A tailoring company that made the transition to the web

I often hear from people that are in the custom design business "how can I take my business to the internet?" They don't know how to utilize the web to their advantage. One tailoring company has made the transition quite nicely. The company specializes in designing and fitting a custom suit for men. They are located in New York and their website promises a tailor made suit within 2 weeks from the day you are measured to the day it is ready for you. Click on the link above and check out the "my suit experience" to see how they have utilized the internet to encourage people to buy from them. The use of flash graphics was very nicely done.

They have used the website to display the options of each tailor fitted suit to entice a customer to come in to be measured.

This company did not let the fact that they are only in New York city stop them from using the internet to reach out to their customers. Since they are in a large metropolitan area they have wisely chosen to use the internet as a form of advertising for more than just local customers. They realize that people from all over the world travel to New York on business and pleasure and often go out of their way to buy something not readily available in their own area.

Great Halloween costume ideas

If you are lacking in the idea department for unusual Halloween costume ideas, I have a few. First up is a Dracula that sits on your back.


Next is the witch/vampire version.


Both of them are interesting and could be worth your while to make. The prices on both of them at HalloweenMart are a mint. Just click on the photos to find out how much they are asking for those costumes.

Next up is a puppet - a zombie puppet but you get the idea, just match up a costume with any type of puppet and make them mother and child or father and child.


Here is an old idea but worth the effort. A one person costume made to look like 2.

Another great idea, shark eating man.



Then there are the "couple" costumes:


Let us not forget the kids ones:



There, I hope I gave you some ideas. Also you can click on any of the photos to take you to the store that I got the ideas from. Look around and you can get more ideas on what to make. The same place also sells the accessories that can't be made easily like shoes and rubber masks.

The fastest way to earn money while sewing

I was at a craft show last year and most of the items on display where NOT selling. The down economy had just started to take hold and people where being tight with their money. The only booth making any money, and they had a line too, was the embroidery booth. The woman had a smaller computer operated, stand up, embroidery machine. She also had several large cases filled with baseball caps, sweatshirts and t-shirts. People were looking through her laminated catalog for things they wanted embroidered on their clothes. One customer had their own jacket that they wanted done. I am sure that she charged for the embroidery and added extra for the item that she sold too. For the entire time I was at the craft show (close to 8 hours) that embroidery booth never slowed down. That got me thinking. I don't believe that it was the embroidery alone that was selling but the fact you could watch it being made for you on the spot. There were other booths that were selling machine embroidered items - I was one of them.

So here is my selling tip for today:

• Make your items at the craft show or in the window of your store. People love to watch things being made and they buy them too. Sell custom made items made on the spot.

Why don't you have a website yet?

If you are selling your sewn items online why don't you have a website? Sure you say that eBay is fine for now but what happens when eBay gets hacked? Yes eBay has been hacked in the past and several hundreds of accounts had information that was compromised. I was actively selling my sewn items on eBay in September of 2007 when the site got hacked into. At least 200+ eBay accounts had to be put on hold because they were now suspected of being fraudulent. My account was safe but I knew 2 people that were so upset after the incident they left eBay for good and developed their own websites. I had an eBay store there and I closed it down because eBay accused me wrongly of shilling. They (eBay) canceled all of my listings, over 300+ in the store and I had to wait until someone answered my email to find out what happened. They refunded my listing fees, said they were sorry but I lost several sales because of it. Now I only list an occasional item on there. I refuse to be at the mercy of a larger website (I do trust Google though) that can do what they will with your account or website (as in the case of those "free" websites).

I encourage all my readers that plan on selling online to own their own domain name and have their website hosted at a reputable hosting company. I know that many of my friends that also sew for money don't know much about websites and wouldn't know what to look for in a web design company that could put up a website for you without you having to know anything about computers. Of course to have someone design and maintain your website for you is not as cheap as you doing it yourself but you also get an objective view from someone other than yourself when it comes to layouts and appeal of your website. If you click on the link above you will find that this website design company also talks to you on the phone and takes you step by step through the whole design process.

You need to get away from so called "free" websites that post ads on YOUR website for their gain. Get your own website and domain.

Wild an wacky ideas for Halloween costumes

Of course we have all seen someone in a Halloween costume that was totally outrageous. At the same time we thought "why didn't I think of that". I have found an interesting website that people have submitted their outrageous Halloween costume ideas and how-tos.

Outrageous Halloween costume ideas

Some of the ideas have pictures with them. Just click on the link under the idea to view the photos.

Free Halloween costume patterns

Here is a list of links to free Halloween costume patterns:

Animal costumes for kids

List of movie costumes to make - some with complete how-to's

Costumes for babies

Christmas sewing has begun in Denver

One company has started their Christmas sewing early. They tailor fit their own naturally bearded Santa's with 2 outfits each year. Their story is in the article below.

Don't lose time and money

I think that my biggest failing in my own business is a lack of true organization. I have no problem when it comes to invoicing, taking orders, packing lists, file folders and shipping. My problem is storage and inventory. I keep track of my inventory with a software program that I have to manually edit when I make a sale. That works when I remember to manually change the amounts in the inventory when an item ships out. Failing that I have to go and physically check to see if I have an item in stock or should I make a few to have a back log of them on hand.

The physical storage can be a problem if everything is in several storage containers and one of the containers is not labeled correctly. I spent at least an hour a few months back looking for an item I knew I had but I could not find it. I ended up making another one of them for the customer and had to send it out Priority because it took 2 days to make it. The very next day I found the item I was looking for in an unlabeled storage container. I then used my labeler to make sure that I didn’t make that mistake again. I lost time and money because of not taking the time to label my inventory.

Should you make Halloween costumes

If you have done any shopping in the past for Halloween costumes you will know that they are made cheaply and often do not last more than the one day without a rip or tear. Your sewing business could not compete with the prices of the cheap store bought costumes for kids. Notice I said "kids", there lies the clue in where the money is made on costumes, it is NOT with kids costumes but with higher quality adult sized costumes.

Children outgrow costumes fast parents are not willing to pay much for them. On the other hand a well made Renaissance costume can cost up to the thousands of dollars and people will pay that for true craftsmanship.

If you make high quality costumes and can market them correctly you can expect some interest from the smaller movie companies for costumes. Word travels fast when you are producing high quality items.

When do you need help for your sewing business?

That question in the title of this post has got to be the hardest one for a sole proprietor run business to answer. Almost all the professional tailors and crafts people I know will willingly give up the internet marketing and web page design to someone else. They are just not tech savvy unless it comes to the computer run equipment they own or lease. Some of the most awful web designs I have seen are when these poor people try to design a professional website and it ends up looking like a cluttered myspace page complete with music and dancing stars. By contrast some of them have some very tech savvy children that know HTML and some slick programing tricks that would put many a professional web site designer to shame.

How about advertising? Is that another item you can over to someone else? Most of the people that are not even in the sewing business say no. They want to know where their advertising is and who it is directed at. Granted many of those business have not grown much in the last 10 years when they should have.

Now here is a thought - do you have a logo and a "brand". Brand recognition is a very big step in the right direction for any company. Just look at NIKE and their logo. Once you see it you don't even have to guess what company it is from. There is a really neat Advertising Agency that has a brand strength test so you can check out how you are doing. Just click on the link above to check it out.

Along with your logo think of company colors and slogan to go on your website, invoices, stationary and business cards.