Her sewing business was launched a year after the birth of her second child, daughter Ruth, 3. Hometown : Born in Rome, Ga., now lives in Rossville. Education : Bachelor of Science in family and child development from Auburn University, and a master’s Read the article

“Green” is all the topic of conversation nowdays, and it would be a great idea to check to see where you are in the scope of things.  There are several ways and methods you can incorporate in your daily office use that could turn it “greener”.  Here are a couple of examples:

** What do you do with those sheets of paper that come off your printer that may have just a line or two printed on it?  Does it become trash, or do you cut it to make scratch pads, or use the back for coloring / writing paper for the kids.   If there’s only a line or two I can sometimes put it back in the printer to use the back for printing coupons, or an email that is only for my own use and not to send out to anybody.

** Can you do digital computer filing for the majority of your paperwork rather than printing and filing it in a filing cabinet?  We have a system where we have our pattern making class materials and books as documents online (and backed up of course), which eliminates the need to print all the massive numbers of pages for a filing cabinet.

** Remember to recycle your old printer cartridges by taking them to a recycle place.  We take all of our cartridges to Office Depot where they give us $3.00 on our rewards card for each cartridge that we recycle.  YAY!!!  Go green and get paid to do it!

** Be sure to turn off all your electronic equipment (computers, printers, lights, etc) at the end of the day.  You may be surprised at how much energy they consume if left on day and night.

How are YOU going green in your home office?  We’d love to have all the hints and tips we can get to pass along to our readers.

First, assess your own skills to determine what type of home business you would like to do.  Are you handy with tools?  Do you have a sewing machine?

Probably the most popular business manual we’ve ever had is the “Sewing Machine Repair As A Home Business” manual.  With a depressed economy, millions of people are going “back to basics”, which includes digging out their dusty sewing machines from attics, garages and closets.  These sewing machines need to be checked out or maybe minor repairs done before the owners can set them up for daily or weekly use.  Any person (men, women and teenagers) who are handy with tools can easily get set up with this business!

Our “Profitable Clothing Alterations Business” manual is flying off the shelf.  This is probably the fastest and easiest home business a person could get into.  All you need is a sewing machine and you’re ready to go!  (Everyone I know that has a sewing machine also has a stash of thread so you don’t even have to go out and buy that!)  The Clothing Alteration manual gives quick and easy information on how to get yourself set up to do alterations in your home, how to get the word out and probably best of all, tells you how to get some FREE advertising to get some money rolling in quickly.

The third area I’d like to bring to your attention would probably be the fastest growing business you could imagine.  Check around in your area – in restaurants, schools and malls — just look at all the overweight and obese children!  Next, look at the clothes they are wearing.  Are they wearing clothes so tight that the bottom of the shirt doesn’t meet up with the waist on the pants/skirt?  Are the clothes skin tight and look like the child is about to pop out of them?  Or, are the clothes big and sloppy, so they look like they’re 3-4 sizes too big, but necessary to make the stomach area fit?

Sewing For Plus Size Children is an area that has long been overlooked!  The heavy and overweight children would LOVE to have nice fitting clothes and stylish clothes, and you can jump right into that area of sewing immediately!  There are two ways you could go about sewing for plus size children – first, you could spend a little time learning how to make patterns for the specific child you are sewing for OR, if you prefer to just sew from ready made patterns, Sewing For Plus Size Children has a complete section of ready made patterns to choose from that have been made using actual plus size measurements.

The business manual “Sewing For Plus Size Children As A Home Business” tells you what you need to know to start sewing for the overweight children, in addition to giving you all of the pattern making and pattern altering classes for boys and girls.  We even give resources on where to get supplies and notions wholesale in order to save you money while you’re getting your business up and running.

Don’t wait another day and get deeper in debt — assess your abilities and get a home business started.

** If you do alterations, how about making a few assorted craft items from scraps of fabric you may have on hand.  At first you can go for a specific market, like babies/toddlers, or if you have teens and pre-teens in your house, check out the assorted patterns at Patterns2Go to see what you think would appeal to YOUR kids, then you’d know for sure that your customers’ children would also like them.

** For those in the garment sewing business, you have the best opportunity of all to increase your profits simply by adding “Sewing for Plus Size Children” to your business.  There are two ways you can add to this extremely profitable side of your business — you could learn how to make patterns/clothing for specific children (check out PatternsThatFitYou.com to see the wide variety of classes available), OR if you prefer to work from ready made patterns only, check out the patterns available at PlusSizeChildren for patterns that are specifically made for plus size children.  There are a number of patterns, including jumpers, many blouse/top patterns, skirts, shorts, jeans, boys tops, etc, and my feeling is that if you were to start sewing for all the plus size and overweight children in your area, your business would be off to a jumpstart this year.

