Hi everyone, this is Sonali. Thank you all for coming up some time for attending today's webinar on the episode 23 of the Business X Learning series, Invest, Scale, Value and Exit. To all the attendees out there, please type in any questions you might have in the Q&A section and we'll try to answer as many as possible at the end of the session. I would now like to welcome our speaker, Mr. Gaurav Mara, Chairman and Founder of the Franchise India Group. A very warm welcome to you, sir. Thank you, thank you, Sonali and welcome friends and welcome to another edition with Business X, which is the arm of Franchise India Group, where we talk about investing, especially in the startup space and also helping companies to exit from their current business. So today we're going to talk about out of the four topics which we take every time. We rotate the topics, we talk about investment, we talk about how to value businesses, how to scale your businesses and how to find exit. Today we won't talk about the scale part of it and we get a lot of companies, especially the early stage companies and they really talk about scale and today I'm going to talk about a very definite thing in terms of what is the right timing for scale and what you need to be ready before you even start thinking scale. Now scale is an important part of any organization and there has to be a time where you need to review an absolute feel that you're ready and you don't want to lose that market share and you want to go fast enough in the market and go and scale that. I just finished a meeting with a company which was an EV player, their logistic company but in electric vehicle logistic business. Very clearly a lot is going on on that. I think it is about 100 odd startups I would have actually interacted myself and almost everybody is thinking about should I scale now. Now you know that there is a conventional technology which is doing the fulfillment. You still have the same tempos which are out there, which are doing the servicing from a consumer viewpoint. Why would a consumer like to see this change? Why would a logistic company would like to see this change? Why would a small retailer like to see this change? Why this change is compulsory? Why we all know that this industry is moving to EV but is there a compelling reason and what is a compelling reason? Now there is a lot of discomfort because the infrastructure is not ready, the charging stations are not ready but in in a conventional technology you have proto pumps, diesel pumps and all these are available all over the city. So from a logistic player viewpoint, it looks like that I am taking a big call for whom. Unless and until there is a compelling reason and their compelling value creation needs to be done. But when OEM is thinking, when Mahindra is thinking, when other companies are thinking, they are listed companies. They are thinking because they need to really see this change and shift and they know the value of the organization would significantly change. Look at Tesla, what has happened. But when a small startup is really thinking about doing and scaling, it needs to really think through that what is compelling reason for that.  Which is very important and very honest answer you need to talk. Is the market ready for that kind of scalability? The product you have created or service you have done is come to that maturity level that you can really go out and scale. Are you still in the middle of developing the product and you are thinking scaled and it is a wrong idea? Your organizational capacity is ready, which is going to be in my topic for today. Because I personally feel that it is not really about the product, it is not about the service, it is not about the money you raise, it is not about how market really reacts. It is most of the times how you are organizationally ready to scale that. And we will talk about this and also what is your financial forecast at what levels you need capital and how this capital is provisioned for you and so forth. These are very important aspects you need to really ask honestly to yourself and say where am I on the 0 to 10 from readiness in terms of going out and scaling my business. Second, is your clear roadmap ready for scale? Because scale is not just about an ideation of going on a larger market share, larger top line, better performance in the business and so forth. It has to have a very definite month on month guideline set for yourself. And that guidelines has to be much deeper rooted. Like I run a large franchise organization, to me most of the company which come in franchising their scale story is about number of units they want to do. Most of them would come and say I want to open up 100 restaurants. Now that's a good scale answer, but I personally feel that that has no meaning to me. What kind of customers you really want to service? How many customers you want to do that? And that would be really the value you build. How many customers really are engaged with you? How many are coming and repeating themselves? How many people are actually spending a certain amount of wallet share with you?  So unless you really think through that first as a structure and then break down into things which you need to do and then answers would come in just by units would not give you any larger answer. Another area is that what are the clear indicators telling you, where is the indicator telling you that you need to scale now? What has happened in the last two quarters with you, which tells you that you already or any kind of signals you're seeing which can be policy change, structure, market dynamics, global practices, anything which is telling you that there are some strong indicators which you can measure actually and say that this is a time for me to scale because scale can be very risky. Most of the businesses failed in the last five years not because they didn't get the scale, but they were not able to control that scale. And actually mature businesses in older times used to say, you have to really go as far as you can control, you know, and they used to say this because they used to always say that scale is easy, but if you're not able to manage that scale, it can be a difficult animal to really anger. Another thing which you need to do buying, which I think is your internal and external stakeholder, they need to do a strong buying with you that whatever your business plan for scale is, they are in touch with that. So that's very, very important. You need to really see through that your internal and external stakeholders are completely bought into your idea of scale because they're going to be people who would stood stand by you over the time when you were doing the scale and when entrepreneurs on the scale, right, he doesn't see anything else. He's just running for that scale. I personally feel it's a great time to think scale because we have the lowest of the chip and we would go and a lot of industries would go, you know, hockey size, stay shape growth. You would just see another three to four years of continuous growth on that. It's a good if you have a really strong foundation already there. If you're not too much weakened by this whole COVID which has happened and you still see the solid story is there. I was just with another restaurant chain and I told him that look and he was not too sure. He has restaurants are coming in great legacy, great structure and he was not so sure that should I do it. I said, this is perfect time. Why? Because every marginal player is out of the window. People who were who were not able to control or they were just in the fence, they would never be able to come back. So credible players who are solid at this moment would go very big. Almost every time a diversity has happened. If you really see in 2008, the companies which got really damaged with these hospitality companies and so on and all that had happened. Same thing happened in 9-11 when everything got shut. Marriots were the really bad time affected. But if you see the Marriots journey from there, how they became the largest hotel chain in the world is because every time this happened, they were always sitting on a lot of loads of cash and they were became opportunists and they started venting out and bought over bands, bought over businesses and so on and then they did a very strong turnaround build that ride whatever they could used to get and anytime the diversity would again come in they would be ready for that. I'm very very sure these some of these organizations would go very very big in that. Out of this adversity when they would come out, they would even more scale up and this is what we saw. Even solid companies like Reliance Industries and other companies are building a huge amount of chest because they know they're going to be on a very very strong scale story. So it's a good timing but you need to see your health of your organization, where is your health being led. So let's talk about today's particular topic and if I have to really advise an early stage company and which is done well it might be in product or a service and now ready to scale. Product is compelling, market is looking good while I think you can place your first two quarters a little bit softly and then go full blown and if you really want to do that one of the most important thing I would like to see in that organization is what I call the organizational design to really support that scale. Now organizational designs have changed significantly in the last few years. Earlier it was very conventional departmentalization of organizations while you can still call the name sales marketing this and that whatever but the larger piece of organization flow I think would flow into the four blocks which you need to really set as a foundation and these four are connected blocks. There are the coordinates of any organization. The first two would sit at the top and this next two would