Make your company unique

Have you often wondered how big name companies like NIKE got to be so well known? They started out their sewing business just like you with prototypes and company names and logos. They built a name for themselves that can be identified with only their logo. How does a company get to be known for just their logo? What if their logo was a symbol that in another country was slang for something not very nice? To answer these types I questions I went on an internet search. I came across an interesting company that helps small companies find their "brand identity". When you go to their home page of this marketing company there is a video and quick quiz to find out how strong your brand name and identity is.

When you have your own sewing business is it best not to name it "Jody's needles" or some other nondescript company name. "Needles" could be interpreted as knitting needles or medical syringes. Now if Jody did wedding gowns with original designs then maybe the company name could be "Wedding Gowns by Jody" or "Jody's Original Designs". Adding the name Jody to the company name only works out if Jody has a following already. Jody would be best to leave out her name entirely if she is not well known.

How to Sew a Waistband Casing

Another how-to video courtesy of YouTube.

New sewing machine by Husqvarna

Husqvarna Viking just introduced a new sewing machine. You can read more about it in the article below.

Finding the right web hosting company can be a pain

I have tried several different web hosting companies over the course of the last 10+ years of running websites and using them to sell my items. I find that as technology advances so does the quality of Web Hosting companies. Most of the ones I have dumped did not keep up with the new technologies of ecommerce or having a decent online web page designer tool, both of which are very important to me. I remember one of the older providers was Prodigy which got bought out by Yahoo and went down the tubes when that happened. At that time my ISP and website hosting company was the same but I have since learned to keep that kind of stuff separate.

Shopping for that elusive ideal web hosting company has been a daunting task to say the least. I have several criteria that I absolutely have to have to run a fairly decent online shopping ecommerce site. One of those criteria is to be able to accept credit cards as well as PayPal as a separate option. PayPal is starting to get a reputation that many online shoppers are no longer comfortable with and I don't want to turn a customer away because of that.

Keeping in mind those criteria it was hard to find the ideal web hosting company at a realistic price. In my search I found a web site that does reviews of Web Hosting companies and lets you compare them side by side. Just click on the link above to check it out.

How to Read a Sewing Pattern

If you need help trying to figure out how to read a sewing pattern, this video will help.

Sewing Curves for Patchwork a Quilt

Here is an interesting sewing how-to video from youtube.com

Must haves for sewing

I am going to list a few items that are a MUST HAVE for sewing. Many of these items can even be found at the local dollar store so they don't have to be expensive.

• A good pair of very small scissors, for cutting threads and removing threads from seams
• a seam cutter/ripper
• a disk cutter for cutting fabric. I prefer a disk cutter over a pair of scissors because your hand won't get sore from using it.

Do I have a successful sewing business?

I sometimes have people leave me questions in the comments section about my own sewing business. I thought I would answer some of those questions here:

• What kind of sewing business do you have? I have a part time home based embroidery business that caters to the pet owner. I also design and make tack items for horse owners.
  
• Where do you sell your items? I have sold my items at craft fairs, horse shows, online and eBay.
• How do you advertise? I use eBay for advertising. I put an item on there and refer them to my website for more photos of the item. Word of mouth is also a great tool for advertising. I have many repeat customers.
• How long have you been in business? I have been making items for horse owners for years but finally got into it as a business about 2 years ago.
• What type of sewing machine do you have? I have a Baby Lock Esante that I got last year and love it!
  
• Do you do custom work? Yes I do, in fact the great majority of my work is custom made. Since it is custom made I price my items accordingly.
  

Making your own work area

Find a place in your home to locate the best area for your sewing. The area should be well lit and have enough power outlets for your machine and other equipment you might need time to time like an iron. There should be enough space to have a flat solid are to lay out and cut material. For your own comfort the area should have ventilation and be temperature controlled. The area that you work and store material in should be a low humidity area. If you have to buy a dehumidifier then do so.

The area itself should not be close to other areas of regular family life. The rest of the family should treat the area as a "business area" and should not disturb you or the items in the area during business hours. Don't make the sewing area as part of your own bedroom or kitchen. If you do be prepared not to have a successful business. Your sewing area needs to have a place of it's own, preferably it's own room.

Set work or business hours and let the rest of the family know about them. Let them know that just because you are home does not mean that you are not working. They need to know when they can disturb you or leave you alone. Also you need to set reasonable hours and stick to them. If you have a great idea about a new design then just write it down and get to it during your regular work hours. After a few hours or even a day you might rethink you original idea or dismiss it as just a bad idea after all. The setting of regular hours is not only to get your family into the habit of not abusing your time but to prevent you from burning out before you have a chance to really get your sewing business underway.

