I see pregnant women that are plus sizes, as well as some who would be considered “average” or even smaller and more petite sizing.  The majority of what I see, however, are larger sizes, and I can assure you that they are having a very difficult time finding clothing, patterns or somebody to do some sewing for them.

By far the easiest way to get into making maternity clothes is to see if your customer has some type of basic pattern that she’s had made before and that she knows will fit properly.  You can take that pattern and convert it to maternity styles.  Converting store bought patterns into maternity styles is very easy and you can make a wide variety of maternity garments for your customer, using just that one basic pattern.

If the customer is new and you’ve never sewn for her, and she doesn’t have any basic patterns for you to convert into maternity styles, you can always make maternity patterns for her by using her own personal measurements.  Pattern making for maternity will require a little more effort and time than simply converting a commercial pattern that is already available, but your customer will greatly appreciate your going the extra mile for her.

Look around the next time you’re in the mall or a restaurant or any other public place to see how many pregnant women there are.   Put some flyers or informational brochure at places of business that allow you to post such things, and you might be surprized at the amount of new business you get.

A good way to get that traffic coming back is by having a “customer sale” periodically.  A good sale date coming up is next Monday, Memorial Day.  After that you’ll see on your calendar Father’s Day, Fourth of July, etc.  Customers love discounts and not only will your current customers come back (and most likely buy something!) – they’ll also recommend your website / blog to others as well.

Another surefire way to pick up traffic to your site / blog is by having a “Giveaway” of some kind.  If you do crafts for craft fairs or bazaars, you could do a giveaway of a couple of your best sellers.  OR, there are people from other businesses, or websites or blogs that would love to have you do a giveaway with one or more of their items.  This helps generate more traffic to your site / blog as well as to the website / blog that is offering the items for your giveaway.  A great example of a super giveaway is one that is currently running on ShopperStrategy.com — the current giveway is entitled “shrek-tacular-savings-and-movie-ticket-giveaway” and runs through this Friday, May 28.  This particular giveaway includes a ton of food / snack items as well as a $25 gift certificate that can be used for the latest Shrek movie.  Check out the giveaway and see how you can incorporate the “giveaway” into your blog to help increase your traffic and sales. (If you have children or grandchildren, you might even want to enter to win the goodies / ticket money for yourself).

Additionally, to help keep your website alive and growing, I’d suggeset that you add new “content” to the site / blog that pertains to your business and that would be of interest to your customers.  A “helpful hints” type content could certainly be what some of your customers are looking for — and they’ll be sure to come back to see what else you have to say.

If you’re doing something special to keep your blog / website alive and growing, let us know – we’d love to pass it along to our readers.

I don’t know if you ended up getting a refund of some sort or had to pay, however the business receipts you keep can make a huge difference in the final totals on your taxes!

Keep and file ALL business related expense receipts.  You’ll be amazed at how those 44 cent stamp receipts add up over a years’ time.  Any fabrics/notions that you purchase for business use can be a tax deduction.  Also, if you haven’t already done so, get a small pocket calendar that you can keep in the car for business miles.  When you run to the fabric store for more fabric, write down the miles for that day.  If you’re making a run to the post office to get some orders mailed, write down the beginning and ending odometer reading so you’ll have the miles for that trip. At the end of the year that calendar becomes part of my tax information box to keep in case it’s ever needed.

Ask your tax preparer about home office deductions – you could even write off part of your power bill, cable bill and telephone bill.

Take advantage of all the ways you can help yourself at tax time.

I keep an expanding file that is labeled for postage, inventory, office supplies, etc where I keep all my receipts filed during the year, then at the end of the year all I have to do is add the receipts in each category for totals to put on the tax forms.

If you’ve already set up a system for keeping receipts, bravo to you — if you haven’t already set up a filing system, it is not too late to start right now.

Smile!  That’s a key part of customer service!  Whether it’s in person or on the telephone – smile.  Your tone of voice IS reflective of whether you’re smiling while talking on the phone, or if you feel like you’ve been interrupted for the 10th time from an important project.

If you tell somebody you’re going to do something (try to find a special fabric, locate a pattern or check out a new trim) – DO IT!  It may be a small deal to you and very unimportant, but to the customer it is EVERYTHING at this moment, so be sure to follow through on what you tell the customers.

Deal with questions promptly – don’t make the customer wait an hour or two or day or two for an answer.  Just last Friday evening I checked in on my computer before shutting down for the night (about 9 pm), and I’d gotten an email from a lady asking a question about an order she’d placed two days before.  I immediately checked it out and wrote her back before shutting down.  The next day I had a glowing email from the customer, saying “what FABULOUS customer service!  I figured maybe I’d get an answer by Monday or Tuesday, because of the weekend, and you took the time to answer me within MINUTES of my email!  I WILL be letting my friends know about your super customer service!”

So, there it is in a nutshell — how do you grow your business with customer service?  Your customers ARE the most important advertising your business will ever have – you just can’t pay enough for word of mouth advertising from the customers.  Customers with glowing reports about your excellent customer service will generate more new customers than you can imagine!

