It is often the case that most people who want to start up their own home based business are in love with the idea that they can have more control over their own lives. It is a wonderful idea but only once you actually start that business. Taking that first leap of faith, that "yes I can do it," is often the hardest. Holding us back are fears of failure, fear losing precious money should it not work out, and most of all feeling like we are a failure if it indeed does not work out. If fear is not holding you back, maybe a lack of support is. You want to know if your idea is really a good one or just a fanciful dream. If that is the case then you need to find a business mentor, someone who is willing to guide you through the process of getting into business and then staying with you as your business grows. I cannot emphasis enough that your mentor be an actual person that you can sit down with and have a face to face discussion. Stay away from internet gurus that are an email away and cost you money for every "talk" you have. Most legitimate business mentors volunteer their time and some of them are also investors in new businesses and they will not only encourage you but fund your business as well.

So were do you find a business mentor? Try your local Chamber of Commerce as your first step. If you fail to find someone you can connect with there then go to your local community college and talk to one of the instructors that teaches business. They will often point you in the right direction.

The help is out there if you look. Don't be afraid of that first step. What you should be afraid of is not taking that first step.

I was at a friends business and her receptionist does a great job of decorating the office for up coming holidays and seasons. Since Valentine's Day is almost here, she had hung the most decorative quilts I have seen in some time on the wall. Gingham hearts, roses that were quilted to look like hearts, heart shapes put together to look like flowers and the country style quilts with Valentine's Day sayings on them.

It got me thinking about making small quilted wall hangings. I have a passion for the Old West and horses so I might make some wall quilts to jazz up a few of my own walls. Of course I will take photos and show them off on this blog.

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I have found that humor sells items faster then sentiment. Take for example the craft fair I attended last week. While waiting for customers I embroidered 2 words on a baby bib and that baby bib sold right after I got the threads trimmed. Those 2 words were "cereal killer." It was a touch of humor.

Using humor on your business cards will also make you more memorable. Just a humorous tag line under your business name will fetch a smile and often a sale. Try funny sayings on t-shirts or quilts. Making off-the-wall hats or funny house slippers will often get your business the attention you are striving for.

A phrase, a few words or even a picture done in a humorous way can grab that sale. Now I am not going to say that the humor should be in good taste, but I will say that you know your customers best and if they go for raunchy humor then go for the raunchy humor. If on the other hand your customers are just the mild dry humor type then go for that. Experiment and see what you are comfortable in the humor realm.

Adding humor to your business my take you in a whole new direction and a profitable one at that.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Jones Soda. All opinions are 100% mine.

Above is a picture of my daughter posing with her new turkey hat. The hat was a free thank you gift from IZEA, a company I have done a couple of sewing related posts for. They had emailed me a week ago asking me if I would like to get the hat along with a bottle of Jones soda. My daughter happened to be with me at the time when I was looking at a picture of the hat and said she wanted it. To be honest with you I had no intention of getting the hat or the soda but my daughter changed my mind.

Today the packaged arrived and I surprised my daughter with the hat when she got home from school. She loved it. In the box with the soda and hat was an offer to write a post with my reaction to the free gift. At first I thought no, but then my business side took over and I realized that someone not only had to design and sew the original hat but is probably making out like a bandit selling these things to IZEA. Of course IZEA is also having their logo embroidered on the front. An embroidery company got that job. Top that with the fact it looks goofy enough to be loved by my very picky daughter.

The soda will be heading to school with my daughter as she wants to give all of her friends a sip of the Tofurky and Gravy Jones Soda . She has tasted Jones' broccoli flavored soda and the one word she used was - yuck. She wants to see her friends reaction to this soda. She has tasted the Jones soda called Sweet Victory and loves that one so she is not unfamiliar with Jones.

I would again like to thank IZEA for the free stuff, It made a stir at our house today.

When you think of having a fabric item personalized you think of custom embroidery. That is only one way to personalize an item. Another way is to use fabric paints or applique to add that personal touch. Of course personalization is what will sell your items faster than lighting. Anything that you can put a person's or pet's name on will sell fast. Doing something as simple as adding a monogram to a set of towels or a name to a golf towel will not only enhance your profit line but will increase you customer base almost overnight.

Of course if you do decide to try your hand at personalization you will want to be able to have the right tools available to do the job. One of the most popular tools for cutting out letters for applique' work is with a Cricut. Yes you can cut fabric with a Cricut. All you have to do is use the Cricut to cut out your shapes then sew them on to your item. If you are unsure what a Cricut is or need some guidance on how to use it to cut fabric, I have found this handy video to show you how. You can also follow all the highlighted links for Cricut to buy one or its accessories.



Before you run out and get a Cricut you should know there are other machines out there that do the same thing. There is the Sizzix, (a video demo about the Sizzix is below) as well as others on the market.



So now you have no excuse not to personalize your items.

Have you started to get ready for Christmas yet? Are you planning on making items for a fund raiser or your own craft booth? Do you have several people on your gift list that you will be making gifts for?

I know lots of questions. Personally I will be starting to get a few items ready for an up coming craft fair. I made about $160 last year at that craft fair in under 2 hours, so I am planning on attending the same event again this year. I had a few funny t shirts on display, along with a few trinkets but what made me the money was making personalized Christmas stockings for pets.

