Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Chapter 5 Bikers In Helmets! Is This A Raid?



We live and work in the Australian bush. In an absolutely beautiful part of the Central Tablelands of New South Wales (NSW).

Ilford is a little village of a few families tucked between the scenic hills of Bathurst and the burgeoning vineyards of Mudgee. We’re 970 metres high, have cold frosty winters and hot dry summers.

Our remote property is 54 hectares (133 acres) and our nearest neighbour is a few kilometres away. Our garden is a hectare (almost 2.5 acres).

Autumn in our garden is a kaleidoscope of falling autumn leaves and spectacular colour over a long period.

Spring is the harbinger of sensual pleasures that only wet winters across the Great Dividing Range of Australia can produce, with fragrance filling the air.

Intoxicating wattle, thousands of fragrant bulbs of jonquils and freesias abound, flowering honeysuckle drapes a hectare of fence line and our house, more than 200 scented roses fill the air, the 20 philadelphus shrubs in bloom for just a few weeks turn visitors weak at the knees and our thousands of lavender shrubs are billowing early musky blooms in every direction.

Bathurst is an hour away. Mount Panorama is the mecca for the Bathurst Car Races and Bathurst Motorcycle Races. At two different times of the year.

We’re also only 15 minutes away from the historic gold mining town of Sofala and a hop, skip and jump away from the Turon Technology Museum. Hill End is a little further away, but more spectacular an old gold mining town than Sofala.

All are weekend getaways for touring bikes.

Then there’s the world famous vineyards in the town of Mudgee, 70 kilometres west, which hosts annual general meetings for the Ulysses Club and other national bike clubs.

The sound of bikes on the Sofala Road, 400 metres away from us, down the dirt lane from our front gate, is a week-end given. And when it’s a serious bike convention, we’re standing at the gate, watching them ‘vrooooom’ by, in awe.

So why does a convoy of bikers coming up our dirt lane in early spring concern us?

Because we’re from the city. If we can't see the whites of their eyes, we distrust them!

So when a group of about a dozen bikers stormed our front gate, we became a bit anxious.

The lead biker took off his helmet to reveal a full growth of beard, longish curly red hair and a full moustache. The only thing missing were the tattoos on his upper torso, which we couldn’t see because he had his leather bikers' jacket on.

We met him at the gate. Him on one side and Victor and me on the other side with our dogs as a backup.

He politely asked us if this is where they can buy The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover.

I was sure I hadn’t heard him correctly, so asked him to repeat his question!

I’d heard him right the first time.

My next thought was, “they think we keep cash on the premises!!”

But there was something about his polite demeanour that made Victor and me think this young man wasn’t a threat.

And he wasn’t.

The dozen bikers were from the Australian Navy, on leave for a few weeks and letting their hair down.

One of their group was given a Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover by his mother and they all came to take one back to their naval base to use.

Our tentative suspicion quickly turned to a warm welcome, with the gate opened wide and 12 leather booted and leather clad bikers marching through to the front door.

They all squeezed into our tiny packing room, selected their colours, paid for their purchases, refused the offer of a cup of tea/coffee because they had a 4 hour bike ride ahead of them, and left in the same haze of dirt that brought them up to the gate.

Victor and I looked at each other, shook our heads, and said, “Can you believe that?”

And we couldn’t.

This accidental business has taught us to expect everything and be surprised by nothing. It’s also enriched our lives and given us many stories to dine out on!

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover is a simple solution to a difficult problem.

Although it’s an accidental business, it’s growing daily, thanks to our bikers and the more than 75,000 users around the world. And all our covers are made with love and care in rural Australia by men and women who have a disability.

To learn more about The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, visit our website at http://www.interfaceaustralia.com.

And there are more stories to come!

A news article in the Sydney Morning Herald blows up our fax machine.
It’s 4AM and America is calling.
The retail world has a deaf ear.

It’s always a pleasure to hear from you and I hope you’ll share your stories with me.

Take care,

CAROL

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Chapter 4 Squabbles & Tittle Tattle About An Ironing Board Cover


It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? Couples squabbling over an ironing board cover. And what can there be to gossip about?

Read on because we have the stories.

A telephone call at 6:00am one crisp morning takes us by surprise. It’s an order for an ironing board cover!

What a relief. We were sure someone had died!!

The caller is apologetic and explains he’s a forestry worker on his way to work. He needs the cover urgently and wants to make sure we post it that day so he gets it the next day. He isn’t far away. Just the other side of Bathurst NSW.

I do some market research when I take an order. Simple questions like:- Are you a new customer or an existing customer?

His answer? I’m both!