sit on top, sit on the bottom. There between what I call ideation to great execution and achieving goals which is done one grid of spectrum and second is driving from performance to building legacy. So that's how the grid is really being structured. So these are four very strong elements and I would say that you need to have four top officers of your organizations or even founding members can really divide themselves and say we are part of these four blocks and we own those blocks. While they connect with each other, they talk to each other, they sync with each other, they challenge each other as a blocks but they are very strong blocks. The first block to me is creativity. Creativity is very important because it is an engine in your organization which actually on one side inspires and second time challenges. Inspires people to think fresh, think what they need to do, how they develop new processes, how they structure new things in the organization. Also not only inspire because sometimes the organizations inspire at the top because they are the people who would have your core management team and also the leadership team, they get really inspired but what happens to the person in that last mile? There's a guy who really looks after your warehousing, somebody who's working at the last mile, he's not inspired with the same thought and it's very difficult in a lot of discussion that happened on that but organization not designed like that. They don't design like that, there isn't that and sometimes there's a gap in terms of the thinking level and how the thinking process needs to be driven and then suddenly it's very holistically inspiring everybody not only inside your organization but outside your organization that everybody is so fully inspired by the larger goal sheet you set for yourself the organization this will not really create. So this is all about culture and culture to really create the organization which breeds new new ideations continuously think through that how can I do things better. That's one part of inspiration. Challenging is challenges because almost everything whatever is done in the way it is done has to be challenged. You know again the restaurant company I met why it's so fresh in my mind and he told me one thing he says look I've been always telling my teams that why these global QSR chains are so efficient, they run with 10-12 people and they do more sales, they actually deliver more customers and we at our level we need three times more team and we deliver actually one third of the customers. Why would this be a problem and every time he's got an answer from somebody he says look our food is different. Now this cannot be an argument this cannot be an argument I think McDonald's didn't have was now it looks like an American food where people like burgers but actually it's not. It created its own category and it created something which was good it was fast it was structured and that's how they delivered the product. So fundamentally I think nobody really wants to challenge this. Why nobody in India ever challenged that there would be a so to say Indian QSR which would run by leaner staff and leaner people and we will still deliver great product, great structure. We give up to the convention we just follow the path which everybody else has followed and probably get the second or third level results continue to get that and that's why I always say that why the food which Indians love is like a biryani or a food and dieting. We don't have even a chain which has 100 units and we have companies which are coming from outside and they're doing IPO's the Dominos did IPO, Burger King did IPO and these all companies are the food which is not in the first three or four or five favorite foods for so to say Indians because the business model is working for them and they are able to scale fast while these companies are not able to scale because they have a lot of challenges in that. So challenge is also about really challenging every single process system and the way things are done. Understandably really go out and really do these two things inspire and challenge everything your department of creativity would never work and also I think as I said you need to inspire almost every stakeholder you cannot be a lone inventor or a lone thinker you need to really have everybody as an entire organization thinking through. Another thing which is very important is that you need to really think through that scale comes with a lot of you know challenge I've seen like in service businesses I've seen the consistency is the biggest challenge. Service businesses has never been a problem of demand generation and things of that nature but consistency breaks you know if I was a dry cleaning company my service levels went down I was a food business I went down I was a you know any other business when I scaled I was not able to give that this all aggregators of laundry came in their consistency was not there they were not able to really handle the whole customer experience so to say they were able to scale that they got numbers in there because they were driving a lot of demand side from technology and things of that but they're they're you know delivery cycle and the consistency really failed how do you really address the real problem sometimes scale is just not doing it big it's all about doing it consistent it's very very important to do that in the product side I think change cycles are becoming very important because how do you really change that and becomes very very challenging and also new markets new environments also become a very important aspect so you how do you really create this creativity as as one big unit of your diving and you should have somebody as a chief creative officer of your company which continues to think on critical thinking and also innovation and how this is married to even the performance of the business is very very important the next block to me is objectivity which actually creativity and objectivity sit next to each other if this creativity is not completely married to objectivity the business would go wrong and if you just run activity without creativity also it fails so objectivity is really about driving what I call absolute performance how do you run performance but objectivity is also coming not from your your personal personal considerations your your own viewpoint on things and this is what has been the problem here we are not listening we don't understand business intelligence we what is business telling us what is business telling or what are numbers telling us what are micro numbers telling us what where are we going wrong are we going wrong in our margins did you see while people are using but they don't don't want to pay us more our margins are shrinking so what do we do to improve our margins how do we scale up most of the times you go down the ladder I always say that there's this idea you don't need in the boardroom if most of the times when you people come in the boardroom and say how can I double my market share and somebody say can we drop the price now this is no idea this is somebody is giving you what is easy to do you know and this is what almost everybody did every time you want to take a bigger share like all these amato swiggy's why they're struggling because answer was clearly about creating a greed now they cannot sustain that greed they've started giving people one plus one one plus this discounting on a heavy structure now this ruined the restaurant this ruined the swiggy and the matter none is doing it nobody really thought that why can't we go and deliver something more so that our margins really improve what is our data telling us our people are only interested to buy a cheap answer is no people want better things and that's where I think good companies great organizations like Apple and other companies have always done well because they have always sustained and improved their margin every single second step is every single process in your system and organization has to be developed with a strong test and measure everything has to be tested everything has to be measured if it doesn't fit into this then there has to be some kind of correction you need to also set song performance benchmarks very very strong performance you need to set out every single asset in your organization very very important you cannot take if it is not like these days what happened in this COVID everybody is on an asset restructuring almost every company is on asset restructuring they're all thinking how they can really change the dynamics of their asset deployed and everybody has really one answer to tell me that we never thought we can do this much much better much more efficiently actually this opportunity is always there sometimes you are forced on that opportunity sometimes you consciously go on that entire what is your correction but another thing which I've seen if you go on a wrong path maybe you did a wrong acquisition maybe you did wrong you know vertical or something like that and you try to really adjust it fix it and that thing and you actually kill the core business and this is what I would give example of Oyo did wrong acquisitions and they started feeding those acquisitions with good money and that good money would never be able to really do that so one has to be very conscious just because of scale you're not going on the wrong path and if you have because you cannot sometime every time predict that you need to have a definite tag and say if doesn't work beyond this pull the plug if you delay it too long even the largest of the organization look at annular money group it's not that they have not a great group they are very very good they've done things in a certain speed which I think should be a book or a case study for Harvard you know if you really go deep down and see the group when they formed and what verticals they went and almost every