***Important Notice*** I have been taking a while and hesitant for a good 10 minutes before I could even type this out. I just went to my room and hugged Mr Ling and asked him for emotional support, he replied calmly and told me that this was necessary and important and we have to deal with it sooner or later. The best time is now before more damages happens. in less than 1 hrs time marks KAYLENEs 7th birthday on 8th December and I KNEW it was the best date to announce what I have to say. I decided that it is very important to inform you girls through FB because I know most girls read our fanpage and I need to reach out as many people as possible... I need you all (esp the Westies) to read the whole letter and understand fully what is going on. I will be 100 percent honest with you and I will tell you every single bit of my journey. It is going to be a long letter to you, so kindly bear with me. ***With our deepest regret, our 2nd outlet WILL NOT BE opened for business in Jurong.*** For months since March, KAYLENE has been keeping a little secret that we will be opening our 2nd retail outlet in a mall in Jurong. Since then, the girls and I had been busy preparing new designs, more stocks and met various factories and suppliers on this project. With Gods blessing, KAYLENE has good reputation and thankfully for that, all our factories and suppliers were very supportive and came on board to help KAYLENE with this project, they offered whatever help they could to KAYLENE and that is to churn pieces in shorter time, gave us competitive prices and even gave us additional help in whatever we could. We are indeed very blessed and thankful for the love showered upon us. I have been because of this project, spent much lesser time in the shop as we did alot of travelling and began sourcing for more things like buttons, fabric, new ideas.. the list was long! We also hired 2 extra wonderful girls and was training them to be ready for the new outlet. KAYLENE has to have the same standard across the 2 outlets. This was extremely important to us and we spent extra time and money on making sure the girls will be equipped with good knowledge etc. I also did put in alot ALOT of money into this project, and to those who had met me in person in shop, whenever I told them with a smile that I am broke, they laughed it off and said it is impossible. The truth was, I am broke. KAYLENE has never in her 7 years history where she has to worry about her staffs salary and rental. This time, we did and it was causing me so much pain and many nights, I couldnt sleep well due to the stress. I had many mini panic attacks and cried for no reason and all. But I know it was for the good, and it was for you girls and EVERY SINGLE TIME I faced you ladies, I wear my brightest smile and hide all the fears I have and served you all wholeheartedly. I slogged very hard, I constantly find ways to make sure theres money for the girls and for this, I thank God that I have Mr Ling to help me financially. He was there when I needed him most and it was there and then I was reminded on why we as couple are constantly frugal and it was times like this, we can support each other when one is falling down. The stocks are crazy lots. We have planned 4 TIMES more than usual stocks as we know it is going to be the peak season and we need these huge amount of stocks for the 2 malls. It was necessary because we know it was our duty to make sure you girls get to wear the prettiest during festive season. My recent order from 1 single factory was more than 500 pieces. In summary, you can understand how much money has been out. Fast forward today, last friday, I was so excited and officially announced that we are moving into the new mall and my good friend Karen and my wonderful right hand Juliah was with me to do the moving in. My in laws helped me out with the delivery and we were so excited! But this didnt last long as when we stepped into the mall and noticed something was not right. I do not wish to elaborate the details of how horrified and disappointed I was on what I saw. What was promised and signed as contract did not fulfil by the other party. I was felt this tight sharp pain on my chest and tried to stay so focus. My girls by my side were perfect. They made sure I was in good hands and made sure I was sound enough to focus on whats to be done next. While waiting for the buyer to hurry down and meet me in person to discuss, I started to ask myself the CORE REASON for doing this expansion. It wasnt about Face and Showing Off to other people that KAYLENE is doing well. It wasnt about making more money for I know more shops means MORE problems... It wasnt about bringing KAYLENE to greater heights for my personal ego-moments It was simply because we want KAYLENE to be able to reach out to more girls and that they can be beautiful and confident through our clothes. We build this company slowly and steadily all because we must make sure that while we grow, you girls must have the BEST from us. You girls deserves the best and cannot be shortchanged. It had been the same REASON 7 years ago and it will still be TODAY... I was asked by Mr Ling what was on my mind. I asked myself that KAYLENE has a standard to maintain. KAYLENE has build in a way that customers who patronise us also bring home a brand, a status whenever they wear our items. I felt that if I insisted on moving into the mall, I will bring down this status to this brand. You girls support us because you SUPPORT THE BRAND. You girls love KAYLENE because of the image you get. I cannot let this be tarnished just because I have so much money pumped into this project! I told myself, despite the fact that I have spent so much money on this project, I can earn it back again eventually. BUT I will never be able to earn back the trust and faith from you if I degrade KAYLENEs brand and image. I cannot afford to take such risk and I will let EVERY single one of you down if I insisted on setting the outlet there. And then after the discussion with the other 3, we have made the executive decision to withdraw from the project. I cried so hard, I blamed myself and I kept saying that I am a failure. I have let everyone who are anticipating the 2nd mall down and I couldnt accept the fact that I have caused so many people inconvenience. I switched off for 2 days and went into this depressed mode. I couldnt face the world, not today, let me be selfish was on my mind and it was horrible.... Thank God for people who loved me so much and TOO MUCH, they gave me new angles to look at and reminded me that this is not the end of the road. It was Gods way of preventing me from further damages and further problems. They gave me sound advice and told me the next steps and I am now in the midst of preparing the necessary to make sure I will have a proper closure with the mall. So there it is. We will not have our 2nd outlet in Jurong any more. KAYLENE will focus on her 1 boutique and continue to give the best to her customers. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the KAYLENE babes for standing behind me, supporting me and remind me that they will be there for me. I wanna thank inlaws for being so wonderful and so loving to me. I wanna thank Karen and Mark and Priscilla for making sure I was ok that night when this happened. I wanna thank my mama, papa and sis for being so understanding. I wanna thank ALL the customers who sensed something was not right with me and told me to focus on my things, they will call shop to settle any items they want. I wanna thank my friends for being such a superb bunch..., I NEED TO THANK Mr Ling for being such a supportive husband. Thank you for being the first one to help me and kept reminding on my CORE PURPOSE to doing this business and lastly, I NEED TO THANK God for sending out warning signs to prevent me for further damages and sending me so MANY MANY MANY angels to support me. I am very sorry for the inconvenience caused to the excited Westies. Thank you for reading this. Kayde Yeo
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 15:21:26 +0000
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