Why is Thai Silk Magic?

3 Simple Questions:

• Are you looking for a fabric that is cool in summer and warm in winter?
• Need help finding a fabric that is natural, chemical free and completely safe for everyone to wear?
• Have you ever thought about combining the purchase of a unique exotic gift with the chance to provide a real opportunity to improve someone's lifestyle?

The answers to these questions provide the reasons why Thai silk is MAGIC.

Our Thai silk fabric is mystical and magic because of it's characteristics, production techniques and the lifestyle impacts it has for our village weavers.

1. MAGIC CHARACTERISTICS of Thai Silk Fabric

• Hand woven from a natural protein fiber that’s environmentally friendly
• The strongest natural fiber – stronger than a similar size filament of steel
• Most luxurious fabric – highly regarded in the fashion world
• Most absorbent fabric – makes it comfortable to wear in summer and while active
• Most comfortable fabric – low conductivity keeps warm air close to the skin and provides warmth in cold weather
• Its soil, moth and mildew resistant
• Has an amazing range of uses from shirts, neckties and dresses to high fashion, upholstery, bedding, curtains, pillow cases and even clothing for astronauts 

2. MAGIC OF SILK PRODUCTION in making Thai Silk Fabric

• More than 8,000 silkworms consuming approximately 350 pounds of mulberry leaves is required to supply enough silk for 10 blouses!
• It takes one of our weavers about 1 week to prepare, dye, wash, spin and then weave enough fabric for one party dress
• The patterns we use for our Thai silk are original and unique
• We always use natural dyes to provide our colour range. We guarantee our fabrics are eco-friendly and perfectly safe for everyone
• The natural dyes come from our local vegetables, trees, plants, wild flowers and soil (actually mud) and are very carefully mixed with lemon grass, eucalyptus, tamarind fruits and ants to create a colour-fast yarn that will be used to produce beautiful organic silk fabrics
• The silk weaving process is an extremely time consuming handloom process where a single weaver may only produce 2 meters of Thai silk fabric in a day
• As our traditional Thai silk fabric is hand woven each piece of Thai silk fabric is unique and cannot be duplicated.
• Our Thai silk fabrics are durable, versatile with uses for men, women, children and the home plus they are safe for everyone.

3. MAGIC IMPACT that Thai Silk Magic has a on our Village 

Creation of our Thai Silk Magic group that has as its KEY MISSION the improvement of the lifestyles of these financially poor weavers.

• Agreeing that Thai Silk Magic will pay fair remuneration and share all profits with the village weavers.
• Enabling these high quality traditional weavers access to a worldwide market for their wonderful Thai silk fabrics via their exclusive availability on our website
• Ensuring we create a win-win-win scenario for:

1. The environment with our natural processes 
2. The customer by having access to a unique, high quality Thai silk fabric
3. The village weavers, with the opportunity to improve their lifestyles
4. 
   

Enjoy Your Personalised Experience with Us

The unique combination of abilities in our Thai Silk Magic team together with Thai silk's magical properties and processes enable us to produce a totally original fabric that we are very proud to make available to the world.

Silk Fabric – What Really Is It?

Who Discovered Silk Fabric?

Silk fabric was discovered around 3000 BC in China and it’s believed that the empress Xi Ling-Shi was the first to develop the silks into fabrics. For many centuries that followed silk fabric was a closely guarded secret of all Chinese Emperors. This created a rare and extremely exclusive product that was as precious as gold and exotic spices when it finally appeared in early international trade.

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Even today, silk fabric is still a highly regarded and valuable product. Perhaps some of the reasons for this high regard come from the fact that it is a natural fabric with its own unique softness and luster.

Incredible Characteristics of Silk Fabric

Silk fabric is a really protein very similar to human hair and it contains some incredible characteristics that set it apart from all other fabrics. It is extremely durable, has a tensile strength greater than steel, can be dyed in a huge array of colours and has unbelievable moisture absorption capacity that gives it a soft feel on your skin as well as being warm in winters and cool to wear in the hotter months.

The Many Uses of Silk Fabrics

Silk fabric can be used for a wide variety of uses such as clothes, curtains, neckties, scarves and is even highly regarded as a fabric for home furnishings. Today silk fabric is highly valued by the world’s fashion industry and has established a benchmark of luxury and wealth.

Creating Silk Fabric

The various processes involved in silk fabric manufacturing is extremely time consuming and often very labour intensive. A huge amount of work is required to ensure the silk is of the highest possible quality to ensure, that in this very competitive international marketplace, the fibers and silk fabric products meet the customers’ expectations.

For example, it takes at least 1 week of a very competent hand weaver to produce enough silk fabric for a simple dress. This is one of the reasons why silk fabric products like dresses, neckties, drapes, scarves and even silk flowers are often so expensive.

