yankaykay

Today’s blog post aims to teach all of you 2 things.

1) The dynamics of a business

2) Why you should not be a troll

 

In the simplest of business models, the soundest theory would be that of producing a supply that meets a demand, and if you succeed in doing that, rightfully you will make a profit.

 

So how do you make a profit? You get your supply at the lowest price possible and sell it to meet the demand at the highest price possible. The difference would be your profit.

 

Say you buy a candy cane at $x, and your friend desperately wants it and is willing to pay you $(x+2) because she doesn’t know/care where to get it at $x. Your subsequent profit would be $(x+2) – $x= $2, correct?

 

So in a business, MAXIMIZING this very profit would be the aim, yes? Assuming you are a legit business and have overheads, like staff, rent, sourcing, travel, gas etc to cover, this $2 profit would count for very little EVEN if you were to sell 100 candy canes.

 

Even if I didn’t have ANY overheads(IMPOSSIBRUUU!), if I want to attain a profit of $10000, I need to sell 5000 candy canes to enough people who don’t know/care to source where to pay $x for a candy cane AND are willing to pay $(x+2) for one. Everyone with me?

 

Which brings me to the inspiration behind this post. This TROLL has been bitching on Twitter about the price of the products on KandyKayne, WHICH IS FINE cos everyone’s entitled to their own opinion on the value of stuff.

 

For example, if he had said, “KandyKayne products are pricey.” OR “Look! I found these breadcutters for so cheap!”, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE.

 

BUT he has been making comments on where else to get it cheaper IN COMPARISON to my .com. If he has say 100 followers and is just voicing out a harmless but informed opinion, I guess I wouldn’t be so pissed.

 

This imbecile is a has-been BLOGGER. He was Nuffnang’s Featured Blogger in Aug 2007(TROLOLOL talk about epic OVER?). If this asshole isn’t at all familiar to you, trust me, you are not alone. I, too, had no freaking clue who the fuck he is other than that his Twitter handle is vaguely familiar cos he replies my tweets in a friendly/non-offensive manner once in a while(fuckin 2-faced troll).

 

My sources tell me he got a lot of hits last time from Xiaxue when he trolled on her. I went to his blog yesterday and from a mostly unbiased POV, nothing there interests me. He’s not particularly good-looking nor funny nor interesting to say the least. I went there looking for his Twitter timeline(cos I blocked him) and found myself yawning in 5 mins.

 

So yes, I was all “Who DAFUQ is this person?” when my followers told me about his offensive tweets, and I got even more furious when I found out he is/was a blogger. He has 1474 Twitter followers(at last view). Significant to wreck some damage with his obtuse blabbering, I’d say.

 

I have just under 24k. I bitch and rant like mad BUT I DON’T FUCK WITH OTHER PEOPLE’S RICEBOWL, UNPROVOKED.

 

In all my travels to various parts of the world to get stock for KandyKayne, I’ve bumped into the owners/partners of online stores WAY bigger than KandyKayne. I am a blogger/Twitterer with a significant following. It would benefit KandyKayne indefinitely announcing I get my stock from the same suppliers as XXXX blogshops, some whose products are priced HIGHER than KandyKayne’s.

 

I don’t do it. Why? INTEGRITY. ETHICS.

 

I nod politely or pretend I never saw them, and I don’t breathe a word about it, especially not on a public domain. I move on with my life and them with theirs.

 

Everyone’s running a business. Everyone worked to get to where they are. Some more, some less, but I credit it to them. EVEN when certain blogshops undermined my business and COPIED MY STYLING AND UNDERCUT MY PRICES, I never exposed them. It’s unscrupulous, but it’s still work, it’s still business.

 

If I blogged/tweeted about other people’s business secrets/methods, or where to get a cheapER deal in comparison to the products these businesses are offering, it’s just plain unethical. ANY BUSINESS OWNER WOULD BE ANGRY.

 

I NEVER exposed any other business because I understood at least why they did what they did, underhandedly or not. But this troll is a fuckin graphics designer, WHAT DAFUQ is he doing this to me for???

 

ON TOP OF THAT, he is a fellow(it’s killing me to type this word, trust me) blogger, who JOLLY WELL KNOWS the repercussions of online disclosure, and he tweeted stuff like this:

He used MY picture AND MY price here.

 

He quoted KandyKayne here.

Told people where to get it for cheaper than KandyKayne here.

 

And it wasn’t the first time he did it.

 

I HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO TAKE IT PERSONALLY.

 

Pretty free now, so I’d trouble myself to explain why this is so fucked up and ill-informed and detrimental.

