starting quilting business

[chickenscratch]

Okay, I got the machine, plan to spend the next month or so practicing and doing gift quilts and then do customer quilts and things to sell.

Here's my question: How do I find my customers? I have already printed up business cards and talked to the manager and the fabric cutters at our local fabric store. I left a stack of cards at their store, which customers can pick up if needed. I plan to put a business card sized ad in our local ShoppersGuide. What else can I do? My husband and I went into this venture, hoping to make it a full time source of income within five years. I will welcome any help anyone has to offer. I love this chat forum. Everyone here is so helpful. Thanks, Teresa

[LynnQuilts]

Here has some ideas:

http://www.doublejproductions.com/longarmchat/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1062

Hope that helps!

[SandraC]

Good morning! If you don't already belong to a quilting guild, you should look into it! I would say that starting out, this would be huge for making contacts. Two guilds would be even better if there a couple nearby.

Have a good day...Sandra

[BarbWetzel]

Good luck finding those clients. I quilt with a few ladies and my daughter has some friends that quilt. I also have a mother in law and an aunt that give me business. I too want to venture out, but until I can retire from my full time job at UPS, I think 2 or 3 a month is plenty.

I belong to a long arm Quilting Quild, but everyone there has a long arm machine. I think a sewing quilt is a good idea. I can't wait to join one.

Barb Wetzel

Ivy Corner Quilting

[Susanri]

You can also offer to quilt store samples so that your work will be on display. Look for high profile charity events to offer your services for our local PBS has an on air tv auction.

Susan

[diane Bevans]

For me a lot of my work has come from me donating my time once a month to teaching simple quilt classes at our church, I teach a block, they have to make extra and they end up with a project and we put the extra blocks together to make a charity quilt. Also the Guild members have been a big support. And other charitable organizations, such as the relay for life and etc. All my customers have come through these channels. It takes a while, but I have just been doing this a year and starting to see the return on my investment of time and donations.

[David Jones]

Word of mouth and doing quality work is your best advertising. Have a referral discount. When you hand back a quilt send along 5 business cards. If that card comes back with your customers name on it give the original customer a discount on her next quilt. That way when she shows off her quilt and your quilting she will be handing out your business card. Also an idea that Carla from the Des Moines office came up with is when you do a class sample for a shop for free-- take the class also so the ladies in the class get to know you and you aren't just a name on a card.

Good luck with your business,

DeLoa Jones

[ammueller7]

When we started our business (my sister and I) the first thing we did is make up a "20% off your first quilt" coupon. We created a flyer 8 1/2" X 11" that we could tri-fold and just stick the stamp on the paper - no envelope needed. On it we introduced ourselves, told about our business, etc. and mailed it to the "Quilt or Craft Group Leader" and pulled the names of 300 churches in our area. Mailed the flyers out and we still 2 1/2 years later are getting referrals from those flyers. We got initially 6 responses from ladies who used the coupons - which by the way had an expiration date on them - but we have over 20 customers that have come through from referrals from that initial mailing over 2 years ago - good luck to you.

Angie and Yvonne "Sisters' Common Thread"