Sewing Business Blog

Ideas To Make 2019 The Best Year Ever!

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The New Year is upon us, and sometimes we start to visualize, or dream, about how great this new year will be.  The facts are that we have to do more than just dream and wish – we must take ACTION!  Action requires us to think about things, write some things down and begin to work on the list we’ve written.

Here are a few ideas to help you get started on your list for the year and help to move your business at a pace that will definitely make it the “best year ever”!

** Update your planner for the entire year.  Put in all birthdays, anniversaries, craft show dates, conferences you want to attend, etc.  If you don’t have major items on your calendar, you’ll get so busy you’ll forget important items, or worse than that, you may be trying to schedule two craft shows for the same weekend, if you don’t already have something on your calendar.

** Set up 2-3 major goals that you’d like your business to accomplish this year, such as getting started in that new area of sewing for big and tall men, locating two additional craft shows that you can attend or setting up your customer area so you’ll be able to show off and sell some of the crafts that you make from those downloadable patterns. Write these goals into a book so you can cross them off when you’ve accomplished them.

** Plan your time off.  If there’s a reunion coming up over Memorial Day or you think you’d like to head into the mountains or to the beach over the 4th of July, mark it down in your planner, and add that to your list.  By doing this you know well in advance of the upcoming days that you won’t be in the office / workroom, so you can get your work done accordingly.

** Educate yourself.  In every business, there are new things coming along constantly, and you need to keep abreast of any changes.  You could even decide to educate yourself a little and learn how to do your own sewing machine repair, instead of having to take your machine to the shop for maintenance and repairs.  Figure out how many times you had your machines at the repair shop last year – add up the total spent, and this will probably be the savings you’ll have THIS year, once you learn how to take care of your own machines.

** Organize your office. The biggest problem in any office, at least in mine, are the mounds of paper!  Things I want to look at in a few days, magazines I want to browse through again, ideas for projects that get out of control – you name it and it’s all in my office.  I’ve decided that I WASTE entirely too much time shuffling these things around to make room for more papers.  Today, January 1st, I have made the decision to clear out the “junk”, get the office organized, get a filing system set up and categorized (project ideas in one file folder, future article ideas in another folder, patterns organized in my new clear view pattern holders,) and go through the huge stack of magazines to tear out and file what I want to keep and recycle the rest of the magazine.  I’ve made a big headway already today and feel so much better about the office – I know I won’t be wasting as much time this year as in past years shuffling and re-shuffling.  And guess what – time WASTED means less productive time, therefore dollars wasted!

** Last but not least, after making your list of goals and “to do’s”, plan how and when you will get them accomplished.  You don’t have to do everything in January!  Spread out the items according to what you’d really like to accomplish first, second and so on;  this way you can get a time-table set up that you can easily follow.  If you see that you’re nearly finished with your entire list by the middle of the year you can easily set up another set of goals for the last half of the year.

I’m planning on making 2019 the BEST YEAR EVER for my sewing and craft business.  How about you?  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Six Creative Marketing Techniques

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Home sewing / crafting entrepreneurs are always on the look-out for new ways to promote their products or services.  It makes no difference if your business is just a local one or an online venture, advertising is a MUST in order to keep our names in front of potential customers.

Some of the following ideas have been used by us for years, and I would hardly consider them “new”, but I’m amazed at the number of people who say “I would never have thought of that!”  Whether you choose one or a combination of the following ways to promote your business, the most successful methods can be incorporated into your year-round promotional strategies.

1.  MAKE “MINI-FLYERS” – One of my personal favorites are “mini-flyers” that contain advertising messages about your products or services.  Mini-Flyers are made 6 or 10 to a page (depending on what size you want them) and contain basic information such as a catchy phrase about your product or service, followed by “FREE information” or “FREE catalog”, a website address if you have one, and your name and address.  The “mini-flyers” can be made easily in Microsoft Publisher, or similar software, that can be saved and reprinted as needed, as in the following example:

miniFlyer
We make our mini-flyers 10 to a page and use the Publisher format for Avery labels.  The mini-flyers can then be made on the labels or printed on regular paper to be cut apart and used.

The first thing to do with your mini-flyers that have been printed on regular paper is to put one in every bill you pay (electric bill, gas bill, newspaper bill, telephone bill, credit card bills, etc).  Remember that the clerks who open these envelopes must surely get bored with the job, and when they open your envelope and the mini-flyer falls out, you can be assured that it will be read.  It will probably also be passed around to others working in the same area.   The mini-flyers that are on labels can be stuck to every package you mail out – right next to the mailing label.  These will catch the eye of some of the postal employees along the way who will make a mental note of the website address, etc and perhaps check it out later.

2. REBATES.  Almost any business you can think of can benefit from giving rebates.  Rebates are usually associated with large purchases such as automobiles, computers, etc, but can easily be adapted to smaller businesses.  We’ve had great success with offering a “rebate” to customers who refer their friends to us.  When one of the customer’s friends makes a “first time purchase” from us, the customer receives a rebate certificate that can be used as a discount on their next purchase.

3.  GROUP RATES AND DISCOUNTS can be used by many businesses.  For example, a seamstress can contract with a community theater to do all of the alterations for an entire season, and give a 10% or 15% discount on alll the work.  School cheerleader alterations, repair work and sewing could be handled in the same way.

4.  HOLD FREE SEMINARS, workshops or lectures for people interested in your type of product or service.  If you’re in the crafts business, you could teach interested people how to make one or more of your craft items.  After the “mini-class” you could have a table of crafts, projects and/or books for sale.  Women’s clubs, sewing clubs or home extension clubs would be great places to start – they’re always looking for “program” ideas for their meetings.