He sheepishly explains his predicament. He and his wife are separated. His wife took their Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover with her and left him the ironing board and the ‘tattiest cover I’ve ever seen’. He bought a supermarket cover and can’t iron on it. It never stays still. Always jumps around.

He went further. To tell you the truth, my wife and I don’t speak. But I want your cover so badly, I swallowed my pride and rang her to get your telephone number so I could order one.

I’ve seen forestry workers and they’re not known for their sartorial elegance!

Why does he need a really good cover like The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover? And why does he need one by tomorrow?

With a little prodding (I’ve got to be quick:- he’s on his way to work), I discover he has a new woman in his life. He sees her almost every night and he wants to show her his best side – which is his well ironed side! Tomorrow’s Friday and on Saturday they’re going to a wedding and he needs to iron his best suit to perfection.

Lucky me. And lucky him for finding a woman he wants to please!

Every April the Bathurst Show Society stages the Royal Bathurst Agricultural Show. When we exhibited there in 2000, a previous customer purchased a cover to replace the one she bought 3 years before. We chit chatted like old friends, caught up on the latest news, and then she was off.

In July that year, she came to our exhibit at The Mudgee Field Days. She tapped her well manicured nails on our ironing board and said she needed another cover, plus felt underlay, plus pressing cloth. The whole set.

While packing it up, I asked her who she was giving this to, as I assumed it must be a gift.

It’s for me, she said. My husband left me suddenly and when my back was turned, came back and took your ironing board cover off my board and took it with him!

I’ve fixed him, though, she says. I changed the locks on my house and won’t give him the remainder of his prized CD collection. It’s now part of the divorce settlement he has to negotiate!!

Samantha and Regina flatted together for quite some time. Their mother, Margaret, is a customer of many years. She bought them a cover as a present when they first moved in together.

Samantha fell in love and moved in with her boyfriend. But wanted to take their Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover with her. Regina flatly refused. Margaret says they resolved the stalemate by flipping a coin. Heads, Samantha takes the cover with her, tails Regina gets to keep it.

Regina won. And Samantha’s boyfriend bought her a new cover as a surprise present!

Then there are the couples who both iron, but don’t like the other partner ironing for them. They bicker over each other’s ironing techniques. They have separate boards and buy their covers in their favourite, albeit different, colours.

A butler in the wealthy eastern suburbs of Sydney is a continuing source of referrals for us. His referrals are always unexpected and their stories colourful.

When I recently asked a new customer how he found out about us, I was given this answer.

"I was at a dinner party in Bellevue Hill and the subject turned to ironing. (Can you believe this? Super wealthy business moguls and their wives chit chatting about an ironing board cover!) Everyone at the table complained about ironing board covers never fitting properly or staying put. Including my wife.

Although my wife has an ironing lady, she does her own last minute touch ups. She’s always so grumpy at the ironing board, I told everyone I have to leave ‘the area’ so I don’t become a target for her bad mood as well.

As I was leaving the dinner party, the butler took me aside, gave me your telephone number and details and told me I’ll never regret this purchase. He assured me my wife will be a different woman at the ironing board from now on."

No matter who you are, it’s the day to day little things in life that really annoy you. It’s also the simple solutions that make your life happier and less stressed.

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover is a simple solution to a difficult problem.

It’s also an accidental business. And growing. There are now more than 75,000 covers in use around the world and increasing daily. And all our covers are made with love and care in rural Australia by men and women who have a disability.

To learn more about The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, visit our website at http://www.interfaceaustralia.com.

And there are more stories to come!

The bikies who storm our front gate to buy a cover.
A news article in the Sydney Morning Herald blows up our fax machine.
It’s 4AM and America is calling.
The retail world has a deaf ear.

It’s always a pleasure to hear from you and I hope you’ll share your stories with me.

Take care,

CAROL


View CAROL JONES's profile on LinkedIn

Chapter 3 Sewing Companies Bark & Bite!


Making the first 500 Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Covers on our dining room table was stretching our patience. This wasn’t what we wanted to do. As these covers were slowly developing into an unexpected business, we decided our time was better spent on market development, not making the product.

After a little searching, we found a sewing company in Bathurst, an hour’s drive from Ilford, who said they’d like to make the product. We gave them the opportunity to make a few dozen, so they could work out an appropriate price per cover, and agreed to a price. We placed an order for 250 covers to be ready for our first Mudgee Field Days in July 1994.

A few days before the Mudgee Field Days, we arrived to pick up our covers.

The first thing we noticed when we entered their building was the impenetrable barrier put in place which barred us from entering their sewing area. Prior to this day, we’d been able to freely access the back area and speak to the sewers to discuss any problems they were having and work out ways to make the sewing easier for them.

