My Pattern Design Business Experience - Part Seven!

This week I want to wrap up this blog series on starting a pattern design business and thank everyone that has read it and continues to follow my blog posts. Over the past several weeks, I have talked a little bit about myself and why I decided to start my business. Additionally, I covered what it took to start the business and how it has changed over time. Then I jumped into what my average day looks like and how I handle the challenges of running a business.

Before I close, I want to build a little more on a topic I started last week. That is keeping an eye on the industry and what others are doing. Another aspect of this is getting involved with the industry by networking with others in the business. Look for groups or guilds to join, certification to obtain, or just go out and make friends that quilt. There are many reasons for this, and the primary one is that you can not run a successful business in a vacuum. No one will know you exist.

More importantly, no one knows everything, and getting out and being apart of the industry allows learning from others. For several years, I was an ambassador for Island Batiks. During this period, as an ambassador, I had to produce projects monthly for them that helped them advertise their fabric lines. In return, I receive sample fabric from them and other quilting notions. More importantly, they challenged my design skills and forced me to think out of the box. As a result, I believe I am a better designer over what I would have been without their challenges.

Then when I discovered the Studio 180 Design Tools and the Sue Pelland Designs Templates and became certified. I learned that I needed to start teaching, which is another skill that I am still working on mastering. Anyway, becoming certified has opened me to additional pathways for income for my business. On top of that, these groups host training events that only certified instructors are invited too. During these events, new techniques are covered, old skills can be refined, and most importantly, friendships are built. These new friends can be great for encouragement, lending a hand, or just being someone to talk to that shares a common interest.

Finally, I believe it is important to start attending the trade shows, for example, Spring and Fall Quilt Markets. These shows are reserved for professionals in the quilting industry. They are a great way to meet quilt shop owners, fabric company representatives, and even distributors. It is also a great venue that you can show off your latest designs and products. Attending the shows can be expensive, but in the long run, the interest you can generate in your plans will hopefully cover the cost.

Now, I want to close the series with the questions; if I knew everything back then that I know now, would I still start this business? I would answer yes to that. Although, if I could go back in time with my current knowledge, I am sure I would make some changes along the way and do a couple of things differently. However, overall, I do not believe I would make wholesale changes. My business is a lot of work and eats up a lot of time, but it is my passion that I wish to share with everyone.

Again, thank you for following along on my journey.

Tina

My Pattern Design Business Experience - Part Six!

Welcome back to my blog series on starting and running a quilt pattern business. If you have missed any of this series, be sure to check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

Last week, I started to highlight a few of the unexpected benefits of starting and running a business and focusing on building.  Showing how my self-confidence has grown from facing the challenges of running a business. This week, I want to focus on a few of the challenges and how I have dealt with them.

There are a lot of challenges to running a business, from getting it started, financing, operations, deadlines, and the list can go on and on. Then there is also the challenge of what happens when things just do not go right. That is the challenge I want to talk about this week. How do you handle it when you work days, weeks, or even months on a project only to have it fall flat?

In the quilt pattern design business, this could be a new design that took a lot of time and effort to develop. Then on the release, you receive a lot of positive comments, but very few sales. Sadly, you cannot pay the bills on positive feedback, sales are what keep the bill paid and the business moving forward.

Expending a lot of time and effort on a large project only to generate a few small sales can be very disheartening. It may make you question what you are doing, and is it worth it? How you answer this question can determine on if you stay in business or not.

In my view, there are only two different reactions you can have to this type of challenge. The first and easiest is to feel sorry for yourself, and all that will do is lead to negative emotions making you question yourself even more. The other reaction would be to say to yourself, “Ok, that did not go as planned. What can I learn from this and do better next time?” Of course, the second option is the most obvious choice, but it also can be the most difficult. It is easy to feel sorry for yourself and maybe even take poor sales personally because you put a lot of yourself into every project. It is harder to take an objective view and try to see what went wrong and what can be improved upon next time.

This brings up the point that it is essential to continually be examining what you are doing and how it may fit into the current or future market. Meaning does your design fit with the direction the market is going. It is hard to generate sales when you develop an overly complicated, time-consuming pattern when the market may be trending to quick and straightforward projects. That is where devoting time to studying what others are doing can be crucial. I want to make it clear, and I am not saying to copy others, just be aware of what others are doing and to what success. Then examine what you are doing and look for ways to improve.

From what I have learned over the years, pattern development can be a tough business to make successful by itself. I love designing quilt patterns and seeing them come to life. Even more, I love seeing when another quilter makes one of my patterns and shares it with the world. To me, that is a great reward. However, that does not make money or pay the bills. Generating revenue from sales is what pays the bills.

See you next Tuesday,

Tina

My Pattern Design Business Experience - Part Five!

Welcome back to my blog series on starting and running a quilt pattern business. If you have missed any of this series, be sure to check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.  Last week I continued to talk about the commitment to starting a business, focusing more on the time commitment. This week, I want to highlight a few of the unexpected benefits of starting and running a business. These benefits are not centered around just a quilt pattern design business. Still, I believe it would come with running almost any small business.

When I was introducing this blog series, I talked briefly about that when I started my business at the time, I was a government employee. I was working in Washington DC and felt like I was not going where I wanted to be in life. I guess I felt like I was not in control of what I was doing and was not satisfied. It is kind of hard to explain, but mainly a feeling that I wanted to do something that I would be excited to get out of bed in the morning and get to work. Instead of having to drag myself out of bed, dread a long commute only to be stuck in an office. Then have another long commute to get back home, only to have a few hours to relax before going to bed and then repeating it the following day. I am sure I just described half of the working people in America, but that is how I felt.

With a focus on wanting to do something I enjoyed, I quit my government job and went to work for myself. In doing so, I achieved the goal of finding a job I genuinely want and look forward to doing every day. Now, don’t get me wrong; there are a lot of challenges and frustrations that come from running a business. That is where I have found several unintended benefits that I was not expecting.

To better understand this, let me describe my personality a little bit. First, I am an introvert and generally on the quiet side. I always had some difficulties talking to strangers and was never comfortable speaking in front of a group of people. Also, as a result of growing up with some learning disabilities, I have struggled with self-confidence. In running a business, I have been forced to overcome all of these issues. That is not to say that they are gone, I have more learn to recognize them for what they are and do what needs to be done.

To run my business, I have become a certified instructor in both the Studio 180 Design Tools and the Sue Pelland Design Tools. To do this, I had not only to learn the tool but demonstrate that I could teach others to use them as well. It is forcing me to deal with being in front of groups of people. Additionally, I have hosted booths at a couple of Quilt Markets, actually running the first one all by myself. It is incredible what it does for your self-confidence to be able to drive several days across country, set-up, and operate a booth in a major trade show. Then pack it back up and go home and to receive positive feedback from your peers in the process. Now, I know for some that may sound easy. For me, this was a huge undertaking, and I will admit that I was very nervous about the whole thing.

The point of all of this is that I found, no matter what challenges are thrown at me. I have learned that I can overcome them. I know I have strength in myself, and I am accomplishing things that I would have never dreamed of ten years ago. There will always be challenges, and I have also learned that it just takes the mindset to be willing to step up and face the challenge head-on and overcome it. Then move onto the next challenge.

To summarize, the unexpected benefit from starting and running a business is learning to have confidence in myself and that I can accomplish a lot when I put my mind to it. Please join me next week as I continue my blog series.

See you next Tuesday,

Tina