** If you are in the “home decor” type of sewing, such as drapes, spreads, couch and chair coverings, etc.,  I would  suggest you visit Patterns2Go for additional items you could make.  There are a number of home decor items at that site you may not have thought about.  In addition, what about making some craft items to go along with the home decor, like wall hangings or children’s doll blankets to match their room colors.

If you can come up with just one or two “extra” things to add to your home business, it just might be the items that end up bringing in the most money — or at least enough extra profit to make you feel good about adding the services to what you already have.

Wicked Local Staff Photo by David Gordon

Megan Woods, a stay at home mom with three children from Brookline, Massachusetts, was looking for something to do after her children started school.  Then last year her mom sent her a pair of handcrafted mittens for Christmas and Woods convinced her mom to start up a business together.

Now Woods spends her time sifting through second-hand sweaters at thrift stores, where she selects the best knits and patterns then sends them to her mom to cut into pieces that she sews back together into mittens which sell for $65 a pair.

What started out as a casual project for the pair quickly turned into a full-time gig when the women were contacted by Oprah Winrey’s publishing company for possible inclusion in their winter catalog.   All of a sudden the mother/daughter team, who had been selling lots of mittens at craft shows, were faced with the delightful problem of preparing for a rush of orders from across the country if their mittens were selected to be included in Winfrey’s winter catalog.

Although disappointed that Oprah eventually passed on the mittens, the ladies are happy to be ready for the holiday shopping season and they now have plenty of inventory after buying up and preparing hundreds of sweaters.

Check out their delightful brand of recycled luxury at http://www.olivegreenapparel.com/, or read more of their story at Wicked Local Brookline.

For those of us who work out of our homes, we are very fortunate not to have to deal with store rent, store utilities, large inventories, etc.  However there ARE things that we do need to consider in order to increase the bottom line, or at least keep from losing money in our business.

One of the biggest expenditures we’ve routinely had were high power bills.  Of course when you have sewing machines, embroidery machines, computers, and probably a room or window air conditioner to help keep the work rooms cool / warm, etc  running almost non-stop, a high power bill is to be expected.  Well, a few months ago we decided to take a look at all the machines we had to see what we could do to conserve a little.  We started turning off all equipment that wasn’t in use at that moment, (turn them on when needed for use, then back off again), turning out lights in all rooms that weren’t being used, and a few other conservation details.  We are now saving around $150.00 per month on our power bill, which is huge! 

Another area to be “cautious” about is hiring either part time or full time help.  Do you really need the extra help?  Could you extend yourself just a little and take care of those extra details?  Perhaps the Post Office run could be set up at the same time that you’re running other errands to pick up sewing supplies, or running to the grocery store or bank, instead of heading out of the house several times a day.

Back to the hired help — A couple of years ago I hired a relative (high school girl) to come after school to do data entry for me.  She was a good worker, but I noticed that she kept getting phone calls on her cell phone almost the entire time she was here.  Even though she explained to each of the callers that she was at work and that she’d call them back later, she’d spend two or three or four minutes telling them the situation, then writing herself a note so she wouldn’t forget to call them back.  This just kept on and kept on, and finally I had to ask her to please leave her cell phone in the car while she was here working.  Well, within a few days she said she really was pretty busy with school stuff and wouldn’t be able to work any longer (I guess those friends were more important than making a little extra money).

Another time I hired a friend to come help half days with a project that I was working on and needed some help.  This friend was very prompt – got here exactly at 8 am, BUT she always brought her breakfast (fast food biscuits, coffee, etc), and ate before she’d be ready to start work.  Once again I had to be the “bad” guy and ask her to eat BEFORE she came, because 8 am was the time to begin working, not coming in to eat first.  Once again, that work relationship only lasted another week or so before she had a “reason” why she couldn’t come work any more.

The point of those two examples is this:  are you spending money on part time help that really is not the help you were looking for, and is the work being done in the manner that you’d expect it to be done?  Would you be better off just figuring out how you can work in an extra 30 minutes here and there to take care of the items that the paid help are really not doing?  The money you could be saving by not having to deal with inefficient help, or where the hired help is taking advantage of you, could be enough to raise your profit considerably.

Take a look around your business to see where you can cut back in order to save some money to help increase the bottom line.  There may be other areas in addition to the couple I mentioned.  Let us know what you’re planning to do to “cope” with the market trends in order to keep your bottom line stable or increasing.