However, the actual cost of silk fabric will vary considerably depending on the type you choose and there are some very high quality yet affordable silk fabrics available today.

4 Key Types of Silk Fabric

Silk fabric is derived from silk worms (that are actually caterpillars) that are cultivated in huge numbers. There are many forms of silk fabric but essentially there are 4 key types:

Mulberry Silk that is produced by silk worms fed exclusively on mulberry leaves. This is the basis of most commercial silk fabric. Raw mulberry silk can be either white or golden yellow in colour.

Eri Silk is created by silkworms that are fed on castor leaves with a pale yellow colour.

Mulga Silk comes from India and is produced by worms that feed on Soalu and Sorn plant leaves – usually mid-yellow in colour.

Tasar Silk produced by worms feeding on the leaves of the Asan plant. It is less lustrous than the mulberry silk but still of high quality. Tasar silk fabric is usually dark orange/copper colour

Other Silk Fabrics

From these 4 basic types of silk fabric, many other silks fabrics are made.

These fabrics include Dupioni (probably the highest quality and most expensive silk fabric), Charmeuse and Chiffon (still luxurious but more affordable than Dupioni).

Other major silk fabrics include Jacquard (from the famous Jacquard automated looms), and Naturally Dyed Thai Silk that is chemical free, has a little less vibrant colours but with unique patterns, totally safe and 100% eco-friendly (see image above).

Good Leadership Skills Uncovered - Key Lessons from a Thai Village

A Simple Definition of Good Leadership Skills

 
For anyone seeking good leadership skills our village leader provided nine key lessons. Check out this fantastic real life example of good leadership skills from a small Thai village

The capacity to stimulate a group of people to achieve specific objectives that would have been considered impossible to meet without the input, support and guidance of the leader shows good leadership skills.

Leadership skills are becoming increasingly valued, so much so that Masters in Public Administration, MBA and other degree programs are making leadership their primary focus.

In Thailand the leader of the family is referred to as the “phu yai” and a village is called a “ban,” so the leader of a village is the “phu yai ban.”

With the full support of our village leader, Thai Silk Magic cooperative operates from our small Thai village. Our village of Ban Dong Yang contains a rich blend of cultures as its located only a few miles from both the Laos and Cambodian borders.

Our Village Leader

Our village leader has achieved impressive results by applying simple yet remarkably effective leadership skills.

Thai culture is hierarchal and primarily Buddhist. People are very comfortable with the concept that certain individuals in the community deserve to have power. They believe that people in power achieved this situation by accumulating merit in earlier existences.

Two Distinctive Thai Values

By combining two very distinctive Thai values on a daily basis our village leader has created changes that many thought impossible. The two key leadership values are the application of power of authority and the traditional system of patronization or paternal father-like approach to the leadership role.

Our village leader applies his traditional authority with toughness and great clarity so that no one is left wondering what the objectives are, why they are important or exactly how each individual can contribute.

Decision Making

Village leaders are expected to exercise responsibility for decision making called “phraket.” This responsibility is rarely delegated but our leader encourages all constructive ideas prior to making any important decisions. After all, he is also a politician who will face re-election in four years. His tenure in the position will rest on his capacity to display good leadership skills.

Welfare Based Leadership

At the same time, the village leader acts as a village patron or father in his approach to all village members. He helps and cares for all family members as if they were his own. By taking a real interest in their personal welfare, despite the demands on his time, he creates very strong bonds, engenders great loyalty and can effectively demand enthusiastic support for village improvement projects. This paternal process called “phrakhun” is highly valued by Thai.

The Right Balance

Good leadership skills are evident when the leader strikes the right balance of “phraket” and “phrakhun.” Excessive use of authority without perceived care for the people or an inability to exercise his power (make the tough decisions) despite his village popularity, will see him replaced as village leader at the next election.

Real Example of Good Leadership Skills

An example of good leadership skills in action occurred in late 2008; our new village leader proposed a major project to upgrade the main village dirt roads. Our roads became impassable mud holes every year during the three months of monsoon rains.

With limited available local government funds we had complained for years about this problem with little or no response. We did not think the leader’s proposed project was at all possible. We had given up on the chance to have better village roads.

"The Deal"

Undaunted by the initial village response our village leader approached and negotiated a deal with a nationwide raw material supplier. The company agreed to provide the road material supplies, an experienced supervisor and machinery at a very low cost.

In return we would provide all the required labour to the company free of charge for the six weeks construction period. Plus we would provide an additional fifty people free of charge for one month that the company could use at its discretion. The village leader also proposed that we would supply all the local company employees and their families with rice for the six weeks road construction period.

Our village had just completed one of its most successful rice harvests and, with no local employment opportunities we had normally hard-working labour idle for a few months. This idleness often created problems and our village leader wanted to avoid this difficult problem. The village leader also knew that the raw material supplier was looking to expand its operation and needed more labour to successfully open two new outlets.

