Shoot for the Moon #14

Who knew shooting for the Moon could be so involved! I know I have been working towards this “growth” moment but it is really going crazy. The Zebra Name is getting out and orders are coming in.

Big Decision

We made our first big decision. We decided to let Keepsake Quilting carry our patterns in their international retail catalog. You might say – What decision? Isn’t that great? Well – yes and no. It is great that they saw me in Pittsburgh and that they invited my to be a part of their catalog. Apparently it is not easy to get in to it. Well I was asked at market and they called early last week. The deal is that they want wholesale pricing LESS 30%! Whew – that is a bit steep. We took a breath and made the decision to give it a shot. Their first order will be between 90-120 patterns of each pattern. They chose the Citystamps (copy-write). That is ok – but if the pattern sells well it could mean reorders of hundreds and maybe even thousands. Sounds good – huh? But guess who has to fold and stuff all of those for a much reduced profit? Well I posed the question to my family and they all said they would help fold.  Zebra is approaching a crossroads. I have researched the cost of going to a large commercial printer. That does not make sense until you hit the 1,000 unit mark. This could be that time. If so – they would print and fold, I would just assemble. We will see. I want to sell a ton of patterns on one hand – but then again do I really want to sell thousands? Guess I will see real soon. The decision was made in order to expose my patterns and name nationally/internationally. We did decide to pass on getting set up with distributors for now. They too want 30% of the bottom line.

Scheduling

I have also learned about scheduling! I have been teaching/lecturing for the past 2-3 years. Last week it worked out that I had two lecture/teaching sessions in Delaware on Monday-Tuesday. I came home Wednesday and went to a Biance concert. Man is she amazing! Then Thurs-Friday I went to Phillie and gave two lecture/classes, followed by a local class Saturday. Can you say over scheduled?  If that were not enough we had 12 twelve year old boys have a camp out Saturday, we had 18 fourteen year olds painting tee shirts this afternoon and we have 10-15 seventeen year olds coming to hang at the pool tonight. We have cooked over 6 dozen hamburgers and 8 packages of hot dogs. The tough part is when you lecture for guilds they are booking you 1-2 years in advance. Local classes are booked about 4-6 months in advance. I think you have to limit engagements to a maximum of one per week when you are trying to run a business, raise a family and keep a house. At least that is what I am going to shoot for.

Biance Concert in DC 2009

Houston

This week I will fill out the paperwork for Houston. We will do the Market and the Festival. I am hoping my sister in law Patti or my friend Nancy will come and help. Gary must stay home with the boys. I think I will sign up to do a schoolhouse too. That is a private 15 minute session where you get to pitch a product to the buyers. I will pitch my Block of the Month programs and my stamps.

Guess I need to go get some more hot dogs ready – the teens are coming any minute.

BEACH PATTERN CORRECTIONs!!!!

I hate that I had an error! SORRY! The error is not tragic – but it is in wording and some omissions. On the Beach pattern on page 2 under the “cutting” section it says to cut the Mid-grass area and the Lower grass area. That is wrong! It should read Water and Sand. The measurements are correct – I just forgot to change the wording of the land parts! Sorry! Also below in the assembly of background there is one part that says trim to 18-1/2″ that should be 19″. Please feel free to email me and I will send you corrected instructions. Below is a visual of the mistakes and corrections.Any quilt shops – I will replace instructions at no cost – please send me an email with how many you need. Also on the front page some of the materials were left off. They are listed below. On the BEACH Stamp page in the zebra pattern store are links to correction pdf files.

Corrections to Materials List

Shoot for the Moon #13

In order to get the Zebra name out in the National Market it is necessary to get your work displayed in all different ways. Shooting for the moon often involves buck shot – -  in which you have to shoot and the bullet needs to scatter in many different places! Going to market and entering National Competitions are a few ways – but writing articles for magazines is yet another. Last Fall I made some art for the Quilting Arts 2010 Calendar contest. The theme was “Fresh picked”. I decided to do Strawberries and kiwis – two of my favorite fresh picked fruits. I posted about this competition several months back.Check them out(post on March 5, 2009 and Feb 28 involve the new technique I invented) . My Feb 28 posting describes the Digital underpainting and oversketching process.  My strawberries and kiwis did not make it into the calendar however Pokey Bolton and her staff were interested in getting me to write a magazine article about the technique.

I have been working feverishly on the article for the past week. I made four new art quilts measuring approximately 16″ x 21″. They are all sketches I played with in my art journal and then turned them into quilts. See the four new quilts below.  I have also included a snapshot of my art journal that I scanned into the computer. It is an interesting process and is exactly the desire effect I was after. I am starting to work on some larger sketches now to make two or three large quilts in this style.  I will mail all my work to quilting arts magazine tomorrow. Hopefully it will be published in the next issue as they stated. We will see!

