Sewing Business Blog » small business

How to Thrive On Less in This Tough Economy

S. Denise Hoyle — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:51:00 +0000

This new free ebook by Leo Babauta, author of “The Power of Less”, is loaded with great information and useful tips to help people that are worried about their jobs, businesses, homes and bills. His “Thriving on Less, Simplifying in a Tough Economy” ebook includes topics like focusing on the essentials, thriving on less, changing your spending habits, tools for a frugal life and even has a great guide to getting out of debt.

Download your free copy today at The Power of Less website.

”We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”
- Aristotle

5 Reasons You Should Have a Website

S. Denise Hoyle — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:45:00 +0000

Many sewing businesses are local in nature, serving a specific geographic area. Most owners of these smaller-scale businesses never think of having their own websites, but here are a few of the many reasons a website could help your business.

Reason #1:
It sets your business apart.

You probably already know one or two (or even more) sewing businesses in your area, right? All of them, even those based out of their homes, are competing for the same customers.

A website is a great way to set yourself apart from the local competition, and if you have a sign in the front of your store or home, all you need to do is add your website address to start getting traffic.

But what can you do with a website, right? You can:

Sell your products or take orders.

Let people know about you and your business.

Answer frequently asked questions.

Explain how to care for your products.

Offer promotions and discounts.

Conduct seasonal events, contests, and promotions.

Display seasonal products and inventory.

The list is endless, but the main thing is having a convenient way to find out more about your business. Most people start their searches for products online. It’s important to take advantage of that fact.

Reason #2:
It positions you as the area expert.

Perception is reality, and in small areas especially, a web presence can be a very distinguishing factor between you and the competition. The business that seems most successful will often be the business that acquires the most customers.

Reason #3:
It’s relatively inexpensive.

Online marketing can be the most cost-effective means of getting the word out about your business. In comparison to things like yellow page ads and local radio and television commercials, a website can be very inexpensive.

Reason #4:
It’s a great networking tool.

When you put your local business online, other area businesses will notice, and that’s a perfect way to start building your local network. A big portion of your business can come from incoming referrals, and you can get the added benefit of joint marketing efforts.

Reason #5:
It can reduce mailing costs.

Do you send expensive promotional pieces by mail? If so, your website can serve as a place to post new promotions and discounts. You could also start an email newsletter to automatically update customers of new specials.

The possibilities for your new website are only limited by your imagination. The most important thing is to establish an online web presence and start taking advantage of this 24/7 medium!

This guest post was written by Amber Riviere, a web designer with BrownBugProject.com. You can follow her work through her blog and through her newsletter, Inside Brown’s Brain.

Win $25,000 in the eBay Sellers Challenge

S. Denise Hoyle — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:02:00 +0000

Online auction site eBay has announced their eBay Sellers Challenge for online merchants with an entrepreneurial spirit. The challenge is open to anyone who wishes to start or expand an eBay business

Four grand prize winners will receive $25,000 business grants – one in each of these categories:

Full time eBay sellers who want to grow their business

Part time eBay sellers who would like to go full time

Small businesses or individuals that have not sold on eBay

Current or former members of the US Armed Forces

The runner up in each category will receive a $5,000 grant. Entrants are invited to submit a 60-second video describing how they plan to use the prize money, along with a business plan. Entries will be accepted through July 7, 2009.

eBay and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, an organization devoted to advancing entrepreneurship, will select two finalists from each category and then eBay members will be asked to vote for their favorites. Winners will be announced on August 11, 2009.

Get your free director’s kit with tons of tips and advice on how to create a winning entry at the eBay Sellers Challenge page.

Garter Belt Designer Enjoys Successful Niche Business

S. Denise Hoyle — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:57:00 +0000

Ouida Davis in Salisbury, North Carolina has carved out her own little niche business by making fancy garter belts and selling them online at her Originals By Ouida website, as well as through her mother Ruby’s formal wear shop. Ouida says her frilly accessories are a growing trend for proms and other occasions and that they’re no longer just for brides.

Although the business didn’t happen overnight, Ouida is now shipping wholesale orders around the country and formal wear shops all over have told her they can’t keep them in stock. She accidentally fell into the business of making and selling garter belts when her mom’s shop, Miss Ruby’s, ran out of blue garters and couldn’t find anymore to supply all the anxious brides that were looking for them.

Ouida says her first designs were crude until her mother taught her to make French seams. Now the designs are available in 55 satin ribbon and 23 sequin colors with 19 sheer and 2 lace colors. The business that sprung from a minor emergency has turned into a successful home business that has Ouida cranking out thousands of custom designs from cheetah and zebra prints, sequins, school colors, polka dots and many more. She says the current hot styles include a camouflage design and a turquoise hologram sequin design that’s been a hot prom dress color this year.