Setting Out the Plan Details

The phu yai ban held a village meeting and used good leadership skills to communicate his plan in a very clear step-by-step process that included the specific requirements of our village workers and their families. This ranged from the length of time of the project, daily working conditions, types of work to be performed, the actual work roles of the leader, the concept of working for no pay during the project, organizing transportation plus the type and amount of food supplies required from the workers’ families.
The road project outlined was a wonderful surprise to all of us and we resoundingly agreed to the proposal.

The Results

We got our cement roads completed in very quick time with the phu yai ban doing daily progress inspections, organizing the provision of refreshments, providing encouragement and overseeing the provision of meals at the end of each day for all workers. We can now easily drive around our village and even walk to our local shop without losing our shoes in deep mud holes.

The raw material supply company successfully launched their two new outlets. Fourteen of our village people have remained with the company in paid employment positions, including three as supervisors.

Rewards and Recognition

At the completion of the project the phu yai ban arranged a special presentation of recognition gifts and awards for the key members of the project. All employees of the now three local company outlets plus our entire village attended a great night of presentations and entertainment held at our village school.

The highly valued gifts presented truly underlined the real appreciation of the company and our village for a project that exceeded all expectations. As a result of news reports of this function, other villages in our region have indicated their interest into how we achieved such a project result after so many years of failure.

Some Additional Spin-Offs

The project was also completed well under budget and we used the savings to completely renovate and re-stock our village shop much to the delight of all the kids who now had ice cream available.

An additional spin-off was that twelve of our local village boys, who were just finishing high school, were offered apprenticeship positions with the nationwide company. This was very important as there are no regular employment opportunities in our village.

Everyone was delighted with the outcome of this project. For his wisdom, support and overall good leadership skills our phu yai ban was showered with gifts, including some silk fabric  made by our very own Thai Silk Magic village weavers.

Key Lessons We Can Learn

For anyone seeking good leadership skills our village leader provided the following nine key lessons:

1. Clearly identify your group’s strengths and weaknesses
2. Look for joint ventures where your group’s strengths can add value
3. Seek input from all relevant parties
4. Make the tough decisions
5. Communicate clearly all aspects of the project so that everyone understands and appreciates the importance of their specific input
6. Inspect what you expect
7. Show genuine interest and care for all people concerned
8. Keep your power of authority and workers concerns in balance
9. Be prepared to generously reward and recognize your key participants with high quality gifts that will be an enduring reminder of goals achieved.

The good leadership skills of the phu yai ban have generated even greater loyalty and respect that should see him remain in power for a very long time.

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Discover Good Work Ethics - Key Lessons from a Thai Village

You maybe surprised that your search for "work ethics" has taken you to this page on a Thai silk site!

Like all successful businesses we are people orientated and in creating our handmade silk we rely on some simple yet important principles of working together using good work ethics.

Are You Seeking Specialist Advice?

Then check out the University of Georgia Online Work Ethic Specialist Site

Here you will find online information and training about "work ethics" for use in Education, Training and the "workplace". Here is their link .....The Work Ethic Site

The information provided is FREE and Full of Valuable Information - and they are EXPERTS in
the field of 'work ethics"

This site also provides self-scoring work ethic inventories, a history of "work ethic", information about available work ethic curriculum materials and valuable  links to other "work ethic" resources.

We at Thai Silk Magic has no connection with the University and this  Work Ethics Link is simply provided as a service to visitors to this page. We hope you find it valuable.

Obviously we are not experts in this specialist field but below we provide what we consider to be great examples fom our Thai village of 8 key lessons of "good work ethics"

Please read on to discover some great work ethics lessons that you may be able to introduce to your business.

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The real meaning of good work ethics can be seen from examples from our Thai village.

Our village and our community business, Thai Silk Magic, shows how the practical applications of respect, restraint and empathy can have fantastic results.

What is a Good Work Ethic?

Good work ethics includes a positive attitude with all work projects, being prepared to go the extra mile to get things done, creating a work environment where great teamwork can flourish and having the capacity to encourage the best performance standards from your fellow workers.

An important point I must make here is "Fair Trade" as it relates to work ethics and is something that many people are concerned about when dealing with a nation like Thailand. We firmly believe in and practice Fair Trade and for more information on this controversial point click this link to read our Fair Trade Blog Post.

Some Traditional Thai Cultural Characteristics

In order to discuss our village examples of "work ethics" it's important to understand some of our cultural characteristics as they are an integral part of our work relationships.

We are located in the remote rural Thai village of Ban Dong Yang in far north-eastern Thailand and home for our Thai Silk Magic business. Our village regards very highly the traditional cultural characteristics of respect for authority and “sanuk,” a sense of fun in everything they do.

