Reinventing Myself

So I find myself in a bit of a business dilemma.  It turns out the manufacturer of the material I use for my buttons has gone out of business.  I found out about this when I got a batch of the product from my current supplier and had issues with the quality.  She, in turn, contacted her supplier and has found out that manufacturer went out of business and this is the first batch from the new supplier.  It seems the new manufacturer is having a quality problem.  This seems to be the only supplier around.  A number of companies make the product but it seems the base product all comes from this same supplier.   I contacted another company and they told me the same story.  The base product is having quality control problems so they are no longer offering the product either.  I'm on the search for a replacement but at the same time am wondering if this is an opportunity in disguise.  I've been wanting to branch off into other products and even just other types of buttons.  I've dabbled in ceramic and glass and wood but because the resin buttons are so popular it's been a challenge having the time to explore those other options.

On the bright side I do have quite a large stock of product that I can adapt and use to make my buttons so luckily it's not an overnight thing.  I do have some time to plan a different approach.

I'm having a bit of a challenge in deciding on a focus.  I think I'm going to start on wooden buttons and see where that takes me.  They do take a lot of time and I'm still developing designs and improving production so I'm not sure how this will go.  All of my other types of buttons are very labour intensive.  One part of me just wants to pack it all in but another part wants to figure this out.  I'll try to keep my blog updated as I move through this process.  Let's see where it takes me.  Wish me luck!