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Please feel free to browse some pics of where I live ,and of course, see a pic of me:)
I started my penetration into the embroidery world at 14, working weekends,and cutting backing and just generally making myself a nuisance to operators with my million questions. My forte which kept me milling around the plant was my ability to quickly scale and reproduce artwork..a far cry from todays easy scanning and zooming in,with relatively quick modifications. I stayed around that for a while, also developing skills in splicing and repairing broken papertape. I spent almost forever watching the then 'puncher' laboring for hours over his craft,and watched the tedious actions of stitchlay guides which were pencilled or penned in allover the huge (usually 3x or 6x scale) drawings. I learned on the manual system, but didnt have the interest for long , because my pull was towards computer graphics...sooo, off to college I went, only to be disappointed that the computer graphics offered in the first year syllabus was not to be..so after kicking up a fuss about it, I actually got 'expelled' .
My interest peaked on discovering that embroidery was getting computerized just a short while after that...and the rest, is history..
Born & raised in the tropics,situated at 30 degrees latitude and longitude east of Greenwich Meridian, I live in the holiday city of Durban,South Africa. Along the east coast flows the Warm Benguela Current, keeping temperatures moderate almost all year round..so amazingly no snow ever in my city. If however you visit,and miss the snow,it can be found within 2 hours drive so a natural paradise as described by most.
Holidaymakers frequent beaches almost all year round due to the moderate temperatures. New developments along beachfront areas constantly make space for new attractions.
My days are now spent happily digitizing,and helping businesses project a reputation for quality...easy to work with, speedy- dependent on workload,and always willing to help rake in an order...Its me:)
Amazingly, my workrate has increased over the past years, with just referrals. Some clients come,and some go, as 'cheap prices' seem to be the order of the day, with quality and reliability on the back burner..and also because some have no real concept of what good embroidery is, so many just bounce around trying this and that, and usually bounce themselves out of business, never to be heard of again. I have been blessed with a quality conscious clientele,and I have the happiest moments when they open new shops , or expand their client bases.I prioritise my regular client base,and very rarely search out new clients. Its true that there no longer seems to be 'client loyalty' in business, but thats just the way life is...At the point people go out of business though, I believe they suddenly realise that life in the cheap lane is not always what its cracked up to be, and sometimes the notion of doing things cheaply,actually speeds people on the path to bankruptcy or loss of business. The few that do take advice well, go on to expand and have the happiness of seeing a business grow in a world of constant business difficulties..we all have that, so, its not about the mountain peak that you see, its how you choose to make the climb!
Digitizing is a very technical craft,requiring many years of experience..far too many people today fall into sales traps. 'You'll be digitizing in 3 days' is a common line. The size of the 2nd hand or used machine and software market is a good testimony to how many lose money...in fact its even scary that 'market' is associated with all that. If it were small, it might be on some 'difficult -to -find' listing..but its so huge , its almost unbelievable.
The nature of my digitizing work doesn't allow me to expand this aspect too much, because I actually digitize each design, so there is the constant juggle when things get very busy,and I do try my best to work into reasonable turnarounds...Some parts of the year are just very busy, so instant turnarounds aren't always possible. There are those that just take on work,and subcontract to 'teams' - but I however, have not gone that route - I attempt to provide an ethical, honest service,and know the exact content of every design I create. It may be good to keep the $$ rolling in,and Im not saying its thieving..I just have my own thoughts on how I'd like my business to operate.
If you service the corporate markets, Im quite an asset. I've been involved in fashion embroidery for years, but I now concentrate on corporate. Im not limited to one aspect, but specialization does provide a better degree of focus, and also allows me to direct some with special needs to digitizers that focus on those aspects. It also provides others with some work contacts.
If your business operates along the lines of providing quality service,then I could be a good business integration.
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