The integration of hierarchal respect, a sense of fun and “mai pen rai”, an easy going approach to life, significantly impact our villager’s work ethics. For westerners this latter characteristic can also be VERY frustrating when they are working in a joint venture with Thais!

Respect for Authority

People in positions of authority such as the village leader, head of family, monks and the village teachers make all the important decisions. Out of respect for these authority figures we will do the various tasks required with enthusiasm but we will always be looking for ways to have fun while we work.

There are about 390 people in our village. Like me, most of the adults have had only three or fours years of formal schooling. Rice farming is very labour intensive and this limited school opportunities for most families.

The Importance of Education

At the end of every day our Thai Silk Magic team inspects each other’s work, discuss any problems and demand the highest quality work of each other as their fabrics represent our village to the world. This process of self-assessment underlies the real pride they have in their work and success in this helps overcome the lack of education opportunities most of us had.

Today education for the children is highly valued by all village families who will do everything they can to ensure their children gain the all the benefits of attending school.

Our eight dedicated village teachers earn very small salaries of about $500 per month. However, every day teachers are provided with a range of food items; their homes or cars cleaned by the children and families volunteer to do chores or work tasks for the teachers. Irrespective of the family’s own work loads, support is given to our teachers as a sign of appreciation and great respect.

The highly regarded value of giving honour and respect called “hai kiad” and the generous help provided by the families to the teachers provides an example of good work ethics displayed by our village every day.

Kreng Jai

Our village also highly values “kreng jai,” the restraint of one’s own interests and desires. Kreng jai becomes especially important in situations of potential conflict or embarrassment. People will display great sensitivity in dealing with others in the work place, especially if someone has done something incorrectly or not of an acceptable standard.

Applying Sensitivity and Restraint

By using great sensitivity and restraint in dealing with individual’s work problems, relationships with work colleagues are not damaged. We always try to avoid extreme displays of emotions and these values are referred to as “sam ruam.” Sam ruam creates good relationships and great teamwork.

Great sensitivity in all dealings with fellow workers is practiced by our village people. Displays of generosity (“nam jai” which literally means water of the heart) together with empathy and understanding (“hen jai” which means see into the heart) enable a work ethic environment to flourish based on a caring and supportive sense of duty.

Empathy and Understanding

Last month at Thai Silk Magic we discovered that we had to completely reorganize some of our traditional silk weaving methods in order to meet some specific customer requirements without reducing quality.

We also needed to improve productivity levels. This involved changes to the hand looms, adjustments made to the weaving processes and a longer more labour intensive natural dyeing process.

Any of these changes could have resulted in a more stressful workplace. However, the empathy and understanding of the weavers combined with their desires to produce the highest quality silk fabrics, overcame all the challenges. This example of good work ethics in practice created a positive environment for the changes to be implemented harmoniously and successfully.

Relationships First

In all situations, whether they are work or pleasure, Thais build relationships first and then focus on objectives. The village system of interdependence (“long kag”) provides yet another example of good work ethics. People think nothing of working very long hours attending to their friend’s needs.

Actually time is not regarded in the same way as many advanced western countries - very few houses in our village have a clock. In fact, most people would never know today's date, let alone what time it is! What is more important is to help a friend no matter how long it takes.

There is a powerful work ethic combining "long kag" and teamwork with family, friends and neighbours often combining resources to achieve common objectives, especially in the busy rice planting and harvesting seasons.

Our relative isolation in many way forces us to work together in order to survive but it still amazes me how people will go out of their way so much to help another - a little like country towns in more modern societies where social relationships seem to be stronger.

Importance and Impact of Strong Social Bonds

These strong social bonds are continually nurtured with people avoiding conflicts or confrontations in order to preserve these important relationships.

This results in a dedicated group of workers displaying superb teamwork.

These teams often perform heavy physical labour by men and women, plus very long hours in extremely difficult weather conditions without looking for any payback. These qualities portray another outstanding example of good work ethics.

Many times you will see teams of workers returning home very late in the evening after completing 12 or 13 hours of back-breaking work. Even though very weary, people always have a smile and will be happy to stop and chat about their day. These teams of volunteers happily help out friends and neighbours with their farming requirements and in so doing, provide yet another example of good work ethics.

Recent Example of Good Work Ethics

At a recent Thai Silk Magic meeting our  weavers had long discussions about various improvements we could bring to our natural dyeing processes.

These processes require very labour intensive and time consuming tasks, especially the searching out and gathering of the range of tree bark, flowers, plants, insects and vegetables required to make our dyes. Quite often these ingredients must be picked before the sun comes up!

Very early the following morning many bucket loads of these natural dye materials appeared as if by magic. The materials had been gathered in the middle of the night, despite the very heavy monsoon rains. We had not decided not to gather the dye materials with the extremely severe monsoon weather conditions.

