BAD NEWS FROM COLOMBIA

Looks like there won't be any Colombian bags this side of Xmas.

My supplier is notorious for delays / excuses / misunderstandings, but eventually along come these very nice bags I cannot find elsewhere.

He obviously uses the same business approach to his leather suppliers and others in Colombia.

For once I believe his excuse for the delay.
The bailliffs have called...and all our consignment [ paid for - ready to ship ] has been impounded.

So for you, my faithful patient customers - some who have waited months for the right suiter or travel bag - yet another disappointment from my company.

My sincere apology.

One thing I hope you will take from this is that we've done our best to keep you informed.
AND - I'm going to keep every enquiry on my memory board because:-

1. I'm trying to contact the people who've got "my" goods, and see what's possible.
2. I've been in the fashion trade long enough to see many a company back in business the next day!

Please note our UK business is unaffected.

More news as soon as I have it.
Joss 0208 404 6451

Funny thing happened on the way to the Leather Briefcase Company

I've heard some excuses for late delivery, to which I can now add that the courier has locked himself out of his own van today- fairly common, so it was bound to happen to us sooner or later.

Less usual, also on my list, the fire at the oil terminal on the M1 - closing the motorway for days.

Or - the truck has been taken for forensics by the police - someone introduced illicit goods into the consignment.

The container was washed overboard in the Bay of Biscay...look it up...this happens all the time! 
There's 29,000 rubber ducks fell off a ship in the Pacific 19 years ago, which are still landing on beaches all round the world!

My personal favourite - VERY UNFUNNY AT THE TIME! - we flew in a very big urgent consignment from Calcutta, and the air-freighter was an old Russian Iluyshin.

When it landed in Gatwick, it was impossible to open the cargo bay.
The doors were jammed solid.
I think they burnt a hole in it - it took two days to get to the goods, and we paid a hefty penalty for a late delivery.

Still, what else can you do for a bit of excitement, when you sell luggage?

10 weeks to go...

Most retailers are geared to taking their major turnover in the 8 weeks before Christmas.
We're no exception.

Right now I'm reviewing every description / price / photograph....checking we have enough cartridges for the office machines etc.... a day in December can equal a week's takings in June.
Hopefully all the prep will allow things to run smoothly.

About Tuesday Dec 20th the annual buying rush will be over. Big question is whether the purse strings will be loosened - and if so - what's left to spend.

I could have been a teacher...on second thoughts I'll not mention that again!

FAILURE GUARANTEED.

Some years ago, I had to give a very short introductory talk to a meeting of worthy citizens.

They'd been well watered and fed, and were waiting for the main event to appear, and trying to stay awake and look interested.

"I'd like to announce that Tony Blair has resigned as Prime Minister, and Gordon Brown has immediately called for a General Election to confirm that he and New Labour should continue to govern."

The effect of my opening words was electric.

As the meaning sunk into the many minds in the room, I timed my next statement carefully...

" I'd like to announce it...but of course it couldn't possibly have happened".

Great merriment and applause followed, and some people still ask me to functions to this day to make after dinner speeches.

And the point is...

"All political lives end in failure" was the prediction and verdict of a man who has been voted as one of the 100 Greatest Britons....and whose political career fulfilled his own words.

As politicians struggle to run the business of Europe, [ or anywhere ] we can expect failure.

Politicians should make laws, police should enforce them.
Businesses should make money, and provide good employment, pay taxes, to be spent by public servants who know that "good house-keeping" is the only target!

Too simple?

Fluff my Mugbook

A well worn joke with my closest, is that I'm studying hard to become a High Court Judge.
What this means is I'm losing touch with reality, that's if I wanted much to do with it anyway.

So what if I couldn't recognise Madonna if she walked in the room?
Who cares what goes on in East Enders?...especially when you were born and lived in Barking for 20 years!

Now Mugbook and Fluttering appear to be vital to the air that I breathe.
Or was it Face-Up and Tooting?

It seems to me that the human urge to accommodate the LCD...that's not a drug, it's the Lowest Common Denominator... is more prevalent than ever.

Anyway, if anyone ever reads this, I'm unashamedly interested in high standards.

Life is short.

It gets shorter every passing day.

Trivial pursuits like Facebook and Tweets - damn, that will set me back on the High Court Circuit - may be fun...but they're a waste of valuable time.

Must go and see if the cricket is on....

VITAL STATISTICS...

Like every retailer, I keep a careful watch on the number of customers coming through the door.

The recent troubles on the High Street brought an immediate surge in numbers.

And a wet bank holiday is very good for internet retailers!

One area of our business is growing particularly fast.

Our overseas visitors have increased by 50% in the past year, and now place orders more readily.

We put this down to several factors.

Firstly, we do offer our goods world-wide - some retailers can't be bothered.

More countries are developing computer based retailing, and buyers are becoming more confident.

The UK currency means attractive prices...although we still think the euro is very much over-valued!

Always intrigued about some of the facts that arise.

Here's some that we find specially interesting.

