Advice from a Small Town Girl

I feel very silly admitting this, but here goes: I honestly didn't anticipate just how much being a business owner would affect my outlook.

Don't worry, friends, my political outlook hasn't changed.

It's more that my perspective on my role in life has altered.

Suddenly, I'm not as much of a consumer.

Oh, yes, I still consume. Too much, in fact, but that's another story (and one you're all far too familiar with.)

Now, however, I view much of what I see through a lens that has a permanent picture of the quilt shop behind it. Can I make use of this? Would it fit? Would it work? Would it look inviting? Would people buy it?

I couldn't believe it, but I attended the Washington State Quilters quilt show in Spokane on Saturday, and the only thing I purchased was a pair of bamboo socks. They're for my feet, not the shop.

Believe me, the pre-business-owner me would never have gotten away from there without dropping at least a few hundred dollars.

But now I see the opportunities for my business instead of the opportunities for me as a quilter only. Sometimes they overlap, but not always.

There were a few new tools and techniques that interested me, and I wrote down a lot of names of pattern designers. I took pictures of quilts that appealed to me personally, but that was about it.

My self-discipline at the quilt show was something new, but relatively easy to explain.

First, why would I purchase one tool at retail when I can order three at wholesale. When I've sold two of them in the shop, I've paid for the one I've used to demonstrate how they work.

Second, now that I own a quilt shop, I pretty much never get to quilt. There's not much point in purchasing books, patterns or fabric, because there's a good chance I'll never use them.

Third, I look at fabric differently now. My selections are still eclectic, and I never order anything I don't like, but my decision making is predicated by the question, "Will anyone other than me want to use this?"

I never would have worried about that before, because when I make quilts, I don't make them because I think someone else will like them. I make quilts because there is something about that particular combination of color, pattern and scale that speaks to that tiny creative bug in the heart of me. If someone else happens to like them, that's great, but it's not necessary to my sense of satisfaction.

I can't select the goods for my store that way.

I have to cater to the quiltmakers who walk through that door.

Wait a minute! That sounds like it's a bad thing.

It's not.

Because every retail business person knows that customer service is what it's all about. If you don't have appealing goods, the customer won't return. If you're not pleasant, the customer won't return. And if you don't make the effort to obtain the items they want, the customers won't return.

Not exactly rose-colored glasses.

But close.