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Discovered! 505
Odd Enterprises

Hidden Dollars

How to Make
Money at Home

Small Business
of Your Own

You Can Own
a Business

Emogene Ties is a happy husband and wife combination. Emma Simon designs and makes the ties, while Bert Simon sells them. Each insists on giving the other credit for the success of the business. Mrs. Simon says that if it weren't for Bert's salesmanship, she would have probably spent the rest of her life, as far as ties are concerned, with making some for Christmas presents, and for a few friends throughout the year just as a hobby. Bert says that if it weren't for the perfectly beautiful and beautifully perfect ties his wife turns out, it would be impossible to sell them to the fine stores which form their entire list of accounts.

It all started when Emma Simon, with spare time on her hands, happened to see an advertisement in a San Francisco paper, "Earn money making ties at home." Now she had sewn for years, making dresses, coats, hats—in fact almost everything except neckties, but she saw no reason why she couldn't make one. She loved to sew, so the idea sounded like a pleasant way to use her spare time profitably.

The advertisers asked her to make a sample tie, liked it, and gave her a contract to make 250 ties at the rate of forty ties a week.

The sample tie she had made, she gave to her husband, who proudly showed it to some of his friends. To Mrs. Simon's surprise, several of them asked her to make ties for them. So in between making the ties for which she had contracted, she made ties for her husband's friends, and began to see the possibilities of a profitable hobby in spare time tie making, when her contract was finished.

She hesitated about going into competition with her employers, but this was solved when they paid her for the last of the ties, and told her they were unable to find a location, and would not open a shop after all!

WHEN THE Simons were making out income tax returns, their auditor ordered twelve ties—all red. As it is not practical to buy material for just one tie, she bought enough of twelve different red materials to make four ties each, so after the auditor had his ties, there were still thirty-six red neckties. With orders coming in briskly, Mrs. Simon bought more material until there were thirty-five different designs, and considered herself well stocked for some time.

Bert, seeing how much enjoyment his wife was getting from making the ties, decided to try to sell them to one or two stores. The first store to stock the ties was Hamilton's, an exclusive men's store in the West Portal district in San Francisco. Then he took them to Atkins, a fine men's store in downtown San Francisco. They examined the ties with interest, gave him several valuable tips on how to improve them, but did not take any to put in stock.

Next, he tried another exclusive men's store, Bullock & Jones. The manager and the neckwear buyer looked the ties over carefully, but Bert was very disappointed for they only said to leave his card. However, that afternoon they called to say they would try two dozen. Two days later they called for more.

Two weeks later, Atkins put in a dozen and a half. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, they called for more, to be delivered the next morning, as they had already sold eleven.

From this beginning in April, 1950, Emogene Ties went to fourteen accounts in December, which included the best men's stores in several towns near San Francisco and one each in Los Angeles, Honolulu, Dallas, Texas, and Omaha, Nebraska. The strange part of it was that they had only opened three accounts themselves—the others had all become interested by word-of-mouth advertising by other stores which were doing well with the ties.

An example of this was when a buyer for Bullocks in Los Angeles wanted to see the ties. He ordered ten dozen, saying, "I need ten dozen ties like I need my good tooth pulled, and it doesn't even ache, but they told me at Bullock & Jones what a good job you do, so I want to try them."

The Simons shipped ten dozen to Bullocks on September 29. On the first of November, they ordered their first repeat ten dozen.

MRS. SIMON could make six dozen ties a week herself, but that was not enough to keep up with the orders. It was obvious she would have to have help. She put an advertisement in the paper, and to her amazement, got 200 calls. Out of all these, she interviewed twenty, and got two who could do the work which lived up to her high standards. Six women now work for her—all housewives who work at home. Their normal production is twenty dozen a week, but during Christmas rush season, they speeded it up to twenty-five dozen a week.

Mrs. Simon will not accept any tie which is not perfect. Not all women who can sew and sew well can make ties. They must be able to do precision work and to follow instructions. They take out their ties in dozen lots.

