Sunday 21 July 2013

Today was a very relaxing day for us at Thrift. Not much happened in terms of business. Basically we had a few discussions about academics that are due on our group on Whatsapp to ensure that we stay ahead of schedule and that we are all on the same page. We have learnt how important it is to communicate with one another, communication unites the group and ensures that everyone is aware of what needs to be done therefore it eliminates stress and all those negative vibes, and just creates a positive group dynamic. 

Saturday 20 July 2013

Yesterday we went to drop of all the lining and Thrift clothing at Evette for her to start cutting. When we got there we realised she never had any of our other materials: buckles, leather etc. therefore Sarah and Kim spent the entire day getting all the necessary materials that Evette will need to make the 50 back packs she is giving us next week. Today we have learnt that in this kind of business you are going to have to sacrifice a few things, for instance today we wanted to go to movies with our friends but we knew that we needed to get things done, so we did not go to movies and ended up shopping for materials all day- you have got to be willing to give it your all if you want it to work.

Friday 19 July 2013

Today we have dedicated an entire day to go Thrift shopping. We are going to go to all the charity shops around Cape Town to search for Thrift items, because they are not open on the weekend and Evette needs them today. We also dropped all the lining at Evette today because she works in a production line, therefore today she will have cut all the lining for our back packs. We have learnt that hard work pays off, and nothing ever happens by sitting around and waiting.

Thrift items at a Hospice Shop  

Thursday 18 July 2013

Today Sam, Sarah and Kim went back to Evette to collect the prototype. When we arrived at Evette’s workshop in Woodstock she showed us the prototype she developed and we loved it, so now it is time to talk business. Evette has agreed to charge us R50.00 per backpack, which is a cost we are very pleased with as we expected it to be a lot higher. We informed Evette of our deadline: we want 150 Thrift back packs by the 7 August 2013 (our exhibition). Evette agreed to this. Evette promised us that in a week’s time she will have 50 back packs ready and waiting for us, so we are going to have to wait and see. But we are so excited that e found a CMT! Finally the production of Thrift begins! We have learnt how important it is to remain positive and to not give up, we had less than a month to produce these back packs without a CMT- and because of our positivity, we will achieve this goal.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Today we met with the CMT Daniela who actually referred us to her friend who is also a CMT, Evette. So Sam, Sarah and Kim went to Woodstock to meet with Evette, they informed her of Thrift and what we are all about and showed her our prototype. Evette loved our concept and our back packs and was really keen to work with us, so what we have done is left her our prototype to work with so that she can make us a prototype to allow us to see how she sews, what she can do, how long it will take her and how much it will cost.  Therefore she said that by tomorrow she will hopefully have the prototype all ready for us so we can go from there. We learnt that it is so important to be very precise with employees; we gave Evette strict guidelines for our back packs to ensure that they are the best of quality. 

Evette Fashions factory

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Yesterday Sam, Sarah and Kim drove to learn to earn to see if we could hopefully work with them in production of our back packs. We got to learn to earn and they were extremely helpful, the lady took us on a tour of the campus to give us a general overview of what they are all about so that if we did work with them, we would understand fully what learn to earn stands for. we then met with the lady who is in charge of the production, she said that they could definitely help us but they would need to make a prototype of our back packs to see how long it would take them to make it, how much it would cost etc. therefore yesterday was a good day, we made progress and we are just waiting for an email from learn to earn to inform us of what it would cost us to work with them. Today, we are setting up a meeting with Daniela for tomorrow so that we can see what she has to offer us, even if we like learn to earn AND Daniela- at this stage we will employ them both because we have such a little bit of time left. We learnt today that if you actually go out there and start to do something and come up with solutions to your problems by being proactive, good things do actually happen!

Monday 15 July 2013

It has been a lovely long vacation for most of us at Thrift, but third term has come and it is time to get back into reality. Nothing has been done in terms of production this vacation; we still do not have anyone to make our backpacks for us. Therefore today we are going to meet with learn to earn to see if they will be able to help us make our Thrift backpacks. Sam has also been in contact with a CMT called Daniella- who we are hoping to meet this week too. At this stage we are extremely stressed and feel very unprepared, this is not a good feeling, through this process we have really learnt to manage our time properly and plan ahead because now we have left this all to the last minute and we do not have anyone to make our back packs for us. So hopefully the meeting with learn to earn goes well today, after all, exhibition is less than a month away.

Thrift logo on a Cape Town sign