Why We Do This

I belong to several online email groups and enjoy “hearing” what other quilters from around the world are doing. Last week, one group member wrote a very eloquent and poignant email to the group. I was truly touched by what she wrote. I contacted her, and with her permission, I am posting her email below.

Cindy’s note: If you do not belong to an online email group, I would highly recommend it. I belong to several YahooGroups, specifically the Gammill Users Group (the brand of my quilting machine)  and the Machine Quilting Professional (MQP) group. To join these groups go to www.YahooGroups.com and in the search box, type in the brand of your quilting machine, or the phrase “machine quilting.” From this list, choose the groups would like to join and follow the directions for joining each group. Soon you will be receiving emails from other quilters from all over the world!

Here is the email written by Sue Schaeffer owner, Ma’s Got’a Notion, Havana, IL -

Today I Was Blessed

Today I was given the honor of quilting a quilt that was pieced by a customer who passed away a few weeks ago.

I have quilted for her a number of times and I knew, like all of us, she had un-quilted tops stashed away waiting to be quilted one day. A friend of hers received this top from the husband of the deceased. Her friend decided to have it quilted and then she is donating it to a charity of her daughters, to be raffled.

I enjoyed thinking about her today as I quilted this top. I thought about conversations we had over the years, funny how things I remembered today about her would most likely have stayed buried in the deep chambers of my mind and maybe never thought of ever again had it not been for this quilt.

This quilt will bring comfort in many ways to other people in the years to come, but today it gave me more comfort than my deceased customer would have ever thought possible. Today I was calmed by knowing someone would enjoy her work, the tranquil thoughts that passed through my mind’s eye of snatches of past conversations with her brought a smile and even a giggle or two. No, we were not great friends, just acquaintance who shared the passion of patchwork.

I was also comforted in knowing that some of my unfinished work may one day be finished by an acquaintance or even someone whom I considered a friend. I just hope they will remember me as fondly as I remembered this lady today and that even when I am gone…..my quilts will talk to someone like this quilt did to me today.

Our passion for quilting really is our legacy to be shared by those who are lucky enough to understand all the love and hard work that goes into the cutting up and piecing back together each section of cloth.

Yes today…I was blessed.

Sue Schaeffer owner
Ma’s Got’a Notion
305 W. Main St (Quilt Shop)
309-543-6613
Gammill Longarm Rental
Havana, IL.62644
masgotanotion@gmail.com
web site: http://www.masgotanotion.com/
Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mas-Gota-Notion/141121699276496

What more can anyone say! Feel free to contact Sue at the contacts above and please post a comment to this blog.

What About Pick Up and Delivery Fees

A few days ago I received an email from a machine quilter who wanted some information on two issues. One issue was raising her prices for her machine quilting services and the second issue was what to do about the time and $$ it was costing her to pick up and deliver her customer quilts.

Raising her prices wasn’t hard and she came up with a price change that she was comfortable with. The second issue, about delivering quilts, became a little more complex.

Here is her situation – she lives in a very rural area. Some of her customers will come to her home studio to drop off and pick up quilts, but many, if not most, of her customers drop off their quilts at several different (relatively) local quilt shops. She says the closest quilt shop is an hour’s drive away from her home and other quilt shops are up to another hour’s drive from the first quilt shop. She says she usually goes to these quilt shops once a week, on a specified day, usually arriving about the same time.

We talked a bit about this and came up with some ideas, but she has to decide if, how, and when, she wants to implement them. Over the last few days I have been thinking about all this and I have a few more ideas and would like to share them with you all.

The first thing to do is to determine how many of her customers utilize her delivery services, how many quilts are involved and how much $$ she makes this way.

This sounds simple, but it may take a little time. I recommend that she goes back at least a year and make a chart, table or spreadsheet (on a computer or plain paper) which would include the customer’s name, name of the quilt, date quilt was delivered, name of the quilt shop – have a column for each quilt shop that is on her route, whether the quilt was dropped off, picked up or both at the quilt shop and the total cost of the quilt. The chart /table/ spreadsheet may look like this:

Customer Name	Quilt Name, Size	Date	Quilt shop 1		Quilt Shop 2		Cost of Quilt
			Pick Up	Drop Off	Pick Up	Drop Off
Jane Smith	Log Cabin QS	January 5	x	x			$325

 After filling in the information for a few months of quilts, she may be able to see a pattern developing. She may be able to determine –

• Which quilt shop has the most, and the least, number of quilts that are being dropped off and/or picked up
• Which quilt shop has the most, or least, amount of $$ for the quilter.  (Note: all $$ are paid directly to the quilter.)

