My house could be a museum to the sewing machine. Not any sewing machine but Singer sewing machines. In nearly every room you will find an antique Singer sewing machine on display. The reason? It is a powerful reminder to me of one of the most successful out of the box thinkers of the past two centuries.
Contrary to popular belief, Isaac Singer didn’t invent the sewing machine. He perfected it. However, what really made Singer stand out for me was his ability to think outside of the box and develop solutions that no one else saw.
By the mid-1800s there were lots of sewing machines on the market that mimicked the actions of human hands. They took a thread on a needle and fed it down through the fabric and back up, pulling the thread tight to complete a stitch.
Sewing machines of that era were slow, hard to maintain and often broke the thread, making them very unreliable. Rather than imitate the human process of sewing, Singer machines used the concept of a lock-stitch, which involved two threads: one in the top of the fabric and the other below.
After the civil war settlers migrated westward in droves to find opportunity and exploit the new frontier. New towns sprung up overnight. Soon the clothing worn by the early settlers needed repair or replacing. Singer recognizing the enormous potential of getting his sewing machine into the hands of a few people in each of these new towns. However, by today’s standards sewing machines were very expensive. In fact, only the very wealthy could really afford to buy a sewing machine.
Rather than follow the traditional ownership path of a single upfront cash payment offered by his competitors, Singer offered his customers the option to buy the machine on credit using an installment plan. Installment plans were a revolutionary concept at that time and made owning a sewing machine within the reach of millions of Americans expanding into the western territories. By making sewing machines affordable to the masses, Singer created a whole new cottage industry built around the sewing machine and sales soared.
The utility and reliability of the sewing machine were advancing rapidly and a sewing machine purchased only a few years earlier was soon considered obsolete. Singer offered a trade-in program like many of his competitors. However, in another stroke of genius, rather than refurbishing and reselling the old machines like his competitors did thus create a secondary market for used machines, he thought outside the box again. Singer, instead, chose to destroy the old machines to remove any secondary market for his products. By offering generous trade-ins to upgrade older sewing machines and then destroying them, he forced his customers to only buy new machines from the company.
While some might question Singers moral character, as a businessman he was quite an extraordinary individual. His ability to spot opportunities and develop unique solutions to problems was unmatched by any of his rivals.
The lesson for the entrepreneur is to look at evolving trends like the westward expansion in Singers era and find ways to inject your product or service to make the most of them. In addition, when all your competitors are doing one thing, like offering trade-ins and selling refurbished products, look for alternatives, like removing secondary markets and financing options, to change the game.
How can you think more like Isaac Singer when it comes to your business?
