Sewing Business Blog

Do You Have What It Takes To Be Successful?

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As we begin another new year, many are looking for additional ways to make extra money.  Do you get a part time job?  Want to start your own home business?  The idea of starting your own home business is very appealing to many people, but not everybody has what it takes to be successful.  Do YOU???

Do you have what it takes to be successful?  A quick quiz.

The great desire to be successful has always been a fact of life!  The word “success” means different things to different people.  For some, to be successful is to have your own business, so you don’t have to answer to anyone but yourself.  To others, success is climbing to the top of the corporate ladder, while others visualize success as “being the best” – best at the sport they are involved in, being best at the job they work at, etc.

Answer the following questions TRUE or FALSE, then check your answers against the opinions that follow.  You may not recognize all of the names quoted, but you can be assured that all of the people, whether familiar to you or not, were extremely successful in their own way.

1.  Success requires mastery of the endeavor you set for yourself.
2.  Everyone should realize his or her limitations and try to go no farther.
3.  It is very important to try to please everybody.
4.  One should believe in himself or herself.
5.  Success is achieved by being single-minded in purpose.
6.  Most successful people tend to be unemotional.
7.  Act successful, even if you’re not.
8.  An important element needed for success is to love what you do.
9.  The ability to handle the people with whom you work is a skill leading to success.
10.  Be sure you are right, then go ahead.

The answers listed below are the opinions of those people who are quoted.

1.  TRUE.  “The way to do is to be.” (Lao Tzu)
2.  FALSE.  “We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.” (Helen Keller)
3.  FALSE.  “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is to try to please everybody.”  (Herbert Bayard Swope)
4.  TRUE.  “Self trust is the first secret of success.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
5.  TRUE.  “I believe the true road to pre-eminent success in any line is to make yourself master of that line.” (Andrew Carnegie)
6.  FALSE.  “He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much.” (Mrs. A. J. Stanley)
7.  TRUE.  “Act as if it were impossible to fail.” (Dorothea Brande)
8.  TRUE.  “The first thing to do is to fall in love with your work.” (Sister Mary Lauretta)
9.  TRUE.  “The ability to handle men is the most valuable thing in the business world.  I will pay higher for that than for any other qualification.” (John D. Rockefeller)
10.  TRUE.  “Be sure you are right; then go ahead.”  (Davie Crockett)

Countdown To Christmas

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The Christmas Season has officially started at all the brick and mortar stores.  I’ve been seeing Christmas stuff in Walmart and some places already, but normally the first of November the Halloween decorations come down and Christmas decorations, sales incentives and banners come out in full force.

Well, the question of the day is — why aren’t we, the work at home people, doing the same thing?????

Actually, I’ve been doing this for several years.  I put up one of those small (they’re about 36″ tall) fiber optic Christmas trees in the corner of my customer waiting area and have a fairly long flowing “tree skirt” coming down from the tree to the floor.  I then wrap a few empty boxes in Christmas gift wrapping to put under the tree.

Next comes the “sales promotion ideas”.   We’ve already talked about having a corner set aside for baby gift items, like Portable Diaper Changing Stations, Animal Pals Back Packs, etc.   Well, you can use some of those same items for children, and add in a few additional items like a Holiday Kissing Ring, Golf Club Mittens for a man’s gift or little microwave mittens as an idea for a “hostess” gift for the parties your customers will be attending.

I have a price tag attached to every gift idea in the customer area – large enough that it draws the customers’ attention so they know that these items are for sale.  You will be helping your customers in a big way by having a wide variety of gift ideas they can be thinking about while they are waiting to see you.

As an extra note – I’ve found that whatever gift ideas I have in the customer waiting area, I need to be sure to have the one they can see, PLUS at least two extras.  If the only one you have is in the waiting area and a customer wants to buy it – you have only two choices — sell that one and you won’t have one for the next customer to see, OR just take the order for the item and say that you’ll let them know when it’s ready for them.  My idea is that if you do the second (take the order and say you’ll let them know when it’s ready), you’re taking a big chance that they may change their mind and you’ve lost the sale.  What you want is the sale TODAY and the money in your cash register!

If you’ve never done this before, I’d suggest that you get a small tree and get started on the Holiday Gift area immediately – this could mean an additional several hundred dollars in your pocket that you would not have had if you simply decorate with a little ribbon and a few bows.

Let us know how your Christmas gift area works for you, and what all gifts you’ve made available to the customers.  We’d love to hear about the extra dollars that you’ve made!

How To Organize Your Sewing Time

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If you’re like us, there really needs to be at least 48 hours a day in order to get some stuff done!

However, since we only have 24 hours, part of which we really do need to sleep a little, do housework, cook, take care of kids’ activities, our own activities and errands, etc, we decided long ago that we simply have to have some kind of “organized” sewing and craft time.