vertical they became a market leader somebody who was not in entertainment become the largest entertainment company not in infrastructure became the largest infrastructure company not in this every smallest thing which they did they were able to scale every business to a certain extent because he was a very ambitious entrepreneur but two or three or four or five different steps didn't was not able to correlate and they went too far on that and that really put the group down so one has to really think through that how do you really correct it very very fast whereas correction coming in not taking I think is foolishness you need to take challenges and you need to take risk but how do you really not delay that risk and come out of it is very very important and every single process in your system has to have a process owner to drive extreme objectivity and these all people need to meet weekly to see how they're connecting the dots and this is very very important part of the objectivity the third piece block to me is communication and communication is very important and how the communication how you're communicating to the world what you stand for what is in that sometimes you have a great product or the service but you're extremely bad in communication you don't even go out and tell what you stand for and that's something which is which is to change now the world has become very different you know people are communicating very differently different platforms you hear things if you've actually forgotten where we get information now you you actually sometime I in the evening I'm telling myself I read something but I don't know where I read it I'm just being given and blasted on the various levels of information which is coming through is no more one part of the mediums it is can be multiple mediums different people it can be a individual communicating to me a group or a this or any other channel which needs to be done so this is not a problem reach is not so much of problem anymore well still the marketeers are thinking about creating reach they're trying to use smarter tools and things of that nature that is no brainer I mean if you hire a 35,000 piece a young guy who's just out of college can also know what is going on because he's also similarly flowing through and he has much better ability to understand new technology use influencers use that whatever you want to do that that's easy what is a difficult part is go back and ask yourself what is what you want to really do and communicate and how consistent you are so which means your messaging and your consistency are the two important things of your communication work if you continue to think through that how my messaging is sharp enough and clear and reaching out to the target group I want to reach out and I'm extremely consistent in doing it then only this would really create a value so communication is is another very important aspect of of a part and the fourth block which as an entrepreneur you always have to hold it for yourself you don't you cannot delegate this part is the purpose how is what was the purpose of when you started the business what was the larger purpose what was the goal which you set for and purpose furtherly is divided into three parts for stakeholders which are shareholders profits end of the day they want to really see when the profits are going to come and why are the big profits are going to come and scale story is all about really creating substantial profits because you're not deploying the proportionately same level of resources so you are you are making the organization extremely profitable second is your stakeholders your stakeholders are your subscribers also how subscribers are are feeling that value and getting loyal and loyal to you I mean they are doing and they're becoming more subscribers and they're becoming doing a purchase and third is what I call legacy for young companies this is a little bit too big a word and you should not too early start thinking legacy and and sometimes you try to be it doesn't really reflect because you are not ready to really contribute society not contribute on social responsibility and a lot of other things but eventually yes there would be a a lot of purpose for that so good companies really draw a purpose and continue to think through that what is my shareholder asking what is my buyer asking who's my who's consumers my consumer is asking and what is my legacy for the organization so between these four pieces you build the organization you build the organization on creativity you build the organization of building objectivity communication and larger purpose if you are able to put the foundation right check the market conditions see your financial ability and appetite at this moment do a test and measure and then you're ready for scale and that's what I would advise but this is a good time this is a good time to really draw your 2021 plan and think about what is your next scale strategy and take your stakeholders get them together think through together and build a stronger deeper plan write it off the plan continue to monitor your plan how it is going and the results would be great so this was our our topic for today hope I was able to share a few ideas with you purpose of these communications is that even if you stay one idea with you and that's good enough and this is a series we do every Saturday we talk about half an hour and over to you so Nali if you have any questions for me I'll be happy to answer sure thank you so much for another insightful session Gaurav sir it was wonderful as always yes we do have a few questions lined up with us the first question I would like to take up is do you believe that marketing fundamentals are still the same as they were a couple of years ago it's just that the mediums have changed what are your thoughts on this the only change which has happened in the marketing which I see is it's moved from propaganda marketing to engagement and that's something which is a which is a very big piece and also you know so you consumer has elevated itself and in any developing specially developed economies this is exactly what will happen you cannot go and tell me or I go to Sonali and say Sonali you have to buy this this is the best thing for you and no more she wants to do that she's quite aware what she knows what she wants and then she will go and search for it and and then if you are able to engage her because she's already searching about it right see she's conscious about better drinking water now she will always tell us about those things and if I'm able to engage that and engage with the credibility consistency and greater communication design aesthetics what I call then this would be that everything is not changing mediums I'm not too not too really worried at this stage I feel that it's more to do with intelligence a lot of people are trying to do a lot where they are struggling suffering their cost of acquisition is going high their marketing budgets are going high but the truth is that they are repending a very little time to understand who they want to communicate what messaging they want to communicate and how they can be consistent absolutely the next question is what is the most efficient way to scale up a startup as per you specifically to increase market scale it depends on where you are and how you want to scale what is the business you have and one of the areas which is what we did in earlier episodes is thinking difference between a growth and scale scale companies are companies which don't really proportionately deploy their resources in the same manner like technology companies where you once you have that it starts multiplying people refer you people put the content now today I mean I get surprised by the companies like Subway under this Facebook and other companies because you're actually doing all that work for them they've just put a platform you create the content put the content you build the viewership for them everything is done by the audience itself they just just and on the other side they're collecting almost everything about you almost everything about you you don't know how powerful these organizations going to be because the way they are going out and collecting almost everything you own every information every intelligence every data point every holiday you had every function you did and just all is going with them so these are the scale companies this is what scale is all about so think over how your business can continue to multiply without you putting even inertia on this and it creates self inertia and it creates by zone piece otherwise it's always need inertia you'll always need that push it will always need and I think if you take it for three months and then again take a push how the business would start multiplying by itself and that to me is a smart scale strategy very rightfully said sir the next question I would like to take up is how to equip people who hold the key to my company's scalability I do not want to over pressurize them but at the same time make them realize their key responsibilities without discouraging them I missed the first point who the company's employees you're talking about yeah how to equip people who hold the key to my company's scalability okay hold the key equip people which means that your team members and your vendors suppliers anybody who who's stakeholder in your entire thing so again you have to make them part of the collective vision and collective results collective vision and collective results are very important otherwise it would never go through if you go and tell your Nana in in your office and company and say look I'm building up this very big and this is on nothing but they say well what is there for us why would we put in more hours and more effort and good thinking and understandably you make them somewhere part of this whole story and and that's something which is