Author: Teresa

Quilts, good books and dogs. Plus a cup of tea. Life is good.

Quilt or Blanket?

September 2, 2014

While conducting a little competitive analysis on Etsy, I noticed a listing from a certain well advertised seller for a $30 t-shirt quilt. Intrigued, I followed the link to check out the listing.  I wanted to see what the customer got for $30.  

For $30, you get a baby-size blanket.  Nine t-shirts are all cut the same size and sewn together in a grid.  The top is then married to a piece of fleece, sewn together envelope style (flip it inside out when done) and finally topstitched 1/2″ from the sewn edges.  

Not a bad price for a blanket, but IT’S NOT A QUILT!

Webster’s defines a quilt as:  “a bed cover made of two layers of cloth with a filling of wool, cotton, or down held together by patterned stitching.”

No batting and no quilting = BLANKET!  Be truthful in your advertising, my seller friend.  Stop calling it a quilt when it’s really a blanket!

This pricing strategy reminds me of the loss leaders at the grocery store.  They can’t be making any money after they pay for materials, labor and overhead at this price point.  I don’t see how it’s sustainable for any length of time – even with a heavy volume.  Full price – maybe – if sewers are paid minimum wage and the company got a heck of a deal on the fleece.  

Look at it this way.  Do you expect to work for minimum wage if you have 15+ years of experience in your industry?  I certainly don’t as a teacher librarian (or as a creative arts business owner).  I realize today’s economy means some experienced folks are taking whatever job they can to make ends meet right now.  However, in a normal economy, you would expect to be compensated for your expertise.  Correct?  I’ll step off my soapbox now..but I really like the way Andrea Funk of Too Cool T-Shirts addresses this topic.  You truly do get what you pay for.

Dollars and cents

July 22, 2014

How do you handle your business banking needs?  Where do you keep the money?

(a)  In a shoebox in my studio
(b)  In my personal bank account
(c)  In a separate business bank account

(Psst:  I answered “C.”)

According to Forbes, approximately 40% of all non-employers (that’d be me – small business with no employees and business receipts of at least $1,000.00 annually), have revenues of less than $10,000 per year.  My small business falls into this category.  With revenues in this range, the cost of doing business can range from 10-20% of gross revenue.  Think about it: business license, annual corporate renewal, accounting/bookkeeping, legal, phone, office supplies, basic sewing supplies, equipment repair (routine sewing machine service is just under $100) and business liability insurance quickly add up.  My “basic cost to do business” is between $1,000-$1,500 per year, with approximately half of this being insurance.

So when my FREE business bank account announced it was going to charge $12.00/month for basic checking account services and not pay interest on the balance required to avoid the monthly fee, I started looking at alternatives.  Actually, $12.00/month isn’t that bad in light of what some other banks charge…but still.  $144 is at least 1.5% of revenue for small businesses like mine.  I looked at other local banks and my credit union. My business doesn’t need cash handling services that require a brick and mortar bank, so I looked into online banks with remote deposit.

Based on my unique needs, here’s how the options ranked after a careful analysis:

(1) Online bank
(2) Keep existing account but transfer enough funds to avoid monthly fee
(3) Entrepreneur checking at local credit union

The difference between 2 & 3 is the convenience factor.  Existing bank is 1/2 mile from my house.  Credit union branch is about 10 miles away.  Most of my sales are via PayPal or personal check.  I go to the bank 1x per month on average.

I opened an account with an online bank and will be closing down my existing account by the end of the month.  I’ll report back about my experiences with a virtual bank.

Switching gears

July 10, 2014

Summer’s now officially over for me.  I am slowly getting back into work mode by being proactive – handling some things remotely (web site updates and staff network user lists) to hopefully take some of the pressure off preplanning week.  Fact is we have a LOT of new faces who will need media/tech support this year.  We lost two weeks of summer break with the adjusted school calendar.  Let’s hope being proactive was the right choice to make by making my life a little easier come July 28th.

There are still a few items to cross off my summer to-do list.  The dining room table has been my storage area for everything I brought home for the summer. My new bookcase from Arhaus furniture arrives today. Will spend the late a.m. shelving my book collection. I am positive that hubs will be thrilled when I have FINALLY gotten all my books put away.

Our back porch project starts 7/22. They estimate almost 3 weeks from start to finish, depending on the weather and inspections. I have a feeling that my Big Green Egg is going to be a guest in my breakfast room during construction. It is way too heavy to move up and down stairs.

So, I have 2-1/2 weeks left of summer break and intend to make the most of it – finishing up two t-shirt quilts  and cutting several baby quilt kits so I can have something ready to stitch once school starts.  That’s a huge stress reliever for me!  I also tend to sell them as soon as I make them.  Switching gears also applies to the business – I am now making smaller, practical items – including 18″ doll clothes and accessories – to use up stash and sell in my Etsy shop.  We’ll see how that goes.