Fantastic experience with handbag assembly! And going social good.
I am working with Becoming Independent in Santa Rosa CA. They are providing assembly services for my Silo handbag line. I am thrilled to help provide employment opportunites for developmentally disabled workers but there are numerous business advantages beyond doing good in my comunity. BI picks up materials from me, assembles the bags at their facility, and delivers a finished product to me. Additionally my contract with them eliminated incurring costs associated with hiring my own assembly crew. I don’t have to pay workers comp insurance or lease production space or train employees. I pay a fixed price for the work provided so my costs are stable. My goal was also to have 100% of my product manufactured within Sonoma County and BI allows me to do that. They also don’t have strict minimums for production so I can scale up slowly which is a huge advantage for a small maker just getting started. I also made an awesome connection with my rep Paula. She is a great gal and really supportive of my work. I feel like I not only gained a manufacturing partner but made a good friend as well. Everyone at BI has been great to work with and very responsive to my questions and needs. My experience has been so great that I am actually designing products with BI in mind so that I can maintain my made in Sonoma County status.