very important and it's just not by saying it's by practice if you need to practice small things and also peer-to-peer examples if people sing that oh before me this guy really got to this level and he's is running as a so then they like that story it's people don't really buy into sometimes founder they look like they buy into founders or entrepreneurs or business owners actually no they buy into peer-to-peer if I'm sitting there and I see my my other person who's joined just six months before and he's he's grown is is done bigger things and I want to do that I want to be also part of it so people like that story more than anything so how do you really invest into that how do you create infectious environment where things really start multiplying otherwise you'll always have a block the next question is specific to the person's business he says with so much e-commerce what is the scope for brick and mortar retailing should one invest in it yeah yeah I mean I still strongly believe in brick and mortar and not only me but worldwide I mean I guess opened up a store in Bombay a big format again I generally feel that environments are going to stay you know how these environments can change is anybody's guess but we would like to be in environment we always would like things around us then this world was always built and we always like to build as humans and want to see things around us so so well I think brick and mortar smarter brick and mortar would run speciality brick and mortar would run a lot of hyperlocal last mile convenience O2O strategies online to offline integration would run all that would happen and this is what we've been talking about last 15 years actually nothing has changed and no disruption I've seen who can come and say brick and mortar would be able to not be able to do that so that I have not neither seen or not seen anybody really challenging that fact and almost all companies in past like I'm handling grofer's stores now Kriyayana stores and so now I question myself why they want to do Kriyayana stores when they actually was challenging Kriyayana stores now they empower in Kriyayana so they were rather creating their own stores everywhere so it's a it's a fundamental that eventually you need to reach out to the consumer and consumer is everywhere and wherever they would go you have to be part of it so that's how this this really runs the next question we have is how can businesses bringing new concepts for the people thinking about the future market their concepts yeah so we always build businesses or products which are for future it has to be problem solving it has to have a very genuine problem solving and a stronger desire for a consumer to shift you know sometimes you are solving a problem but there is no no real rush to shift you know like e-vehicle if you really see a vehicle this is something new now 15 years back Anand Nendra 20 years back actually bought into a e-vehicle company LED it was invented by Philips in early 90s why technology took 30 years to implement it's it's it's now about innovation alone it's also about the the reason why this would shift like generic medicine we all knew generic medicine but there was not a policy in the government to say doctors have to now write along with the medicine they're subscribing a generic code on that which means that he didn't know it is a generic option of this now this has been done by MCI now so now a patient can really go to a chemist and say look I don't want to expensive one I want a uh alternative uh generic product now these are very clearly the timings of uh and I think so when we started working on generic medicine was four four and a half years back and I clearly saw that this industry would go into I think still not really reached out we've done about thousand stores and now but I feel that India would be nothing less than a hundred thousand chemist shops which are doing generic medicine so it's going to go big time but now why now it's just about these finer changes so you need to really see that while your innovation which you're doing is great it might be solving some problem it has to be a solid problem you're trying to solve but is there also an urgency for somebody to really shift and that's something which is which is the argument here uh and if you get these two things together and say clearly I see that this is a real problem solving and I also know that people would shift like no time they just needed they were waiting for it so then then I think you have perfect timing right so I would just take up the last two questions for the session one question is uh we are a three years old company in Bangalore and we are in the initial stages of development of our business we are planning to expand our business to other cities like Chennai or Hyderabad is it the right strategy to start now or should we wait for some more years please advise you know so I am a high growth guy sometimes it's a little bit too much of infectious but include not only too much clients but it includes me uh so I always say that growth and growth comes from only three things there's no fourth idea one is new markets new products and new channel you can only grow by these three things there is no fourth idea so every time continue to see what can I create a new product which can give me growth what can the new market icon go which can go growth and what is the new channel I can use to sell my product so but now I am no in not a position to really sell you that uh getting into a new market would ask for what gestation control you know capability to handle all that I'm not able to answer because I'm no visibility of your business but if I feel that this is is in under control then then why what are you waiting for you should go you should go to markets and and that's something which should really create a growth for you absolutely sir and now the last question for this session the question is can we have one vision statement that caters to this shareholders interest the stakeholders interest as well as the legacy you know so there's I mean very difficult to make one vision statement on that but I think businesses with purpose would always have these three things important they would obviously start with a shareholder because shareholder needs to see sustainability of our organization and a larger valuation and then cares also cares equally we have to hand in hand care about your your subscribers people who have to buy from you consume from you and so they make you big which needs to be done and and third is what we leave behind what is the organization you are building and things like one of the case studies which were when one of the statements a coca-cola general chairman made in an adm is that if I lost all my bottling plants all my trucks all my infrastructure and I can still build it in no time because the world would back me up and if I lost my brand I lost everything so that's also very important sometimes that the brand is also another very important stakeholder in structure that how you really proprietary strongly handle for guard your brand what you're creating so think through it scale is a good very very important strategy to really look at it it's also timing it's fun it is it is worth writing it it's what people always I've seen so many industrialists so many business owners I fortunately that I had opportunity to work with 8000 odd brands decision makers CEOs legacy businesses generational industrialists and when I sit with them over a dream or something they have these three four five years where they did something very big and rest they were they were custodians they were custodians of managing them but they were time where they were creating something very big so if you are on the stage and you just ready to put that paddle on the structure then best wishes and hope your scale story is great thank you so much Gaurav sir for another wonderful session and for very patiently answering all our questions like always it was absolutely wonderful having you anything you would like to say in the end oh thank you I've said enough and people cannot tolerate anything beyond that so it's 40 minutes thank you thank you so much sir I would just request you to type in your email ID as well for all our attendees if they wish to contact you and fish to contact me and also if you want to contact Sonali for any of your requirement on fundraise listing your company for even if you want to you know look at a investor or if you want to exit you can reach out to Sonali and she has a wonderful team at Business X and they would be able to help you out and help you out in your and sometimes if you want to just make some connections and you want to really reach out to some private equity or some angel fund and you want to really ask to push you there so we'll be more than happy to do that our cause is for small businesses early state companies and promising entrepreneurs to show them the way of growth and help them scale their businesses thank you very much absolutely sir thank you so much thank you to all our attendees for your time we really hope you were able to add some value to your lives through this session and please join us next Saturday as Gaurav sir said it's a weekly session every Saturday at three o'clock the next time we'll be discussing about drinking value in your businesses so please don't forget to join us then and thank you so much thank you sir