I had the t-shirts set up on a tabletop mannequin so that got peoples' attention. I had my embroidery machine set up with stockings in front of it, ready to machine embroider their pets' names on them.

The stockings I got at the Dollar Tree store and they sew beautifully. I sold them for $12 each. It only took the machine about 3 minutes to sew out the names and about 5 minutes to set them up and then trim the threads. I was also the only table to have a line except for the guy doing the temporary tattoos a few tables away. It was showing me that people want personalization and service and they were willing to pay for it.

Here is something for those of you wanting some fresh ideas for Halloween decoration. The video below shows an interesting way to "sew" your pumpkins.

One of the many types of fabric decoration that eludes me is using those photo transfers to put photos on fabric. I think I must have tried at least 3 different methods and various products but as yet I have not gotten the results that I like.

One of the messiest was using this goop that you put on the photo and then place the photo on the fabric and iron away. The goop was suppose to loosen the print off of the photo and transfer it to the fabric. That didn't work at all and I think I still have a half of bottle of the stuff somewhere. The next one I tried was those sheets you put through your printer and then use them as iron on's. The results were not very good. I don't know if it was my printer or the fabric or that maybe the iron was not hot enough. The transfer came out like an antique picture, cracked looking and faded. I also have a small package of fabric sheets that you put into your printer and the printer just prints directly to it. The printed fabric is then removed from the paper backing and you use the fabric with the photo printed on it just like regular fabric. I have not tried that one yet.

I guess I am always getting disappointed at the results. Here is a product that I want my photo fabric transfers to look like - Photo Blanket. If I could only get just a decent looking photo transfer for quilt squares I would be happy.

Since I do lots of machine embroidery I love to decorate t-shirts. My daughter has one that is decorated with buttons. She has also stenciled one with several rows of hearts, one the front, all the same color and one odd ball colored one with a crazy face on it.

I buy many different t shirt shapes since not everyone wants the straight mens, baggy look. The french cut ones with the narrow waist and the small capped sleeves are a favorite of young women.

If you decorate t-shirts then try to obtain the different styles of t-shirts. You might find your sales could go up.

Here is a list of Halloween costumes that you can get some design ideas from. There are about 5+ pages to browse through. I am sure you can find something that appeals to your sewing talent. All of the costumes are ready made but you can get a good idea of colors and shape.

Edited to add: I just checked Google Trends and found out that one of the top 50 searches today on Google was for Halloween costumes for couples. It looks like people plan on spending some money this Halloween, even in a tight economy.

Football in the USA is now underway. Even if you don't like football it doesn't mean you can't make money from it. Take for example the fleecy headband I made last year and the how-to I posted. If you missed it here is the link. Many items can be customized or fashioned using preprinted NFL fabric or your own design. A word of caution regarding selling more than a few items with team logos on them that you designed, if they are exactly like the logo and you might or might not be sued for copywrite infringement. Several machine embroidery companies sell the patterns for NFL logos with the stipulation that it is for limited personal use. I don't think those companies would come after you for selling a few items at a local craft fair, how would they know? Use your own judgment regarding NFL logos.

Other items that would be very welcome are high school football team items. You can even contact the local schools in you area and see if they need anything made. Find out their school colors and mascots and take something over to the school to see if you can drum up a sale.

Often the most frustrating part of getting your sewing business underway is just getting started. Having a business is more than just wishful thinking and a few sales on eBay. It takes a knowledge of how businesses are run, a business plan and how to put it together and how to manage your finances.

So where can you find out more about how to get that knowledge? You can take a few college courses, dig around online and teach yourself or try Elearning. Elearning is an online course taking system that costs under $10 a year to take online courses that can help you with business development. They have one course that is just about developing, running and expanding an online business. There is also a section of free courses. They are also looking for people to write courses for their site.

If you are an expert at what you do, can you teach others? Elearning is looking for people like you. They currently do not have any crafting courses so the field is wide open. Here is a chance for you to make some extra money by creating an online course for them. You create for free and they promote it. You get paid as people take the course at a rate of 70% of the sale. They will review the course before it is offered to make sure everything is just right.

So if you are looking to learn or have some knowledge to share, check out Elearning.

There are many things I would do to improve my own sewing business. In fact my business is far from ideal. My ideal business would be that my ebooks and sewing designs sales would run on automatic without me doing anymore marketing. I would also have enough income generated from by business to hire a few local people that I know who are looking for work. I want not only to have a money generating business but also be able to help others.

As a crafter I am sure you are well aware that the pet industry is flourishing right now. Even in this depressing economy, stores like Petsmart are opening up new stores. I find it ironic that people are spending as much as they do on dogs when times are hard. That is great news for us who want to cater to the pet business.

Just looking at all the opportunities there are to make and market that you can whip up on your sewing machine. Check the company that is offering these dog costumes, they have done a fantastic job of designing their own costumes. The taco dog costume below is on the page that I just put the link to. The detail of the lettuce sticking up and the fact it was modeled on Chihuahua was brilliant.
As you can tell, presentation of a product or design will make or break a sale. If those costumes were just presented on a coat hanger or some other way that the customer could not get a good idea of what it looked like without handling it then they might lose a sale. They took the extra step to photograph a dog wearing what they make.

