27th July 2011

It's been almost 3 months since I last blogged. Lotsa things have happen during these past 2 months plus. Things not working out as planned. Discouraging and frustrating! But God is still good! :)

The partnership with ThreeThirty christian fashion apparels has been confirmed for a month plus. The new designs are currently at the factory. Samples were supposed to arrive mid of this mth with launch of the new designs end of this month or early next month. However the factory had problems providing us with the samples. We can only received the samples end of the month tenatively. That would mean that the launch of our new designs will have to be delayed for another 2-3 weeks. Hopefully no more delays. Decided not to print our Sanz Moda designs as we have lots and lots of stocks to clear plus more new stocks from suppliers coming in. Really difficult to do our own brand as printing on our own requires large quanties. Min of 100 pcs per design. We don't have "large quantities" problems when we purchase. Plus we can create the "sense of urgency" feel with customers coz once sold out it is sold out.

Have finally shifted into 313 kiosk after 1.5 months of delay. B'coz of the delay, our rental of 3 months with the event mgmt for the kiosk in 313 was cut short to only 1.5 months. Thank God it is only 1.5 months! Although the crowd at 313 is more than in far east plaza, BUT the corner where our kiosk in 313 is a ghost town (more like a ghost corner). We used to joke among us that we can set up mahjong table there to kill time. We are lucky if we manage to open sale for the day. Almost everyday is 0 sales! This is bad bad bad bad bad!!!! The other tenants there have shifted out since 13th July 2011. They chose to forfeit their deposit of 1 mth rent to get out of that plcae. However, we chose to stay on till the end of the month so that we can get our deposit of $4200 back (our contract officially ends 31st July 2011). After calculating all the costs, it makes no sense to forfeit our deposit when we only have few weeks left there (although we'll be able to get back 1/2 a mth rental). The other tenants have no choice as they have either signed till end of the year or even till feb next year. Since the other tenants, we have also shifted out but to another kiosk which gives customers a better view of our products from far. The other kiosks have also been taken up but by the events mgmt personnel themselves. Do you see that? The place is so bad that no one wants to rent the kiosks. The mgmt have to take them up themselves to that the place won't look empty. I'm speechless about that place already! We all agree that 313 is even worse than Iluma and Suntec. Can't wait to get out of there....waste of our time! We've only 5 days (incl. today) left in 313. I'm personally working in 313 today and tmr (wed & thurs).

Our initial plan of doing wholesale in expo is gone gone gone gone gone! The whole thing is called off! The china company said they can only return us our rental & deposit of close to $15k after 6 months. But they've no right to do so! The contract states that they've got to return us the rental & deposit 3 months fr the expected opening date should this fails to materialise. That would mean by end August! Where the heck did they come out with that 6 months wait? We were feeling uneasy about it as $15k is not a small amount plus we are dealing with a foreign company. Anything can happen in 6 months. What if they take our money and fly back to China? How're we going to find them? On top of that, we are "fighting" with 300 to 400 other tenants to get back the rental & deposit. When we went down to meet up with them to find out when they can return us our money, they were obviously trying to drag our time. They couldn't give us a specific date even after we met the company's assistant director and director. With no other choice, my father got his lawyer friend to write a lawyer letter. Eventually they returned us our money. PTL!

Indeed He can change any of our situation around. With the expo and 313 plan gone, we'll only be left with our far east plaza outlet from next mth onwards which means that having 2FT + 1PT + me is too much manpower. Feel bad about the thought of having "retrench" staff. After much consideration, decided that starting fr nxt mth, the FT staff at 313 will be transferred to work at far east plaza with the other FT staff there and as of nxt mth their daily working hours will be extended but instead of just 1 off day per week they get 2 days off. As for me, I will be starting work at my dad's office as of nxt mth too. That would mean that all shop matters would have to be dealt with on weekends and/or after working hrs on weekdays. There goes much of my leisure time. Kinda apprehensive about it. Not sure how I am going to manage the time.

As for my PT staff who is actually my distant cousin. Will either be transferring him to learn and work PT in my dad's factory or to work on our stocks at the warehouse on weekends. We finally found and bought a warehouse to store our stocks etc at henderson road. The warehouse will also be San Street future office. Still have got to undergo some renovation to install shelvings for our stocks before we can shift in there. My house has been looking like a warehouse for the past few years. After the shift, my place can finally 见人了! Hehe... Can open up my house for CG meetings. When the circle line stn at Haw Par Villa opens in October, it will even more convenient for members to come down. :)