The Birth of Bag Making
In my previous post I had told you how I came to be self-employed. In this post I will continue my story of how I went from having a shop to working from home.
I had my alteration shop for about a year. I started to experience some health issues that made me driving an hour and half a day not safe. So it was a sad day when I had to make the decision to close my shop. I didn’t know what was going to happen and deep sadness set in.
While I had my alteration shop I took in all kinds of work. One of the things that I kind of fell into was making bags. I sometimes searched Craigslist and used business contacts to find more work. It was through one of these business contacts that I was contacted by a big shopping center in New Hampshire. They wanted to make small reusable shopping bags out of old banners that had been previously hung up at the shopping mall. I was tasked with coming up with a design and to make the bags. I soon found that making bags was more profitable than doing alterations. So one of things I did after my shop closed was this bag making deal.
I was in a deep depression from my shop being closed and I was having a hard time getting the strength to fulfil the outstanding bag orders. I had told a good friend of mine my dilemma . She soon lifted me from my fog, and suggested that she help me with the bags. This ultimately led us to going into business together. We named ourselves S & M Got Bags. The S & M is our first initials of our first names.
Soon after that in 2012 we landed another new client that had started a bag business on Etsy. I had found her on Craigslist. She was drastically behind on orders and my friend and I managed to catch her up within a couple of months. Her business was doing so well that soon she became our primary client. Initially when we had started with our new client, she supplied us with an industrial sewing machine to make her bags with. Due to the volume of bags we were sewing we soon needed another machine. These machines are expensive and I could not afford one on my own. However I was lucky enough to find an angel investor that bought me the machine I needed. This allowed me to stay in my own house to sew bags. This was so great because my kids were able to be with me all the time.
There were many ups and downs with our new business and many more new clients. All of the new clients we acquired were ones I had found on Craigslist. Craigslist turned out to be a great resource for finding people that were trying to get their own businesses going that needed someone with sewing experience.
In addition to making bags I still played a little with clothing design. I still wanted to keep that part of me alive. I stumbled onto this organization, Partners For World Health. They put on a fashion show every year called the Blue Wrap challenge where people were tasked with making clothing from unused discarded Blue Wrap from hospitals. Blue wrap is what is used to wrap surgical instruments in to keep sterile before surgery. I still loved making clothing and this bit of creativity was just enough to keep my designing juices going.
It wasn’t easy but I was finally happy again. I had found a way to make money from home and give me the independence I needed that a regular job could not. I now had a new vision for myself. I wanted to own a company that manufactured bags and that could give others jobs as well someday.
I would love to share with you how to use your resources around you and think outside the box to begin getting your small business off the ground. Please subscribe below if you would like to know more.
4 Comments
Elise
Intersting. I do sewing and alterations as well. I enjoyed hearing about how you pivoted to bag making from alterations.
I’ve actually been thinking about making products from discarded materials like you have with the signs, but have had a hard time coming up with any materials to re use. I think there is a lot of appeal there when people can make something new from something old, plus helps keep cost down, especially if you are experimenting with a new idea and aren’t sure what the response will be.
Sara
I used to love repurposing clothes as well. I had some success selling them in my shop. Luckily the used banner bags were someone else’s idea, so I didn’t have to risk whether it was a good idea or not.
Pam
I love small business stories! Thank you for sharing yours. I am in awe of those who can sew – it is a gift that I have not been blessed with. Your bags are beautiful!
Sara
Awww Thank you.