I’m writing a quick post to get something out before “Bones” starts at 8:00 pm (the whole family loves that show).
First off, I wanted to let all of you know about my Christmas Super Bonus Package giveaway at my other site, www.MyParentMagic.com. Over the next four weeks (starting this Friday), I will be giving away my Santa Letters and Christmas Certificates that I have been selling for $17 over the past few years. All you need to do is sign up for the My Parent Magic email list and I will send a new link every Friday for the next four weeks. I’ll be giving away the letters and certificates on the following schedule:
[click to continue…]
Time to dip into the mailbag again…
I received this question from Lynn May a little while ago (tough to answer all the great questions!), and wanted to get an answer to Lynn and Nina, who both had some of the same concerns:
Hi to all and to Chuck – Couple of things of interest. One, how to fit a quilting business into my full-time job and make a little extra money; and, two, how to price my quilts and small projects like table runners. It is hard to compete with Walmart, Target, Penney’s, etc., with quilts when you can buy one for $69.95. It costs a lot of time and money to make a quilt of excellence as we all know. So, is there a market out there for pricing a queen quilt at $300, $500 or $750? I would be very interested in knowing.
Lynn May
And here’s Nina’s comment…
I agree with Lynn May, how to begin a Quilting Business while keeping a full time job!
Here’s my answer…
[click to continue…]
Some people have asked me why I decided to come back to the Quilting Business website, even though it doesn’t count as a full-time income and it takes quite a bit of my spare time (if there is such a thing). This email reminded me of one of the 1,000s of reasons why I do this…
Chuck,
Thanks for letting me know about In A Good Way. We have material that we would be willing to donate to them.
By the way, You are the greatest. About 4 years ago I sent you a note about making 1,000 quilts for the Katrina victims. You posted it on your website. Within 24 hours I had e-mails from NY, CA, GA, ND asking if they could help. Within a short time I had received quilts from GA and NY to send to the kids in Mississippi. I still receive quilts and stay in contact with my friend in NY.
We delivered the quilts to MS, became a non profit, bought a building last month and have delivered over 2,000 quilts to US, Mexico orphanage, Eastern Europe through World Vison, Cameroon Africa, Uganda Africa, and Haiti. Who would have guessed that we would be on our way to our Million quilts for kids around the World. You showed me we are all connected. At the time I e-mailed you in 2005 I just started with one quilt. Check our website at kidzquiltz.homestead.com and our blog at kidzquiltz.blogspot.com.
Some may unsubscribe, but I think you are the greatest. You encouraged me to JUST DO IT, and I did with about 1,000 other people helping me.
Thanks for everything,
Wilma Hamilton, President
Kidz Quiltz Inc.
303-857-8600
When you receive an email like this, it makes the time spent pulling together this site and sending out the ezines well worth the effort. Wilma has been a great supporter and community member, and her charity is a wonderful organization that is doing something wonderful for children who need a little quilted love!
Keep up the good work, Wilma, and thanks for the wonderful note. And if you can help Wilma and Kidz Quiltz, please visit the website.
Chuck
I received an unsubscribe request a week or two ago, and because the advice was so good, I wanted to personally respond to the unsubscriber. Here’s the note she included in her unsubscribe request (and yes, I did remove her from the email list):
Hi Chuck, just a quick word of advice:
When a reader writes in, always respond to them with a personally written message, even if you get 50 emails in one day.
Don’t respond by sending out a second newsletter. It’s rude and makes you appear to not care about your individual readers at all.
Your business will only be as good as the time and energy you put into it.
Good luck.
So why am I bringing this up? Turns out that the person who unsubscribed is Leah Day, and she has an incredible approach to her quilting business. She has a website where she is giving away a free motion quilting filler design every day for an entire year. She’s challenged herself to come up with a brand new filler design every day for 365 straight days, and you can find out about it at her blog:
So what is she hoping to get out of giving away a free motion quilting filler design every day for a year? Here’s her explanation:
[click to continue…]
I received a great question from Karen about how to best handle when a competitor goes out of business. Here’s the question:
Chuck,
The nearest competitor to us closed on Monday. Is there any way we can capitalize on her closing without appearing as over zealous or gloating . How or what should we advertise to capitalize on the closing? Or so we just let nature take its course.
Thanks,
Karen
This can be a difficult situation since you certainly don’t want to come off as happy that your competitor has failed because you want to make their customers comfortable with choosing you as the alternative. Here is my answer to Karen:
Hi Karen,
When a competitor goes out of business is certainly no time for gloating. Besides the obvious fact that someone just had to give up on their own dream business, there’s the loyal customers who had invested a lot of time and money with this business because they either like the service, the products, or the owners. Sensitivity is key, but you definitely want to make these customers start to love your business just as much.
Here’s what I would suggest:
[click to continue…]
From time to time, I get requests to pass along information about quilting-related charities, and I’m more than happy to help. Below is a message from Teddi Irwin about In A Good Way, Inc., a halway farm based in Oregon. I’ll let Teddi explain the rest:
Glad you’re back. I am involved with an organization trying to help Native American men re enter society after incarceration. We are trying to provide as homey a look as possible in their rooms and of course quilts are at the top of the list. We are at present gathering scraps and folks to piece the quilts and the thing that is missing is someone who will quilt the quilts. I hope that is a service that you might be able to provide for us. We will advertise for you in all publications.
Do you think this is possible. I am sending you our mission statement, Purpose and Philosophy. Thank you for considering our project.
[click to continue…]
One of the top questions I received recently was about starting a quilting website, or improving an existing website. I’ve been developing websites for well over 15 years, and have spent a lot of time evaluating the best ways to get things done. I’ve coded sites by hand, used Front Page and Dreamweaver, and have also looked at various software platforms for websites.
Recently, on www.LifeIsLocal.com, my website focused on helping local businesses get the most out of their online and offline marketing, I posted about why I use Wordpress for all of my websites. You can find the article, “Why I Use Wordpress for Small Business Websites,” on the blog, but here are the key points:
- Wordpress is FREE. You don’t spend a thing on the software.
- Wordpress is extensible. Lots of people are adding new functionality to it every day.
- Wordpress is easy-to-use. Once it’s set up, you can easily add new content.
- Wordpress is interactive. Just like Quilting Business, you can solicit comments from your community.
[click to continue…]
