The poem "The Wanderer's Clothes" is my favorite. It embodies the traditional craftsmanship of weaving. Let me take you to see this touching entrepreneurial project and its story
Investment amount: about 8,000 yuan
Project advantages: low investment, no risk, large market demand, quick results, high profits
Suitable for entrepreneurs: unemployed youth, laid-off and re-employed Personnel, small entrepreneurs
Successful cases: Xiao Liu Professional Repair Center on Yangzhou Road in Shanghai
Market background
Concept upgrade of clothing darning and transformation into beauty
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In the 1940s and 1950s, there was a group of women in Shanghai who were "making up for the poor". At that time, there were many bachelors in Shanghai's docks and factories, and there was no one to help mend their torn clothes. So, there were many The middle-aged women who are trying to make up for the poor set up a stall nearby to earn some money. ?Three years of new life, three years of old life, and another three years of mending. This was the life of the poor back then.
Decades later, with the progress of society and the improvement of people's living standards, few people are willing to wear patched clothes, and the craft of patching clothes seems to have become a thing of the past. The days when darning aunties on the streets picked up bamboo bows to mend torn clothes and socks are long gone, but the darning industry with its exquisite craftsmanship has quietly revived in Shanghai, where fashion trends are changing day by day. Today's clothing darning has long gone beyond the concept of "sewing and mending". A darning shop owner in Shanghai told reporters that in the past, patches were put on old clothes, but now they are used to "beauty" the clothes. Because the suits, leather jackets, woolen sweaters, etc. worn by modern people are all expensive, once they are accidentally cut, pierced, or burned by a cigarette butt, it will be a pity to throw them away, and it will be unsightly to wear. And the superb weaving technology can repair these clothes without leaving any traces, just like new, and it is worth the tens of yuan spent by customers.
The reporter found that in some stores, the business volume of "new clothes darning" is gradually increasing. Merchants often offer discounts on clothes that are not available in all sizes. Who wouldn't be tempted to see clothes that originally cost more than 1,000 yuan and can be bought for only 100 or 200 yuan after the size is broken? However, although discounted clothes are cheap, the size may not fit properly, and they are likely to be accompanied by flaws of one kind or another. As a result, many people buy discounted and affordable goods and then go to darning shops to make necessary repairs to their clothes. In this way, discount consumption is coupled with the "reprocessing" of darning shops, keeping the popularity of "darning new clothes" unabated, benefiting merchants, customers, and darning shops.
Requirements for opening
Technology depends on the scale and ability
As long as you have a pair of scissors, a magnifying glass, some needlework and a stretcher to fix the fabric, darning can The store is ready for operation. This seems very simple, but it is actually quite complicated: the thread used needs to be extracted from the corners of the clothes to be mended, and then mended stitch by stitch according to the grain of the fabric. This precise mending has the best effect. . After all, the survival of this industry depends on exquisite darning skills. Therefore, if operators do not hire skilled workers, they must spend a long time making preliminary preparations and learning darning techniques. From this perspective, laid-off female unions with experience in knitting, sewing, and embroidery have an advantage because they can shorten their learning time based on their original skills.
After solving the technical problems, it is not difficult to open a darning shop. The size of the store can be determined according to your own conditions. A simple darning shop only needs to set up a stall on a busy street or in front of a store, with almost zero investment and zero risk. The general approach is to put up a sign with the words "Seiko Darn" in front of the stall, and then distribute a few boxes of promotional cards to start business. A stall like this only needs one person (two people at most) to handle it; a mid-to-high-end darning shop needs a fixed storefront. The size is not very particular, but the location must be found, and it is best to choose a location near the community. Nowadays, many high-end residential areas and villa areas are good places to develop darning shops. Comparatively speaking, the rent there is not much cheaper than in prime locations. In addition, darning shops can also rent counters in shopping malls for business.
Investment Analysis
Investing thousands of dollars to earn a monthly profit of 10,000 to 20,000
Opening a darning shop is an inconspicuous small business in the eyes of many people, but because The market demand is not small, so the results are very fast. The monthly rent for renting a 10-square-meter store is 800 yuan; simple decoration of the store is about 500 yuan; adding counters, hanging racks, etc. is 500 yuan; sewing machines and sweater processing machines are 5,000 yuan; hiring two helpers, 30% is paid Commission, monthly salary for 3 months in summer is 1,000 yuan per person; water and electricity bills average 150 yuan per month. Calculating this, you only need to invest seven to eight thousand yuan to open a small-scale darning shop.
Garment darning is a purely manual technology. Most of the threads used to darn clothes come from the clothes themselves, so there is almost no cost and pure profit. For example, if you pick up a two-color woolen suit and the cuffs are cut with a two-centimeter cut by a blade, then the darning price of this suit is 30 yuan based on the calculation of 15 yuan per centimeter. Skilled workers need to work for 90 minutes. If they work 10 hours a day, each person can make a profit of 200 yuan per day. 3 people in a store, ***600 yuan. Calculated based on 30 days per month, the monthly income is 18,000 yuan.
It is said that some darning shops in Japan provide darning services and also sell clothing. In this way, customers who originally just wanted to have their clothes repaired are likely to buy a few pieces back, which inadvertently boosts sales in the store.
