I believe in making good jobs that engage and profit all of a business’s staff. I believe in building ethically operated businesses that support the industry as a whole as well as all of the members of the community that supports it. I also believe that supporting community requires the rejection of intolerance. We’re all here, or none of us are here. We all get a chance to rise, or none of us do. The United States of America has, despite its many issues, stood for freedom and progress in a world that desperately needed it. We’ve allowed corruption and xenophobia to distract us from that bedrock hard tenet of the American ideal. We’ve never gotten it perfectly right, and we likely never will. As we move forward, we must make our society more and more equitable for everyone, and I believe that each of us must work toward a more inclusive future. We vote, and we vote with our dollars. We also vote with our time. We vote with our energy. We vote with our language and our actions every day. What do we choose?
I choose to build a business, and I need support.
I’m in the process of building a website that will eventually exist alongside a brick-and-mortar yarn shop. I want to offer classes and sell yarn and patterns online and in person. I want all of my staff to make a living wage, and between the class production, web production, and retail staffing, that’s a big investment. Further, I want each of my instructors to be actively involved in the pricing and residual income structure of all classes. This industry survives on the expansion of the market for our products created by instructors and designers, and that contribution should be honored. I want to provide a platform for instructors and to sell yarn, tools, and patterns to their students.
I also want to encourage instructors to teach instructor-focused classes. Teach classes on tech editing, graphic design, pattern design, class development, building looms, developing a dye studio, preparing fleece, business accounting … teach all the classes that someone might need to be a professional in the yarn industry. Make the lion’s share of the class fees. Decide when contracts will end. Own your product. Let me make my money back on it, and the content’s yours. I don’t need to take anything from you for us both to profit from our work together, and I genuinely want everyone I do business with to profit from our interaction.
Vendors, would you like to partner to move product? I can do that. Those of you who’ve worked with me before know that I can move product. The kind of enterprise I’m building will maintain high levels of inventory at all times, and we’ll need partners who can meet their projections. You don’t have to be made of steel; just keep your word, we’ll do fine. If I can tell my customers honestly that your products are worth waiting for, and you come through, we’re both heroes. That also means that I’m going to be extremely picky for my customers’ sake, but also for my own and for yours.
Finally, investors, I will be needing your help. I’m currently working two part-time jobs over seven days a week and looking for a full-time job five states away. The time I have to devote to the website or any other part of the business is currently limited to mornings before work and evenings after work. The occasional holiday or sick day is a great boon. How twisted is that? So, yes, I’m going to eventually need big funding for inventory, and I’d appreciate you thinking about that. In the meantime, I need any little funding I can get just to fund the development process. Every dollar helps, and I genuinely appreciate all donations.
As things progress, I’ll post more. At the moment, I have a core group of friends and colleagues who’ve been cheering me on and offering guidance. I’m very grateful for their support. It’s been invaluable in getting me to this point. Thank you all very much.
And now, I’m very happy to welcome you into the circle of my friends who know about this venture. It’s been scary to share a fledgling project so openly, but if a ten-year-old project is still a fledgling, it needs more than just my own encouragement to grow. It’s truly going to take a movement. I believe it’s a movement whose time has come. I hope that you agree.