SugarPop Needs Help

SugarPop is a new start up, homebased concern. I make children's clothing. This started as a hobby, sewing for my children, friends & family, then grandchildren. The main income being another homebased concern in the Market Research Industry. My partner, wheelchair bound & unemployable, in this country, makes chocolate products which we sell at markets over weekends.

Then COVID hit the world. As COVID restrictions started strangling small businesses like ours, our income started reducing drastically, markets were prohibited & Market Research jobs became scarce. We decided that our only option was to formalize my hobby & take it online, with the expectation of bringing some money in to live off.

We spent our savings buying materials to make a decent sized work table (I was using the dining room table), shelving, paint etc. We built the table & shelving ourselves. I designed a clothing label & had those printed, bought some 2nd hand machines as back-ups to my already old & tired machines & scoured fabric sales to stock up on my fabric requirements. The plan was to keep money aside to live off while the clothing was getting started.

Once the sewing area was set up, Murphy decided it was time to cause havoc, the car broke down, repeatedly (an old 1996 Toyota), the oven, plumbing, electrics all started breaking. If that wasn't bad enough, my overworked sewing machines started giving problems as well. So now we were spending our left over living money fixing everything.

The reason for swallowing our pride & going public with this funding request is two-fold.

We need money to buy food, to pay bills like rates & taxes, electricity & telephone/internet while SugarPop is struggling to get sales. The 2nd reason is to upgrade machines & to get necessary equipment like machine feet (specific feet help increase the capabilities of the machines), a decent press stud applicator & cutting mats to enable a more professional look to SugarPop's output in order to be able to compete with every other small business in the clothing industry.

We don't expect it all for nothing. As part of this request, we have set up a reward for donations over $100 & will also pump back any funding that is over & above what we need into other struggling small homebased businesses that are on this platform.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank, from the bottom of our hearts, everyone who donates, thereby helping us survive, your generosity is appreciated.