Well, hello everybody. My name is Audrey Dancer and I am the owner of Salvage Studio. I am a clothing repair studio and I fix all things from jeans to sweaters to your, if you got an ember that burnt a hole in your puff jacket, I can fix it. So that's part of my business. Another part of my business is I am also a content creator on Instagram and I create all types of educational tutorials on mending, garment care, secondhand fashion and thrifting. So we'll get into how all of that meshes together in just a little bit. This is my contact information if you want a screenshot or you can watch the recording a little later and grab that. First, what is mending? I feel like mending is kind of a unknown term. People know alterations, they know tailoring, but what is mending? So mending is specifically the repair of ripped, unraveling, torn, holy textiles. Some examples would be like if a moth got into your sweater and you have all different moth holes, the ripped seat of your pants. You can see a few examples on the screen here of some things that I've repaired. The torn shoulder seam of a dress or if the strap has come undone or ripped off any type of patching or replacing like crunchy elastic in a vintage garment. So that covers all different types of repairs and that's what mending is. What is the difference between mending and alterations? So alterations is changing your garment. So maybe sizing it down, sizing it up, lengthening the arms of a suit jacket, hemming your pants. So taking in, letting out the waist or bridal and formal, those things I do not do. So that would be alterations. I focus specifically on the repair of garments and keeping them in circulation. Where it gets a little blurry, there are some things that maybe aren't necessarily repair, but I do also kind of decorative things. So if you want a cool patch from a national park or something that you want that put on your jacket or your backpack, I can do those things. I can also do a little embroidery. So the garment is yours and however you want to wear it, I can make that happen. All right, so that's mending. Here's just a little before and after as an example of kind of the things that I do. It's the torn seat of a pair of jeans. And on the right side, it's all fixed up. Okay, so a little bit about my story. It was 2020 during the pandemic. And at home, I previously worked in construction management. So nothing related to fashion or garment repair. And I decided to start an Instagram account. So on the left, you'll see this is my Instagram account with frifted wardrobe. And I really did it to share my style. I really liked dressing up for the office. And I actually had a co-worker tell me I miss seeing your outfits every day. So I started this Instagram account basically just to wear all of the garments in my wardrobe, just make sure everything got worn and to show off creative outfits. And through this process, I kind of went through my whole closet and repaired everything that was sitting in my mending pile and being delayed because I had a busy life. And now that I was able to down a little bit, I was able to tackle the mending pile. And I would share the process and just different techniques that I did on this Instagram account. And I found that out of all the content I created, whether it was frifting tips or like how to wash and care for your garments versus the mending, the mending was the most engaged with people were asking questions. Well, how did you do this? How did you approach this? What technique did you do? How would you approach this thing? Can I send you a photo of a piece and can you give me some ideas of how I might fix it? So this kind of was the beat in my brain of, oh, this is really a niche that people are interested in. And maybe there's the lack of content in this kind of sphere. And so through this, a friend reached out to me and asked me if I could fix a pair of jeans for her. And I said, sure, I'll figure it out. And I do have some sewing experience I've been sewing for 20 years, not specifically in mending. I mended my own clothes, but just hobby sewer. And so pulled out my machine for my own projects. And then for my friend, I fixed her jeans. And I just thought, wow, this is so fun. It was a great problem solving situation. It fed my engineering brain of how do I structure this patch so that it's going to be the most structurally sound. And also my creative brain of like, oh, how can I make it look really invisible and integrated and fit into this specific piece. So that really made me think, oh, maybe I want to do a little more of this. And so I posted on Nextdoor and just an open call. Does anyone have jeans or something that they fixed? And I started doing a little bit of that. And at this point, rewind a little bit, I had left my job in construction. I realized, kind of in doing this Instagram account that, wow, I really love the creative side and kind of getting back to my roots of fashion and creativity and thrifting. And so I left my engineering job with no plan. And so kind of this was my plan is posting on Nextdoor. Does anyone have anything they want repaired? Got a few clients from there. And then I thought, okay, how else can I advertise? So I created a Yelp page. I posted flyers around town and just kind of that grassroots marketing and slowly started gaining traction. And people would come back to me, repeat customers, they would refer to people. So it was a very kind of slow, slow movement and unintentional movement into starting my own business. So about a year and a half into just having my a thrifted wardrobe kind of content creation account, which I launched my business officially, Salvage Studio. And it is specifically for repairing people's garments. I repair people's garments from the city. I also have people mail in things. I do workshops. I do corporate mending, which is I go into offices and basically operate as a corporate benefit. Yeah, that's kind of my story in a nutshell. I've been doing this business for about two and a half years. And it was a slow, slow build and really gaining traction and kind of meeting to rethink some processes to streamline my business a little more. So that'll take you to the next slide of how does my business work? My business is very much a business of I am the product. So I am the marketer. I am the service. I am the chief financial officer, my accountant. I do all of the things. So I just have people send me a text, an email or Instagram DM with a photo of their garment. I get a quote. And if they want to proceed, they book a time on my calendar. I don't have a storefront. So I do have to be very creative with my marketing and how I don't just have a visible storefront that people can find me. So I'm really into the finding people through Instagram and creating posts that are engaging that bring people to me. The flyers help Google optimizing my website so that people find me. And somehow people do find me. So once I give people a quote and they book a drop off time, I intake those pieces and repair them about two weeks and then return it to them. So it's a pretty simple process. I'm needing to streamline a little more as my business grows, but that's kind of how it works for now. Okay. Well, we can get into some questions. I'll stop sharing my screen. Great. Thank you so much for that presentation, Audrey. And folks, the library has some questions for Audrey, but we really encourage you to enter any questions into the chat as well. And we'll make sure those get answered too.  It's definitely the creative problem solving. So no two pieces are the same. Even if it's like the ripped bum of jeans, it's different on all jeans. Is it a stretchy pair of jeans? Is it a rigid pair of jeans? How big is it? What is the shape of the rip? So it really keeps me engaged and excited thinking about the approach and also working with the clients of like, this is the garment that you want to wear. So I can fix it in a way that I think is best. Or do you want a Sashiko repair? Or do you want something visible? Or do you want it invisible? How is this garment going to fit into your lifestyle? If it's going to be customized and detailed and have different colors, are you going to wear it more or are you going to wear it less? So I like working with clients and figuring out how they're going to wear it and how they kind of want to express themselves. And I want to kind of contribute to that. I also get to touch and work with some real pieces. I've worked on like a 1950s Olympics sweatshirt that someone's grandfather wore at the Olympics. I get to work on like 1920s pieces, just really special garments that I feel so honored to work on. And I don't have to own them. I can have kind of a special moment with them. But I don't have to like collect all of these vintage pieces. And also my clients are just so awesome. Like, I think people are just so excited to have life brought back to their pieces. And in whatever capacity, and they're just so excited that it's fixed and they can wear their favorite piece again. That's great. It sounds like your business allows you to express a lot of creativity. And it's, yeah, I'm sure you must see so many memorable pieces. Definitely. That sounds really special. What challenges did you face when starting your business? And how did you overcome them? Yeah, I think with mending and any kind of craft type business, it takes a little bit of convincing people that it's worth the cost with the cost of clothing these days and the quality of clothing. It's very cheap to buy things. And so sometimes the repair and actually often the repair costs more than what the garment is. And so I think there's a little bit of challenge of convincing some people that it's worth the investment. And I will be honest, sometimes I say, I don't think it's worth the investment. I don't think that you should save this. It's going to take me an extra amount of hours and this costs. And even though I want to save it, I think you should invest in a new piece. So I am very upfront about that. Another challenge that I am dealing with now is that my business is growing and I'm constantly having to adapt and change processes to make my life easier. So I'm not working 20 for seven writing quotes 20 for seven. One thing I recently did in the last six months was like actually have a booking system and like identify these are my actual like