Tell us a little about your small business (+URL).
I create ready to wear and custom western show clothing. Additionally, I sell the patterns, fabric, rhinestones, ultra suede and chap supplies for the home seamstress to crate their own horse show clothing. www.showclothesunlimited.com
How long have you been running your small business?
This portion of the business has existed for 7 years
How did you get into starting a small business?
Originally, this was a part-time side source of income. I worked for the "big three" in Michigan as a full time job. I had always sewn my own horse show clothing; then I sewed my children's horse show clothing. Their friends began asking me to sew for them and eventually I was creating ready to wear and custom clothing. I began attending horse expos and trade shows where I sold the horse show clothing. So many people asked about where to find the fabrics, patterns, rhinestones, etc, that I began offering these items for the home sewer. When the automotive industry took its nose dive, I decided to try this full time.
Describe your starting a small business experience.
While I already had the sewing skills and a business management degree, I had to learn how to market my horse show clothing. Just because I made the clothing didn't mean that anyone knew about them or bought them. I had to learn about Internet sales, websites and managing them. Believe me, there was a lot that "book learning" didn't teach me about people skills, employees, time management, and customer service.
When I changed from part-time to a full-time business, I knew that I had to purchase my supplies from warehouses. It took time to find warehouses and it wasn't always easy meeting their minimum order quanties. However, with careful planning, purchasing wholesale greatly increased my profitability and allowed me to offer a wider range of products to my customers.
Along the way to building a business, I joined several organizations and subscribed to various email newsletters. I found that daily or weekly email newsletters took less of my time and were "digestable" bites of information. It also allowed me to stay in the home office and not travel hours to reach a meeting. This was important to me to off set the times when I have to be gone for days or weeks to attend horse shows, trade show and expos.
My networking is accomplished through my website, trade shows, events, FaceBook, Twitter and other resources. I have cultivated friends throughout all areas of the horse industry.
Lessons learned
- Do extensive research on everything from supplies to marketing and websites
- Use the research to enhance your business knowledge and to assist in making decisions.
- Listen carefully to what people tell you but make up your own mind.
- Listen to your customers
- Keep abreast of the trends affecting your business
- Be careful who you allow to know your business practices
- Find and use business resouces
- Network
- Trust your instincts - if a deal feels bad - it is bad
- Use both free and for a fee webinars to enhance your business knowledge without having to leave your office