We were a vendor at a craft festival two weeks ago and the very first indication of “reduced” profit was when we paid our entry fee.   The vendor fee had gone up $20.00 – the information/sign up sheet said that the company putting on the festival has had rising expenses, therefore had to increase the fees for each booth space.  Well, $20.00 isn’t really that much money, but if you think about how many extra items that had to be sold in order to cover that amount, it all adds up to less and less profit.

In addition to entry fees getting higher, have you noticed some of the fabrics you use for your craft fair items have also been getting higher?  Thread prices inch up, and if you use things like Velcro, you’re seeing small increases in prices there as well.

We did notice at the festival we attended that while there were supposedly a record number of attendees, we did have a few asking “could you take ____ for a certain item” instead of the regular price.  When we explained that the price on the item IS the price – some bought and some walked.

We have found that one way to help keep prices down and the little bit of profit margin a little higher is to be on the lookout for sales.  For example, we use a lot of solid brown duck fabric, so when JoAnn’s is having one of their 40% off one item or (rarely) 50% off one item, we’ll head in and buy the whole bolt of brown duck fabric.  For those who are quilters, you could do the same with their quilt batting.  Even though you can only buy ONE, it does help cut the cost — and if you make baby / toddler quilts, get the biggest size (queen or king) of the batting and cut it for the sizes you make.

Keep your eyes open for fabric and notion sales — our town had a Walmart that was closing their fabric/craft department and we found out about it too late to get fabrics, but they did have a large variety of thread marked down, so I went through and got all the thread colors we normally use at the discounted price.  I would say here that just grabbing a handful of spools of thread would have been pretty silly, since most of the colors were off the wall colors that were strictly “left overs” that apparently nobody uses — I didn’t want them either, so made sure I ONLY got colors that we use a lot of, and managed to save some money there.

How do YOU cope with the “inching up of prices” and still maintaining a profit margin that you can live with?

Denise, over at ShopperStrategy has a  post entitled “How To Make $100/Hour Clipping Coupons” that I found very interesting.  Apparently the Wall Street Journal has an article written by Brett Arends who writes the daily Return On Investment column, who has “done the math” on how to make that $100/hour clipping coupons.

Mr. Arends has made a believer out of me.  Now I’m saying “Hello” to Fabric.com, to JoAnns, and all the drug stores and grocery stores I can think of!

To tell the truth, I’ve been using those JoAnns coupons for a long time because I figure any little bit of saving that I can do on my “craft” fabrics, the more the bottom line profit will be – I just never put 2 and 2 together to figure out the money being made by using those coupons.

Head on over to ShopperStrategy and read the post and check it out for yourself.  Let us know how you do on this “new’ way of making money in your sewing business.

A few years ago we sent out “gift certificates” in the amount of $5.00 or $10.00 good on the customers’ next purchase from our catalog, or listing of books in the back cover of a book they’d just purchased.  It was surprising how many of those “gift certificates” would come back to us in the weeks or months after the sale to be used on the next order.

With the economy as it is, a “gift certificate” or “15% off your next order” just doesn’t quite sound as good to customers as giving a “$5.00 off coupon” or $10.00 off coupon” to the customer.  Of course, as with all coupons that you can get online or in Sunday Newspapers, you have to name the limits of the coupons.  You can give the $5.00 coupon with the comment readily visible “good on your next $25.00 order”, or have the statement on the $10.00 coupon “good on orders over $50.00″.

Think about it – that $10 “coupon” which is good on the customers’ next order over $50.00, actually makes that order $40, a savings of $10.00 in their pocket – AND a great sale for you.  You may not realize how many people will “find” an extra item or two to order to reach that $50.00 amount so they can use the coupon.

If you’re in the alteration business a simple coupon giving the customer “50 cents off your next hemming job” or if you can do “75 cents off your next hemming job”, you may get business that would have gone to the dry cleaners down the street.  Make up some of the coupons and give them out to people at work, friends to pass out or tack some of them up at the post office or fabric shop.

Think of any way that you can be giving out a coupon for dollars off or cents off a particular item or money off a certain dollar amount they spend, then watch the extra dollars come in.  There are many coupon “clubs” in our area that are teaching people to shop with those that give coupons, so this is the time to get in on the coupon activity to increase your profits.

Some people think that focusing on a niche is thinking too small, but having a niche product line is actually a wonderful thing!  If you really want to compete with Sears and Toys ‘R Us, you can do that by offering better customer service or by providing more guarantees, but it is much easier to compete in a specialized niche.  Plus, when you focus on a niche you encourage repeat orders and referral business.

2) Skills & Abilities

You don’t have to be good at every aspect of business in order to be successful, but you do need to be realistic about what your abilities are.  If you’re not very computer literate then take an online class or buy a book, if you’re not very good with numbers and records then hire a part-time bookkeeper, and if you’re not great at writing ads or other sales materials then hire a freelance writer online at Elance.

