To me, it feels a bit like someone who wants to copy your term paper because, after all, you already did the work.
This is how yarn dyer Jill Draper describes how it feels when she gets an email from a stranger asking for her colorway recipes. It happens more than you might expect.
For Jill, these out-of-the-blue emails are actually a sign of potential trouble for the sender.
“Running a business is hard and there are so many stumbling blocks that one really needs to be pretty resourceful and self-reliant to make it work. If your solution to every problem is to email a stranger and ask them what to do you will probably have a very challenging time.”
Sourcing supplies is a time-consuming task for creative business owners, one that can involve many hours of online searches, requesting samples, and traveling to trade shows to meet suppliers. It’s also a task that the uninitiated often assume is easy.
“I would say that I have spent hundreds of hours researching supplies and suppliers,” says handbag designer Cinnamon Cooper. “And I am sure people starting out have no idea how much time this takes. I had no idea.”
Often sourcing is dependent on forging relationships with colleagues, mentors, and suppliers over the course of many years. Forming this network of knowledgeable people to whom you can turn for information is key.
“Finding the right people to work with takes time, effort and plenty of mistakes!” says cross stitch designer Genevieve Brading. “Plus the search never stops as account managers move on, product quality can change and prices fluctuate.”
Designers form relationships with one another and are often willing to share the information they’ve gathered with each other once they are in a mutually helpful friendship. “It needs to be a two-way street,” says Jill. “People who you have a relationship with are much more willing to share.”
It also helps to show you’ve already done some legwork yourself.
“I do what I do because I had mentors who shared their knowledge,” says indie dyer Angela Combest. At the beginning, though, it came at a price: I took lots of classes and workshops. I attended many fiber events. I traveled to mills and I paid for sample skeins to test. I made connections as a result. Now, some of those mentors are colleagues, and we can have mutually beneficial conversations and share experiences because they know I’ve put in the time. Utilizing lie detectors kent can also help you find suppliers you can trust.
But not everyone is willing to share their hard-won sources. Sewing pattern designer Wendi Gratz ran up against a fellow designer who chose to keep her source close to her chest. “A few years ago I was considering selling kits of some of my embroidery patterns. This was before I discovered the wonders of Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy, so I was trying to find a source for iron-on printed sheets. I talked to several printers – none of whom had any idea what I was talking about,” Wendi recalls. “Finally, I asked another designer who sold kits if she’d be willing to tell me her source for this very specialized type of printing. The answer was a polite but clear no.”
“She was well within her rights not to share the information I asked for,” Wendi says. “If I had decided to sell embroidery kits I would technically have been entering into competition with her, and she wanted to avoid that.”
Wendi has chosen to adopt the opposite attitude when it comes to her own approach toward sharing sources with colleagues.
“I’m happy to share any insider business information that people ask me about – including sources and contacts, and that includes other pattern designers and shop owners – my ‘competitors.’ …If it’s a competition, I want to ‘win’ because customers like my designs and are happy with my customer service. Not because I’ve blocked a new contestant from entering the field by forcing her to go through weeks of frustrating Google searches and inquiries. That’s just mean.”
Having a creative business means spending significant time and energy on so many things other than making. Sourcing supplies is a significant task and one that takes time, energy, and knowledge to do well. Although developing relationships with colleagues and suppliers is valuable, in the end, nobody owes you the information they’ve gathered. Finding sources for your supplies is your job.
Jill put it this way, “As someone who runs a business and does it mostly unassisted, my time is so precious, maybe my most valuable asset and someone sending an email, any email, is requesting my time to craft a response. When they are inquiring about sourcing they are asking to use the benefit of even more of my time for, frankly, nothing in return.”
This is really interesting, because I was searching for exactly what Wendi was. I went crazy trying to find a printer and even talked with a print broker, but with no luck. I asked another pattern designer who sells iron-on transfers and they were very helpful. I ended up not following through with an order for a variety of reasons, but I was so appreciative!
I’ll bet. And that person is, I’m sure, someone you associate with generosity and helpfulness. That’s something you excel at, too, Mollie. I know that I can turn to you for help and advice and I’m always happy to do the same with you. I think building those relationships is so important!
I love Wendi’s attitude and whole heartedly agree about sharing. I’m more than happy to share my resources with fellow artists because there were others that have been amazingly generous to me in the past and I believe there’s enough to go around. Coming from a scarcity outlook doesn’t serve anyone!
The thing is that being mealy mouthed and keeping things to yourself back-fires. With the onset on social media, these days we get to know who we are buying from. When we see people showing generosity of spirit and kindness to others – including to those in the same business as themselves, it enables a seller to be seen in a good light and it certainly encourages me to buy from them. Those who seem closed and insular, I choose to pass on. Just recently I noticed a blog post on a favourite artist blogger of mine who sells online courses. She was basically promoting someone who really was very direct competition. This same blogger regularly gives lots of information away, something many choose not to do. However, it is off such a good quality that it serves to make me feel good about making purchases from her, as I already have faith in her product. It also makes me happy to support a generous person.
