Entry for February 26, 2008
Hi Everyone,
I said when I decided to get back to blogging that I would use this arena to answer questions posed by students and customers. One of the most common questions I'm asked is "Are you happy now that you own a quilt store?" or another version "Do you feel like all of your dreams have come true now that you have your own store?". So, I'll take this time today to dispell some myths on owning your own small business, namely, a quilt store.
First of all, I do love being in business for myself, however, I would not have done this without Tom. Though he doesn't have any quilting expertise, he does keep me grounded and takes care of a lot of the day to day legal/money stuff. I also have a great staff with Ruth and Chris. I trust them all implicitly. With Ruth in the store I know that Tom and I can take some time off and the store won't fall apart in our absence. Chris takes care of the nasty money stuff like taxes and payroll. I would not have taken this on without them!
Saying you own a store is like saying you own a house. You don't really own it until all the debt is paid off. So lots of people own this store, mostly banks and loan companies, Tom and I just own a bit of it. Over the years I've had lots of students ask me why I didn't just open a store of my own or ask me what I thought about them opening their own store. My answer was always - either of us could go for it as long as we had 200-300 thousand dollars to invest and weren't used to a high standard of living! I know this sounds rather negative - it's not, as another store owner reminded me just last night - we get to play with fabric every day!
So yes, in some ways I'm living my dream job. I'm happy that I get to work in a profession that I love. But I do hate (yes, hate) the regulatory legal and tax crap that goes along with it, the hastles that come up when a customer or student is displeased with goods or services and the long, long, long hours. It's hard, but it's good!
There is a lot more to it than most of you think. Luckily I've had a taste of it over the years. I began helping with the ordering and going to market more than 10 years ago when I worked at Crazy for Quilts in Old Colorado City, then I grew my skills at the little studio store I had in downtown Colorado Springs, Legacy Studios. Finally I went to work managing a store, Spoolin Around. There, I learned a lot more of the ins and outs of the business, what to do, what not to do. So when the opportunity to by the Quilt Store here in Monument came around, I had a good idea of what I was in for.
It would be great if we had lots more money, or didn't need to make an income from the store - then we could hire more people to do some of the work, but as it is, we can't afford a larger staff and we earn our living (such as it is) from the store. So we work - a lot.
As the experienced one of the ownership team, it is up to me to do all of the ordering, design and schedule the classes and maintian the looks of the store. I'm doing at least 2/3 of the teaching too. Tom maintains and operates the website (which is about 1/4 of our business). We would not be able to afford a site if he hadn't taught himself how to do all of this work himself. So, he puts in a good 40-50 hours a week and I put in 60+, (I'm used to the long hours, kind of addicted, you might say), all in hopes of building a business that we can be proud of and that will provide us with a decent living.
So what does the typical day in the life of a store owner like me look like you ask? Well first, there are no typical days, so I'll give you two scenarios. Last Wednesday, my day looked like this; Left home at 8:30 a.m. drove to the Springs and attended the Piecing Partners quilt guild (want to be a part of the local quilting community), left there at 11:30, met Chris at the paper goods store to pick up her dog and get some stuff needed for the store, arrived back at home at 12:45 to pick up Tom (we sold our second car to help finance the store), got to work just in time for a 1:00 appointment with a fabric rep. Worked with the rep for 2 1/2 hours, ordering future fabric for June -August. Took the dog out for a few throws of the stick, went back in to the classroom to get it set up for class that night, next fabric rep showed up at about 4:00, set with them and ordered more fabric futures. They left at about 5:45, just as students started arriving. Stuffed down half a sandwich then started teaching at 6:00. Class ended at 8:30, students shoped for about a 1/2 hour (very good) then closed down the register and the store and was home by 9:30. But not all days are like that - take today for instance. Got to work at 9:45 and quickly cleaned out the store fridge and scrubbed the bathroom sink (it was filled with paint residue from Sunday's class) then a friend called to ask me to lunch, had just one customer all morning long (not good), went to lunch at 11:30 got back at a quarter to 1, Tom had only one customer while I was gone (really not good), I returned some phone calls, worked on the math for a new pattern I'm designing and now here it is past 3:00 in the afternoon (we've had just one more customer) and I'm leasurely writing my blog entry. Now I'm going to go cut the fabrics for the new quilt and hopefully get in an hour or so of piecing before my class starts at 6:00. If we're lucky, a few more customers will come in and we'll come close to making our daily minimums!
Hope you are all enjoying a lovely day working at you hearts desires!
Heather
