Getting Started

[HKHQuilter]

I have been thinking of starting my own quilting business for a while. But I don't have any idea how to actually get it started. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[chickenscratch]

Read back through the forum discussions in this section. They will help you a lot.

My biggest advice, make sure there is plenty of business before you buy your machine. Don't do like I did and take the word of one fabric shop and a few little old ladies ( I mean that affectionately) who belong to a guild.

So far the fabric shop has sent me one customer and only one of the little ladies has had me do a quilt. (A baby quilt for $25.00).

Teresa

www.chickenscratchquilting.com

[Bekah]

okay, I have a major question and it may have been answered on here somewhere but I am too busy to ferrit it out at the moment. Those of you who have home based businesses. do you have a business license with your city or county? do you carry commercial insurance? did you have to get permits to fix up any of your spaces for your machines? if you did not get a license or any permits, how did you get around it? Am I making too much of it? When I called my insurance agent to find out about insuring my Millie, he said I needed to do all of the above to be safe.

Help

soon to be

Bekah

Shepherd's Garden Quilting

[JudyL]

Bekah:

You will need to find out ALL the requirements for your local/county/state taxing authorities. You do need to comply with all the rules and they are diffferent for every state, as well as most counties/cities within the state. I have to have a state sales tax certificate and in Kentucky, everything I sell (batting, backing, etc.), as well as the charges for quilting, binding, etc. are taxed at 6%. I also have a city license and if I lived in the county, I would have a county license instead of a city license. They tax my machine based on the value I paid so I get a property tax notice for the property (house/lot) and a second notice for the longarm.

As far as permits for fixing up the space, check with your local authorities. Here, it was just the regular building permits that would have been required whether I was adding a room for a bedroom for myself or a room for the longarm.

I have a separate business policy through Milne & Scali which covers only property (my machine, computers .. anything listed on my taxes as a business expense and the property of others . . quilts). I have no liability coverage in the event a customer gets hurt on my property so no one comes to my house for business.

We have Allstate for the house and they do not offer any type business coverage. We've had Trinity Universal in the past and they also exclude everything business. If there is a homeowners policy that includes business ventures, you'd better get it in writing. I would be very surprised to find any homeowners policy that includes business coverage unless you pay extra and if you think you have coverage and you have a loss, you may be very surprised. It is a risk I would not recommend taking!

As far as getting around licenses and permits, why would you want to? That's not a professional way to carry out your business and I can tell you of a dozen instances where longarmers have been caught going around the rules and had fees and fines to pay that were more than they would ever have had to pay by doing what they should have done in the first place.

You are definitely not making too much of it. Insurance companies look for reasons to get out of paying and I am truly amazed at how many people pay upwards of $15,000 for these machines, have property belonging to others and hope they have insurance coverage.

I've related this here before but will share it again. When we switched to Allstate, I explained about the longarm. The agent told me if I used the machine at least 50% for my own use, it was covered. Great! I asked him to put it in writing. I doubted it was true but if he put it in writing, then his errors & omissions coverage could pay if I had a loss. He checked with his underwriter before giving me something in writing and the truth was that if the machine is used ever for business, it is not covered. If I had taken his word for it, then had a loss, it would probably have been his word against mine and I can guess who would have been the loser -- ME!

Get the insurance, get the permits, then you can know you've done everything right. Peace of mind is a good thing!

[Bekah]

Judy, I should have reread that before I posted. Idid not mean to say how did you get around it, but how did you go about it. Duh. My DH went to city Hall today to get all the required information and they are still trying to figure out about the building permits. the license for the city is not very much and definitely worth being honest about myself. My agent said to not worry about the commercial insurance until I was ready to advertise and take on clients but somehow if I am registered it only seems right to do it from the get go. I do thank you for all of your advice. I have Allstate homeowners too and my agent was the one that told us our policy would not cover us. I will get busy doing some research on the best company to go with.

[Guest Linda S]

Judy - nice new picture - I like it!!

Bekah - the web has a wealth of information. That is where I learned most of what I needed to know in getting started in business in Oregon. Do a couple of Google searches to find out info about filing for business in your town/county/state. Some places require licenses, others don't. Just make sure you follow the laws so you can't get bitten later on. Fortunately, here in Oregon, things are pretty easy to deal with. I've followed some of the problems Judy has faced, and I'm awfully glad I don't live in Kentucky (although I have visited that state and it is lovely). Always better to be safe than sorry.

Linda