hours and that has really helped streamline my process. Because otherwise, I was just like, oh, I'm so flexible, like stop by whenever just let me attacks. And I was there's a little overwhelming. So maybe overcoming that challenge is kind of setting boundaries and like the standardizations for myself. And that's really important. And I have to do a little more of that as I grow. Yeah, I'm sure that is definitely a challenge wanting to seem open and flexible, but also maintaining human boundaries. I know you were just speaking about sometimes you have to be honest with a potential client that their item may not be may not actually the repair might not serve them in the best way and maybe it's time to invest in a new piece. Sort of piggybacking on that I see that quite a few folks in the chat mentioned. They're curious how you came up with a cost structure that works for you, like in terms of setting price points and pricing your men's. Can you speak a little bit about that? Yes, so full transparency. I was way under charging in the beginning. I think a lot of small business owners do that. I started recording men's in the same category and kind of recording how much time it took me and kind of taking that average of that. And I also thought of what is my comfortable hourly rate that I want to have. And so kind of having that hourly average as well as what I want to make per hour. That's kind of how I've done it. I have also one thing that has been so beneficial in my business because I don't have co-workers and also not many people do this. I found myself a group of menders across the US and we actually have a monthly meeting. And so things we talk about are business strategies, pricing, those type of things. So it feels like I have a group of co-workers. And so we're very transparent about how much we charge for things. And we were able to adjust our own pricing and we all elevated our pricing. And although we're in different parts of the country, it was the least a good kind of establishment of where to start on that pricing and we can adjust it for where we live. That's awesome. And I'm glad you have that group because it must be hard as a solopreneur to work alone in an isolation. This is just a factual question. Someone asked, are you registered with the state of California as a sewing business? So I am registered as a San Francisco business. I also have a seller's permit through the state. And as a repair person, I don't charge sales tax, but if I do any bespoke things, that does require sales tax. And I am not a tax professional, so you do your own search as well. What have been some of your most significant learning experiences in running a business? Yeah, so this is kind of piggybacking off of what we just spoke to. What's been really difficult is divorcing emotion from pricing, especially as someone, I'm a very budget friendly person. And so sometimes when I think about my pricing, I'm like, would I pay that? And I have to remember that I am not my client. And I have to respect my need for living wage. And so divorcing that emotion from my pricing and also like, if they're an existing customer, if they're a friend, like, don't give them, don't negotiate with yourself, like kind of have your set pricing and charge that instead of negotiating with yourself, because you'll always negotiate yourself down. Great, thank you. Audrey, there's a few questions in the chat about, so you mentioned sometimes you make the recommendation not to mend an item. Do you have suggestions as to where the person can recycle the item, goodwill, etc. Or let's see, someone had an interesting question. Do you work with any fabric material recycling companies? Or do you sometimes recommend that people repurpose non repairable items? For example, turning them into quilts, tote bags, placemats, etc. Yes, so a few options and no option is perfect. I will just say that. So with denim, I do sometimes take in donations, because I do use a lot of denim in my repairs. I am at capacity right now. So unfortunately, that's not an option at the moment. I personally, with all of my scraps, I do send them to a company called Four Days. It's a take-back bag and they have a specific cotton scraps bag that I use. Of course, there are flaws in all types of recycling programs. A similar one is called retold recycling and then also a local collection is Ridwell. They do take scraps occasionally. Last I checked, forcology does not take textiles anymore. But of course, the main thing is where and use it as long as you can. It's a textile that you can cut up and use as scraps for cleaning or cleaning your car or whatever. Do that. That's the best. Reusing it is the best and repurposing it is first and foremost for doing any type of recycling. Great. Thank you, Audrey. That's some great tips and I see folks in the chat are also recommending blue jeans go green and City College's fashion program can use scraps. Someone mentioned it would be swell if you could share links for the organizations that take scrap material. Audrey, if you're willing to send me the links of the organizations you just mentioned after the program, I'll be sure to send it out to folks in our follow-up email with the recording. That was a great suggestion, Wen. So, Audrey, can you tell us about one of your most memorable moments from your business career? I honestly, having you reach out to me for this program, I think was a huge foam because when you're in the thick of your business and every little thing compounds and you kind of get in your head, you don't realize the progress that you've made. And I think when you reach out, it was like, wow, they see my business as a success and that people would want to hear that success story when I don't always believe that myself. So, having an organization like the SFPL believe in me, I think that's a really accomplished moment and also just having kind of in a similar vein, having large brands reach out to me and want to do repair collaborations. That's also really rewarding and kind of makes, I feel like I sometimes have a little bit of imposter syndrome, but when I get opportunities like that, I'm like, wow, people see me in a way that I don't see myself and I should maybe see myself in those ways. Absolutely. And I'll share with everyone on the call. I first met Audrey in person, somewhat randomly, I had seen, this was maybe two years ago, Patagonia was doing like a Black Friday don't shop, bring your stuff to us. It could be Patagonia or non-Patagonia items.  So I took a pair of denim to get a mend and I was like, wow, this is so cool. And then I started following her journey. It's really fantastic. Audrey's done a lot of wonderful things with larger companies. But Audrey, that brings me to my next question. As a content creator, how do you maintain your own business identity when taking on a brand deal opportunity? Yeah. So we haven't touched as much on my content creation on a thrifted wardrobe. I did businesses do integrate, but I do try to keep them fairly separate. So most of the brand partnerships for my content creation is very much like, does the brand align with my values and sustainability and ethics and those type of things? And are they making significant strides in progressing a sustainable platform? For partnerships in my business, like with Patagonia, I am maybe less strict because I think spreading the word about mending to whatever platform it is, whether it's a company that's maybe not as sustainable. I'm really hopeful that they're trying and that I can be a big part in introducing people to repair and more sustainable practices. So I'm, yeah, I may be a little less strict, but I do feel like I am reaching a broader audience and being able to kind of push a new agenda that maybe they previously weren't thinking about. And even if them reaching out to me or I had reached out to them and they're willing to do this, I think that's also a great indicator that they're willing to learn a little more. Absolutely. A related question in the chat that Yasmin asked is, which part of your business supports you most financially? Oh, so I was going to talk about this a little later. When we were going to talk about advice, I tried for a significant time just to do the mending and the content creation. And I was constantly thinking about my finances and it was stressful. So my advice was going to be, it's okay to get a part-time job or contract work. So at this point, purely mending or purely like brand partnerships with my Instagram account are not a sustainable financial situation living in the city. So I do some freelance work. I work for a sustainable shoe brand doing part-time work.  It was one of the best decisions that I made for myself because I'm no longer thinking about money and stressing about money. And my part-time position is related to what I'm doing and I'm learning all these things that I can then apply to my business. And you can always drop off things as you don't need them anymore. That's great advice, Audrey. I will also add on to that. So you have been asked specifically which one supports me the most. I would say the content creation side with a thrifted wardrobe, that's a little bit feast or famine. As maybe one month, I have a big brand partnership and that's a nice lump sum of money. But another month, I don't have any brand partnerships whereas the mending is a consistent, generally consistent every month. And so it's nice to have the consistency. I'm doing what I love. I love mending and then sometimes the larger sum of money, some months. And then the freelance work helps fill that gap. Sort of a related follow-up question. If folks are wondering does Instagram pay you to create content or is it the companies that you're partnering with themselves? Very good question. Instagram does not pay any of their creators. They used to for about a year. They no longer do that. So the way I support myself through Instagram is doing brand deals. And so that's basically either a brand reaches out to me or I pitch myself to a brand that I'm really psyched about. And we kind of negotiate the terms. What am I going to be promoting? How am I going to promote? What are the usage rights of that content? And we come up with a price and that's how that works. So Instagram is purely, I get paid through brands and not through that itself. Okay, Audrey. So I think I sort of previewed this question. But is there any other advice you might give to someone just starting their business journey? I see someone in the chat. Let me find it. There's lots of great interactions in the chat. Someone in the chat Feather shared that Feather has some of the same skills and interests as you, especially the vintage orientation. Feather has also started repairing and altering things for friends.  