Make or design something that will help the environment or save people money

There is an interesting blog post on Scratching out a Living that mentions about the amount of oil used to make shopping bags. The post also suggests designing and making reusable shopping bags to help the economy and the environment. Well, do you have a design?

Find a craft show

Can't find a craft show to attend? I found a great resource for you. It is a website that you simply type in the zip code or type of craft fair you are looking for and it brings the information to you. No email mailing lists to join (that's the part I like). Limited to the USA and Canada locations. Link in below.

Craft Fair Calendar

If you are outside of Canada or the USA and would like to list a craft fair for the readers of Sewing for Cash just leave a comment on this blog post.

Two moms unite to form company

Two former college roommates got together to make grocery shopping bags. They now have a successful business.

eBay tips #3

Seller beware! As a seller always keep track of who is buying from you. If someone with no feedback at all keeps out bidding all of your other bidders on all of your auctions then you might want to take steps to stop them. The bidder might be a hack that is bent on destroying your reputation on eBay. They could be a competitor, a former buyer that holds a grudge or even someone you know. They typically will become the winning bidder and never pay or contact you. They can in turn leave bad feedback (unless eBay has changed their policy by now) These things do happen on eBay so protect yourself from this kind of fraud.

A website solution

I am often asked to review products or websites for inclusion into this blog. Most of the website reviews are "hey link to me" or "am I doing this right?" The link to me ones usually end up being nothing to do with sewing or starting a business. One such "hey link to me" was another blog about jewelry which seemed OK at first because I thought it was about hand crafting jewelry until I checked out the site. It was nothing but listings from eBay and amazon.com with no original posts on there at all. I was just another link farm.

The reviews of websites have been from good to really bad. The poor ones and worse are never put up on here unless they are such a ripoff that people should know about. Occasionally I come across a really good one that at first does not seem that good until I find a gem on the site. The one with a gem this month is a web hosting provider called Network Solutions. They offer a free domain name when you purchase one of their hosting plans. Now that is what most of the other website hosting plans offer nowadays so that is not the gem. Their prices are average for what they offer as well, again that is not the gem. The gem in this case is the online website creator tool that they use. It is called ImageCafe and is simply marvelous for adding search tools and internet commerce to the website. it even has $25 in Google ad words credit and $50 Yahoo marketing credit. This is a web hosting provider worth checking out.

There are limits to unique designs

Designing items can be a challenge at the best of times. The photo above shows a unique idea to say the least. The photo appeared in my email titled "Red neck tank top" and several people I know have made the remark that they were going to make a few of these and add lace and zig gag edges to them. and put them on Craigslist.

A company to stay away from

As our businesses grow we sometimes have a need to find wholesale suppliers of t-shirts, tops, baseball caps and other types of items that can be customized for selling. There are indeed many companies out there but I found one to stay away, far away from. The company's internet name is Company Casuals. Now why have I told you stay away from them? Simple, if you go to their website you can find no contact information - none, not even an email addy. Do these people expect us to place an order with them with no knowledge of where they are located at? They have wonderful photos but are they a real company? With so many other companies out there you don't have to waste your time with this one.

Embroidery on straps

I have done some machine embroidery on nylon strapping in the past. Mostly it was limited to dog collars with the name of the pet on them. My sewing machine will do straight lettering type embroidery with no fancy attachments just by feeding the fabric through the machine.

I have looked over the internet and found someone that does embroider straps but this time it is guitar straps (what an idea!). The photo above is from this person's website. Now looking at the photo you would think that the rest of the work done at this place would be pretty good - NOPE, you are wrong. If you look at the examples put on their front page of the website the work is pretty crappy. I would hope that their work was better than the stuff they have exampled on their website. Here is a lesson to all sewing professionals or sewing hopefuls - do not put photos of substandard work on your website. The result would be no customers.

eBay tips #2

To continue my tips on selling on eBay here is my second tip.

Cater to the collector. The collector could be someone that collects Barbie's (think designer clothes) or the Civil War reenactor. Don't limit yourself to just sewing fabric, think about sewing leather or vinyl too.

Keeping you fabric stock smelling clean

If you haven't realized it by now, storing fabric can be tricky. Plastic tubs or containers work out best but some people still insist on hanging the fabric in a closet. When was the last time you went into a used clothing store? It smelled musty right? Your fabric if not stored properly will get that musty smell too. Would you buy an item that smelled musty and old - not likely, so why would you use fabric that smelled that way in your projects?

Here are a few ways to keep your fabrics smelling nice other than plastic containers:

• Use a air purifier also known as a room air cleaner. You have seen them advertised on TV. They are the units that filter smoke and dust out of the air.
• Hang cedar blocks in the closet where the fabric is hung.
• Line the fabric closet with cedar.