However, a group of our weavers braving pouring rains and extremely windy conditions, worked throughout the night by lamp lights, trudging through mud and slush up to their thighs, dodging water snakes to collect an amazing quantity of materials. These ladies just wanted to help our Thai Silk Magic group in any way they could. I couldn't believe it!

This wonderful act of volunteer help under such adverse conditions illustrates perfectly the meaning of nam jai and provides another example of good work ethics of our village people.

Obviously I am a very proud Thai lady and really appreciate the work ethics of our village. Of course, we have lots of challenges and problems just like everywhere else and I am not trying to make out that our village is in any way a perfect example of working relationships.

Far from it but we do get the job done with in a stress-free way, with pride and a smile on our faces!

Key Lessons of Good Work Ethics

The real meaning of good work ethics that can be seen from our village examples includes following eight key lessons:

1. Have a positive attitude to work
2. Ensure you retain a place for fun and relaxation in your work regime
3. Show respect for the decision maker even if you disagree with the decision
4. Understand that great teamwork relies on genuine interpersonal relationships
5. Exercise restraint in times of stress in the workplace
6. Be empathetic with your work colleagues
7. Treat co-workers with sensitivity
8. Be prepared to do everything you can to support an agreed project

Within our village and our Thai Silk Magic team, the strong relationship bonds, sense of fun and the ability to encourage the very best out of each other at work, provides a wonderful example of good work ethics.

Teamwork is the key and often this is determined by the type of Leadership shown.

Online Work Ethics Specialist

Dont forget to check out the University Of Georgia: The Work Ethic Site - it's FREE and Full of
Valuable Information.

Click this link to read an interesting blog post on Good Leadership Skills - it may surprise you!

Your Next Steps

  1. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Just complete the form on the left hand column above. This will not just provide you with more "behind the scenes" work-related stories from our village but also enables you to have access to exclusive shopping deals with Thai Silk Magic. So join our other lovely subscribers and enjoy the great benefits - we'd love that.  We may surprise and amaze you with what we can custom create for you.

2. Contact Us

If there is more information on our work practices that you would like just use this link to Contact Us. We'd be delighted to help you if we possibly can.

Inside Thai Silk Magic

This video will give you a look at how Thai Silk Magic creates their magnificent handmade, 100% naturally dyed Thai silk fabric.

Thai Silk Magic is a family sponsored organisation dedicated to the improvement of the lifestyles of our proud yet very poor village.

Our objective is to market to the world the magnificent Tha silk fabrics created in our village.

All our processes are handmade and ONLY use totally natural dyes, often created by secret dyeing methods handed down through the generations by grandmothers and mothers.

We hope you enjoy this brief overview of Thai Silk Magic. We will bring you more videos in the near future and we thank you from our hearts for your very kind patronage.

The World of Thai Silk Magic

We wanted to share some ideas of our daily life here in our small Thai village. So we compiled a brief video for you to be able to appreciate our situation a little better. We hope you enjoy our first video production. After watching, for your interest, please check out the 2 other bits of local news below and dont' forget to check out our friendly store whilst you are here. 

We are committed to personal quality service and that's the reason we wanted to share some of our life with you. 



Buffaloes and Tractors

We also have rice farming and only a few years ago buffaloes did most of the work - today we still have the buffaloes but they are now treated as revered members of the family and are not put to work any more. A lot of the rice planting and harvesting work is still by hand but we also have small tractors for ploughing and harvester machines for those who can afford them.

5am Start to Our Day!

Our village had about 400 people at the last unofficial count, with a village school, 2 small shops and our Buddhist temple. We also have a village "radio station" that blasts out from loudspeakers positioned around our village, all the local and regional news every morning at 5am!! Well at least we can't say we are not informed.

Our Blog

Why Village Lifestyles is our Key Mission?

By reading this we hope you can understand and appreciate why our key mission is improving our village lifestyles. Thai Silk Magic is dedicated to helping our village people to have better opportunities in the future

Our small village of Ban Dong Yang is located in the rural north east of Thailand called “Isaan”. Although it is one of the poorest regions, the people who live here represent the heart and soul of Thailand. It's also the "rice bowl" of Thailand.

If you have a map of Thailand handy, you will probably not find our little village but if you look at the far north east corner of the map maybe you can find our nearest town called Si Sa Ket, which is about 15 miles away.

Climate extremes and poor soils continually make life tough for our people but these challenges must be balanced against an infectious smile and a real sense of generosity. The people may be poor but they also have the desire to give what ever limited resources they have plus their time and attention to others, just because of the good feelings this generates in both.

Every day without fail, our neighbours come to our home with food they want to share even though they have limited amounts themselves. They just love to give. This is the spirit of “nam-jai” that literally means “juice of the heart” or generosity.

Si Sa Ket Province

Rice farming is the major rural activity along with maize, sugar cane, absolutely delicious fruit and a wonderful range of exotic vegetables. However, our province is most famous for the resilience of its people, Thai silkworms and onions!!

