But if feels so good when you get to grips with it!
When I started
Colour My Dreams, I was all gung-ho about getting my products out there for all to see. I started in a very different way to how I’m running Colour My Dreams today and considering I only started this just under three years ago, there’s been so many dramatic changes. The first thing that changed was to stop randomly producing products using drop-shipping. Let me explain what that is in case you’re not aware of how that works.
Drop-shipping is a great way to be able to produce an item of clothing, a mug or a cushion (or millions of other products) with a particular design without having to fork out hundreds or thousands of ££ on stock. You attach a drop-shipping provider to your website, create your designs and upload it to you drop-shipping providers website. When someone buys that item from your website, the order goes straight to the drop-shipper. They print your design onto the product, package it, post it out for delivery, keep some of the cost for themselves and give you a bit of the profit too.
It works well for those of us who simply want to make money from any random product with your design printed on them. At first that’s what I thought I wanted to do, but it didn’t take me long to realise that’s not what I first had in mind for the market that I wanted Colour My Dreams to be in.
What made me realise this? Well, my
conscience did. My
heart was telling me that I cared more for my environment and the people I wanted to sell to, to simply pump out loads of the same design that will eventually end up in landfill when they become bored of wearing my t-shirt.
I didn’t want to be part of the “fast fashion” world. It was totally against everything I try to do on a daily basis.
Yes, it was exciting to see my designs printed onto nice mugs, cushions, canvases and a few t-shirts that I got made up as samples, but the excitement was short lived when I considered the potential consequences of producing those items. It wasn’t very satisfying. I created the design but I didn’t make the product and nor did I have any control over who did, how they were treated and paid, or where and how the basic materials were produced. That was important to me.
I wanted to make my products, I wanted to feel the materials, to see how they are made, to know that they are produced by people who are treated fairly and paid a decent wage. I didn’t have that control with drop-shipping. It scared me to think I might be supporting some sweat-shop in a third world nation. If my t-shirts were a part of something like that, I simply couldn’t do it any longer.
My hand drawn designs started to dwindle, I’d lost the passion for it. I’m not a natural illustrator, but I am a natural crafter. I love creating tangible stuff, not just one dimensional pretty pictures. To be honest, I’m simply not good enough at that sort of stuff, particularly when there are people out there who are so damn good at it. I can’t compete with them and I realised I really didn’t want to.
It’s a case of not feeling
good enough when you see other people’s amazing work on social media and you wish you could be that amazing too. It was time to stop torturing myself and putting myself down and focus on what I am good at and that was going back to my crafting days of my youth -
macrame, knitting and crochet.
That’s when Colour My Dreams took a really natural turn down a completely different road that was full of my dreams of a creative space, made by me!
Since that moment I’ve been madly making every sort of handmade product that I can, trying to work out what people actually want to buy and concentrating on adding colour and happiness to every creation.
One thing that worries me and the question I am constantly asking myself, “Am I getting it right?” The only way I can work that out is from my customers and for that to happen, I need to have customers. I must admit I’d love a few more, but I’m also happy to say that those who have bought some of my products have been so kind and positive about the quality, service and packaging that I provide. It’s such a wonderful thing to have positive feedback, particularly for someone who constantly doubts herself.
“Am I kidding myself to even consider having a business like this?”, that’s the question on my mind most days.
-- Happy Customers --
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Dance More Worry Less
Dance Teacher @nataliepearce99
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Hand Knitted Beanie
Yoga Teacher @natsbrophyyoga
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The trouble with a business like this, particularly when you first start off, is finding the right materials and then the right customers who share your ethos. When I took that turn, (which was always going to happen by the way, it was the sort of business that I’d always wanted Colour My Dreams to be, it just took me a few mistakes to realise that what I was doing wasn’t my dream), I knew that I had to be very particular about
where my materials come from, who produced them and how they are produced. And, yes that all comes with a price.
Good quality is costly, it generally means more care and attention has gone into producing the end product. Once I found my current suppliers (Wool and the Gang,
We are Knitters,
Hoooked) I knew that where I was getting my materials from were not the cheapest, but I loved the quality, I loved the stories of the small businesses that had made a success of doing what they love and in an Earth friendly manner. I also love to support those people as it proves I’m serious about what I want Colour My Dreams to be.
I can’t have that on my conscience and I simply can’t get my head around the throw-away society that we live in today. I’m not saying I’ve never loved a good shopping splurge in the past, those of you who know me, know I used to love a good bit of retail therapy. But these days, it’s certainly not for me, I’ve change my ways and definitely for the better.
I’ve actually not been clothes shopping for nearly four years and you know what, I don’t miss it at all. I realised the clothes in my wardrobe that I love are the ones that I constantly wear and the others are surplus to requirement. What followed was any hours of decluttering!
The Colour My Dreams idea then evolved so that I am now making products that I hope mean you have things you love, that make you happy and provide ‘joy’ (thank you Marie Kondo!).
I wanted to provide that feeling of joy for my customers. I want you to look at my work and think it’s lovely and that’s why you need it in your life; that it does what you need it to do, it’s beautifully made and you know that it has been made with our planet in mind.
The bottom line is,
Colour My Dreams aims to be an
earth friendly business. One that
you can rely on when you need something new in your life but don’t want to compromise on quality and your eco-ethics. I’m not going to be the cheapest option and I am not going to apologise for that. My products cost what they do because
I care about where I get my materials,
I also make every one of them myself - that’s hours and hours of work. For example, one of my chunky knit scarves can take between 4-5 hours work, the wool can cost as much as £10/ball if not more. No way is that a £3 Primark type product. It’s quality, it’s handmade by me in my little house in Hertfordshire and it’s
made with love, care and attention to detail.
I really hope that this helps explain what Colour My Dreams is all about and what I’m all about as a creative person in this saturated world of consumerism.
I’d love your feedback, your ideas about how I can improve or what I’m already doing well and of course I’d love you to head to my website and buy something. I know it’s a cliche to say supporting a small business means a small business owner does a little dance of joy every time they receive a ping from the online shopping app to say someone loves one of your products so much that they just bought something; but the reality is very true. I won’t torture you with any of my dance moves of the early 80’s, suffice to say, the years have taken their toll, but I seriously do a little jeté for joy when one of you makes a purchase.
It means I have a reason to keep this thing going and to keep it going means I’ve succeeded in something I love.
Thanks to you all who’ve purchased from me in the past, please help me share the Colour My Dreams love!
I hope to see you back soon.
Keep dreaming!
Cathie xx