Sketched image of Rebecca scanned into my computer

Rebecca

Annie

Debra

Liz

Shoot for the Moon #12

Well today was the day I finished writing the directions and making the patterns for “In the Beginning” – the Judea/Christian quilt. Thank goodness it is done! Writing the directions is absolutely the worst part of making a pattern! It is especially daunting when you have to write twelve of them! It has been hanging over my head for weeks. When I write patterns I have to work in quiet. No fun music or tv to distract me. Working alone I have to write the directions and read and reread the several times. It is weeks like these when I say – “Why am I doing this again?”. I guess I just need to build my business up to the point that I can have a full time editor of patterns. That is a good vision! I think I will add that to my vision board.

Do you have a vision board? If not you should have one. Everyone should have one.  A vision board is a space that you gather pictures or images of things that you want to achieve or aim toward. I had a picture of a new large studio on mine about two years ago. Guess what? We are under contract with a construction company to start the free standing garage/studio any day now. We are just waiting for permits. Also on the vision board was Market – guess I can check that off too. My vision board is electronic. I have a file on my computer. Sometimes I print it out and keep it in front of me. Vision boards are powerful things- you should make one and see for yourself. I think the mere act of stopping and organizing your thoughts and putting them down in a collage is the first step in achieving your goals. You can clip images and words from magazines or from the Internet. A vision board does not have to be practical. The sky is the limit!

Maybe I will update my board tomorrow in my studio and post it on my blog – what do you think – is that of interest to you?

I have been getting many calls from magazines looking for me to advertise with them. I am not going to do that at this point. Direct marketing is a better use of my time and money. I received a big box of goodies from Krenik – a fancy thread and ribbon company. I can’t wait to dig into that! I will surely give you all an update. They have fusible ribbons and threads. They have dimensional threads and a huge selection of metallics. Yummy!

Tomorrow I will continue writing the article I have been asked to write for Pokey Bolton’s summer issue of Quilting Arts. I will make three new samples of art based on my sketch book and use them to illustrate my new technique of digital underpainting and oversketching. It is a really cool method.

Again – I can not tell you how happy I am that those patterns are done! This is one of those weeks where shooting for the moon has been a real challenge. I was ready to shoot alright! I was ready to shoot my computer after sitting there for days writing and writing! There are many aspects of starting a business that are not pleasant. Another annoying job is inventory! Gary and I spent several hours doing that this week after the work day. You see I have to have a small inventory that I can carry with me to shows. That inventory needs to be in small totable bins. Then I need my stock inventory. That can be larger quantities in larger bins. But it all needs to be counted and accounted for. We counted over 60 pattern designs and anywhere from 5- 70 patterns per design. Hmm..guess I need to add a book keeper to my vision board. I know there are bean counters out there that are happy as a clam counting and recording – I am not one of those people. Seems as if my staff is growing in my head!

My Ideal Business

All this writing gave me an idea. I should write down my ideal business scenario. Okay -I see an art department. I see 3-4 creative energetic positive motivated designer/quilters working in a large clean space with bins and bins of beautiful fabric. Imagine the walls lined with every color thread in 12, 30,40, 50 and 60 weight! (Might as well go for it – it is my dream) The workers all love to come to work each day.

I see a small office with our in house editor/pattern writer quilter. She is in a homey little office with her fingers banging out accurate and detailed memos, notes articles and of course patterns.

The next office over is for accounting and billing. These happy people (I see two) are counting and adding and billing and are happy as clams doing the business side of Zebra Patterns.

Next I see my office which is roomy and has a large work table. My office is attached to the large design area. I also see a comfy couch and a large screen tv. I almost forgot a big computer area with several large printers. I think the printers should go in their own room- they are noisy and would be shared by everyone. I think the building is getting bigger…because I need a large stylish conference/lounge area for brainstorming and meetings.We need a spot for our dog Lacey – she is so cute. She will be happy in the big design room or on my comfy couch.

Oh and while I am at it lets add a small private comfy room if anyone needs to nap for awhile to get rid of a headache or does not feel well.

Now for my favorite thing -  a fabulous kitchen with a great dining area. Guess we need a cook on staff. I would love to feed everyone lunch everyday. When I was in my twenties and the Computer Design director for a Pre-flight production house I was sent to a company in Minnesota called Purup. I was there for two weeks learning state of the art computers. I will never forget their lunchroom. They had a nice lady that came in and cooked a homemade meal every day for lunch. It was so cool and all of the staff loved it. The lady cooking loved her job as well. Doesn’t that sound like a great perk? We need a big warehouse. I just want it to be clean and room and well organized.

