Sewing Business Blog

20 Ways To Defeat Your Home Business Disappointments

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We all have disappointments and setbacks in our businesses.  How we deal with them will actually tell the tale of how our business will survive.

When the idea to create a home business first enters your mind, the goal for success becomes part of the vision. Along the journey you will face frustration, discouragement and disappointment before your efforts are rewarded. The key to fulfilling your dream is to not give up when failure arrives (and it will). Print out these 20 tips. Read them aloud EVERY day. Make them personal. Believe in them.

Don’t let the disappointments of creating a work at home business get you down. Learn from them. Making money online can happen if you have the right mindset. After all, everything comes down to your perspective.

20 Tips For Dealing With Disappointments

* Achieve your dreams. Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

* Believe in your self and in what you can do.

* Consider the obstacles from every angle and aspect. Growth comes through learning. Dealing with disappointment requires the ability to learn, adjust and adapt.

* Don’t give up and don’t give in. Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make persistence your steering wheel.

* Family and friends are life’s greatest treasures. Don’t loose sight of them.

* Give more than what is enough. Success can come through the extra effort you exert in doing things.

* Ignore those who try to destroy you. Don’t let other people get the best of you. Stay away from destructive people – the kind who hate to hear about your success.

* Just be yourself. The key to success is to be yourself and the key to failure is to try to please everyone.

* Keep trying no matter how hard it is. When a person stays motivated the road to success begins to materialize.

* Make things happen. Goals are reached when your dreams are put into work clothes.

* Never lie, cheat or steal. Always play a fair game.

* Practice makes perfect. Persistence is about learning and discovering how we can recover from our mistakes.

* Quitters never win and winners never quit. So choose your fate: Are you going to be a quitter or a winner?

* Stop procrastinating. Do! Don’t wait!

* Take control of your life. Self-discipline is linked with motivation. Both are key factors for facing disappointments.

* Visualize it. Create a vision of success in your mind and have a laser beam focus on it

* Want it more than anything. Dreaming means believing. Believing means trying. Trying means pursing. Pursing means attaining.

* You are unique. No one in this world looks, acts, or talks like you. Value your life and embrace it.

* Zero in on your dreams and don’t allow the disappointments to create a detour.

* Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.  Persistence and determination are omnipotent!

For extra information on getting a head start for the new year, I would recommend the following 2 books:  “501 Tips & Strategies For Home Business Entrepreneurs” and “Jumpstart Your Business..Proven Techniques and Strategies”.   These books are a steal at only $7.95 each at SewWithSarah.com, in the business book section.

Time Management Important To Business Success

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In the past we’ve talked about organizing your sewing time in order to be more productive in your work (organizing sewing projects so you’re using white thread for several items before changing to a different color thread, etc).  There are many ways to actually be more productive while working, therefore getting much more work done.

The question is, what about “time management”, in order to cut down on stress and frustrations in your daily life?  We’re talking about your “sewing / working” life as well as regular “family” life.

I remember in past years, with six kids all needing to be in different places, AND my sewing / alterations piling up, I could feel the frustration building.  Even if you have only ONE child or two children, and trying to shuttle them around while customers are trying to make appointments, pick up work (that perhaps you haven’t done yet) – stress can be a killer for the business.  Just try working under this kind of stress and see how many mistakes you make — or work on something that isn’t even due out to a customer for a week, while something due out today sits on a shelf!  YIKES!!

The best solution that I found in these working conditions is to do everything systematically!  I KNEW what time the kids had to be at various places, and I KNEW what work needed to be done before they got home from school.  Sooooo, cut down on the telephone chit chat, turn off the tv, and quit procrastinating about that “difficult” alteration that you agreed to do.  JUST DO IT!   In most instances, the “difficult” alteration isn’t nearly as difficult as your mind wanted to imagine, so the longer you put it off, the more behind you got, until the stress of starting the alteration job was near a boiling point.

By organizing the workload in daily increments —- get up half an hour earlier in the morning to get a job out of the way; plan the amount of sewing/alterations/craft work that you can handle before the kids get home from school; and if you’re overloaded on work at the moment, perhaps you could work another half an hour or hour after the kids go to bed, rather than watching tv.  That would be “just for tonight” – not every night, and would be so you could get enough caught up to prevent stress and frustration tomorrow.

By prioritizing your workload and not postpone things for tomorrow when you could easily do them today, you will have a much more stress free and relaxed lifestyle.

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.

 

If It’s To Be, It’s Up To Me

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“If it’s to be, it’s up to me” is one of my favorite quotes!  I have it tacked to the wall in my office along with a few other quotes.  This is a reminder to me that it is NOT a favorite employee that’s gonna make my business what it needs to be, neither is it going to be a friend, a mentor or a family member — it’s UP TO ME!!  I’m the one that needs to set the goals for my business, then work toward those goals with all the focused action that I can muster.

It makes no difference if your business is an online website, blog, brick & mortar store or a business in your home – the same principle applies — it’s up to YOU to ensure that your business goes in the direction YOU want it to go.

I once read about a man who would take 30 minutes a week to just sit and reflect on what his business could be, and what steps he could use to take the business to the next level.   I found that very interesting, and have quite often stopped to think about what could be done in my business to gain new customers, make more sales, add additional products, etc.

Please understand that “reflecting on what the business could become” is not daydreaming, wishful thinking or hoping for good things to come —- it is to be clear on what the purpose is and setting worthwhile and realistic goals.  Map it out!  Write down specific goals and dates for those goals to be completed.   Believe in your goals, and believe in your abilities.  Visualize your success.  Dismiss any distractions and difficulties – keep your eyes and your heart on your goals.

By reminding yourself of the “if it’s to be, it’s up to me” principle, you will be surprised at how much you can accomplish toward realizing those goals, and watch your business grow.