 

So he says he can get the same product for “150 baht in BKK” (the fuckface listed a link to my .com as well), which according to today’s Thai baht to Singapore Dollar exchange rate, is SGD6.14. I do not doubt that. I imagine if I were a GIANT manufacturer of iphone cases and I have 50 factories producing these cases in copious quantities in triple quick time, I COULD sell at MUCH LESS than that.

 

Even if I were a just a supplier and have hundreds or thousands of these cases in every colour, I COULD SELL FOR LESS.

 

The problem of the matter is, I am NOT. I am just an online store owner, selling apparel and accessories to young/-ish girls ONE AT A TIME.

 

Let’s take the candy cane example I gave you all earlier. If I were the freaking manufacturerer/supplier of said candy canes at $x/candy cane, and I have 1,000,000 candy canes to distribute over 1000 locations to be sold at, I COULD sell at $(x+2) or even $(x+1) per candy cane AND still make a decent profit.

 

But again, I am not. I take it EXCLUSIVE and VERY LIMITED number of pieces per colour per design. Some of the items on KandyKayne, we only have 3-5 pieces each because of unavailable stock/limited budget. I’d be honest and say usually more, but YES we do bring in VERY small numbers.

 

Assuming I bring in 10 of those cases and sell all of them each at 150 baht, EVEN IF MY STOCK WAS TOTALLY FREE, I’d make 1500 baht. OR SGD61.40.

 

The factors you CAN see would be the number of tweets/blog posts I put in to hype about each product(people do unfollow ALL the time cos they get irritated by “spam”), the effort I put in to style and shoot each product, product description(EVERY WORD and PUNCTUATION is written by me), etc.

 

What you DON’T see are the air tickets, hotel rooms, cargo/shipping charges, taxes, cash in stuck stock(to get one candy cane at $x, I’d probably need to buy 10 or 20, if they don’t get sold, my capital is stuck in this leftover stock), time spent overseas working away from loved ones, time that could be spent doing advertorials/shoots that guarantee income for me, the money I pay monthly to the host server for KandyKayne’s abnormal traffic. SO many tangible AND intangible factors NONE of you see.

 

For this 1500 baht. Or SGD61.40. R U KIDDING ME???

 

BTW, I just clicked on the link he tweeted for the bread molds, it was the Winnie the Pooh breadcutter(found here on KandyKayne). His link says $5.00 WITHOUT shipping and doesn’t seem to have the Piglet breadcutter that the KandyKayne set, priced at $22, has. The rough estimate of 2 of these would come up to about $15 inclusive of shipping BUT it’s without the piglet mold AND you still gotta wait for it to get shipped from Korea. HARDLY THE SAME PRODUCT. Unless you are so truly blind/cheapskate/don’t mind waiting/can’t be fucked.

 

Again, if I were a giant online store(like *market), I could potentially sell at much less, cos of the sheer bulk I would have. As it is, my COST for these molds is MUCH higher than the selling price on this site(more than double, cross my heart.) Maybe cos of the quantity I take, more likely cos the ones I sell ARE MADE IN JAPAN, or maybe cos I’m just not that great a businesswoman(sarcasm intended).

 

All I know is, I put my whole heart into KandyKayne, personally sourcing out each item and counting the stock myself, to bring all the kawaii things I think you all will like to you. KandyKayne IS different from other blogstores; whether you agree or not means nothing to me. The profit margin is justifiable to me and no one else.

 

If you don’t trust my taste in style/quality, and you wanna shop somewhere else cos it’s cheaper, it’s FINE.

 

If you think the stuff on KandyKayne is too pricey, it’s FINE.

 

If you don’t care that I personally inspect and can vouch for each item, it’s FINE.

 

But if you’re a BLOGGER(has-been or otherwise) AND you troll on KandyKayne like this, it’s NOT FINE. FUCK YOU, JAYLEIF. I HOPE YOU SWALLOW THE SHIT YOU SPEW, YOU FUCKFACE.

 

To the rest of you, thank you for bearing with me in this pretty vulgar and very angry post. Please continue to support KandyKayne; it’s my baby, that’s why I’m so protective. The blood, sweat and tears I poured into KandyKayne, none of you will know.

 

Fuck you if you try play punk with my baby. X

 

P/S: After my tweets, the troll still tweeted indignantly like he didn’t do anything wrong. Dear hasbeen, let me tell you how this is trolling. You went onto kandykayne.com and/or my tweets, took my links AND images and tweeted them, then told your 1000+ followers to get cheaper, alternative(possibly inferior) versions of my products in BKK and *market(even tweeted the direct link) for cheaper, TWICE over THREE tweets and 1 reply LISTING MY .COM and you act all innocent and accused that I’m calling you a troll?? U MAD BRO?

Trolling is NOT defined by the number of words/tweets. It’s the repercussions of words, words that you KNEW were detrimental to me, words that you CHOSE to use against me. And this, asshole, is my fight back.