How do you ensure that people will be satisfied? And somebody else asked as well. Let me find it. Like what do you do about unhappy customers? Do you have a contract between customers and yourself? Good question. I have been so lucky that I have not really had many unhappy customers. If it does happen, the best thing is transparency and making it right. Though you do need to consider that you put the work in and that you deserve to be paid for that time. So usually instead of a refund, I will redo it because that's just my time. And I think in this field, whereas alterations, it has to be perfect and fit them perfectly. I think most people are just very happy to have a repaired garment. And of course, quality matters and you want to really have pride in your quality of your work. But I think maybe people are a little more forgiving with repairs because they know it's not going to be, it's not going to look completely seamless or perfect. But I also am very transparent upfront, especially with like sweaters. I tell everybody it's like, it's nearly impossible to make it a completely seamless repair. So you will see, you will notice the repair a little different. And then I'll send them photos of kind of my portfolio or my Instagram account so that they can judge if my repair quality is kind of to the standard that they want. And being upfront with that really helps with any maybe dissatisfaction down the line because they know kind of know what they're getting. As far as contracts, I don't have contracts with my clients. I do request payment upfront. And that's kind of a security deposit for me in case they don't pick it up or just, it's easier and more secure for me to get payment upfront. But no contracts. And I must say as someone who has followed Audrey's both of her Instagram accounts, she does a really great job of you show repairs that you've worked on. And I think it's her social media does a great job of showing quality of work. And yeah, I really use, I use my business Instagram basically as a portfolio. So I'm not necessarily using that account to grow and get all these followers because I want targeted followers in San Francisco because that's my clientele. And so I really use that account just as showing the before and after. And so people can see my quality, see all the different types of things I do. There's jeans or sweaters, there's backpacks, there's purse straps, all those things. And people can kind of see if I'm aligned with what they want done with their piece. I feel like it's a very smart use of your social media. So someone asked if you exclude tailoring and alterations from your scope of work, which earlier in your slides, it seemed like yes, you generally do, but I'll let you speak more to that. And another related question was, do you need a space or do you have a space perhaps for customers to try on the items that have been repaired? Or is everything just handed back and forth? Yeah, so this is a very good question. I do not have a storefront and I actually work from my home. So this is why I do not do any alterations, because I don't want people coming in and out of my house. I also didn't study fashion design or anything like that. So I don't have. I can do these things, but I don't feel confident enough to provide alterations as a service to people. What was the other question? Did I cover it? Oh, the other question was, do you have a space for people to try on repaired items or is it all just sent back and forth? Okay. No, because I don't do alterations and that's mostly what you need triumphs for with repairs. Basically, just the rip is repaired and there's no change in the fit of the garment. But I do when I return things to them, I always show people what I've done to the piece and kind of explain what I did. And also, if there's any specific care instructions for increasing longevity of your piece and making sure the meant stays as good for as long as possible. In showing them that also is an opportunity for them to express like, oh, this isn't what I was expecting. Instead of them taking it home and being like, oh, this wasn't great. And then we have to schedule a time for them to come back. So it just kind of takes care of everything at once. Absolutely. So Yasmin and Wen are curious how much of your work is hand sewing versus machine sewing? And earlier, someone asked what type of sewing machine do you use? So maybe it's a good time to answer both questions. Yes. Most of my repairs are done by machine. It's not as common that I'm doing hand sewing. Sweaters are all by hand and then really delicate vintage I do by hand. As far as sewing machine, I tried to set up so you guys can maybe see it. This is my, it's a 1970s Kenmore. Solid steel, so it's super sturdy and strong. If you want to get into mending, you can use any type of machine. I started out with using my $200 path simple machine that's like 22 years old and it was trusty and I still use it when I do travel mending. So any hobby machine you can do any repair on. I don't think the machine is that important. This machine really only does straight stitch and zigzag and I can basically do everything and I'll pull out my other machine if I need a buttonhole. So a few other questions in the chat. Earlier when you were talking about your pricing model and that you have a group of menders you meet with and you sort of all adjusted your pricing models. Somebody was curious how did you communicate to your clients that your prices were increasing? Yeah, so I don't publicize my pricing and that's because I have pricing for myself, so I have a baseline, but I don't publish pricing online or anything because as I said earlier, all men's are specific. It depends on the size of the rep, the location of the rep. And I think I can streamline this a little more, but for now I'm just individually quoting each piece which is a little taxing on me, so I do need to streamline that a little bit. But I guess I didn't really communicate that and people just they can say no if the price doesn't agree with them. Speaking of that menders group that you have, which it sounds like has been helpful in your journey, your business journey, someone was curious how did you find that group? Are they open to new members? So I just reached out to some menders that I had been following on Instagram and we just decided to meet on Zoom and we've kept it consistent. We are always open to having new folks, so feel free to send me an email and we can connect. Great, and I will put Audrey's email in the chat shortly. When is asking do you ever use fusible interfacing or other fusible fabrics for repairs or mends? Sometimes. I will say, well first I'll say any repair that you do is a good repair, but there are better repairs than others. I would avoid doing any of the fusible denim patching because they're very stiff and rigid and especially if you're trying to put it on something that stretchy it really creates weak points around the edges of those. So I generally avoid those, but if you have no sewing skills and you just want it fixed, totally fine. I do use fusible interfacing sometimes for like a lightweight fusible for if it's something that's really delicate and I don't want to use a fabric patch behind it, but it's not very often. Great, we also have some marketing questions. Someone said it sounds like next door was really helpful for you. Any other ways of advertising that have worked for you and someone else is asking how do you differentiate yourself from folks who do clothing repairs at the dry cleaner? Why should someone go to you instead of their local dry cleaner? Yeah, so I'll answer that question first. I think because I think of my business as I am the product and I'm very accessible to my clients. I let people text me and I think that's very approachable and very human and that's how people, especially like Gen Z millennials, that's how we interact is through text. And I also have a portfolio on Instagram that people can just look at my stuff whereas a dry cleaner, you have to find a dry cleaner. There's no indication of quality of their work. You just kind of have to go with it and hope that it turns out right. They don't have photos of their existing work but they don't have a portfolio and it's a less personal experience. So I think having that access to me and kind of having, yeah, the access to me and having kind of knowing upfront what you're getting from me really sets me apart from the dry cleaners. My prices are more expensive than a dry cleaner and I do have people who have previously brought a piece to a dry cleaner bring it to me to fix it. So I think sometimes people need to learn the lesson of like, oh, this is the quality I can get a dry cleaner and this is the quality of a professional mender who does this just thought rather than dry cleaning and alterations and repairs. And sort of a follow-up to your success on Nextdoor and whether you have other marketing advice. Someone's curious if you use TikTok. Okay, so other marketing I use Nextdoor, Yelp