The average family monthly income is less than US$100  - many have less than US$80. As a result, nearly every household needs to borrow money and be in constant debt just to meet even the basic essentials of life. This is a real problem but it still does not deter them from being “sanook” or having a sense of fun in absolutely everything they do. Being happy and having fun permeates all aspects of their lives despite their economic challenges.

Multi Day Events

Births, deaths and marriages are all 3 or 4 day events in our village. It does not matter what you may have been busy doing, at times like these you stop and get together with everyone to share joy, excitement, sorrow and support.

The Importance of "Sanook"

“Sanook” even occurs at funerals once the body has been cremated, with the sounds of loud Thai country style music coming from giant loudspeakers, reverberating throughout the entire village. Don't even think about sneaking off for a quiet sleep! People eat and dance to all hours of the night and look to the future with renewed hopes and dreams of a better life.

The women of Isaan not only do the family chores, but help the men during rice planting and harvesting. They also artistically hand-weave Thai silk fabrics for relaxation, and sometimes for the chance to earn some extra money at the local markets.

Enthusiasm and Pride

Rural Debt Problem in North Eastern Thailand

Rural debt is a major problem in Isaan and the farmers borrow every year from the government agricultural bank. They often have to borrow elsewhere to pay the bank back. People do not give up easily and try to earn enough money to repay the debt by selling their rice and working long hours in construction or other activities during the breaks in the rice farming cycle.

Despite their resilience and inspiring survival instincts, the rice prices are low; the jobs available are very poor paying and the cost of even basic living conditions are increasing every year.

However, the resulting ever-increasing burden of debt does not diminish their hopes for a better future for their children. Teachers are highly revered in our village as they represent an opportunity for the children to achieve opportunities that their parents could only dream about.

That is why this year we were so upset when we saw tears in the eyes of parents who were forced to take their children out of our village school because they could not pay for the uniforms or the small school fees.

Our Key Mission

 This life-cycle of debt is the key motivator of Thai Silk Magic.

By reading this we hope you can understand and appreciate why our key mission is improving our village lifestyles. The pride, generosity, determination and sheer artistry of the weavers, enabled us to make the very easy decision to establish our Thai Silk Magic group.

It’s both a pleasure and an honour to work with these wonderfully resilient people; and to increase the awareness of their magnificent Thai silk fabrics. We know our village people can weave their way out of their economic woes. We just want to be there with them, working hard together, having fun and sharing their dreams.

All About Thai Silk Magic

Who Are We?

Hello or in Thai, “sawadee kha”,

My name is Amnuai Beckenham, the founder of Thai Silk Magic. My friends and family call me by my nickname, Dao.

For some years I have had a strong desire to help the people of our village who live in poverty. 

Let me share a little of our story........

Please understand that although  the people in our village are poor financially, we are proud, hard working and fun loving people who love to dance and sing. We are also wonderful hand weavers of Thai silk

Our Mission - TO RETURN ALL PROFITS TO OUR VILLAGE

Thai Silk Magic'S key mission is to improve the financial wellbeing of the people of our village. It achieves this by adopting fair pay principles for its workers, and sharing 100% of the profits within our village.

Our unique handwoven Thai silk fabric and apparell are only available DIRECTLY from Thai Silk Magic through this website. This allows us to sell to you at BARGAIN PRICES  

Thai Silk Magic's products are not mass-produced. They are all original limited edition hand woven Thai Silk that are available to you at  genuine bargain prices

No chemicals are used in the creation of our Thai silk products. The whole process is eco-friendly and our fabrics are completely safe to use.

Thai Silk Magic is a village community controlled enterprise. There are no middle men and all profits are returned to our village.

Cultural Challenge

One of the main obstacles to establishing Thai Silk Magic was the cultural issue of “kreng-jai.”

This term literally means  “fear of not being able to repay a courtesy or help”. Despite this I remained determined to find ways to help our village

In 2009 there was great sadness in our village as some families withdrew their children from our village school as they could not afford the very modest school fees. 

More recently there was great excitement and pride when one of our village students qualified to attend university to study law.

Cycle of Poverty

These events reinforced the importance of education to equip the next generation to break out of the "cycle of poverty" It increased my determination to create opportunities for the people of my village.

I approached a group of village weavers and suggested marketing their esquisite silk weaving skills globally by setting up our own website.

After some hesitancy the village weavers gradually  understood and embraced the proposal. 

Thai Silk Magic is Born

The weavers were enthusiastic and excited about creating opportunities for lifestyle changes for themselves and their families.

With the support of the weavers for the proposal, we were able to overcome "kreng-jai", and Thai Silk Magic was born.

Thai Silk Magic Objectives

 The establishment of Thai Silk Magic created a win-win-win outcome:

A win for our customers by enabling access to purchase DIRECTLY from  the   product creators

 A win for our village weavers by creating opportunities to improve their lifestyle

A win for the environment because of our eco-friendly, chemical free processes.

