery option for customers who wanted their loots in time for the Lunar New Year. It was the busiest festive period I have ever experienced!
Every night, I would be madly packing into the wee hours, sorting out parcels for SingPost mailing and courier delivery. Every morning, I had to wake up at between 8-9am to call the courier. Such a challenge when I have slept at 5plus am. I would go into a frenzy when they failed to turn up on time to pick up the parcels. Every day was like operating on a time bomb!
So mad busy and fizzed out that honestly, I could have just slept in on Chinese New Year itself!
I remember my house was still in a mess on that all-important first day. Luckily no one came for visitations. They were all barred. Haha!
The dress on the left came in 4 colours and was the
first collaboration with the piggies. It was a very rushed decision, which wasn't very well-planned, I must say.
But on a happier note, I really love the booties!
The Peeptoe booties in Khaki Nude and Black and the
Peter Pan booties in Black & Chocolate!
Selling shoes are really not easy. Just storage alone is a big headache.
My mum still thinks they are very weird-looking shoes. =D
But look how well Miyake carries them off!
What followed after was 2 straight months of no new launch at all.
I was too busy to handle all the samples pouring in before CNY and the China factories were closed for 2 weeks during CNY.
That affected my Taiwan supplier too.
TFL only survived on backorders and selling whatever that was instock then.
It wasn't TFL's 1st CNY, but it was definitely the busiest.
Doing it all alone also means missing out on things sometimes.
I badly under-planned for the drought in new stocks post-CNY.
Coupled with delays here and there, the next launch was in May.
Can't believe it!
But no worries, I have learnt my lesson and am already stocking up on pretty bags now, in preparation for the festive period and the drought after that!
This year's CNY is so early! Don't like!
Because I was so free during March and April, I finally had the time to do up the 100+ photos submitted by customers during last Nov's promotion.
Took me days because the pics were all in various sizes. Should have specified a size.
It is a really very nice feeling to see how customers have been pairing the bags and all the places that TFL bags have been going to.
To actually put a face to the thousands of emails I have handled, it's an indescribable fuzzy feeling of warmth.
I'm looking forward to the day when customers will tweet/email/FB photos of themselves with TFL bags to TFL.
It is really very thrilling to see the end product on a happy customer.
I was just talking with the piggies the other day, on how every launch, we gave it our all.
Be it whether the customers like and buy anything or not, there is no discount in the effort we put in.
Selecting the stocks, preparing them for the shoot, burning the midnight oil to edit the photos, spending hours at the laptop invoicing and replying emails, dealing with the happiness/disappointment of a launch and before you know it, the whole process starts all over again in a week's time.
The Husband was asking why I would feel disappointed when certain bags or a launch did not do as well as I hoped.
He said I should have been used to it by now, after a gruelling 3 years.
I told him, it's just like marriage.
Just because we are married for half a decade doesn't mean taking things for granted.
Just because we are married doesn't mean we should do less for each other.
I still like surprises. I still crave for assurance. I still hope for a stronger love.
Hmm, does this analogy any sense to you?
I have been cracking my head on what a great promotion for TFL's 3rd birthday will be.
Had wanted to do something when the dotcom is up.
I had hoped for it to be up on TFL's birthday.
Oh well, I think it should still make it by end Nov.
*crossing all my fingers and toes*
This was a total surprise for TFL to be
featured on CLEO April's issue!
Thank you CLEO, Kelly & Cheryl!
Knew of it when I see orders coming in from customers who said they knew of TFL through CLEO.
It was the issue during my birthday month! Brilliant!
I finally got to realise my dream of doing a
cafe shoot at Flor in May with TFL's new manufactured bag!
The photos came out beautiful! A real-life setting is so great at showing how TFL bags will be like on the customers, when they go shopping, eating with friends etc.
Flor is so kind to have the crew in!
I'm really hooked to outdoor shoots.
But it wasn't possible to do it for the usual launches of imported bags.
Too many bags, too little time.