I don’t know why sourcing supplies should take so long. There is really nothing to be gained from it. I did some research into wholesale supplies, and the process is a minefield. Also when you do find something, there is no easy way to approach them, and no way of knowing they are bona fide as a company (that I knew anyway). They were often abroad and so this was very disconcerting. It all served to put me off. If you have to rummage so hard to find the goods, it must mean that sometimes they are never found. I don’t know why there isn’t a proper directory of suppliers with people clamouring to get on it. Suppliers would sell more, and sellers and makers would be able to spend their time more gainfully employed. Just over the last few days I have been looking for something on a personal level for now but also the item would be incorporated into things for sale later on. I know it exists or at least it did because the bag I bought from a maker last year has the smaller size fastener that I am looking for. After several days searching, I can only find one that is a third bigger and no use to me. I would not dream of asking the maker, because I know it would not go down well. This example isn’t even a wholesale product.
Everybody alive has depended on others for the knowledge they now have, and it is disingenuous to pull up the draw bridge on that. There are people who like to think they exist in their own creative bubble of fizzing originality but actually, those original ideas all start off from somewhere, from a spark maybe lit many years ago by others in the things they saw, or the things they read or the people they knew/know. We learn most things we do from others whether actively or passively, at the very least from being inspired by them. That is a debt we should all be willing to pay. The currency is not always money. It’s surprising though how some generosity and kindness can be turned into that though by the buying observer.
It’s funny that I have heard of Wendi Gratz and know what she does and have watched some of her YouTube videos, and see her as an authoritative figure in the sewing world. I bet the same couldn’t be said of the person who turned down the request for information on a supplier.
I will say that I was friendly with Wendi when this happened and it did really change my perspective on the designer who said no when asked to share her printing source. There’s certainly a line between being helpful and supportive and giving away trade secrets. I think in that case there was no reason not share the source.
Thank you, Abby for talking about this subject! I have spent many hours searching for supplies I thought would be easily found in the age of Google. Price is part of the quest, but adding criteria such as sourcing locally, eco-conscious raw materials, or even just finding a specific size/color makes it even more complex. Like many of your quoted artisans, I had no idea I would spend so much time researching. At least now I know I’m not alone!
I’m not sure if I would say that deciding not to share sources is “mean”. As a rule, I am generally as helpful and open as I can be when people contact me with questions. I want other people to succeed and I know how great it was when people helped me when I was getting started. Having said that, there are certain things I won’t share unless I know someone to some degree. Call it selfish, but when you’ve done tons of legwork, research and vetting, it feels really weird to just tell anyone who asks what you’ve worked so hard to learn.
I’m thinking about an email I got last week. Someone had tracked down the relatively obscure WordPress theme I use on my site and wanted to essentially copy the format and design of my blog. They wanted to know what coding I had done to personalize it, even asking for the name of my web designer so they could ask them directly! I had spent a small fortune on web design, along with a lot of deep thinking and research into how I wanted it to look, and frankly, I was staggered that someone had the nerve to ask me what I had done! It just felt so personal to me and I had to say no.
I think my general rule for this issue is that it doesn’t hurt to ask, but you have to be okay with not getting the answer you want. We are not entitled to other people’s knowledge, but should be grateful if they decide to share it.
(ps Abby….. The font in this commenting box is in italics and I find it a little hard to read while I’m typing….)
Sorry for the italics, Heather. I think the email you received is a perfect example of the kind of email Jill is referring to here. It takes so much time to do the research and figure out exactly how something should work. Sometimes giving all of that knowledge away to a stranger just doesn’t feel right.
I should clarify here that I wouldn’t share EVERYTHING. Some of the other examples here are things I’ve never run into, didn’t consider, and would never even think of asking for. If I were a dyer I would not share my color formulas – it seems like that’s kind of the essence of what makes a dyer’s offerings unique. And while I would happily share the name and contact info of my web designer (and even what theme I use for the base of my site), I wouldn’t be so keen on sharing all the details of the specific coding and changes I made to make my site unique.
I was thinking more about sharing sources for tools and materials, and general information. All the tools and supplies I sell in my shop and the supplies I include in my kits are things I’m happy to share sources for. I think there’s a world of difference between, say, asking Abby for a copy of her giraffe pattern because I want to sell a giraffe pattern too and it would be handy to use hers as a starting point. (bad) Or asking her where she found that awesome giraffe print she used on the cover sample of her giraffe softie – because I’m designing an African animals quilt and that fabric would be perfect for the quilt back. (ok)
Of course, we all have different ideas of what’s bad and what’s ok. I should have been more precise in my wording about meanness. 🙂 It’s not mean not to share basic info – it’s totally legit and a very common way of doing business. But if it FEELS mean to me to withhold the info then I share. I hate all the Google searching and back-and-forthing that goes into finding a reliable, quality source for a new supply – so it feels mean to me to make someone else go through that when I can now provide a recommendation and contact info in under a minute.
Also – just to be clear – as a softie designer it’s not the materials that make my work special. I include quality materials in my kits, but really it’s about the design, the quality of the pattern instructions, the value of the support videos and tutorials I offer. I might make a softie with crazy awesome safety eyes – but the eyes aren’t really what I’m selling. And if someone else can use those same eyes to make something totally different – I’d love to see it and I’ll tell them where to get the eyes. But in a different industry (where it’s all about the materials) I might feel differently.