She was frustrated by fitting problems, especially for women with fuller busts, so she “pursued the fitting secrets with a passion and finally found enough of them online and in books, which, together with my analytical and problem solving brain, helped me solve fitting problems in sewing.”

Her business, JSAW Mastectomy Designs, was born in 2003 and Lillian says its still feels like a bit of a startup since she’s constantly learning new aspects of the business, like the ins and outs of online stores and website development.

Lillian designs and sews custom made nightwear and intimate apparel for ladies who have had a lumpectomy or mastectomy due to breast cancer.  Her designs are custom made to her customer’s specific measurements, they do not come in small, medium and large, all with the same bust cup size.  She actually creates a new pattern, based on the customer’s measurements, for each new garment order she receives.

The business is run from Lillian’s home office and she has a sewing room setup in the basement.  Lillian says the best part about being self employed is “being able to be there for your family when they need you.  Also being able to follow one’s own dreams and heart’s passion.”  Lillian knows the frustration of not being able to find clothes that fit, “not because of a mastectomy but because of having a body that is a combination of about 4 different dress sizes,” so she completely understands the relief of finally having clothes that fit well.

Visit the JSAW Mastectomy Designs website at www.mastectomydesigns.com, or check out her online store at http://store.mastectomydesigns.com.

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!

I’d like to make a suggestion to those of you who are desperately looking for a part time job.  Would you consider doing something from home?  Begin a part time home business.  A part time home business can be cheaper and more flexible than a second or third part time job.

Before you say “OK, let’s do it”, there are some very crucial things to consider.  As we all know, there are no home businesses that will make you rich overnight (at least I’ve never run across any).  Therefore there are some things to think about before jumping into the first thing you think sounds good.

** Choose a type of business that you already know something about.  Do you know how to sew?  Perhaps doing some alterations could bring in extra money.  Perhaps teaching others how to sew would be money for you and very helpful for those you’re teaching.

** Do you have a houseful of “things” that you’ve been wanting to go through and get rid of (outgrown kids clothes, shoes, knick knacks, etc).    Check into eBay  or Craig’s List and see how quickly you can get some of those things listed and sold.  You’ll feel really good about the housecleaning, not to mention the extra dollars you can make.

** Are you mechanically minded?  Think about putting out the word that you can do sewing machine repair — you’ll be surprised at the number of calls you’ll probably be getting as more and more people are digging out the dusty sewing machines so they can start sewing again.

** And speaking of sewing machine repair, I know someone who makes a business of hitting the yard sales, good will shops and flea markets and buys up the old sewing machines for just a few bucks, then repairs them and sells them for a great profit.

While starting your part time home business, choose low-cost marketing tactics, such as flyers hung at the local post offices, fabric shops, get some business cards printed that you can hand out.  Put a small advertising flyer or business card into your local bills when you pay them (power bill, water bill, etc); you never know when the people opening those payments at the utility companies might just need your services.

A part time home business may just be exactly what you need to create the extra money you need, and hopefully enough that you can stick a little away for emergencies.

For those who still have their 9-5 jobs, I’d assume that it takes a bit of motivation to get out of bed each day and get to the workplace on time.  What’s the real motivation?  The paycheck?  Do you have a job that you love so much you just can’t wait to get there?  Anyway you look at it, the workplace would go on even if you were the next one laid off, or if you simply went on a vacation – unless you’re the owner there isn’t the motivation for YOU to keep the business running smoothly.

Now let’s change gears and talk about a home business.  You ARE the business, and it’s up to YOU to keep it running, get the work done, pay the bills, order supplies, talk to customers, take orders and somehow manage to stay sane at the same time.

Here is where “motivation” really comes into play.  It takes a great deal of self motivation to stick with the home business – setting up schedules to get the customers’ work done and out to them.  Motivation to keep working when you’d really like to sit and watch a few soap operas during the day (one day or an hour or two of soaps might not kill a home business, but those things get addictive and as days and weeks of watching them instead of working at your business is a surefire way to end the home business).

When you own your own business, especially a home business, nobody else can motivate you until you motivate yourself.

Entrepreneurs have certain characteristics that separate them from people who remain 9-5 employees.  Among the attributes of entrepreneurs are the willingness to take risks, ability to identify good business ideas, determination and confidence, ability to use “blinders” when necessary to focus on a particular goal and exclude everything else, and a willingness to work the hours needed to succeed — self motivation!  Ask yourself if you have the attributes of a successful entrepreneur.