My web designer was saying that outdoor shots would look messy on the new dotcom, compared to studio shots.
So we can only do that as a lookbook thing from now on.
This year's May definitely had a moment of triumph for me!
Tianfenlan.com had been taken by a China guy for 2 years.
I have no idea why.
Did he think I would make him rich by buying from him?
Hey, even the BonitoChico girls opted to switch to Love Bonito when their domain was taken and the guy demanded for US$20k.
Such audacity of these people to want to leech on our years of hard work!
And on a pretty Sunday morning in June, the
Shin Min article finally got published!
Thank you, Shin Min & Agnes!
Did it mainly because it's my parents' favourite newspapers.
It was fun honestly though I don't think I wanna go through it again.
Too much of an introvert. =P
Another TFL Label bag launched around June!
My favourite TFL bag to date! Not a commonly found style!
The checkered inner lining is really beautiful, but its similarity to Burberry's got the shipment held up at Customs for a while.
So that's the last time I will be using the lining. =(
Manufacturing bags is really a tedious process.
Pouring over the colour swatches, the inner linings, the metalware, using the bag and constantly running through various scenarios customers will face and trying to tailor the bag to suit their needs better.
Staying on top of TFL's work also means lugging the laptop and all related stationery (delivery pad, big calculator, my Uniball ballpoint pen, notebook) overseas even when it's just a 3-day-2-night trip.
It's too scary to open an inbox after a long absence.
Not everyone will care where you have been and why.
That's part of the job 'benefit'. =P
My wedding photographer did this beautiful shoot of
Millie Cross Tote at Forty Hands Cafe.
It was also TFL's first time working with Francesca.
Thank goodness everything turned out well, for a set of crew who were working together for the first time!
My Taiwan supplier dropped the bomb in mid-May that they were no longer accepting overseas order.
I had all but 2 weeks to scramble and find new suppliers.
It was always on my mind to have a network of suppliers instead of relying on just one.
But I got so busy that this notion was constantly shelved.
I did panicked.
New suppliers mean new bag styles and material.
Will the customers like them?
Will they be used to seeing photos of local studio shoots, instead of the Taiwan photos?
Changing suppliers also mean an increase in cost.
The new bags are better in material & hardware, hence costing more.
There are no more supplier's photos for me to use.
I have to share photoshoot costs with the piggies.
Really count my lucky stars (there must be many!) that the piggies are able to help out with the shoot logistics.
Moving 20 pieces of clothes is one thing.
Moving 20+ bags is another.
I now have to spend 2 hours plus stuffing the bags and hooking up their straps, in preparation for the shoot.
And spend some time undoing that after the shoot.
With my life already running on a tightrope, it took me a while to adjust to operating
in a new environment, with new schedules and procedures to get a launch out.
At that time, I really wish I had someone trustworthy to rough it out all with me.
You know, like how the other blogshop owners have sisters, friends, parents and boyfriends/husbands helping them out.
Like 全民縂動員.
But my Buddhist teacher is always reminding me, if you want to do it, just do it.
Don't grumble.
If you want to grumble, then don't do it.
Or you will never be happy with anything.
要做就不要埋怨。
要埋怨就不要做。
And don't bite off more than what you can chew.
Wise words. =)
Doing TFL has pushed me to pick up new technologies and skills and apply them to my business faster than I usually would.
E.g. learning how to use Gimp, Blogger, Photobucket, Twitter and Facebook.
All those painful nights. Haha!
Randomly, in the website draft, my web designer puts in a figure of 284 for the Facebook Like widget.
That draft was months ago and TFL Fan Page was not even launched.
I think she must have supernatural power to know that it will be around that figure when the site is launched.
Looking forward to the day when TFL crosses the 1,000 mark!
The first launch of bags from new suppliers in July.
It was a point of no return. =)
No more going back to the Taiwan supplier.
So much more fun with the new suppliers.
It opens up a whole new range of bags that TFL has never sold before!