Halloween is now one of the biggest celebrations in the USA and Canada. What use to be a night of mischief making 40 years ago is now a big dress-up party. Not only are the costumes becoming more and more elaborate but pets are now joining in on the fun. This little guy below is wearing a ready made costume found at this site where they have 11 other equally cute and idea generating dog costumes.


So after seeing that page I decided it was time to look around for some pet costume patterns for you to sew. I found a few and added them to my sewing supplies store. You can find them here. McCall's, Simplicity and a few others also make dog costume sewing patterns. What I can tell you is the difference between the mediocre and great pet costume is the accessories that are added to them. Let your imagination run wild.

I had just mentioned in the post before this one about using your domain name on promotional items. Promotional items can be almost anything from ready made custom shirts with your company name or logo on to pens with your name and phone number.

You can made your promotional items yourself or buy them already custom made for you. I purchased a preprinted T-shirt with my company name and website address on it. Everytime I wear it I get noticed and people ask me if that is my company on the shirt.

Promotional items are a great way to start conversations about your business when meeting new people - use them.

If you have been following right along with my blog you would have known that I recently wrote an eBook titled "Easy steps to having a popular blog or website". There was one very important fact that I forgot to put in the book. Don't worry, I am going to tell you what it is. It is that many people are destroying their chances at having new visitors to their blogs with photos and videos. Now before you get all defensive, let me explain.

No doubt you have seen blogs with those famous "wordless Wednesdays" or just having a few photos with the title "my latest creations" or maybe just a video with no written words or explanation. Those are wonderful posts for your current regular readers but they do not entice new blog readers and that is what you want - more readers and more readers = more income.

What brings more readers to your blog or website is content, written content. The search engines can only perform searches on your photos and videos if you have words associated with them. For example if you have just designed a beautiful new necklace to go with a gown you just designed and all you put up on your blog is a photo of the necklace and another photo of the gown with a title of the blog post "my newest creation" you won't get many new readers to that post. Just try typing in the words "my newest creation" into Google and click on images to do the search. Your little photos will get lost in the vast photo library that is indexed by Google. You need to make your creation stand out from the crowd. Mention the name of the creation, what it occasion it would be great to be worn to, who would be the ideal person to wear it. Be specific as possible.

Learn to be wordy with your blog posts and websites. Be as descriptive as possible of your items. If you are at a lost for what to write about that day then skip writing. It is best to have a well written blog post or website article that is fairly long (at least 300 words) than 20 short, 30 word articles with a photo here and there. There are only a handful of blogs that can get away with that and they already have 10K or more visitors a day.

Don't cheat yourself of having more readers to your blog or website.

Well after 3 weeks of writing, re-writing, editing, formatting and finally uploading, my ebook is finished. I would now like to introduce you to my first ebook -

Here is another round of ideas for items to make and sell. Have you thought about going small? I don't mean the size of your business but the size of your items. We all know it takes many hours if not days to make large items like quilts or even tailored wedding dresses so why not go small?

Make custom designed quilts for dollhouse furniture. Better yet get a miniature dress form for a doll house and design and make an elaborate wedding dress to go on the form and display it in the doll house. Or how about this little cutie below. A miniature doll that has baby clothes and the lined bassinet.


For someone that wants to take their time designing and making items like this there will be a market for them. If you put your mind to it you could even make items for the retailer of miniature doll house items and you would not have to do much selling anymore. You would become the wholesale manufacturer.

Of course you are going to need some ideas so I recommend you go and visit this dollhouse miniatures online retailer. Take a look around and see if a light bulb goes off in your head. Off of the top of my head I could think of wall hangings that depict family trees and personalized welcome mats. They have a wonderful selection of bathroom fixtures that got me thinking about miniature personalized bath towels. It adds a bit more charm to a doll house when it has a link to the real world with personalization.

Think in the terms of making items that can be personalized with names, dates or places on them. In the example I gave above about the wedding dress, it could be a true miniature reproduction of an actual dress.

Have you ever seen Platform Beds like the ones pictured above? What makes them different than a regular bed it the fact they don't have a box spring. The mattress just lays straight on the platform. I predict that these types of beds will become more popular than they are right now. I can sight one main reason why:

• They would attract less dust than a box spring bed

If my prediction comes true then it will change how bedding is designed and made. Are you designing and sewing for platform beds?

Have you ever wondered how fancy heirloom type stitches (like those pictured above) are done? No it is not the type of machine that is being used but the type of needle. Any sewing machine can produce those fancy open stitches. All you have to do is use a winged sewing needle. You can buy the needle at any fabric or sewing shop, they are not a rare item.


What the wing needle does is open up the fabric each time it is inserted through the fabric. The needle is wide and flat and you can get twin needles as well as the single needles.

Some people use a wing needle to put a fancy edge around baby blankets and then use the holes to anchor crochet to them. You can also turn a plain handkerchief into a fancy heirloom one with a few fancy borders.