A computer crash

We're about a week away from our launch and yesterday my computer crashed. I take regular backups of my hard drive and I keep a lot of data on my laptop as well. But still, the crash meant that a lot of data was lost.

I burned a live cd with Linux (Ubuntu) and was able to recover my documents and pictures. It was quite a relief to be able to save the documents. It took me 6-7h yesterday, but I was able to restore almost everything and get Windows running again. To be on the safe side in the future I've decided to start using Dropbox. With Dropbox it's possible to access the same files from different computers. Check it out.

Sebastian Stjern

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly

Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Results of the e-survey

We have got a great result on our e-survey. We sent the survey to 175 persons and 101 have responded. If you still haven't responded please check it out at http://ow.ly/ak2Z

I would like to share some of the results with you. Some of the answers were not really surprising, like the fact that an average man owns more shirts than an average woman does.

17% of the respondents owns clothes that have been produced under fair condition, and among the group that doesn't own any Fair Trade clothes 93% say that they want to. That seem promising =) 

47% answered that they have problems finding shirts that fit them well. According to a book I've read a standard size suit fits perfectly on just 1% of the population.

Sebastian Stjern

The Fair Tailor

-Dress Responsible

Hjärntillskott

Last Friday is was on a seminar called Hjärntillskott (The name is a Swedish play with words that does not really translate).

The seminar was about leadership and there were three speakers: 

*Sweden's former national coach for the bandy team Kent Hultqvist

*The CEO of SIBA, Fabian Bengtsson, who was kidnapped last year

*The former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson.

Hultqvist spoke about how you need to adapt your leadership to the people you are leading, how he can't be the same coach for the national team as he is when he coaches 7-year old boys.

Bengtsson spoke about his kidnapping, how he managed to stay focused and how it has changed him and the way he leads SIBA.

Persson was the one I had the highest expectations on, he is one of the best public speakers in Sweden. But it was such a disappointment. He was arrogant and he seemed to dream about the good old days when things were so much better.

Good thing Hultquvist and Bengtsson were really good. And the compère, Kristin Kaspersen, was also really good.

It was me, Lina and two other IQube entrepreneurs who went together and we had a really good time there. Now we just have to employ people so that we can be great leaders for them. Lina said something about already having employed me in The Fair Tailor, but I don't know what she meant with that...

Sebastian Stjern

The Fair Tailor

-Dress Responsible

A new hope

After having talked to a person here at IQube today I have realized that The Fair Tailor offers much more that what we first thought.

Through out the work with the company we have had different tacks we have planned to follow, but we have not until now seen how well they fit together. I can't say exactly what I mean, but the pieces fit together much better now.

This will just be a short post, there's a social event here at IQube, IQlub, that I need to go to.

Sebastian Stjern

The Fair Tailor

-Dress Responsible

Yet another post about DEM Collective

Yesterday I med with Annika Axelsson from DEM Collective.

She had traveled for two days and almost missed her connecting flight in Amstedam so she was a bit tired and confused since she came straight from the flight to meet with me.

She told me about the factory they are building in India and the working conditions for people working in the factories that make clothes for the big brands like H&M and Zara. The storys make me very happy that we have chosen a different path with our project.

I am amazed by Annika, she had hardly slept for 2,5 days and lost her luggage and her passport but she was still full of energy when I met with her. She has worked with Fair Trade and organic materials for quite a long time and it must be frustrating to see how slow things are mowing forward. But she still manages to keep her spirits high. Amazing. 

Sebastian Stjern

The Fair Tailor

-Dress Responsible

First e-survey, inspiration by Drivhuset and more about ALMI

I've just sent out our first e-survey and I'm really excited about the response we'll get.

I've sent it to 151 persons. If you are not one of them and if you can read Swedish I can send it to you as well.

The e-survey will be a base for the development of The Fair Tailor, I hope it will give me a few pointers about what people are interested in.

I really like Drivhuset!

I have mostly spoken to Andreas there but today I spoke with Maria and it was very inspiring. We and ALMI have different ideas on how to solve things but there are other ways of doing things and Maria was good at pointing them out.

I spoke to Carin at ALMI today and we agreed to disagree.

They have their view on how things should be done and we do not share that view.

And that's to bad.

But it was a good talk with Carin, she managed to explain their view, earlier ALMI has not informed us on why they feel they way they do. They believe that a project like ours should be financed strictly by own capital, i.e. you should not loan money for a project like this.

Sebastian Stjern

The Fair Tailor

-Dress Responsible

Looking for customers

Today I've had an inspiring lunch with a former colleague from my time at Volvo.

She had some good ideas about other products that we could broaden our range with.

On a different note she also told me that Volvo and SAAB thinks that there will be no real customer demand for electrical cars until 2027. My response to that is that it has been nice to have two Swedish automotive companies, but if they don't change their mind there will be none 2027.

We are looking for customers. Do you know of any company that you think might be interested in buying Fair Trade shirts? Please contact me at sebastian(a)thefairtailor.com

Sebastian Stjern

The Fair Tailor

-Dress Responsible

Mingle with Maud

I'm just back from having been at the mingle session with Maud Olofsson, Sweden's Minister of Enterprise.
It was inspiring to hear her speak about the plans they have to make things easier for small businesses. Hopefully they will do something about office turnaround time at ALMI...

There was a panel discussion about how to make it easier for entrepreneurs at the end and it was really interesting to see the difference between a professional speaker, the Minister, and the representatives from the University. She was so much better at getting her opinion expressed in a clear way.

Sebastian Stjern

The Fair Tailor

-Dress Responsible

ALMI said no, again.

On the ALMI website FAQ you can read "It's about taking risks when nobody else dares to do. ALMI dares."
We have 1/3 of the money, the bank is positive to provide 1/3 but the government agency that is supposed to give loans when the bank says no is not willing to provide the last 1/3.

If you are an investor and you have the money we need and are looking for a good investment, please contact us.

Sebastian Stjern

The Fair Tailor

-Dress Responsible