Cindy’s note: do not assume that the quilt shop with the most number of quilts has the most amount of $$$. Quilt shop #2 may take in 10 baby quilts for a much lower (total) $$ amount than Quilt shop #1 with only three Queen Size quilts for a much higher (total) $$ amount.

• She may also be able to determine if there is a pattern for the dates, or time of the year, when there are more or less quilts to pick up or deliver. There may be fewer quilts for pickup and delivery during the summer and more in the autumn and before Christmas.
• There may be other information that will become obvious when the details of the quilts and customers are documented.

With this information, the quilter can make some assumptions and some educated choices about what to do. She may:

• Make fewer trips to the quilt shops during “slow” times – according to her documented chart.
• Call ahead to the quilt shop to see if there are any quilts waiting for her to be picked up. If no quilts are waiting, she may not go to that quilt shop on that particular day.
• Start charging a delivery fee for each quilt that is picked up or dropped off at a quilt shop.

During the course of our conversation, she did say that several of her customers do ship their quilts to her. She would then drop off the finished quilt at the quilt shop or ship the finished quilt back to the customer. At this time, she does not have any shipping fees added to her prices to cover return shipping costs.

This quilter is considering adding a fee to cover both the cost of her gas and time, for picking up, delivering or shipping her customer’s quilts. Let’s play with some assumptions and numbers to see if we can determine a reasonable fee for these extra services.

Assumption #1 – Time and Travel -  quilt shop #1 is 40 miles from her home studio and takes 1 hour to travel, one way, to this quilt shop. Let’s also assume that she spends an hour at the quilt shop talking with her customers that are waiting for her and with the shop owner and other potential customers. That makes a total of 3 hours – 1 hour to, 1 hour at, and 1 hour back from the quilt shop. Let’s assume she wants to make $20 per hour while she is doing this for a total of $60.

Assumption #2 – Travel Expenses – Let’s also assume that her vehicle gets 20 miles per gallon and that gas is $4 per gallon. She will need 4 gallons of gas for the round trip to the quilt shop – 40 miles x 2 = 80 miles divided by 20 mpg = 4 gallons x $4 per gallon = $16. Let’s also add an extra $4 for the extra wear and tear on the vehicle. (I realize that this may be a very low amount.) This would total $20.

Assumption #3 – Totals – Let’s add the $60 for her time and the $20 for her gas for a total of $80 minimum she should make for this trip to the quilt shop.

Assumption #4 – Number of quilts – Because she took the time to document the number of quilts, on average, she picks up and/or drops off at this quilt shop, she knows that she usually has 5 quilts to either pick up or drop off.  If we take the $80 minimum she wants to make and divide it by 5 quilts, it will equal $16. Now we have to determine if $16 is a reasonable amount of $$ to charge for a ONE WAY pick up / delivery fee. Personally, I would round that up to $20, or maybe even $25 (you do have to eat and get something to drink while you are on the road!)

Let’s say the quilter decides on a $20, one way, delivery fee for her customers. That means, if a customer drops off her quilt at the quilt shop and then the quilter delivers it back to the quilt shop for pick up, there will be a total of $40 extra added to the final bill. (You will need to talk to your CPA or tax advisor to determine if state sales tax is applied to this fee and how to track this in your accounting system.)

What about customer reaction? Will there be some upset customers? Yes. Will the customers continue to use this quilter? Probably. Will a few customers decide to take their quilts to another quilter that does not have any delivery fees? Yes – but, these will not be your “best” customers – these customers who are probably looking for the cheapest, most convienient to them,  quilter. Remember, this quilter is also raising her prices, so the double whammy of raised prices and a delivery fee would push these “iffy” customers away. That’s all right. That will leave LOTS of room for the GOOD customers who appreciate the work, craftsmanship and artistic vision this quilter brings to their quilts.

There can be some options that the customers can utilize.