I get an adrenalin rush everytime I see new designs!
This was also the first collection that I started the Facebook Fan Page S$1 discount promotion, in a bid to gather more 'Likes'.
A number of customers took some time to get the steps right though but it is getting so much better now!
My web designer likes it and bought her first bag from TFL!
The photos don't do them justice!
With the site coming up, I have also stopped doing backorders.
That means less income for sure.
But also more time for housechores. Hehe.
Somewhere in September onwards, I started to bring in new items, apart from bags & shoes.
There's necklaces!
And hats!
These are not new things that have never been sold by a blogshop before.
But when building a business from scratch, every little thing is a milestone.
Even setting up a Facebook Fan Page or selling a chunky necklace for the very first time.
I never know for sure how receptive customers will be to something new.
So I tend to get nervous even when taking baby steps.
But never try, never know, right?
=)
It always feels surreal to see the final product arriving in the hundreds.
And all because I chose to manufacture it.
For the better or for the worse. Haha!
It used to take longer to finish selling a manufactured bag.
But from 2011 onwards, the time taken is significantly shorter by half.
It is so great that I no longer have to rely on bloggers to push up sales.
I always feel lucky when customers buy TFL Label bags.
It's like their way of telling me that they agree with my taste in bags too. =))
My first try at using scrapbook bits to do up a TFL montage!
Like I mentioned earlier, picking up new skills along the way is really essential for any blogshop owner!
No one will be able to teach you.
You have to figure out yourself!
This year, TFL also receives emails from clothing blogshops about collaborations, offers of various retail rack spaces at the city of Singapore, international shopping sites based locally and more.
It is very exciting and I feel honoured to have the chance and expand TFL's reach.
Given that all this started from me having nothing.
Sadly, I have to give up all the fabulous opportunities that came tumbling in.
My reply was always me having too many stuff on my platter and unable to do more.
It can be very 捶心肝 when the opportunity I gave up turned into a very profitable venture after all.
Oh well, I console myself that it's best to do something when I fully have the capacity to.
If not, I might just stress myself (and the Husband) to death.
I want to stay happy running Tian Fen Lan.
From Series 48 onwards, I have been trying to keep up with weekly launches.
Already, that means burning my weekends sometimes, just to get everything out on time.
For most blogshops that have been around for 3 years, they would have hit at least 100 collections by now.
TFL is still at her 57th.
I'm hoping my time on the laptop, be it replying mails or editing photos, will be cut by half when the dotcom is up.
There are really so many more things I wish to explore for TFL!
As my network of suppliers grows stronger, I now have access to so
many more bag styles I never had before.
Such a liberating feeling!
This Sammi Tote you see on me sells at S$33 on TFL's site, with postage included.
I saw the same design of a material that's not better than TFL's selling at S$49.90 at Hougang Mall.
Bags are really one of the more expensive things to buy, compared to clothes.
I remember seeing this local brand (can't remember the name) starting with M,
selling bags when I was in JC. Not sure if it is still around.
Back then, it was very tough to find nice bags at affordable prices.
Bugis Village was not so happening.
This Fashion just came into the shopping arena.
I was harbouring the dream of having my
own boutique and told myself if I had a shop, I would make sure I sell
bags at affordable prices so that even undergrads can find a suitable
bag for school.
As TFL embarks on the beginning of her 4th year today, I hope to continue building this dream!
To my beloved customers, thank you for opening up a whole new world for me!
添芬藍三嵗了！
添芬藍萬歲！
It is getting more often for me to see TFL Label or imported bags on the streets nowadays.
You have no idea how much joy that brings me, especially when I'm having a bad day. =))
Someone was telling me even if my shoppers never say anything and also never buy anything,
that itself is already a feedback.
How true!
For all the praises, feedback, concern and even complaints that you have provided, I'm really grateful to you all!
Thank you!! =DD
More pretty bags for all of us!!!
Metta,
欣雨 Xinyu