Mrs. Simon's capital for starting Emogene Ties, was just the $165 she had earned making the contract ties. In order to make a fair profit on each tie, she has to keep the material costs down to around $15 a dozen. Labor and material costs average $21.50 a dozen. The ties wholesale for $36 a dozen less 7 percent, or $33.50 a dozen.

A spare bedroom was converted into a "factory" which holds all her equipment. The total cost of this equipment, including the sewing machine, was $325. The first 400 ties were made on the dining room table, but it was too low, so she designed her own cutting table—a Celotex slab mounted on two sawhorses of just the right height, which cost $18.50. Her finishing table is a piece of plyboard covered with woolen material, mounted on an old kitchen table. The ties are stored in an old chest of drawers. The rest of the equipment consists of an iron, ironing board, off-side cutting shears, and an improvised square made of two yardsticks (ordinary squares were too heavy and not long enough), and, of course, the sewing machine.

ONLY THE finest of all materials are used in Emogene Ties. The wool interlining, and the twelve momme flat habutae silk linings are bought wholesale. Mrs. Simon started buying five yards of lining silk at a time, but now buys 150 yards in one transaction. Out of fifty yards, lining the tie to the knot, it is possible to get twenty-three dozen linings. It takes between ⁷/8 and one yard of thirty-nine to forty-two-inch silk to make four ties.

As only a few ties are made from each, silk design, the silk will always have to be bought retail, because of the small amounts used, but since they have learned how successful the business is, the stores have become interested in selling silks to Mrs. Simon. They save remnants, send her samples, and call her when new shipments arrive. When possible, she buys discontinued salesmen's samples, but frequently pays as high as $6.50 a yard for silks. For most of her ties she uses dress silks rather than the regular tie silks.

Bert Simon's job in the manufacturing end of the business is to silk-screen the signature "Emogene" on each tie. Bert is known as one of San Francisco's best neon salesmen, and only sells the ties as a side line, but he says with a chuckle that if the ties keep gaining in popularity, he will have to give up neon and devote all his time to the ties.

Mrs. Simon has been able to draw $50 a week and reinvest in the business, which has built up to a rolling stock of sixty dozen ties. That is twenty dozen out, twenty dozen in the process of being cut, and material for twenty dozen others. The stock includes nearly 150 designs.

"Emogene" says that there are three peak seasons in the tie business—Easter, Father's Day, and Christmas. During January and February, ties are put away for Easter. After Easter, ties are saved up for Father's Day, and after Father's Day, for Christmas. That way, production can be kept at a level, but it requires watching your finances.

It is the patience to do precision work, the ability to visualize how silks will look made into ties, when buying silk, and the willingness to give meticulous attention to detail that decide how well your ties will do commercially. Anyone aspiring to make $5 ties for the finest stores must be a perfectionist, satisfied with only the best in materials and workmanship.

FOR ASPIRING tie makers, "Emogene" offers some helpful tips. Buy a good basic pattern (she uses McCall pattern number 1517) and follow the instructions that come with it.

Ties must be marked with tailor's chalk, never tailor's wax, as wax leaves a mark when pressed.

Ties are pressed flat, before being put together, but once put together they are blocked-never pressed. (Mrs. Simon uses forms she has designed especially.)

There are many little things that must be watched to make a really fine tie. The one tiny seam ³/8 inch long at the end, can make or break the tie. If the bar tack is crooked, the tie will pull.

Use a good interlining, and line to the knot.

To test a tie, it must hang perfectly straight when held by the small end. That proves that it is cut on a true bias.

Six interlinings can be cut at a time, and twelve thicknesses of lining, using an ordinary pair of tailor's shears. Twelve tie silks can be cut at a time if the design does not have to be spaced. Otherwise, they must be cut individually, as about sixty percent of Emogene Ties are cut.

Although she is a perfectionist, and a serious craftsman, Mrs. Simon has a good time with her fast-growing business. Both she and Bert have lively senses of humor. And while they give each other credit, they both say that much of the credit for the success of the business should go to their customers who have been so helpful in getting new accounts, giving valuable advice and in helping to procure hard-to-get materials.