• They can ship their quilts to the quilter and they would be billed a delivery fee only.
• The customer could make the drive to and from the quilter’s studio themselves and they pay for their own gas and time. Maybe after doing this a few times, the customer will gladly pay the pick up /delivery fee. 
• The customer could ship their quilt to the quilter and then have the quilter ship the completed quilt back to them. If this is an option, I would make sure the return shipping fee is at least the same amount as the delivery fee.

Cindy’s note: I would bet that the return shipping fee, for a completed Queen Size quilt, via USPS Priority Mail, Delivery Confirmation, would be MORE than the delivery fee.

The above are my thoughts and ideas about a pick up / delivery fee for this particular machine quilter. Here are my questions to you – Do you have a business situation similar to this? Do you have a delivery fee? If you do, how much is it and how did you determine this fee? If you don’t have a delivery fee, let us know why.

I would love to hear your thoughts about this issue and this particular situation. Please feel free to post your comments.

Doing Quilt Research

I received this comment on my recent post about Historically Correct Quilting:

I’m wondering where you would start your research. My first thoughts are books showing original quilts from the era and hoping there is enough detail to show the quilting. I don’t live in an area where these quilts are shown, so don’t have access to actual quilts.

I started writing a reply, but it soon turned into a post!

Trying to do “quilt research” can be daunting at times. I do have a couple of quilt history books in my library and I started my search there. Then I went to the internet and did searches for: Civil War Quilts, Civil War Quilting, quilting in the 1860′s, etc. I also did searches for specific quilting techniques such as Baptist Fans and Cross Hatching. Not too far from where I live (in the greater Seattle area) there is the LaConner Quilt Museum in LaConner, WA. www.laconnerquilts.com (They have a great website, take some time to visit.) I have sent emails to them asking about quilting designs in Civil War quilts. I also know of some (somewhat) local quilt appraisers and have emailed them for information. Note: as of this time I have not heard back from them.

If you don’t live near a quilt museum, you may visit your local historical society for information. You could also do an internet search for quilt museums – you may be surprised that you may be not too far from one. Some local colleges /universities may have textile archives that you could access. (Many years ago I was doing research on pioneer women’s garments and contacted the local (Seattle) Museums. To my surprise, the Museum of History and Industry had an extensive textile and garment collection. I was able to get into the “back rooms” of their collection and was able to look and touch – with gloves on – totally hand-made garments from over 120 years ago! That was an amazing thrill for me!!)

If you belong to a quilt guild you could also talk to the members. There may be someone who is interested in quilt history and could help in your search.

Sometimes, when doing research, you have to get creative and look at other ways to find the information you are looking for. I know that there are many Civil War re-enactment groups. I haven’t contacted any of them at this time, but, I may. As living historians of that period of time, there may be someone who could help.

If there is anyone who has other ideas on how to do quilt research or quilt research sources please feel free to add them to this blog.

Historically Correct Quilting

Here is a scenario for you to think about:

A customer comes to you with a reproduction Civil War era quilt (made from modern fabrics using modern sewing techniques) that she has just completed. The quilt is an Ohio Star quilt pattern similar to the one shown below. Blocks are 9 inches, the sashing is 3 inches (1 inch strips to make the 9 Patch and sashing), and the border is 1½ x 3 inch Flying Geese.

Quilt designed by Kathi Eubank

Your customer comments to you that she would like to have this quilted in “historically correct” quilting designs. This is a good customer and the price of the quilting is not an issue.

Here are some questions for you:

What “historically correct” designs would you quilt on this quilt?

Do you feel you need to include historical documentation to your customer for WHY you would stitch this particular design?

If your customer did not want historically correct quilting, what would you stitch instead?

Note: If you are using a pattern/technique from a designer, include their website or email and I will make a link to it.

Please post your thoughts about “historically correct” quilting on quilts from historical eras, such as the Civil War era, the 30’s Depression era, etc. I think that this is something we need to think about.

Cindy’s Note:  this post comes about due to a question that has been asked about a statement that I wrote as a contrubtor to the Fresh Ideas article in the On Track! Magazine, winter 2012 issue.  For more information about OnTrack! magazine Click Here  OnTrack! is published by the IMQA (International Machine Quilters Association) which also puts on the Machine Quilters Showcase (MQS). This year, MQS is May 16 – 19 in Overland Park, Kansas. For more info about MQS and IMQA Click Here

Photos – Priceless!