Our motto is "Woven by Hand, With Love, For You" and this is a perfect description of our organisation.

Thai Silk Magic's focus is on showcasing the unique skills of our village weavers and our eco-friendly processes. The unique quality of our handmade Thai silk is complemented by chemical free dyes that we create from flowers and other naturally occuring vegatation.

We are sure that the fabrics and apparell created by Thai Silk Magic will delight you.

Want to Make a Profit? Don’t Forget the Basics! 

The Complete Report

Thai Silk Magic, like most business entities, wants to ensure we can maximise our profit potential so that we can achieve our key mission of improving our village lifestyles. The development of our business necessitated overcoming many challenges and we wanted to share some of our experiences with you in the hope they will be interesting and helpful.

As you think about how to improve your business profits, do not forget the basis of creating profit. As everyone knows profit is what is left over after we have paid all our expenses. The problem is how best to improve your sales revenue and how can you optimize your expenses?

Far too often business owners lose sight of the key issues in running their organization because they are inundated with data, consultancy advice and other factors than can complicate otherwise very simple facts and trends.

This report goes "back to basics" on purpose so that you can apply these well known principles and guidelines to your current business.

Four Basic Profit Factors

• Price
• Quantity or volume of sales
• Variable Costs – costs that increase or decrease as sales volumes increase or decrease (e.g. acquisition costs)
• Fixed Costs – costs that normally do not change as sales volumes change (e.g. rent, salaries)

Key Conditions for Profits

It is important to note that profits can be increased by either increasing or decreasing any of the four factors, as long as some conditions are met.

· All four factors will affect each other· There is no standard formula to improve profits
· An increase in sales and/or a reduction in variable costs will increase gross margin/sales
· An increase in sales and/or a reduction in fixed costs indicate greater productivity and lower overhead costs/sales

Any profit improvement strategy must focus on either or both of two things:

1. Achieving a higher gross margin in sales by increasing price and/or reducing variable costs AND/OR
2. Achieving greater sales per fixed cost by increasing productivity of those things that have a fixed cost

So What Happens to Your Profits If:

A. Prices Increase – sales volumes could stay stable or decline. If sales declines then this decline would have to be less than the offset created by the price increase and resulting gross revenue increases.

B. Prices Decrease – sales volumes would have to increase to compensate for decline in price. If sales volumes was to increase there is a possibility of a decrease in the per unit fixed and variable costs because of increased economies of scale

C. Variable Costs Increase - increased variable costs should lead to or be a result of improved product or service quality. The market would have to accept a higher price, or the improved product would have to attract enough new customers to offset the increase in variable costs.

D. Variable Costs Decrease – the sales volume would have to remain unchanged. The decrease in variable costs could not be allowed to affect product or service quality – which would have a negative effect on sales volumes. If sales did decline, the fall in gross revenues would have to be less than the decrease in variable costs

E. Sales Volume Increases – the price could either remain unchanged or decline. If the price was reduced, the reduction would have to be less than the offset created by the volume and resultant gross revenue increases. Another possibility is to achieve a reduction in per unit fixed and variable costs due to an increase in economies of scale.

F. Sales Volume Decreases – a savings in fixed costs would have to be achieved by reducing the size of the business or production levels would have to be evaluated to find variable costs economies of scale. This savings would have to be greater than the reduction in gross revenues due to decreased sales volumes

G. Fixed Costs Increase– the increase in fixed costs should lead to or be a result of improved products or services. The market would have to accept a higher price, or the improved product would have to attract enough new customers to offset the increase in fixed costs.

H. Fixed Costs Decrease – sales volumes would have to remain unchanged. The decrease in fixed costs could not be allowed to affect product or service quality – which would have a negative effect on sales. If sales did decline, the fall in gross revenues would have to be less than the decrease in fixed costs

Distribution and Marketing Strategies

Improving your profit potential requires you to clearly differentiate your business, improve productivity, have correct pricing strategies and establish effective customer retention programs.

Your marketing program must try to differentiate your offer. Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) can easily be "unique" by ensuring you place "you" and "your particular offer" into your marketing TOGETHER. There is only one "you" so make sure you use it.

Customer retention programs are included as part of distribution and marketing strategies as it’s important that your sales and marketing staff are fully committed to this vital issue as well as any specific customer service department you may have.

Getting bigger margins for each and every sale you make is the name of the game. This usually means that either you have to sell more at a higher price or make more at a lower cost whilst maintaining your existing price.

If you can manufacture your products and services more efficiently then you can improve your margins otherwise the key factor or variable is your selling price. However, many business owners are reticent to increase their prices for fear of losing market share to their competitors.

