Guest contributor: Sher Bailey, Likefox
I remember well the spring I turned six years old. It was about the same time my Dad bought my Mother a brand new Singer sewing machine. You may conclude from that statement that my Mother was a seamstress, or at the very least, someone who had a talent with needle and thread.
You would be wrong, my friend. The reality was that Mother believed if only she had a sewing machine, she could unleash her inner-designer and save money by churning out everything from drapes to tablecloths to ridiculously fashionable clothing for her young (helpless) daughter.
Cut to me going to school every day for a month in triangle-shaped tops made exclusively from kitchen towels.
I’m not making that up. If I stood motionless anywhere near a refrigerator, you couldn’t see me. It was kitchen camo.
In my Mother’s defense, she thought her designs were trendy and that I was a lucky girl because who wouldn’t want to move about first grade completely swathed in terry cloth.
If you’re starting an online store, or God forbid your Mother is starting an online kitchen-apparel store, I want to tell you what I wish someone had been brave enough to tell the woman who gave birth to me (and who is therefore legally entitled to my forgiveness).
You are not a designer. Even though you’ve seen websites and you’ve shopped on websites, and yes – even though you have experimented in Dreamweaver and you know what the letters HTML actually stand for, no my friend. YOU ARE NOT A WEB DESIGNER.
Starting an online store should be a proud moment for you. You are a business person – an entrepreneur, after all. A homemade website is every bit as embarrassing for your brand as being caught in the rain in my homemade shirts were to me. Was I more absorbent than any other kid I knew? Of course I was. But in kids’ clothing design and in web design, it’s best to stick to the professionals.
PS: Mother eventually stopped making my clothes, but only because she ran her own index finger right through the machine. A trip to the doctor to have a needle removed (thankfully) put a damper on her dreams of becoming a design star.