As professional quilters, I feel that showing off your quilting is EXTREMLY important! How is the world going to know the quality and creativity of your quilting unless you show it off! But how DO you show the world your quilting? There are two ways I would recommend. One way is to have a website or the other way is to have a blog. But, having a website AND a blog is even better yet. They both can complement each other.

A website is a great way of having an internet presence, but …. There are some expenses involved (website name, hosting services, software, webmaster fees, etc.),  there can be a learning curve if you do it yourself, and there can be considerable time involved updating the website. If you have someone else working on your website, such as a webmaster, grandchild, high school or college student, son-in-law, etc., you are working on THEIR schedule and you are at their mercy. The important (to you) information or changes that you want on your website is not usually on the top of their priority list. Even if you pay them – and the cost can be significant – there are times when you are still not first on their list. (Ask me how I know this!)

Over the last few years, Blogs have become very popular. If you don’t have a website or you can’t easily work on a website, in my opinion, a Blog is the way to go! Most blogs are FREE, are relatively easy to work on and easy to update. You can work on your blog from any computer that has an internet connection at any time of the day or night. There are several free blog services such as WordPress (which is the service I use for this blog), BlogSpot, TypePad, etc. All of these services have many, many tutorials to get you started.

Note: A book I would recommend for those who don’t have blog yet, or are just starting to work with a blog is “Blogging for Bliss, Crafting Your Own Online Journal”, by Tara Frey. This is a basic book with lots of wonderful photos, references to all sorts of crafting blogs and comparisons of the major blogging services. It is written in a conversational way and is not “geeky” or “tech-y.”

I am not getting into which of these services are “best”, nor is this going to be a “How to get your blog started” article.  I want you to learn about blogs and get one of your own started – or at least think about getting one started. It’s not that hard to do!

I feel that every professional quilter should have a blog or a website or both! Why? Let me list the reasons. A blog, a website, or both:

• Give you credibility as a “real” business.
• Let’s the world know that you are open for business.
• Gives the world the chance to see your quilting.
• Let’s your customers, or others, create “conversations” by making comments on your blog posts.
• Is a easy way you can communicate with your customers and potential customers.

It has been said that “having a website lets you talk TO your customers, having a blog lets you talk WITH your customers.”

Note: Even though I have this blog and a personal blog at cindyroth1.wordpress.com I do not consider myself an expert blogger. I am still learning the ins and outs of blogging, but I am having a lot of fun along the way.

Let’s assume you do have a blog and you do post to it every once in a while, but mostly about family or other things. Simply start posting about your quilting. I would recommend making some categories about quilting such as: Customer Quilts, My Quilts, Quilts in Progress, etc. and I would suggest a separate page about your quilting services. (There is a difference between a page and a post, which should be explained in your service’s tutorials.) And here is the most important part – INCLUDE PHOTOS OF QUILTS IN YOUR POSTS! 

When your customer brings their quilt to you and you are talking to them during the intake process, ask them if you can post photos of their completed quilt on your blog and make a note of this on your worksheet. If they are reluctant to have their quilt on the internet, that’s all right. Just make sure you note this and respect their wishes.

When you have finished quilting their quilt, of course, take photos. Take a full view of the quilt and some close up photos to show the wonderful quilting you did. Before you post the photos on your blog, make sure to take the time to “adjust” the photos by cropping, etc. This is usually easy to do by using the photo editing software that is included on your computer. I like to crop my quilt photos so that no (or very little) background is showing.

For example: When I take photos of my quilts, I like to hang them out on the clothesline in my backyard. In the photos, I usually get a lot of my very overgrown garden showing in the background behind the quilt. (Remember, you have to move the photo from the camera to the computer to “adjust” the photo.) I crop (or remove) as much of the overgrown garden as I can before I post the photo. Remember to “save” the photo after cropping and adjusting!

After the photo is the way you want it, go to your blog and begin writing a “post” about the quilt. You may want to include your customer’s first name and last initial, the name of the piecing pattern, the details of what you quilted on it, etc. Before your publish your post, be sure to upload, then add your photo to the post. (Again, follow the tutorials for your blog service on how to do this.) I would recommend posting a full view of the quilt and at least one or two close up photos of your quilting. After your post is completed, publish your post. Now your quilting is on the internet for the world to see.

Note: depending on how your blog is set up, every time you publish a post, your blog “subscribers” can be automatically notified and then view your quilting photos. How cool is that!