Thanks for the clarification, Wendi. I think that’s very fair.
Abby. thank you for such a great post. I’m really enjoying your posts about business and blogging success and have done a lot of things you’ve suggested.
I do a lot of focusing on my local community and to that end, I’ve shared a bunch of my sources, by doing wholesale co-op buys (when allowed, some wholesalers/manufacturers do not allow co-op buys!!). These crafty people or similar-minded business people would not be buying from me anyway, so it’s really nice to be able to share the shipping costs and lower prices by buying bigger amounts.
I like the community building aspect of sharing resources. I completely agree with the idea that I want my business to be known for quality customer service and a community type atmosphere. I also agree that things like colorway recipes are a trade secret and I would not share those. People who ask me questions are generally asking about the best forums for selling, and things about those forums. I hope that I don’t get asked about color recipes!!
Thank you for the post Abby. I love seeing these different ideas people have about running their businesses!
Chrissy from Muse of the Morning
Interesting discussion, as always! I love how your posts are always fair and balanced, presenting opinions on both sides.
Thanks, Christa. I strive to get a few different perspectives when I’m doing research and talking with people.
It is nice to share and it’s great to be the recipient of free information, when it is right. With nothing but the best if intentions, I provided free but unfortunately erroneous information to an inquirer who subsequently threatened to sue me for it. There is nothing worse than going out of your way to do a good deed, without compensation, and ending up in the dog house. This made me wish that I had been “mean” and kept things to myself. Although once bitten, I continue to share, but now I am more particular about what I share and with whom.
As part of my business, I purchase yarn, plastic craft eyes and other items wholesale and resell them on my website as parts of kits that I bundle. A large amount of effort and expense goes into finding the right supplier for these materials. In the past 6 years, I’ve purchased yarn from a variety of suppliers: and although I’m very happy with the one I use now, I have used other wholesalers that provided yarn with knots (which I cannot resale), have been painfully slow shipping my orders (which costs me time & money because I need to scramble to fill my orders) and frequently discontinued colors I needed without much warning. Shopping for a new supplier requires attending a trade show to do research (which is very expensive!), ordering samples and doing serious thinking about what will work best for my business.
I think of the supplier I use now as a gem that I’ve discovered after years of trial and error. I frequently get questions on my blog/twitter/email asking about my suppliers for yarn and eyes, and to be honest, it makes me rather uncomfortable. These are sources that I worked hard to find, and although I’m very happy to share many types of information to help out new businesses, I think discovering sources is a path you need to walk down for your own business. Everyone has different requirements (are you able to place a minimum order of thousands of dollars?), and having a methodology of ‘I’ll use whatever so-and-so uses’ is a fraught philosophy.
I find it particularly off-putting when someone asks me something of the tone, “I find buying eyes from you too expensive, so I’d like to go directly to the source. Where do you buy them from?”. Think about that for a second. You’re asking me to give away my business and help you spend your money elsewhere. It’s not a very nice thing to ask of someone.
I’ve had to think about this a lot as I receive emails asking for both sources and detailed advice in how to do something. In general I try to be generous with my knowledge but I have to agree with Heather in that it feels more comfortable when I have some kind of relationship with a person who is asking, or at least I can tell they are willing to have a conversation (instead of emailing me for something and then disappearing). It’s not about competition for me as much as having an honorable exchange. The easy accessibility of internet information can lead to a weird sense of entitlement that undermines all the hard work, time and money involved in finding not just the right source but good relationships with that source.
Also I think there is a difference between wholesale sources of specific goods and proprietary information, such as dye recipes or particular techniques that one has researched and developed as part of their business. Most of the dye manufacturers don’t publish their recipes because this makes those recipes/colors part of their distinction or advantage.
That’s a great distinction. Sources are one thing, but dye recipes are really a trade secret. And I really like your idea of an honorable exchanged.
For those designers who feel their source list is too valuable to give away to strangers, how about considering a PDF listing that you can offer for sale. You could offer it on your web site or just in your email response (Paypal can be used for invoicing and payment). That way you could get paid for your search time. Those that have written books have a place to offer some information, too. That is opening the information up to being shared by others, but that is a risk that is there when you share anything.
Crafter’s Market is a similar concept: http://www.amazon.com/2015-Crafters-Market-Crafts-Living/dp/1440239789
I share my sources (book binder/printer) for a very selfish reason…I want my suppliers to stay in business and some of the things I buy are in short supply! I even print my suppliers on the bookmarks I give out with purchases. To many of my suppliers have been eaten by bigger corporations and papers and supplies that I like are no longer being made as a result.
That’s a great point. Thank you, Jan.
Thank you for such a relevant post! I am in the beginning stages of starting a longarm quilting business in New Zealand. Who would have thought that wholesale purveyors of goods like batting, pins, and wideback fabrics was a secret society? Trying to find the correct type of supplier shouldn’t be so confusing and difficult in this day and age… The other giant gap is software. Thank you again for an entertaining and informative read.