So what will we do in our company? Well of course we will make patterns. We will make dvds and books. We will publish patterns for other quilters. We will have our own line of batiks. We will teach and give lectures and seminars. We will have classes for teens. We will have retreats and quilt shows. Boy we are going to be busy – guess we need a few more employees. So what do you think? Sound like a plan? It does to me! Want a job? Flexible hours – free homemade lunch each day. Until next time….

We are off to a quilt show in Annapolis where we will be vending for the weekend.

Shoot for the Moon #11

Learning…

Who knew shooting for the moon would be so exhausting? I am still recovering from market. I had such a push before market that I guess I needed more time than I thought to recenter. So what has happened in the past two weeks since market? Well we continued to pick up a few more customers nationally via email and we have even started getting a few reorders from the new customers. We have filled all the orders and shipped everything except the “In the Beginning” Collection as I am still writing instructions on those twelve.I have entered into a relationship with Krenik – a thread company in West Virginia. They make specialty threads of metallics and other embellishment like materials. They are sending me a sample pack to use and once I get used to their products I will be endorsing them. My first Art Quilt sponsor – how exciting! I have been in touch with Pokey Bolton of Quilting Arts magazine and I am writing an article in their summer issue on underpainting and oversketching a quilt. This is a process I developed for arts quilts. I followed up with some of the other companies and I am waiting for a response. I was wondering how many of the companies that expressed interest would really follow up. I must say that most have not followed up yet. Who knows if they will. To me – it is yet another lesson learned. I think people get caught up in the excitement of  market and make a few too many promises. That is okay though. While I am mildly disappointed I just chalk it up to “here we GROW again”! This is the way we learn.

I have also taken a step away from the whole process to rest. We went to NYC for some fun family activities. In between market end and now I have given two lectures and attended one for myself. I have to say it was very nice watching and listening to someone other than myself give a lecture. My mother in law is visiting and we have been going museum hopping! We have been to the Visionary museum in Baltimore, a local craft exhibition and few others in DC. It has been a lot of fun. Noone in my family of men really ever want to go to museums art art galleries. I am refilling the well. Recharging. I am getting an intense sense of wanting to start another art quilt.

I have found since I have really focused on Zebra Patterns that a distinct rhythm has been developing. I work on Zebra for awhile which is some creative, a good amount of graphic design and technical writing and finally mindless production efforts and eventually I need a break from all that and need to create something new. I need to create something without boundaries, without worrying if it will translate well to a pattern that the general public will be able to successfully follow and reproduce.

I walk in to my laundry/storage room where I keep my completed patterns and see over 20 bins now filled with over 65 patterns – soon to be over 72! and I think back to last summer and I had just two large bins. Yes I only stocked 12-36 per pattern. Now I am stocking close to 100 of each at a time. I had 4-6 customers. Now I have close to 25 customers. That is great growth in this economic environment for a small business.  It has been a ton of work.  We are seriously considering going to Fall market which is the biggy! It is in Houston. Over four time the exhibitors display and over four times the people attend.

Emotions

I have not written much about the ups and downs of emotions that I have been living through throughout this process of building a business. So lets jump into that pond and see what surfaces! Right now I am feeling like – whew this is a ton of work and I am very tired. One cannot help but compare the amount of hours spent on this endeavor and if I had been spending the same amount of time doing graphic design at $75-100.00 per hour how much fatter my bank account would be.  You do not see tons of money rolling in really at any point. Yes my receivables have grown substantially however so have my payables! I am not paying printing bills of 26.00 dollars any longer.

Emotionally it is quite demanding to stay on course.  I do enjoy most of the work most of the time. I would enjoy it a whole lot more if the profits started showing up at a greater pace. It is like I am on a business treadmill and it is slowly increasing in speed.  In my current state I am constantly asking myself – why are you doing all of this? Some days I have the answer quickly – because you are enjoying it and building a small to medium or beyond business for our future. Other days the answer is “I don’t know – why am I running at 110 miles per hour?” I have to constantly remind myself – Debra take a breath you do not have to build a pattern business with 10 employees and trucks coming in and out of a loading dock in 8 months! (although I would really like to! lol) So why AM I doing this? I do have to go back to my mission statement that is on my booth sign: My intentions are to continue lecturing and teaching, to evolve into a national quilter / speaker / author and to travel the world through quilting.That is why mission statements are very important. Often times we get lost at sea and need to reread our original intentions.  I reflect on that and see I have been lecturing and teaching. I am now working on becoming a national quilter and I have begun to travel the world through quilting, even if it is only Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, NYC, VA, DE,  and other areas of PA.  I think maybe I need to add an addendum to my mission statement to make a nice living at what I am doing.  Yes it will now read: My intentions are to continue lecturing and teaching, to evolve into a national quilter / speaker / author and to travel the world through quilting and to make a nice living at what I am doing. I am not an advocate of that whole starving artist theory!