Here is where everything starts coming together! Send an email to your customer letting them know that their quilt is ready to be picked up. Include the web address of your blog post in the email and encourage your customer to view their quilt online. I know that your customer will be thrilled to see the wonderful quilting you did and she will want to forward your blog address to her friends and others. She wants to show off her quilt – and your quilting! You never know where in the world your photos (and your quilting) will be seen!

Let’s assume that a friend of your customer sees the quilt (and your quilting) and contacts you about quilting her quilt! Do you see how this could increase your customer base and your income?

Here is a tip – if your blog service has “tags” be sure to use them. Include the name of the piecing pattern and the name of the designer. Also include tags for the quilting you did, such as feathered wreaths, free motion quilting, etc., or specific names of quilting patterns. If you take the time to do this, when someone does an online search for the name of that piecing pattern, designer, quilting design, etc., your post will be included in their search. Again, you NEVER know who is looking for quilting ideas for a specific piecing pattern or specific designer, and who is looking at YOUR quilting! They may be your next customer!

Take the time to take the photos and post them to your blog. (You can do the same with a website, but a blog is usually a lot easier.) This may be the easiest,  most fun way to increase your business!

Exciting News!!

I recently did a phone interview about Longarm University for The Quilter Magazine. The article they wrote from this interview is nearly two pages long and is now in the February/March 2012 issue. This issue is now starting to show up on the news stands and in stores. If you have a chance, please give this issue a look. Longarm U also made the front cover!

Here are some photos of the front cover of this magazine. (Click on the photos for a larger view)

A close up of the corner where Longarm University is shown.

The Power of a Single Word!

The Winter Holidays are fast approaching! No matter which holiday you celebrate, you know that there are TONS of things that you need to do! Making your holiday(s) festive usually falls on the shoulders of we who are the busiest, and we gladly accept it!  But, if you have your own machine quilting business, this could be your busiest, most hectic time of year! Are you prepared for the extra challenges?

If you are like me, early December is when you begin to stress over the gifts you want to make for your own family and friends, which are often quilts or quilted items. You may have planned ahead. Maybe the quilt tops have already been pieced, and you just barely have time to quilt and bind them. Family and friends think, “You have a quilting machine and you can get quilts done really quick!” Then, add in family traditions – special foods, decorations, events, letters, shopping, cleaning, baking, wrapping, mailing, etc. On top of all of that, add in the quilts you need to finish for your customers! Are you breaking out in a cold sweat yet?!!!!

 Now. Think of your customers. They are also in panic mode! By early December they begin to stress over the quilts they want to give as gifts to their family and friends. Then they have a light bulb moment ….. They don’t have a quilting machine, but you do! So they give you a call. They whine, they grovel, and they will do almost anything to get you to complete their quilts before a certain date – usually within a week or two!

And, then they tell you they still have to get the borders on their quilt and sew the back! Aarrgghh!! You now face a classic dilemma. Think fast. What do you do? How many quilts do you have lined up? It’s time to face the music…. Do you quilt your customer’s quilt or not? Yes? No?  or Later?

I wish I could give you a definite answer but I can’t. Only YOU can do that!  BUT … here are some questions you may want to ask yourself and think about before you have to give your next customer your answer.

Is this a regular, reliable customer that does good to excellent piecing? If you have worked well with this customer in the past, they like your style of quilting, they have good piecing skills, and will show up at appointments on time, you may want to say, “Yes!” (Especially if they usually say “quilt what you want. I am always happy with your work!”) You may even enjoy working on their quilt!

On the other hand ……

What if this is a difficult customer? They are notorious for cancelling appointments, not showing up at all, or have poor piecing skills. You may not want to deal with the stress of working with them and their quilt until after things calm down. This may be the time you will have to be ready to say, “NO!”

What if this is a new customer? They don’t know your quilting schedule, but you want them for future quilting; so, you might say, “Yes.”

Let’s assume you are thinking of working on their quilt. You haven’t seen the quilt yet, but from their description the quilt may need a little more complex quilting. Ask yourself this question:

“Will the extra time and effort needed for this quilt be worth the time I need to take away from my family and other activities I have planned in my own life?”

Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question. Only YOU can! Even if this quilt needs only simple quilting, decide if you can justify to your family, friends and to yourself the time it will take you away from important holiday activities. Will you be prepared for the extra stress this quilt may add to your probably already chaotic and stressed life?

What about the money? The extra $$ that this quilt (and maybe a few more) will bring may be very nice; but, is it worth the stress this will add to your life, especially at this time of the year?  Do you really want to be quilting long into the night on holiday evenings? Ask me how I know this! Again, only YOU can answer this question!

 BUT, what if the answer is, “NO!” How can you say no in a way that won’t upset your customer or make you look like a “meanie?

Here are some possible responses:

For the new or difficult customer: “I would really love to quilt your quilt for you, but my holiday quilt schedule is full. I am so sorry, but I am swamped, and I can’t squeeze in another quilt until January. Let’s make an appointment so you can bring the quilt to me after the holidays, and I can get your quilt into my schedule.”

For your good, regular customer: “I would really love to quilt your quilt for you, but my holiday quilt schedule is really full. Let me take the information about your quilt, and if I have some extra time to quilt it, I’ll give you a call. I can’t make any guarantees about this, but I will keep you and your quilt in my mind.  To be sure you get onto my schedule as early as possible, let’s go ahead and make an appointment to bring your quilt in after the holidays.”

A Business Idea – Keep Your Customer, Even When You Can’t Meet their Deadline Request!

A great idea is to design a Quilting Certificate your customer can “gift” with the unquilted top.  The Quilting Certificate will say the quilt will be quilted in the future and then returned to the recipient when it is finished. Your customer can include this Quilting Certificate with their unquilted gift. The recipient then sees the beautiful quilt that was made for them, gives it back to your customer, and they get it to you after the holidays as scheduled. You can send this Quilting Certificate as an email attachment, or print it on pretty paper and send it via regular mail to your customer.

Here is an example of such a quilting Certificate. (Click on the highlighted text to view the pdf file.)Quilting Certificate

 If you would like the Quilting Certificate in MS Publisher so that you can use it, please send an email to longarmu@aol.com. I will send the Publisher file as an email attachment.

 TIP: If this is for a good, long term, regular customer, I would not charge anything for the Quilting Certificate. If this for a new or difficult customer I would consider charging something.  I might suggest a $25 – $50 deposit to keep them in my three month schedule. Everyone schedules differently, so make this idea work for you.

What is the hardest part of saying NO, even in a nice way? The hardest part is being FIRM about NO and not saying, “NO, but …. maybe …….” It’s hard!

If you become wishy-washy about NO, you are telling your customer that THEY can get you to do what THEY want (not what YOU want.) Aarrgghh!! If they persist, whine or grovel enough, YOU might cave! Stop this behavior! It shows that YOU are not in control of your own business!

 Being able to say, “NO” and being firm (but not mean) about it, is something we all have to learn. Unfortunately, most of us have to learn it the hard way!

 Have I said, “Yes” to quilt projects I should not have? Absolutely! I hate to admit it, but I have done this several times. Have I learned lessons from these experiences? Yes I have!

 One thing that helps is to be prepared.  Instead of saying NO, say “I can” but not until a later date. Example: “I would love to quilt your quilt, My next available opening is approximately _____.” Having said that, sometimes NO just has to mean NO!  You might even need to practice what you are going to say in front of a mirror.

Also, do you charge a Rush Fee or charge extra $$ for quilting on short notice? This is reasonable, and customers will gladly pay. However, you need to know that even if you charge extra $$ for short notice quilting, it is usually not enough to cover the time away from family, friends, your own projects or loss of sleep at this time of the year!

 [Note: I will talk more about Rush Fees in an upcoming post.]

 At the end of December, say between Christmas and New Years, I highly recommend quilters take some time away from their business to relax, de-stress, and re-charge.  Give your machine a good dusting, unplug it, close the door to your studio and take a few days off from quilting! Spend some time doing something YOU want to do and RELAX! Visit with friends and family, or just spend some time by yourself. Whatever makes you happy, just do it! When you get back to work, you will be refreshed and ready to begin again!

 From me and all the rest of us at LongarmUniversity, to you and your family, we wish you all a wonderful holiday season; and please, enjoy some relaxing time for your personal life.

Please feel free to post your comments.

A November Idea

Early November is a “strange” time for professional machine quilters.

