This Weekend: Be Creative And Win!
I recently pressured FabricOnDemand.com’s founder, Rysa Ferdon Pitner, into answering five questions about her fabulous Ye Not-Olde Build-A-Fabric WorkShoppe. FabricOnDemand breaks it down like this:
- You pick a layout for a design to be printed onto a fabric
- You pick your fabric
- You upload your design
- You get your very own custom-made fabric
- You turn that into a head-turning piece of awesome
- Fame, fortune, etc.
Survey says (bolding mine):
1. Interwebz 2.0 is filled with websites teeming with animated whatzits, widgets-up-the-wazoo, and “poke” functionality. Not so at FabricOnDemand.com. What do you know that others don’t? Ancient Chinese secret?
I wouldn’t suggest we are on to some secret. We just made different decisions about where to invest our time. There are things we know, and things we think we know. With regard to our website – we know it’s there first and foremost to sell fabric. As we contemplate the current Web 2.0 reality, it’s easy to confuse website feature expansion with consumer utility. Just because something is possible does not mean it’s necessary. In our case, forgive the pun, we’ll stick to our knitting for the time being. We consider our product to be two-fold – 1) custom-printed fabric, and 2) Service in the production of custom printed fabric. We don’t need a lot of engineering overhead on our website to deliver those two products with excellence. One day we might; just not today.
2. Does this mean you won’t be adding any cool bells, whistles, or lasers to the website anytime soon?
If by bells and whistles you mean more fabric options to choose from and related services, yes – those are coming very soon. If you mean cool new technology frameworks that might make us worthy of a Webby award, those are not currently in our plans. We want to build a passionate and engaged audience because they love our product, and we don’t want to over-smart the experience just because the tools are available.
3. Launching a new business in these interesting times is a plucky move. Poking around your website suggests that your company is employee-owned and operated. Are there no plans for outside investors to help safeguard your new business risk? (I’m partly interested as I, too, have not sought outside investment.)
We do have investors; they’re on the inside – they are our employees. Clearly few companies have the wind at our back getting out of the gate in this market, but our employees’ investment each day in delivering unparalleled service and quality is the best foundation from which any company could launch. This is not to sound trite, but during the depression there was a mentality of toughness that helped pull this country through those difficult times. It feels as though much of that toughness and personal endurance has been lost today. We’ve gone back to basics with our business, and it feels good to be doing it yourself for a do-it-yourself audience. We feel really aligned with the customers we are connecting with. This feels like more of an opportunity and less like a risk to us. We have a team with a shared set of personal values, an elegant balance of complementary skills, and a common purpose. We believe those are the building blocks of an enduring success.
4. When I’m at a fabric store I need to fondle. (Recently, I bought some shiny blue leather, and I definitely did some sniffing to boot.) How does an Internet business solve for the element of “touch”?
Simple. We let our customers touch our fabrics. We freely ship our fabric swatches all over the world at our expense to invite customers into our personal store. There are several benefits to doing so including getting to know your prospects more intimately as well as putting an active reminder into the hands of your audience. When those fabric swatches show up, they provide the answer to the question “What does it feel like?”, and they create a connection between the customer and the product. For us it’s an investment – not a cost.
5. In ten years, will fabric stores be a distant memory?
Fabric stores will go the way of books. Though both products can be delivered digitally, a la the Kindle for books, there is a relationship and a fulfillment that comes with discovering new fabrics and designs in a store that cannot be substituted. Fabric stores are for exploring, learning, and inspiring – they create community. Just as book stores evolved into coffee shops as they recognized that intimate connection with the content, fabric stores will find their place in the future. The digital on-demand and custom-design model will serve to make the fabric store aisles infinite by complementing the on-the-floor inventory with on-demand inspiration.
Yes. What I like about Rysa, aside from her ability to teach me things like how to get stuff done, is that she gets it, is immensely creative, and makes stuff with her hands. Not only that, but her business is also in part an encouragement for all of us to make stuff with our hands.
Speaking of which, FabricOnDemand.com has conveniently given you something to do this holiday weekend — click here to submit your fabric design for their “Pimp These Old Chairs” reupholstery contest! Maybe it’s a clever slogan (”The Hot Seat”); maybe it’s a fantastic tessellation. Whatevs. If your keister wants to sit on it, yours might be the winning design.
Good stuff all around. Go forth and create, people.
Hardware!
