Category: Uncategorized

Time to get those Christmas t-shirt quilt orders in…

September 7, 2014

A friendly little reminder to all those who said they wanted a t-shirt quilt in time for Christmas (and you know who you are) – 

September 15th is the deadline to show me your shirts or pay $100 deposit to reserve your spot.

Only a certain number of spots are available and I make the quilts in the order in which I receive the shirts.  If you reserve your spot by deposit, then I need your shirts by 10/1/14 to guarantee on-time Christmas delivery.  

Deliveries will be made the week of December 15th.

Thank you!

 

 

 

 

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.