Hi Henry,

This is Shamsuddin here from Kolkata , India. I joined this website a few months back. I am in the leather industry for quite some time now. I have an own tannery and a leather goods manufacturing facility. I have produced leather items like handbags and wallets for over 2 years. But now my work is closed. I have all the resources required for this business but i am not able to move ahead. Please advise how to move ahead and if you can help me. Thanks in advance. Regards Shamsuddin

I don't know if your problem is manufacturing, sales, or organization.In any case, you should read a book called "The E myth revisited" byMichael Gerber. It's a must read for anyone starting a business or anyone in business who can't figure out what to do next. You can get a used copy on Amazon for around $4.00

Dear Henry,

Thanks very much for your reply.
My problem is that i don't have sales.
I try a lot but i do not find genuine customers.
Inspite of having all the resources i don't have
work. Kolkata, being the hub of leather
goods manufacturing of the world its really bad
not to have business in this field having all the
resources.
Let me know what can be done.

Thanks
Shamsuddin

I guess you have to make different stuff and find someone who can sell it. Probably the easiest thing to do is find someone who is selling stuff and make stuff for them.

I did that years ago. There was a company that I was buying handbags from, to sell in my store. I would visit thenm every few weeks and pick out what I wanted from their inventory. They bought leather in big lots, that I was unable to do. I started buying some leather from them. They were good to me and sold it at their cost or maybe a little more. They sold me thread also. I was in their factory and it got so that they would sell me whatever supplies I wanted. I also learned a lot about how they made things. What I was making then was really crude handmade stuff. Tooled handbags laced together with rawhide.

I had a sewing machine but that was about it. I saw what a skiver could do and wanted one. The factory foreman found me a used machine. I started making better stuff. I bought a clicker and needed dies. There was a die shop near my store... Quality steel rule die Co. They made dies mostly for cutting out cardboard boxes. The box business was big in town at the time. All kinds of boxes with printing on them. Anyone who makes stuff has to have a box to put it in.

Well the owner was good to me and let me make my own dies in his shop. I didn't really have any money in those years. That's how I learned to do that, though I do them different now... welded, without the wood that is used in steel rule dies. I learned what equipment is used to bend the steel rule and managed to get it for my own shop. I learned about welding over the years and knew what I would need to weld the steel rule. The welder was the most expensive part of that operation.

So then what I did was to make a clutch wallet as a sample and showed it to the owner of the factory where I was buying the handbags... made out of the same leather he was using. I suggested adding it to his line to sell with the handbags. He liked the idea, it used small parts and he had a lot of scrap from the handbags. He would cut out the wallets and send them to me to be made. It is called "contract labor", he just wrote me a check for it... he called the scrap "free leather" as it was paid for by the handbags and it was something that kept his clicker operator busy when there was nothing else to cut out. I started making other stuff as well, like cigarette cases. That gave me enough steady business that I could hire people to sew, and have them make stuff for my store also.