Business strategy
Convenient and affordable to satisfy customers to the maximum extent
Win business at low prices? Darning charges are generally based on the difficulty of sewing and the thickness of the thread used in the material. , where the break is, the size of the hole, etc. are different. Since darning is a technical job, the fees are generally higher. If you want to repair a tear, it will cost about 10 yuan to sew a 3.3cm patch on ordinary clothing, and 30 to 50 yuan to 3.3cm on a better fabric. If a suit worth thousands of dollars has a hole the size of a coin, the charge may be as high as more than 100 yuan. Although time-honored brands like "Lao Risheng" have exquisite craftsmanship, the charges are more expensive. A small damage will charge at least 40 yuan, and other items are generally between 200 and 300 yuan, and the highest can even reach more than 1,000 yuan. Although there is a market for the darning industry, if the price is too high [FS:PAGE], it will be difficult for consumers to think of "breaking a hole and darning it back". Therefore, operators may wish to adopt a low-price competition strategy. Originally, darning is a purely profit-making manual technology. Lowering prices will only reduce single profits, but it will easily attract more business.
Satisfied with the payment commitment? Seiko darning is a meticulous technical job that relies on reputation. Therefore, the quality of every job is very important. Once you fix it once, customers will have a sense of trust in you and will introduce their relatives and friends. Slowly, they will become your repeat customers. Repeat customers are important, but how do you make new customers feel comfortable leaving their clothes to you for darning? Operators can launch a "Satisfaction Payment" promise, and only receive payment after customer acceptance and approval before delivery. When encountering particularly picky customers, you must be good at communicating with them and try to meet their requirements.
Door-to-door delivery service? In terms of services, darning shops should have convenience as their main goal. For customers who are elderly or have limited mobility, operators should offer to deliver clothes to their doorsteps. Of course, other customers can also request door-to-door collection and delivery. If they are outside the outer ring road, they can change to express delivery. Customers who receive goods by express delivery also enjoy the "Satisfaction Payment" promise. After the customer is satisfied with the acceptance, they can pay the fee into the operator's account. In addition, since darning projects generally take several days to more than ten days to be delivered depending on the difficulty and size, if there is an urgent need from customers, expedited service can also be provided.
Looking for partners? Many industries have off-season and peak season, and the darning industry is no exception. In summer, I mainly repair some cotton sweatshirts and T-shirts. If they are not from expensive famous brands, few people will use them to repair them. Therefore, generally speaking, business will be lighter during this season. Some darning shops simply close during this period, thus wasting several months of rent. In order to ensure that there is work all year round, operators should find some partners, such as shopping malls, dry cleaners and even clothing wholesalers. The main reason for cooperating with shopping malls and dry cleaners is that they sometimes undertake some darning business, but most of them do not do it themselves. Instead, they hand over the work to darning shops and earn the price difference.
There is even more room for cooperation between clothing wholesalers and darning shops. It is common for a large number of packaged clothing to have one or two defective items with broken hooks. In the past, they could only be disposed of at a low price. Now, the technology of darning shops can solve their problems and avoid a considerable amount of losses.
Timely update of technology? The craftsmanship of darning also needs to be upgraded. With the continuous development of the fabric industry, new high-tech products are emerging rapidly. There are more types of fabrics, the threads are getting thinner, and the weaving patterns are becoming more complex. If you can't keep up with the updates of fabrics, you won't be able to darn them. Therefore, darning shops must keep up with the times and update technology in a timely manner.
Examples testify
Korean customers also come to Xiao Liu Professional Repair Center
The owner of the shop is named Liu Rong. In 1991, she accompanied her fellow villagers and her 42 He came to Shanghai from his hometown in Suqian, Jiangsu, and entered the Shanghai Fifteen Wool Sweater Factory to engage in darning work. Years of experience have enabled Liu Rong to develop a unique skill. She can darn holes in clothes so that the flaws are almost invisible, making the clothes almost seamless. After getting married, some of the sisters returned to their hometowns and some changed careers, but Liu Rong was always optimistic about the darning industry. So she started her old business with her husband, who also worked in a sweater factory.
At first they set up a darning stall in front of a tobacconist shop on Tongbei Road. Unexpectedly, the business of such a small stall was beyond her expectation. People heard that there was such a darning expert, and everyone flocked to her. Some people even used clothes from many years ago to darn them, which kept her very busy. Two years later, Liu Rong had accumulated a considerable number of regular customers and felt it was time to own a store of his own. Although it requires a small amount of investment in the early stage, Liu Rong believes that he can recover the cost soon. Opening a store can not only eliminate the 20% commission on each order that is originally paid to the tobacco store, but also the fixed storefront is undoubtedly more trustworthy than the mobile stalls. Facts have proved that Liu Rong's choice was correct.
Now, Liu Rong’s shop includes her, her husband and an apprentice. The three of them did the work that only eight or nine people could do, from seven in the morning to one or two in the middle of the night every day. The business is getting more and more prosperous, and the reputation is gradually increasing. Liu Rong and her husband already have plans for the next step. They are planning to open another 20-square-meter branch and want to find more helpers to ensure on-time delivery. Liu Rong said that she also wants to apply for a "Xiao Liu" registered trademark next year.