Many quilters are up to their ears with customer quilts and customer Christmas quilts and are working nearly all the time to get these quilts finished on time. Other quilters may have big “spaces” in their schedule and could use some extra work to pay their bills or to use for their own holiday celebrations.

If you are a busy quilter, good for you and You Go Girl (or Guy)!!! If you are the quilter who could use a few more quilts to finsh before the end of the year, I have an idea for you.

I suggest that you go to your customer list (you should have a data base of the customers you have had, preferably since you started your business) and find the customers who you have had little or no contact with for a while. You have to determine what  ”for a while” means to you. This could be customers who haven’t brought a quilt in for six months, or maybe they haven’t brought a quilt in for a year or more. (I would choose six months or more.)

 Now, write-up a note reminding them that Christmas and the Winter Holidays are coming up, time is getting short and if they want quilting done for the Holidays, they need to contact you as soon as possible so you can get their quilting done in time. (Don’t worry about what to write, I have an example you can use a little later in this post.) To make this offer irresistible to your customer, include that they can have a FREE BATTING if they bring their quilt before a certain date. Trust me, Free Batting get the attention of your customer – which is what you want!

Print out these notes (I use Publisher, which is already on my computer) on card stock paper (card stock is slightly heavier than regular computer paper), put your customer’s address on it, stamp it and put it in the regular mail. Wait the day or two it takes to have the Post Office deliver these notes, and you should have a few more quilts to complete!

Here is a pdf of the note that I created for my business November Customer Note Feel free to adapt it and use it in your business.

Here are the details about this note – There are two notes printed per page, landscape page layout. I cut it in half and then folded it in half with the address on the outside and taped the short edges together. I created labels with my customer’s addresses (using the Mail Merge function in Word from the addresses in my data base), then put these notes in the mail.

I put my note cards in the mail last week. The results – I have already had a few customers call and they will be dropping off their quilts in the next few days!

Let me know your thoughts and if you use this idea, please let us know your results.

A Business Video

I belong to several online business related websites. The one site I really like is TheNewsletterGuru.com. From this site I have found many business “tidbits” that relate to my quilting business. This site has a REALLY good , free e-newsletter which I highly recommend.

Along with the e-newsletter, there is a new business related video that is posted twice a month or so. The video that was recently posted was about raising your prices. This video is for all sorts of businesses (it is not quilting specific) but much of what is said in the video TOTALLY relates to what we do, and who we are, as professional machine quilters.

The video is about ten minutes long and I think it is worth taking the time to watch. The video is free – there is an offer for some books at the beginning which you can exit out of. (I do have these books and they are very good.)  

Here is the link   http://www.newsletterguru.tv/raise-your-prices-now/

Let me know your thoughts about what is being presented in the video.

Local Quilt Shop Owners – My Heroes!

I think nearly everyone who is a quilter (no matter if they are a piecer or machine quilter) has at one time dreamed about opening their own quilt shop. Just the thought of all that fabric at your disposal, to make ANY quilt you want, at any time you choose,  is enough to make a quilter drool or swoon! But running a quilt shop is HARD, HARD WORK!

From choosing the fabrics, notions and other supplies for the shop, paying for all these purchases, organizing the classes, teachers, employees, etc., all of this can be OVERWHELMING!!  There are TONS of details that need to be taken care of on a daily basis for any quilt shop owner, no matter where they are located! And, on top of all of this, the quilt shop owner and employees need to be pleasant to EVERYONE who comes into your shop. (Usually it isn’t hard to be pleasant to everyone, but there are those “special” customers and there are “those” days!)

Personally, I admire anyone who owns a quilt shop! They are the true heroes of the quilting industry!

Most quilt shop owners are receptive to new machine quilting businesses, but if they are not, don’t blame them. There can be reasons you don’t know about as why they are feeling this way.

Maybe they have been “burned” by a new machine quilter in the past. Maybe they work with a specific machine quilter or two that are already established. Whatever the reason that a quilt shop owner may not be receptive to your new business, respect them for that.

Having a local quilt shop “on your side” is great, but if this is not the case, you need to think creatively as to how you can start (or increase) your business without their support. Fortunately, this is not too hard to do and we will talk about this in the future on this blog.

The next time you are in your local quilt shop, give the owner a hug, a pat on the back or tell them “Thank You” for all they do for the local quilters, the local economy and for the quilting industry!