So yes I do have many doubts and often think about just throwing in the towel on this whole process and take a nice 9-5 graphic design job. Or better yet – just abandon Zebra Patterns and focus on art quilts only. But pretty quickly after that I think about what I would be missing. I would miss giving lectures and teaching. It really feeds my soul to share my experiences and techniques. I am starting to get out and see new places with new friends that I meet through this process. So no – abandoning this whole process is not rational. It is funny how one can set a goal and start to achieve it and once we are there, or part way there we look around and say – hey this is not what I thought it would be.  Then I ask – just what did you think it was going to be? The answer to that is not really clear. When I went to market I saw all the TOP know quilters in the business. I saw Pokey Bolton, Alex Anderson. Mark Lipinski, Bonnie McCaffrey, Elenor Burns, and several others.  While they might be celebs in quilters minds I did notice they were just working people with recognizable faces. In fact they all looked to be hard working people. Then I ask – do I want to be one of those quilting celebs? The real answer is not really. I would rather build a company that can afford 3-4 booths at market and has a book full of appointments with customers weeks in advance and the people just come to me and buy. It is really about creating a creative business that is successful – really successful is what matters to me. I would like a staff of people. I would love for all of the employees in my company to be eager to come to work each day because the work enviornment was so dynamic and enriching. So maybe I should rewrite my mission statement one more time:  My intentions are to continue lecturing and teaching, to evolve into a national quilter / speaker / author and to travel the world through quilting and to make a nice living at what I am doing. In this process I would like to create a company with a  staff where we could all work together in a creative, uplifting and productive environment for the better good of all of us and the quilting community through our products and personalities. How’s that? Sounds better to me.  It is through writing this blog that I refresh and renew my drive. You always hear about people who journal and keep diaries are able to flush out inner thoughts – well it is true. It just happened here. I actually feel renewed and with more drive. (I know that is a scary thought to those of you who know me! lol – don’t worry I do not for see I will spontaneously combust anytime soon!)

In summary about emotions – it is a real roller coaster. But knowing your intentions and reflecting back on your mission statement can be the needed seatbelt in the run away car on that crazy track.  I have been working on Zebra Patterns for so long that I anticipate these ebbs and flows in the business – and for that matter in life. The key is to  ride out the ebbs knowing the flows are surely to follow. I have found with this persistence the ebbs become less difficult and the flows play out for a longer period of time. It is necessary to check in with your emotions and constantly reevaluate and reform your mission.

Zebra Patterns?

Some people have asked – why is your company called Zebra Patterns? It is for a few reasons. First I did not want a company called “Debra’s Patterns”. There are so many companies out there with the owners name in the title. I also did not want my name becoming the brand. Companies with peoples names depend on the person who’s name is in the Brand to help push the brand. What if I someday want to sell my pattern company with all my employees and loading docks? It will be much easier to sell  the brand “Zebra” than my own name. Also in the future if I have designers who work for the company – they can use their own name under the Zebra Umbrella. Another reason is that I use a lot of black and white stripes in my work. And lastly – if you take the “D” off of Debra and replace it with a “Z” you get Zebra. We found one last benefit to the name Zebra …. in show catalogs I am usually the last listing! I always say if you can’t be first in the listing last is much better than stuck in the middle.

How is it going?

I think over all my goals are right on time or even a bit early. After I had recovered enough from the bone marrow trabsplant in 2004 I set a 1 year, 5 year and 10 year goal. It was surprising to find myself at 44 years old rewriting my life plans. No ever thinks cancer will visit there front door. My one year goal was to earnistly start working again and grow my pattern line. I did that and developed a strong presence in local quilt shops through my patterns and teaching.  My five year plan was to have a line large enough to take to National market. I did that.  I now have a national presence with my patterrns and I have National recognition and publication nationally through my art quilts. My long term goal was to actually be traveling the world through my quilts and patterns. I think now is a good time to revisit those goals and reset the 1 year, 5 year and 10 year goals.

What’s next on the one year horizon?

So lets see – in one year I would like to continue to grow the pattern line by adding more stamps and rounding out a few other items in my line. I want to add one or two more chair covers and a few more door hangers. I need to pattern that big Chuppah/ Wedding quilt too. I want to wite lets say 2-3 articles for Quilting publications.  I want to have at least 2 new art quilts to enter in National/International competitions.

In five years I want to grow the business and start making a good living from my patterns/teaching/lecturing. I want to write a book.

In the next ten – really make the business sore with a great little profitable company of like minded employees called Zebra patterns.

How does that all sound? Like a plan?I am reinspired – I need to go make something!