It is more common to see businesses lowering or discounting their prices in order to improve sales and market share but be aware that this has very short term viability. Competitors will match you sooner or later and then you will have no where to go!

If you really believe in the quality of your products and services then focus on your customers and not your competition – provide your customers with the very best service, advice, quality product and delivery systems in order to differentiate yourself and justify your pricing strategy. 

Thai Silk Magic

Creative Distribution and Marketing Strategies from a Thai Village!  

 An good excellent example of differentiation and creative pricing strategies comes from our newly established Thai Silk Magic group based in a small, rural village near the Cambodian border. The world market for Thai silk is dominated by some very large operations who have almost unlimited supplies of Thai silk available to sell at wholesale or highly discounted prices.

Our small team of weavers could never match the supply quantities of our competitors nor their very low prices. Instead Thai Silk Magic with our original high quality handmade silks using only 100% natural dyes, established our prices 10 -15% higher than our much larger and more established competitors.

We then focused our attention on promoting the fact that our supplies of high quality silk were not only unique but extremely limited because of the labor intensive processes of spinning, natural dyeing and weaving required to make our totally original handmade silk fabrics.

We also provide our customers with a wonderful story about the reasons for our business operation as well as creating an excellent personalized service via our customer focused website.

Thai Silk Magic's distribution strategy for our high quality silk fabrics included world-wide free shipping. In order to further our market differentiation we provide services that our competitors do not offer. Thai Silk Magic recognized that our competitor websites only focused on Thai silk and this was another opportunity to achieve differentiation.

Create Value AND Perception of Value

Our website provides practical advice and guidance on a wide range of topics from leadership, work ethics, online shopping and work place recognition programs. These topics are all relevant to our website as we use real life examples related to our Thai Silk Magic group or our village as illustrations. These “extra customer care” articles are designed to provide our readers with interesting and helpful ideas.

All these strategies show the strong belief our Thai village has in the quality and value of our product offer. By developing a "real perception of value" that truly differentiated ourselves from our competitors, we hope to have initiated what will be a remarkable successful business model.

Get a Fresh Perspective on Your Business!

Irrespective of your industry one can always learn valuable lessons if you are prepared to look and listen, especially to business experiences far removed from your typical industry resource list. All your competitors will be fully aware of your usual industry resources and most likely will have the same information access.

So get completely away from your typical industry thinking and make the time to really look at your organization and your future planning. Successful businesses are all around you -so you can be one as well. 

If you are not completely satisfied with your profit potential then be prepared to do something completely different. You will amaze yourself if you just give yourself the time to think creatively by learning from others outside your normal industry reference sources.

Of course, any major adjustment or change in your strategies should be carefully tested with market sampling before you implement a full blown change in strategy. But do not let this deter you from possibly creating an incredible break-through business decision.

So do you really believe in the quality of your products and services?

Can you think of simple ways to differentiate yourself from your competition?

What can you provide that your competitors are not offering?

Your distribution and all your other business systems should implement strategies to differentiate your business where ever possible. Apply your own creative distribution strategies to increase productivity and sales whilst at the same time assessing the potential impacts of these strategies on both your fixed and variable costs.

Quite often it’s a case of trial and error so always use market sampling before establishing any full blown distribution strategy.

Your Customers – Do You Really Care?

Honesty Time – Some Key Questions

In Reviewing Your Fixed Costs:

1. Are you doing everything you can to retain your customers?2. Are you satisfied with your staff turnover rates?
3. How can you improve your staff morale and enthusiasm for their roles?
4. Does your staff understand and support your key business strategies?
5. What service/support does each component of your organization provide to your business?
6. Can you eliminate this service/support?
7. Can you get the same service externally at lower cost?
8. Is it realistic to move to another supplier of that service?
9. If you moved to a new service supplier, would you get similar or better quality support?
10. Would this move affect your sales and services?
11. If you spent more on this service/support function, would it create more revenue than costs?

In Reviewing Your Variable Costs:

1. Is your advertising effective? If you don’t know then why continue with it?
2. Are you attracting the right potential customers?
3. Is your marketing strategy in line with your distribution strategy?
4. Are you paying too much commission and bonus for lower performing sales staff?
5. Are you paying too much for Joint Venture business?
6. Are your sales bonus payments linked to sales quality as well as quantity levels?
7. Are you maximizing your website conversion rates?
8. Are you optimizing your current market positioning?

So there you have it all in a nutshell. This article has been deliberately simplistic in its approach because so often business owners complicate the key basics of how to improve profits!

Keep it simple, be positive, always look for creative ideas away from your industry and apply the principles learnt with common sense.

Remember there is no magic when it comes to creating and maintaining a profitable business.

A Final Word from Microsoft’s Bill Gates re Common Laws of Business!

“It is not smart to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the things you bought were incapable of doing what it was supposed to do.
 

The common law of business prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it cannot be done. If you pay low or deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.”