We didn’t twig to the fact this barrier was for us!

When we approached the counter, with our cheque made out for the agreed price, the business owner appeared with bad news. She told us the covers were more difficult to make than originally thought.

Remember, they practiced on a few dozen, which we paid for, before setting their final price.

She was adding an extra fifty cents to the price per cover.

FIFTY CENTS!

That was an unexpected $125.00. We said we wouldn’t pay, couldn’t pay, and we have, in writing, an agreed price.

Her response?

We could see a solicitor, if we wished, but she wasn’t releasing the covers until we paid the extra $125.00.

My response?

Initially, it was to jump over the counter and do her great physical harm!

Fortunately for all of us, Victor was right behind me. His response was to take my arm, escort me out of the building and lock me in our car while he went back inside.

As an architect, Victor’s highly skilled in negotiating with builders, engineers, clients and tradesmen and women of every calibre. His skills are honed towards a win-win situation. Everyone must feel they’ve won something at the end of the deal.

When he returned to the car with our 250 covers, he told me he convinced her, albeit reluctantly, that the agreed price was a moral issue, but she still wouldn’t release the covers. After some verbal massaging on his part, and to ensure there was a win-win ending, he offered to pay her an extra 10 cents per cover. Which she accepted and released the hostages.

My innermost feelings hadn’t changed though. I’d spent my childhood playing on the streets of New York City with the neighbourhood boys. I learned a few things from them. That sometimes taking no prisoners is a good option!

The next stop?

A sewing company in Windsor, just outside of Sydney and about a 3 hours drive from Ilford. We found them in the Yellow Pages.

The factory owner was a great guy. Affable, experienced, eager to help us and wanting to do the work. He gave us an estimated price, but to make sure we wouldn’t experience the ‘Bathurst Hostage Syndrome’, we placed an order for 50 covers so they could work out an exact price and agreed to pay whatever price they set, to release those 50 covers. If the price was agreeable, we’d place an order for more.

He rang with a price a few cents more than his estimate. We liked their workmanship, so we placed an order for 500 covers.

By this time, The Guide Dogs were selling our cover over the telephone to raise funds for the training of guide dogs and pets as therapy dogs. They were a big client from the first day. So we really needed a company to make 500 covers at a time.

And what a relief to know we’d no longer be making ironing board covers!

A phone call from Windsor let us know the covers were ready to be picked up. With great excitement we got in the car and drove the 3 hours to get them.

A girl in the office directed us to a roller door. She said the covers were there.

As we approached the roller door, the floor manager, Mary, met us. First, she hastily thrust an invoice into Victor’s hand.

Then she started barking at us!

“Your covers are a pain in the bum to make!
You’re too fussy!
It is, after all, just an ironing board cover!!!!
No one here wants to make them!
Don’t come back!”

....are the words I seem to remember.

And with that, a man inside started hurling the covers, packed in plastic bags, out the roller door, bag by bag!

A ‘pugnacious dog’ had just bitten us on the hand!

Victor went into the office to talk to the factory owner. He was apologetic, but said his workers didn’t want to make them. Too fiddly, they told him. There was easier work to do.

Devastated, we drove back to Ilford hardly exchanging a word, each of us deep in thought. All we wanted was to find a company that would make our products with love and care.

A few days previously, I’d been reading Business Review Weekly magazine and remembered an article about the NSW Industrial Supplies Office. It helps businesses find companies to work with, it said.

That was a different perspective. We’re the government and we’re here to help.

In desperation, we rang early the next morning. We told them our criteria. First. We wanted to keep the manufacturing in the Central Tablelands, where we lived. Second. To be made with love and care by men and women who have a disability.

We thought that was a tall order.

But they rang back within 2 hours with the names of 3 companies they thought would suit us. Victor rang all three and we agreed to meet one company that day. And it’s been a perfect match ever since.

Wangarang Industries in Orange NSW has been sewing for us since 1995. Finding them was like Goldilocks finding just the right bed to sleep in.

And like Goldilocks, I let out a great sigh of relief. This time I knew I’d sewn my last Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover!

This accidental business is growing. There are now more than 75,000 covers in use around the world and increasing every day. And all our covers are made with love and care in rural Australia by men and women who have a disability.

To learn more about The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, visit our website at http://www.interfaceaustralia.com.

And there are more stories to come!

Divorcing couples fighting over their ironing board cover.
The bikies who storm our front gate to buy a cover.
A news article in the Sydney Morning Herald blows up our fax machine.

It’s always a pleasure to hear from you and I hope you’ll share your stories with me.

Take care,

CAROL

View CAROL JONES's profile on LinkedIn