With this year’s prom season winding down, Ouida may get a small chance for a break, but she’s made over 5,000 already this season and is looking forward to preparing for next season as one shop as already ordered 45 dozen. Her garters sell for anywhere between $12 and $19.95, or sometimes more for customized garters.

Read more about Ouida in The Salisbury Post, or check out her website at OBOGarters.com.

501 Tips, Strategies & Professional Secrets for the Home Business Entrepreneur

S. Denise Hoyle — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:53:00 +0000

We’re very proud to share with you, our valued readers, our new 90 page ebook “501 Tips, Strategies & Professional Secrets for the Home Business Entrepreneur!” The ebook is yours free when you subscribe to our weekly emails, just type your name and email address in the box at the upper left of this page and hit submit.

The ebook is packed full of information on starting and running a small business, how to take advantage of business tax deductions, email marketing, advertising, reducing expenses, increasing profits, how to stay motivated when you work for yourself, and much more.

Once you’ve nabbed your free copy, please come back here and give us your review or post your comments. So hit the button and enjoy!

Of course you can unsubscribe anytime you like, but we hope you’ll find the weekly digests of our posts useful, informative and entertaining and decide to stick around.

Keep An Eye on Your Competition Online for Free

S. Denise Hoyle — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:44:00 +0000

Would you like to see how your website traffic compares with your competitors? You can get that information for free from Compete.com! You can compare numbers for your site and any two other sites without even signing in. Signup for a free account and Compete.com will report and analyze the traffic for up to five websites. You can even signup for daily digest emails if you’d like.

Compete.com boasts the largest pool of online consumer behavior data in the analytics industry, and they provide their basic services for free. Upgraded services for large businesses start at $199/month and give much greater detail. Take advantage of their generosity and use this outstanding tool so that you can keep track of how others in your industry are faring online and be better prepared to face your competition

You can setup a portfolio to track five sites – typically your own and your closest competitors, but you could also choose to compare your site to that of a large presence in the industry (think localquiltshop.com vs. joann.com) so that you can see if variations in traffic appear to be occuring industry-wide. We have several proprietary websites in addition to our blog, so I’ve setup my portfolio to track the traffic patterns for a handful of our own sites so that I can monitor their progress individually and easily compare them to each other.

Although the data isn’t 100% accurate, it does describe your competitor’s users and their behavior, which gives you the tools you need to get ahead!

Get Free Alerts for Your Business on Your Mobile Phone

S. Denise Hoyle — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:15:52 +0000

There are a number of excellent services where businesses and individuals can get news alerts, however my new favorite is Yahoo Alerts, as they will also notify you via text message on your mobile phone. These services are wonderful for small businesses or anyone that needs to keep track of their online reputation and what others are saying about their business or their products.

Yahoo’s free notification service is one of the few that provides text messages as a standard free feature, in addition to giving you the option of receiving them via email and messenger. Many online businesses these days are run from home, some are family operations, and they are commonly multi-channel operations that combine online and offline stores. These types of businesses can benefit the most from alert services since they are least likely to be able to afford a publicity department, or have the necessary time to do the research themselves.

I have setup SMS (short message service or text messages) alerts for my name, my business partner’s name, and several of our products and websites. The goal is not just to know what others might be saying about you and your products, whether it be good or bad, but to be able to counter any disparaging online remarks, or inaccurate information, as quickly as possible.

You can’t control what others may say about you online, and really you don’t want to because even negative remarks can give you a chance to promote your business. Say someone complains about your customer service in a local bulletin board online. Yahoo Alerts could notify you of that within hours of the post. Now, instead of attempting to have the disparaging remarks removed, you could use it as an opportunity to respond to the post with one of your own that offers to fix the complainant’s problem. Thank them for the opportunity to make them happy and suggest that if they have any future issues they might consider contacting your company directly first. This will allow you to show the world that you take customer service seriously and will greatly improve your online reputation.

Could You Use Help With a Product Launch?

S. Denise Hoyle — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:01:00 +0000

Jeff Walker is an Internet guru who has been creating and successfully launching products online since 1996. The products that he typically creates are informational in nature, and based on topics like business and the stock market.

Over the years Walker has honed his product launch formula and even created a blueprint with simple steps that others could follow. Several years ago Walker went public with his Product Launch Formula and has since mentored many others who have had their own successful launches.

He has since proven that his formula will work in other markets and he freely shares some terrific ideas in the case studies of his students like John Gallagher who went from food stamps to $9,000 a month teaching people about medicinal plants and herbs, and Jane Savoie whose product launch in the “dressage” market (horse ballet – really) earned her $140,000.

