Private listing #782115

I saw a gap in the market for high quality Leather Lifestyle Products. Being a women and a mum, I based all my designs on bags that could be used along with the progression of life. A diaper bag then becomes an Overnight Bag, a student laptop bag becomes a Corporate Business Bag.

I want to dedicate more time to my little family. These young years are the most precious and Wild is growing every month that it is taking more time away from my family as I have to focus more on the business.

We have a factory of 14 staff, some of them cut patterns, some prepare the bags with glueing the panels together, some are table hands, and some are stitchers. We have a factory manager and an admin assistant. We have an excellent customer communications policy. We update our customers on a regular basis via email. Our store has a 4 week manufacturing period. Basically a client will order and pay for a product and 4 weeks later they will receive it. During that time we keep them updated. I do believe that this is one of the reasons our return customer percentage is so high. We do not fulfill our orders manually, everything is done through the website. Once a week when we are ready to dispatch we download from an app all those customers shipping labels and it automatically sends out an email to the clients informing them that their parcel has left and their tracking number. I don't do any market research, I don't follow any of the brands that make Leathers Bags in South Africa. I do collaborate with other brands in South Africa to run a monthly giveaway based on liking and sharing or tagging friends. My customers are 90% women, everyone needs a bag, every single women in the world needs a bag and I am just designing bags that I enjoy using , that I need. I do customers who request special designs and from time to time I will take on the project. As far as advertising goes, I do sometimes run an ad on Facebook but my reach thus far has been very organic, which is something I try and keep to. We have started to do a few mens items as well, which is a whole new sector we haven't explored as yet.

There is major scope for Wild and Free, there are avenues such as opening a few retail stores, drop shipping, wholesale as well as entering the corporate gifting sector. There is a big opportunity to enter the corporate gifting sector which we haven't explored as yet. Also supplying outlets is a major opportunity.

A person looking to run a manufacturing business needs to be forward thinking, you need to be able to communicate to your staff as well as be a great marketer. The biggest challenge in manufacturing is stock , which is also the biggest priority as with manufacturing and all the parts that go together , these take approximately three weeks to order. Manufacturing Leather Bags is a very exciting sector to be in, the elusive lifestyle of adventure and freedom and you need to be able to create and design bags that fit into that "dream". As well as cater for all the new mums to be who require diaper bags. There is major scope to grow this business. You need to have a finance background, I started this business with no finance knowledge which hindered me but along the way I have taught myself, and hired an accountant.... The Business can be taken to Brick and Mortar, Trade Shows, Weekend Markets and Internationally. We have a demand , you have to keep your staff motivated, encouraged and be a person whom can handle all the challenged that are thrown to you on a daily basis. It is overall a very exciting lovely environment. Creating is the best.