3)  Use Technology

You don’t have to be a technical wizard to benefit from advances in technology.  Make it easy for your customers to contact you via email, create (or pay someone to create) a website that works for you 24/7, use Google Calendar to keep track of your life on the go, use a fax to email service so you can keep digital copies of everything, and use the Internet to learn about how to enhance your skills and market your business.

4)  Create a Website

Since you can get a domain name for about $10 a year and a website for around $5 a month, there is really no excuse not to have your own website.  Many word processor programs will create HTML pages from documents you’ve typed, and lots of good domain name registrars (we use and recommend GoDaddy) supply website templates that literally allow you to setup your own site over night, without the need for any web design skills.

5)  Positive Thinking

Napolean Hill wrote the all time best-selling business book “Think and Grow Rich” during the Great Depression in 1937.  Over 30 million copies have been sold because of its powerful message about how our thoughts control our successes and failures.  Simply put, whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right!  So look at any setbacks as learning opportunities, be persistent, and stay positive and you will be successful!

6)  Build Relationships

Advances in technology like cell phones, handheld games and the Internet tend to take the focus off of people, for example you can order a pizza online or use a board at a fast food restaurant to order then pay with a credit card without ever speaking to a person.  On the other hand, consumers like to feel that they’re being heard.  Build relationships with your customers by giving them the ability to communicate with you through a variety of methods such as via email, through your website, Facebook or Twitter.  By genuinely listening to your customers you will build bonds of loyalty and trust with them, which will only increase the success of your business.

I’d like to offer a few tips to make those kind of days “fewer and farther between”, so you can get more done and be able to increase your productivity.

** Before leaving your office / work area at the end of each day, make a list of what you’ll be working on when you get up the next morning.  (This is a MUST for me – if I have no list ready when I get up, you can be assured that I’ll probably be among those who wander and wonder what I can get started on)

** Eat your breakfast BEFORE you head into your office / work area so you won’t be running back and forth from the kitchen to the office with dirty dishes, refilling coffee, etc, which is only a time waster.

** Follow the list you made the previous day as closely as you can and not jump back and forth from one project to another to another — FINISH the first item on the list before moving on.

** As you think of things that need to be worked on, put them on a list for tomorrow or the next day — don’t try to drop everything and add it to your list for today.

** If you MUST run out to the store for additional items for the project you’re working on, WAIT until after you’ve worked a couple or three hours, then the trip to the store will be your “break”, then get right back to the project as soon as you get back from the store.

** Try to get as many items as possible completed from the list you made.  If you made the list a little too long and you couldn’t finish it, start the next days’ list with those items, then add additional things you’d written down during the day.

Trying to keep focused on the projects you need to get completed will definitely help increase your productivity.   Don’t get sidetracked on small things.  Once you’ve gotten into a routine of getting the list ready the night before, following the list during the day and keeping your focus on the job at hand, you will actually think you’ve gained a couple hours each day!  Try it and see for yourself!

That’s what’s recently happened to me and I can’t even believe I was so “wiped out” that I couldn’t even do my share of the daily posts for our blog.

On Sept 2nd we took our almost 4 year old quadruplet grandbabies to a kids park that has a nature trail and hiking area.  The kids loved the hiking — and the next day after the hike I started having an itching problem on my right ankle area.  So as all people who don’t run to the emergency room with a simple issue, I started to doctor the area with calamine lotion, etc.  The area  got worse and worse over the next several days, with a huge purple rash, and me feeling more and more tired every day.  By the first to middle of last week I was so tired I could hardly make it from the bed to bathroom, then from bedroom to living room – the rash was getting filled with blood / water blisters.  By Thursday my daughter threatened me if I didn’t get myself to the doctor.

Well, by then I’m assuming the “infection” had gone through my system and I could barely get to the doctor.  The doctor took one look at it and sent me to the “infectious disease” doctor  (I’d told them about terrible bouts I’d had with poison ivy as a child, and this almost looked like a repeat of that).

The new doctor immediately put me on some super powerful antibiotic IV’s for the next 6 days (6th day is tomorrow) – two kinds of pills to take and salve for the ankle.  He had me do some lab work the first day I went to him, and again today. 

Tomorrow I’ll actually get to see the doctor and see if they’ve figured out what in the world “got” me.  I’m still thinking poison ivy, but won’t know until tomorrow.

I’m actually feeling like I’m gonna live — need my 2 or 3 naps a day and been going to bed about 8 pm (totally off my work schedule and sleep schedule), but when you’re  pooped, it’s time for a nap whether you want it or not.

At any rate, my brain was not even close to working, so I missed two posts in a row, and I’m hoping that if any of you out there have ever had something pop up at you that you had no control over – family emergency, or whatever,you’ll understand.

Things like this do happen from time to time in our business life and in our home businesses — the key is to take care of the situation, take care of yourself and then take care of the business.  Ten years from now I guess nobody will remember that you’ve missed an appointment, were late in getting somebody’s alterations done, or that I’ve missed a couple of posts.  We have the rest of our lives to make up for it.