Now Walker is set to reveal his new Product Launch Formula 2.0 today at 2:00 pm Eastern. Because of the one-on-one attention that Walker gives to his students, spaces are limited. His last PLF launch sold out in hours so if you have any questions about whether your business niche idea will succeed online, or if you’re in need of assistance in getting a stagnant web business pumped up, check out the REAL inspirational case studies on Walker’s site.

Save Money With Free Software & Services For Your Small Business

S. Denise Hoyle — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:51:00 +0000

Taxes & Money Management

Quicken Online provides a free web based service for managing your finances, it includes automatic bill reminders, plus you can check your finances on your mobile phone.

TurboTax from Intuit will file your 1040EZ or other simple forms for free. The Internal Revenue Service also has a list of companies that provide free tax preparation and online filing services for eligible taxpayers, plus they have blank fillable forms online that you can use to quickly and easily prepare your own taxes.

Office Support

If you’ve got limited office support, or take on most office chores yourself, I’d highly recommend that you try RapidFAX’s free 30 day trial that sends faxes directly to your email. This simple service can save you time and the expense of a fax machine and supplies for only $9.95/month once the free trial period is over.

VistaPrint will provide you with 250 free full color business cards. You can choose from over 42 designs and all you have to pay is shipping and handling. If you need more than 250 business cards, or just want to re-order later, their regular prices are a steal, even when compared to local prices for two-color printed cards.

Skype has an excellent service that allows you to talk to anyone around the world for free over your Internet connection. The basic service is free and requires only a small software download on your computer. There are also upgrade packages and accessories available, however they are not necessary to use the service. I purchased a Skype compatible phone from Wal-Mart for less than $30 so I could talk to my husband for free while he was travelling outside the country.

Security

Anti-virus software protection is a necessity these days, but you don’t need to pay those pricey subscription fees to keep your software up to date. AVG Anti-Virus Software is available for free from Grisoft and provides basic protection against viruses and spyware.

PC Tools also provides a powerful free anti-virus software product that will protect against viruses and worms. Since the software is free, it doesn’t come with technical support, however the free version does provide excellent protection for your computer.

Other Neat Stuff

You can also get free game downloads and screensavers from Permission Research once you’ve got your taxes and other work done

Getting Started With Online Videos

S. Denise Hoyle — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:27:00 +0000

In a previous post, we briefly mentioned using technology to increase sales, as well as the fact that 94% of Internet users report that they watch online videos with some frequency. Additionally, a recent Neilsen report estimates that people will spend 46% more time watching online videos this year. Since these numbers are sure to only increase in the future, and getting started with online videos is cheap and easy to do, its a great time to consider adding some videos to enhance your web presence.

You don’t need a lot of equipment or a fancy studio to create videos that will demonstrate and market your products. All you really need is a webcam and a plan. Here are some tips to help you get started:

Keep It Simple - Start by producing a short clip, perhaps a 20-30 second introduction to your business, or welcome to your site.

Determine Your Goals - Is your goal to educate users? Entertain them? Give information on specific products?

Look At Your Budget And Resources - A webcam can easily be used for seated videos, however you may need a digital video camera for other types of shots, like how-to pieces or “on location” sites. Inexpensive cameras can be purchased for around $100 these days. Although the quality will not be top notch, it will be more than suitable for the Internet.

Create A Simple Studio – Select a corner or small area of your house, store or office and plan your lighting. If your space is not already well-lit, you can purchase a couple of inexpensive clip-on style work lights for less than $10 each that will solve that problem. You may also choose to use a green screen (simply hang some green fabric on the wall behind your shot) along with some video software to easily change backgrounds, create professional voiceovers, and add effects like fade-ins and fade-outs. We recommend Pinnacle Studio (around $140) and Vegas Movie Studio (around $50).

Write A Script – Although I don’t recommend that you read while taping, you should definitely prepare a script in advance to be sure you get all your main points across in the proper order. Practice in front of a mirror or friend or co-worker, then start filming once you’ve got the basics down. Keep it short and don’t be afraid to add some humor if possible. You don’t need to be a comedian, just keep it fun!

Go Viral – Once you’re happy with your video you should post it to online video sites like YouTube, Vimeo and iFilm. It is free to upload videos to these sites, it takes only a few minutes to post your videos, and this will allow you to greatly increase your audience.

Plan Your Next Videos – Make a list of the future videos that you’d like to create and plan the order that will work best for you. Make a goal that will fit your schedule, say one new video short a month, or a quarter, whatever will work best for you. Continue to expand your video library by adding “how to” type clips using products that you sell.

Given the growing demand from web users for instant information and ever more product data, in addition to increasing connection speeds and computer processing power, a small investment in video content now can have a dramatic future payoff for your business.