Image by Tinker*Tailor loves Lalka via Flickr
Some years ago when we lived in Saudi Arabia, I was fortunate to get introduced to a young man who had a great little job. Sam was an ethnic Indian, and his job was to be a representative to a custom men’s tailor shop in Hong Kong, also of ethnic Indians. Sam would come by our house by appointment, and sit down with fabric swatches and catalogs. After taking measurements — usually only once, more if I’d gained or lost since the last visit — and then we’d order slacks, shirts and suits. The order would be faxed in to the shop in Hong Kong, and a few weeks later the clothes would be arrive by DHL courier.
The prices were not that cheap compared to off-the-rack stuff, but this were custom-tailored clothes that fit like they’re suppposed to fit. Fantastic, in a word. I still have and wear them 15 years later, they’ve held up that well. Sam would collect a small commission off the sale, and was happy enough as his expenses were not demanding. He was a student who lived with his parents, and this was only a side gig. In this case, he leveraged his connections, knowledge and modern (or modern for the time), communications across a long supply chain to to deliver quality products to satisfied customers.
Over the yearsI’ve since thought of a couple of other ways that personal services could be tailored to leverage a long supply chain:
Curtains
Sounds silly at first, but custom made curtains are terribly expensive. One of the things that we brought back from our years in the Middle East were our custom-made living room draperies that we had done in the UAE by an Indian curtain shop. The sheers were to loopy droopy kind, with multiple swoops — I can’t remember the exact technical term (Mrs. 101 would, of course, but she’s not available to consult at the moment). They produced a dramatic enough effect in the living room windows that people walking by in the street would frequently stop and stare, and then comment on how great they looked. Reproducing the same treatment here in the US would have been terribly expensive.
On the same principle as custom-made clothes, a possible name for this online venture would be “It’s Curtains for You!” and would be limited to locations where an online visit could be made by a part-time young person working on commission.
Shoe Repair
Here’s another personal service that has become rarer to find. I’ve recently had a good pair of Italian dress shoes resoled. For $55, a pair which would have been destined for Goodwill donation box now can give another couple years of service. The cost of the shoes was originally around $150, so it was worth the cost. The thing is, I wasn’t too terribly happy with the results. New soles, yes, but the uppers were not exactly restored, just given a shine. In other countries where cobblers still regularly ply their trade, the shoes would have not only been resoled, but totally rehabilitated, for a fraction of the cost. I know because I’ve had it done during one of my trips to China. The shoes came back looking like new, even better than new in fact, since they’d been already broken in and fitted to my foot shape.
An enterprising young person could set up an online web store along the lines: customers send in your shoes to be repaired, but with long delivery times. The business would wait to stockpile a backlog of orders in large enough volume to make shipping affordable, perhaps a couple hundred pairs. It would then ship the whole batch to an overseas office, anywhere that labor is cheap, like India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc.
It’s not like getting shoes resoled is a high-priority item, so the extra wait should not be an issue. These last ones I had done were under my car seat for months and months until I remembered to take them to the cobbler.
Both services would need of course strong connections overseas.
Anyways, these are only random ideas, I’m not ever likely to do anything about it. Implementing either venture would take time and effort that I choose to spend otherwise. Also, a long supply chain for services like these is profitable with current energy costs and the right economic environment.
What do you think, readers? Do you have any other business ideas that make you say “Hey, that would work great if only someone would do it”.
Reminds me of the guy who made (or is making rather) a fortune jailbreaking iPhones for the non-tech savvy!
There are always opportunities; we just have to keep looking.
Hey you should write more about your stint in the middle east! I’ve always wondered about that place.
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Hi MC, I have third-hand knowledge of one person in China who is jailbreaking I-Touches for a modest fee, and turning them into I-Phones with a clamshell bolt-on. Opportunities do indeed abound.
Fascinating place, the Middle East. I’ve spent time in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Sharjah, and Kuwait, and visited Qatar, Yemen, Bahrain and Oman. Perhaps it could be the subject of a travel journal post.
101 Centavos recently posted..Centavos Model Portfolio Haz Sad Face
Window shades and blinds are so expensive these days. We used budget blinds last time and they were really friendly and had great customer service. I think it was much better than going to Home Depot.
What about a car selling service? Many older people are not comfortable with selling cars so they just take it to the dealer and get fleeced.
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Hi RB40 – I agree that generally, some dealers could take advantage of non-car-savvy people with low trade in values, as might some auto repair shops with unneeded auto repair bills auto repair places. Could be a market for a person with both a deep and comprehensive knowledge of all things automotive, and a reputation for personal integrity.
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I did the custom curtain gig! I was doing all the work and I didn’t quite know how to grow the company to keep the quality but where I wasn’t the only employee.
-Great post though!
I have no ideas
That’s one of the hardest things, isn’t it, mass-producing the custom made, replicating the craftsman’s skill from a one-off into a system for others to follow.
101 Centavos recently posted..Long Supply Chains and Business Ideas
A young person with connections could try and link iPhone users with covers. Reminds me of your custom suit experience.