Recently we had a note from a customer saying she has such a big fabric stash, unfinished projects laying around and ideas for new projects —– “it’s all so overwhelming, I don’t know where to start”!

We DO have a solution to the “being overwhelmed” problem.  As we can all attest to, when there is stuff laying around totally unorganized, there is really no motivation to dig in and start “somewhere” — it’s just easier to close the door and put it off until another day.

Here is our solution — AND it works very well for us, so we believe it is worth passing along.

1.  Go out and buy yourself a small spiral notebook – mine is 5″ x 7″ and has 100 sheets in it.

2.  Divide the notebook into sections — the sections may vary according to what you’re into (sewing, crafting, creating original patterns, etc), but my notebook has the following sections:
* To Do
* Patterns (that I’m working on or wanting to create)
* Projects to finish
* Articles to write
* Classes to construct

The TO DO section includes the bigger things I want to get done, such as “clean out and re-size the grandkids dresser” (take out all the stuff that’s too small and see what we have left) “Finish tax paperwork and take to tax man”, “Add helpful links to one of my websites” – stuff other than the ordinary cook, clean and wash clothes.

The PATTERNS section has 18 original sewing and craft patterns so far that I’m either working on or have ideas to make, along with a sketch under it so I don’t forget what I want to do with it.

The PROJECTS TO FINISH section includes some carry-over projects from last year that need to be finished before I start new ones, such as making and finishing certain little outfits for the grandkids (yours will vary according to what projects you may have laying around that are started and need to be finished).

The ARTICLES TO WRITE are ideas for sewing, crafting  and business articles that I have in mind to write, along with a couple of notes and thoughts about what I want the article to say (these are types of things that come to me in the middle of the night or while driving down the road, so if I don’t write them down, I will never remember them).

The CLASSES TO CONSTRUCT are simply classes that people have been requesting information about, such as a “western wear” class to be added to PatternsThatFitYou.com –and other ideas for classes.

Now for the GOOD part — you’ll need to ADD ideas and things to do to each of the categories that you’ve made as you come up with new things.   THEN, as you finish something, mark that item off with a red pen!  Keep the notebook going all year — keep it with you wherever you are, just in case a great idea flashes across the brain and you can immediately write it down.

As you finish something in the “to do” section, mark it off;  when you’ve completed one of those projects that are laying around, mark it off.   Make up your mind to do SOMETHING every day – whether you spend 15 minutes on a project or an hour cleaning out that kids’ dresser, you will be able to mark something else off the list.  This is GREAT MOTIVATION to do something just so you can see those red marks indicating that you’ve finished something.

You will be surprised, at the end of the year, how many things you’ve not only added to the notebook, but tons of things that have gotten marked off, done, completed!!  We start a new notebook each January — transferring the undone items from the sections to the new notebook, then begin once again to add items to each section – mark off things as we get them done, etc.

We have found ourselves so much more productive since we started the notebooks — at a glance we can see what needs to be done next and get to work on it.   Try this method and let us know how it works for you.

Adding Profit To Your Sewing And Crafts

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Many times it is difficult to determine the actual costs involved in making craft or sewing items.  For example, if you’re using your scraps to make aprons, beach bags, purses or toys, how would you figure the cost of the item, and therefore how much to charge for the completed item.

An easy way to “estimate” the cost of fabric used would be to determine how much total fabric is used for the project.  If you’re using left over print fabric, scraps of solid colors of fabric, and add larger pieces of muslin or interfacing material, a general rule would be to perhaps figure you’ve used a total of 1/2 a yard or 1 yard combined of all the pieces – whatever you figure you have used.  Then for a cost of the fabrics I’d use an average of what most of the fabrics would have cost me at the fabric store — perhaps $4.75 per yard, give or take, depending on what types of fabric you’re using.  You can get a good estimate of costs per project, but don’t forget your time that’s been spent because that is also part of the total cost.

Some good hints that I’ve seen on insuring that your sewing items or craft projects will be the type that people will want to buy are as follows:

** Use good materials.  Never use those “end pieces” that perhaps have little snags or holes in them and try to hide the imperfections in the seams.

** Wash your hands frequently to keep your products fresh and clean.

** Learn to make your products easily, quickly AND skillfully.  If you can get skillful enough to make an item in half an hour instead of taking an hour that it previously took, you can readily see that you can double your production and therefore double up on the profits.

** Your products must be practical as well as attractive.

** Your product must bear the stamp of your personality to be distinctive.  Don’t depend on someone else’s ideas – use your own initiative.

** Be professional — on the phone, at the craft shows and in your own home if customers come into your home for service and purchases.

If you have additional ways that you use to figure your cost of sewing or craft items, please pass them along to us and we’ll get them posted for our readers.    How to price sewing and craft items is always one of the biggest questions we hear, so anything you can pass along to help our readers would be appreciated.

If you’re wanting to find additional craft items to make, check out the many craft patterns at SewWithSarah.com.