On average, customers from Estonia stay longest in our webshops, and look at the most products...followed closely by Finland, Sweden and Denmark.

Norway, Ireland and Greece are next on the leader board.

At the other end...our only visitor from Tajikistan [ you can pick that out on the map I bet! ] looked at just 5 pages in 30 minutes!!! either a very slow reader, or he went to make a cup of tea...

The mention of which....

Do we have a shop?

Any thoughts of returning to a "bricks and mortar" outlet took a big backward step last week.

Hundreds of High Street shops and stores damaged, and some will close permanently.

Thousands more outlets lost vital trading days, and now will need to review their security and staffing levels.

Our visitor count doubled, and we had an excellent week, as shoppers stayed home and searched for products on the PC.

With one in seven UK shops empty, I wonder why landlords never reduce their rents?

That's the only way we could be tempted...

One Box, Add String...

In those far off days of the 1970s, when quite by chance I found myself selling bags, my first boss introduced me to the technical side.

What a bag is...a box with a piece of string attached.

Now, as I was not the most gifted in the sciences, this impressed me as an area in which I could flourish.

Indeed, for the next month, I happily explained to my customers that this was what they were buying.

And clutch bags, being all the rage, had the ADDED BONUS...there was NO STRING TO BREAK!

No wonder they were laughing when I left their shops.

I could cringe...but it was all part of growing up.

No-one taught me how to sell - I just had to pluck up courage [ and a very heavy pair of suitcases ] walk 200 yards from the car-park on a wet day, to find the owner of the shop had forgotten the appointment and gone fishing.

But if I hadn't cut my teeth on that, who knows?

When I decided to open a webshop in 2005, one of the technical team told me he'd done lots of webshops, and none of them had added up to anything.

He now uses our webshops to show new clients how it's done.

For those of you that have read this far, when I write the book about starting and running your own business, the simple truth is that you need to have abundant courage, and you never stop trying.

In fact trial and error is the best teacher there is?

As long as you want to learn!

Fings Aint Wot They Usetobe !

Spent a few days away last week with an old friend in the bag trade.

In the 1970s I used to visit regularly the factory run by Jack, his brothers and father in Hackney. In those days there were dozens of manufacturers making bags in the East End.

Not one remains.

Every item The Leather Briefcase Company sells is imported.

China, India, Colombia, Italy, Portugal, Morocco are our main sources now.

There are still a few manufacturers left in the UK, and they're able to compete by making top brand products on a shorter lead-time.

I'd like to feature "Made in England" in our webshops, as it's something I'm asked for often!

Anyone out there?

Is It Fair Trade?

We are placing orders with a small group of workers in Morocco.

Having supplied the designs and advised some new techniques, we hope we can give them regular work and a reasonable price for the goods.

It's a personal relationship, and we will do everything to make it a success.

However, when checking round, we were dismayed that "Fair Trade" is not all it seems.

Quite simply, the large organisations who have encouraged tea and coffee farmers to supply them in the West, do not really control the production properly.

"Mr. Big" still moves in and takes a cut, or says he's paying the minimum wage...but is lying.

Be assured, if we say that an item has been bought directly on a "Fair Trade" basis, that is the absolute truth ! We want our customers to have an excellent product, and to improve the working conditions of our suppliers.

Did the Courier Call?

A customer has cancelled an order...we didn't deliver.

In fact our courier's tracking shows that they called at the correct numbered house on the day after the order was placed at 11:59, and left a calling card...and noted the house had a brown door.

The customer told us she has a brown door, was out for two hours at that time...and never received the courier's card.

[ Which means she never saw it, amongst the other mail / circulars. ]

She was indignant... we must take the blame for incompetent couriers etc !!

Her husband weighed in from his office later in the day...and was a bit quiet when we asked if we could re-deliver there?

Anyway, the point is that couriers do leave cards, a work address is usually easier to find and deliver to, and thankfully most customers are wonderfully intelligent with superb taste in leather products....

Happy shopping!

J.

First step...

As a late arrival to computing, my first challenge was to get the internet mail order bizz to buzz.

SEE :-
The Leather Briefcase Company
The Leather Travel Bag Company
The Italian Briefcase Company

That done, the best way of developing the successful future of a business, is listening to & talking with customers.

These pages are open to everyone to say how it can be done better...what they think of the goods, the service, anything at all...hopefully constructive.

I'll also enjoy the opportunity to express the joys and frustrations that come our way.

For example:-
Last week a customer sent back a briefcase - "unfortunately the case is far too small"...

Our standard reply...[ as this happens far too often! ]

"We make every effort to convey the size with a picture gallery for every item, supported by a full description. This always gives external dimensions, and the maximum size laptop that can be accommodated."

Pictures can be misleading - so we use a passport or 'phone in our pix to give a straightforward scale - plus our blurbs give both cms and inches.

After 50 years in retailing, you know nothing will change...people skim over things...see what they want to see.
I was taught "retail is detail" - but then that's my problem from this side of the counter!