5.  SUBMIT A PRODUCT, PATTERN OR YOUR WEBSITE to individual websites, such as this one, for “review”.  Naturally you’re not guaranteed that every site will do a review, but the ones that do will be putting your name and website name on the review, which will then be a permanent link to you, which could be read by potentially thousands or millions of people who may be interested in what you have to offer.  Remember, if you don’t ask (or submit your item) your answer is already a “no” — so do yourself a favor and do some submitting.

6.  MAGNETIC CAR SIGNS can be a wonderful way to increase your business.  For “local” sewing / craft businesses, be sure to do the sign with a catchy phrase about your business – “Cathy’s Quick Turn Around Alteration Service” and your phone number.  If you do the majority, or even a little, of your business online put your website address on the sign — http://SewWithSarah.com   — and you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the increased traffic to your site.  Also, don’t forget – if you’re taking a vacation, be sure your magnetic sign is on the car.  It’s amazing how many people along the travel route will see your sign and check out the website.

For additional information and books to help you get started in a business or push it forward faster, visit our “Business Book” shelf and see for yourself the many ways you can make additional money with your business/website.

 

Advertise for PENNIES ….. Make THOUSANDS

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It makes no difference if you have an internet site, brick and mortar store, or a work at home business, it is a fact that none will succeed if nobody knows you’re there.

Advertising IS the key to success; however advertising doesn’t have to cost a fortune!  Of course, the big display ads cost advertisers many thousands of dollars, and “pay per click” advertising on search engines can add up to big dollars very quickly if you’re not carefully targeting proper key words and keeping track of the results of your advertising dollars.

There are many ways that we can promote our businesses literally for PENNIES, that can rake in THOUSANDS of dollars in sales.  Listed below are just a few ideas that work well, and I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with additional ideas once you start working with these.

** FREE AD ON YOUR ENVELOPES.  You can either use labels, or glue or tape one of your “mini-flyers” on the back or front of each envelope and package you mail out.  There is no way of knowing how much “free” advertising these mini-flyers will generate – after all, you’re mailing the letters and packages anyway, so why not take advantage of that and give your advertisement a “free ride”.

** ENCLOSE SALES LITERATURE in all outgoing orders.  If you already have a business where you send out orders, NEVER send out a “naked” package!  If you simply enclose the customer’s order and receipt and mail the package, you are missing out on one of the very best sales tools available!  Any additional sales literature you can enclose in the package (other items you offer for sale, information on another website to visit, etc) could bring you extra sales.  It is a well known fact that if a customer buys from you one time, they’re more likely to buy again and again, if they are satisfied with your service and products that they bought in the beginning.

** BUSINESS CARDS are one of the cheapest methods of advertising that I know of.  Many times, people will have 1,000 or more business cards made, then put them on a shelf and never use more than a dozen or so.  If you have a business or website and don’t have business cards – GET THEM!  Hand out the business cards to prospective customers, leave one on the table at the restaurant when you go out to eat.  Many restaurants and other businesses have a location where you can put a small business card holder with several of your cards in it for future customers to see and pick up as they pay their bill.

** SCREEN PRINTED SHIRTS.  This also is a “one time” purchase that will last for years, and will be read by people wherever you are walking – through stores, standing in line at a check out register, etc.  These don’t have to be fancy, just “to the point” so people reading them will know what they represent.  I saw one a few days ago that simply had a pair of glasses on it (the logo of the website) and the words “Specterweb.com” — everybody knows to put the http:// in front and in this case I wrote it down just so I could go there and see what it was (and this will work the same way for you).  You can make enough of these shirts for you to wear, or perhaps some of your family might want a “free” shirt (they will be advertising your website when wearing it), or you always have the option of selling or giving them to customers as a free gift for placing an order.

As you think about these suggestions, I’m sure you’ll be coming up with additional ones that you can use.  Remember, advertising is a MUST for any business, but it doesn’t have to cost a fortune!

The tips are just a few from our book, “Jumpstart Your Business With Proven Techniques and Strategies“!  Check out the book – read the table of contents – then see how YOU can get your business moving ahead.

Advertising Opportunities and Strategies on the Internet

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Today’s consumers are much more informed about new products than ever before.  Whenever a new product “hits the marketplace”, there seems to be a buzz about it throughout the internet.  Whether the product is being talked about in the social networks (Twitter, FaceBook,  etc), or written about in the various blogs, you can be assured that it IS being talked about, whether in a positive or negative manner.

If you are considering introducing a new product, we would highly recommend that you start by searching the internet for blogs or forums related to the type of product that you want to sell.  You can be reading the blogs and forums to see what people are saying about related products.  You might even want to do some posts about what you have that you’re wanting to introduce.  The readers of the blogs and forums will be quick to give you some of their opinions on your topic —- some may want to jump on whatever it is that you’re going to offer, while others may be a little more leary about it.  Get some feedback, answer any questions that they may ask, etc.

By “testing the waters”, so to speak, you might get some great ideas on how to advertise your item so that the advertising itself will answer the questions that have been asked.

When you are ready to do the official launch of your product, be sure to present solid facts about it, give a very positive image of your product, and try to implement some of the opinions that were expressed in your internet research.

If you don’t already have a blog, we would recommend that you do set up your company blog — invite reader comments and make regular posts to it.   Let others in the social networks know about your blog and invite them to check it out.

By using blogs, forums, and the social network systems, you’re basically introducing your product to a large audience with minimal effort and at no charge to you for the advertising.