has been really helpful for me. Surprisingly flyers just posting them around all of the bulletin boards in the city has been really successful. And my website is very primitive. I made it once and I haven't touched the fence but a lot of people just type in done a repair in San Francisco and they tell me I'm the first result. So I think it's just an untapped market but even my like really primitive website pops up and so yeah I think if you use the correct words I don't know anything about SEO but if you use the right terminology you can be discovered that way. Also I get a lot of traction through Instagram both through the business page as well as my effective wardrobe account because people know that I do repairs and so they reach out on both fronts. There was one more question in there. I think it was do you use TikTok for marketing? Oh yes, I do not use TikTok. I already feel a little spread thin and I didn't want to add another element into my business. So I don't use that but I've heard people have great success through TikTok. Great absolutely. If you could go back along your business journey and change anything what might you change or do differently? I think one thing specifically I've noticed in the last like six months is networking is really important and especially because I don't have co-workers or people that do what I do I have been making connections with people in related sustainability fields, other type of repair folks, vintage resellers, vintage store owners and if we can't help each other they'd know somebody that might need a repair and so networking has really kind of upped my game and I think another thing would be that I would try weirder things sooner and just send out cold emails and see if people need mending or events and I think I starting out was a little too timid and feeling like oh but my business isn't at a point where I feel like I'm professional enough or established enough just send an email make the phone call send the DM I think that's what I would do much sooner. Sorry great we only have Audrey for about 10 more minutes so I'm trying to catch up on the questions and also make sure we've covered everything.  That is something I so it's hard when you do all the things to stop and do business planning um you may be overwhelmed in the moment but it's overwhelming to add the future planning to your plate and so um in the fall I did take a two week break to kind of focus on like future business planning um but I think I needed to do that again because the business is growing and processes have um I've outgrown some processes um managing all of that it's a little overwhelming and the things I need to work on are maybe getting some office software I mostly do everything by hand google spreadsheets those type of things so um I kind of need um and so I think in the spring maybe the next month I might do another like mending break so I'm not physically selling I don't have any client work I can just focus on doing the like unglamorous business things um um yeah I think that's a very human response and Audrey this might be a good time Audrey mentioned that because of this event she did with the San Francisco Public Library she's been getting quite a few more emails and texts about repairs which she's super excited about but Audrey do you want to tell us a bit about what your current um turnaround time looks like yes um thank you for reaching out to me I I think my response may just be a little delayed I'm usually really quick at responding usually same day but um maybe two or three days so if you haven't gotten a response from me and email or text just be a little patient um and as far as lead time for me actually repairing things it's about two to three weeks great thank you Audrey um so salvage studio has been in business for two and a half about two and a half years now what is next for your business yes so thinking about my day to day I if I just scale that up meaning I'm doing sewing for eight hours a day five days a week that's physically very taxing um so I'm working on finding things to diversify my business a little more focusing maybe more a little bit on like court mending and doing events in offices where I show up people bring bring me things to office and I repair for that day um or doing more workshops just to kind of um diversify what I'm doing so that my poor fingers don't get too tired um and also I want to do a little travel mending so um kind of in the works I might be spending a few weeks in Denver just exploring some um I have some clients in Denver so fixing their things and exploring a few opportunities to do some events there and so Denver maybe I'll go to Seattle next um but just like integrating a little bit of travel into into my career and and um having some flexibility that's exciting it sounds like a lot of exciting things um lie ahead for salvage studio um a few other questions that trickled in you mentioned sashi co some people were curious how you learned about that and more generally um if someone was interested in learning how to repair clothes themselves what are some resources you might suggest for folks particularly if they want to learn at home yes I love using Instagram and probably also tiktok I'm not a tiktok but um just follow menders once you follow one you will be suggested all of all of the members um so that's a great source of inspiration of um new techniques and just kind of getting your creative juices flowing of seeing what other people are doing um so part of a Facebook called I think it's called modern mending and that's where people um either share um projects that they've done or they post a photo of something that they want to fix but they don't know how to approach it and people are really helpful you get many comments of different ways to approach in different techniques um YouTube gotta love YouTube YouTube um I still use it for specific things like you can learn how to fix a zipper how to sew an invisible zipper like um very YouTube is great for like specific techniques you want to learn um as far as in the city I know there's a sashiko class at um what's it called fibers of no it's a yarn shop out in the outer sunset I'm the name is is escaping me but they have an upcoming sashiko class um that I think is going to be great and um I'm kind of taking a pause on workshops but um potentially I mean follow me on instagram and I will always announce um any new workshops that I teach I usually do like a basics of hand mending a sweater pair of cloth and then some sort of like patching class um but if you kind of know a few techniques um I do have a monthly mending circle and that the next it's the first sunday of every month and the next one's going to be march the third or fourth whatever that sunday is um at simbol the refill store on stanion and carl yeah great I was just going to try to put that in the chat so yes um sunday march third okay feverishly typing amending mending social se w hyphen c i a l um yes and that seems like a great place folks can come and bring items they're working on as well as learn and get some tips it seems like um sliding scale contributions yeah I there we had our our first one last sunday or this last sunday and um yeah use me as a resource come use me as a resource I can help get started on your mens and also other people in the in the um session can can help you as well use my yes great thank you I'm putting that info in the chat um what time does that happen at that's from 12 to 2 12 to 2 thank you I hope to be in attendance um March 3rd so I hope to see some of you there from this program but um we're coming up on the end of our hour um I know there were still a few lingering questions for Audrey lots of folks wanted to know about where they can recycle fabrics um Audrey suggested a few places earlier in the program and folks put a few resources in the chat I'll compile them yeah and if you have large um fabric or lots of fabric not not really small things but larger pieces um definitely reach out to scrap there are a um like art reuse center um in the bay view and they I I get a lot of my supplies there so lots of sewing supplies um and it's all recycled reused um materials from people in the community fantastic thank you for that suggestion so I will compile um Audrey will send me the suggestion she said earlier and I'll compile some from the chat there were lots of great resources thrown out like city college um their fashion design department um thank you when you're saying I did a good job of aggregating related questions on the fly everyone had fantastic questions for Audrey and I'm so sorry if we didn't get to your question but um feel free to reach out to Audrey I put our contact info in the chat Audrey thank you so much for joining us this was great it was so fantastic and I think Audrey's business journey is very inspirational and she's a great example of someone who has been very successful with social media and very successful without a storefront um but also like Audrey shared earlier um tapping into like her own self-care needs right and picking up that um freelance work to make um focusing on her business more more realistic for her I think that's a good takeaway um I see a lot of people are saying they would like to see events like this in the future I want um everyone to know our hope is to do this at least quarterly to highlight uh local business owners such as Audrey so I'd encourage you to sign up for our newsletter um and stay posted on our events Audrey we wish you and salvage studio tremendous continued luck thank you so much of course it's a pleasure the pleasure was ours thank you everyone for joining us um please fill out our survey I will also um send a follow-up email in a few hours with the recording um some links we're going to share with related resources and the link to our survey thanks again Audrey and thank you everyone take care bye