This is a little off track, but wonder if a young person monitoring parking meters would work. Pay the fee for meters about to expire and the owner of the car would pay a fee for saving them from a very expensive ticket.
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Hi Buck – great idea! Might the municipalities that depend on income from parking ticket fines crack down on youngsters saving people from tickets? One would hope not….
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“It’s Curtains for You.” Love that business name.
I worked for a custom window coverings and bedding firm once. The labor costs were actually pretty reasonable, but it was the fabric, the mark up, and the installation that drove the cost to the customer up so high.
I am cursed with a ton of business ideas that I would never want to run. I actually have a post coming up soon listing all of them out.
Hi Lindy – If the fabric was bought right from the source, the material costs might be lower. I bought some soccer jerseys in China for less than 10 bucks, and I swear they looked exactly the same as the ones in the soccer store selling for $50 to $70. I think they might have been made in the same factory, but we just went a little further up the supply chain.
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[...] 101 Centavos shares his experience with tailor-made items, and provides some interesting business ideas. (By the way, we re-sole shoes too.) [...]
[...] Long Supply Chains and Business Ideas (101 Centavos) [...]
I’m really lit up over the new venture my buddy and I recently started. We’re using CAD drafters from the Philippenes to do CAD Services at a fraction of the $40-$60 you’d pay an American. It’s the same quality! So, we gave these drafters there a dream job (huge pay increase from their prior salaries, nice office, nice work environment, etc) and US companies can save tons on their services. Then, we started talking about virtual assistants; the opportunities are endless.
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Hi Darwin – with remote services, it matters little if you’re sitting in Florida, Saskatchewan, or Manila. What matters is the type of service that’s offered.
Congratulations on the success of your CAD services – some things are just meant to be done where it makes the most sense.
With CAD services, I’ve had some outsourced drafting and design work done in India that didn’t work out well at all, and some other that turned out excellent! My guess is that it varies industry by industry and how self-contained or repetitive the project is. If there’s unwritten expectations, or obscure product knowledge that’s required, or heavy interaction required with the customer, chances are it will not end well.
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These sound like great ideas! I particularly like the curtains one, but I imagine that the cost of shipping those heavy things might outweigh the income. But I wouldn’t know for sure because I’ve never had custom curtains made. It’s always interesting to me when I watch Shark Tank and think, I could have done that!
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My next photo request — can your readers see a picture of these curtains? I’m intrigued!
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Hi Paula – I’ll have to dig one up. The loopy curtains have been since disposed of ( I don’t ask why, decor matters are not my purview).
I had a suit made in Thailand but I actually hated it. The fit was great, but the styling was horrible. Most asian women are very petite with no hips, so when they sewed my skirt they pleated it on the sides so that I had extra hips. It was so unflattering (that’s the last place I need padding). In my case, I didn’t represent their typical customer so I left with something that wasn’t what I was looking for.
I think gemstones and custom made jewelry might be another service that would work well, plus, it’s small and it doesn’t cost a lot to ship (except for the insurance). It seems that in India and China there is a lot more variety in terms of gold and pearls, but at a lower price.
Hi Sandy – will all due respect, that suit must have looked a little funny with the side pleats
Sometimes you have to wonder about the thinking processes of other people. Maybe they thought they were doing you a favor. You’re right about the jewelry. The smaller and denser in value the package, the more it makes sense to ship. When buying gold earrings in India, the price is the spot price of gold, plus a small markup for the worksmanship and a little profit for the jeweler.
[...] Centavos has an idea about long supply chains. Personally, I like the suit idea, and think doing something like that worldwide would [...]
[...] 101 Centavos wrote about long supply chains and business ideas. [...]
I recognized myself in your post. I like to contemplate on ways to make the world better or come up with new “revolutionary” ideas. And while I think it would be wonderful to bring back the craft shops and tailored goods, there’s a reason why they got pushed out of the market. People would need an attitude change to be willing to pay more for quality, and it would cost more to provide quality, but we have been brought up in a land of plenty – plenty of cheap commodities that don’t last long, can be thrown out whenever we decide to redecorate, and new cheap things can be bought as a replacement. I’m not sure anyone would wait 3 weeks for his shoes to be repaired overseas when he can buy a new pair the next day. Although it is not impossible to think some would be happy to have this opportunity. But then why not get cobblers and curtain makers who would do it where you live? And since you would be the owner of the business anyway, you could do a quality check before the repaired shoes get back to the owner. To be able to compete with the quick and cheap services, especially in today’s economic state, one has to be better than them, not slower and more expensive.
Best regards, Leonard Evenson
Good point about buying a new pair instead of waiting for shoes to be resoled. But that person would not be a qualified customer for a long-delivery business model.
I personally don’t like shoe shopping, and like the ways my shoes fit and look. If I can rehabilitate a pair, I’d rather do that. From an informal survey, I know there are other people who feel the same way. Can we infer and generalize from a few casual conversations to the broader market? Don’t know. That’s for a dedicated entrepreneur to tackle.