Are we racing to the bottom?

The Pulled Wool Saddle Pad Makers-world is having some growing pains with all the recent interest in new makers emerging!  With that growth there is also a dose of competition that makes us better at what we do if we allow it!  Competitiveness and critical analysis actually works hand in hand and can be used to better our product and/or services.  But, in doing so…

My guilt lies in being critical when I see slashed prices on pads and the services associated.  My quiet “eye-rolls” and under-breath grumblings have bubbled to the surface more than once lately.  I will always be a champion for rasing the bar!  Personal concern is truly is born out of my desire for recent pad makers to better their work, rather what appears to be a “race to the bottom.”

If I could encircle my arms around young makers today in an attempt to influence the importance of  buoying each other up to celebrate what we do…I sure would!  In the mid-1990’s there were less than a handful of pad makers, unlike today!  This growth base is exciting to see.  Nowadays finding a Maker is a key-stroke away!  The internet helps us all to sell our wares and our “how-to” learning formats.

One thing we all agree on for making pads is:  It takes time, materials, information, and above all developed skill-sets to make a pulled wool saddle pad.

Reasons to learn are but a few:  a) pursue an “at home income opportunity”; b) wanting to learn pad making for personal use; c) both.  It pencils out either way; neither goal is wrong.

What is wrong is thinking there is only one way to capitalize on this ever-growing world of Pulled Wool Saddle Pads.  Thank goodness there is more than one road to Rome!

Learning formats vary in cost from $0 to $400.  There is a format for every budget.  We all learn differently!  Some learn from PDF’s, some learn one-on-one, some best learn from a remote and interactive presentation; some are schooled by trial and error (my forte)!  Whatever the teaching format, the originator should always offer “support.”  Would-be-Students:  Do you research on Teachers.  Look for a) their experience; b) their teaching format and support; c) their pad quality and uniqueness; d) their willingness to support.

Aren’t we all are still developing our skills whether three decades or three years experience?  We are mastering to a greater (or lesser degree) making pads.  Which one of us doesn’t value our skills differently?  Each of us has a “comfort zone” we typically market to our selling price(s).  Sharing knowledge is motivated differently.  If charging less for our good/services makes sense to us, you can bet the opposite is true for charging more.  There is no shame in that pendulum swing.  It’s no surprise I continue to strive to see the bar raised, not lowered. 
Two aspects of Racing to the Bottom: 

1. Price Cutting
   1. Flooding the market with an overwhelming amount of pads, and learning formats that greatly exceeds buyer demand will typically force prices to drop sharply making is difficult for competitors and ourselves to sell the pads
2. Disrespect, both openly and quietly (myself including) tears down a really cool bunch of makers that all share/enjoy what we do. 

In our effort to elevate ourselves we may be digging ourselves into a hole.   Can we ask ourselves:  Does a race to the bottom really have any winners?
​~Diane