Sew to Sell

Here’s a fact that can sometimes ruffle a few feathers. Being good at business will keep your sewing business going far longer than being good at sewing will.

If you’re a highly skilled sewist, that can sound like an insult on the surface. But think about the last time you saw someone selling handcrafted items, online or in person, and thought, "how on earth is this person selling these things?" You know you could make something so much better. The truth is that they’re better at marketing, better at product photography and better at getting what they make in front of the right people. And whether we like it or not, that's what makes sales.

None of this means you can make rubbish and just flog it anyway. You still have to be good. But being good at business is what turns good sewing into something that sells.

I know, you've probably spent years perfecting your seams, learning to set in a sleeve without a single pucker and getting your overlocker to behave. All of that skill is real and valuable. But I've seen brilliant sewists have to close their businesses, and I've watched people with good, but not outstanding, sewing skills build something that lasts. The difference was always business rather than sewing skills.

So if you're an excellent sewist and you're worried you might still fail, I'd say you're in the right place. This book is here to help you get started.

So much of it has nothing to do with sewing

Running a small business involves far more than making the thing you sell. When you sew as a hobby, the making is the whole point. When you sew for a living, the making is one job on a long list.

Here's a taste of what else turns up on that list:

• Equipment. What you already have, what you'll need and what will wear out faster once you're sewing every day.
• Workspace. Where you'll sew, store fabric and pack orders, and how you'll stop the rest of the household wandering in.
• Legal duties. Registering your business, insurance, data protection and any rules about testing the things you make.
• Money. Pricing, costs, wages, profit and keeping track of what comes in and goes out.
• Marketing. Getting people to find you and buy from you.
• Customers. Looking after them, keeping in touch and making them want to come back.

When most makers first see this list laid out, it feels daunting. If that's how you feel right now, you're in very good company. It can be a bit of a shock to realise how much of running a sewing business has nothing at all to do with sewing.

The good news is that none of it is beyond you. You learned to sew one technique at a time, and you can learn business the same way. We'll go through each piece in turn, and by the end of the book it will all be much more manageable.

What I mean by marketing

There's one definition I want you to carry through every chapter, because we'll keep coming back to it. Marketing is putting the right product, in front of the right person, at the right time.

That's it. No shouting, no sleazy sales tricks and no pretending to be something you're not. Every decision you'll make in this book, from what you sew to what you call your business to which colours go on your labels, is ultimately about getting those three things to line up.

Make something your customer doesn’t want and it won’t sell, however beautifully it’s sewn. Put the right product in front of the wrong person and it doesn’t matter how lovely it is. Get the timing wrong and even the perfect customer will walk on by. Keep that in mind and a lot of business advice makes much more sense.

Why you can trust me with this

I've been running Pink Giraffe and other small businesses for nearly 20 years now. Among them were a handmade clothing business and a dance costume business, so I've been exactly where you are, sitting at the sewing machine, wondering how to turn the thing I love into something that pays the bills.

I'm certain Pink Giraffe wouldn't still be here if I hadn't taken a business course early on and learned how much a thorough business plan helps. That plan, and being willing to change direction when I needed to, is what kept me going.

I'll be honest with you, though. I've made plenty of mistakes along the way. I designed a logo around my own taste instead of my customers', got stuck in the planning stage and needed someone to drag me out of it.

Those stories are all coming up in later chapters. I'm sharing them because I'd much rather you learned from my mistakes than spent your own time and money making them.

The best bit about working for yourself

Before we get into the hard stuff, I want to talk about why this is worth doing.

When you run your own sewing business, you're in charge of your working time. If you're a parent and the school rings to say you need to pick the kids up, you can go. If you have a health appointment, you can attend it. If a relative needs looking after, you can be there. There's no booking time off and no awkward conversation with a manager.

This is personal for me as I have Multiple Sclerosis. There are periods when I simply can't work. So I make sure I put all my effort in when I'm feeling well, and that leaves me free to rest when I need to.

Very few employers would let me work like that. Running my own business allows me to work flexibly. It means I can keep doing the work I love on terms my body can cope with, and I know a lot of you reading this will have your own reasons for needing that kind of flexibility.

The price of that freedom

Here comes the slightly less fun part. Freedom needs discipline.

Nobody is going to tell you to sit down and do the work. Nobody will check whether you've posted on social media this week or chased up that supplier. If you don't put the work in, you won't have any customers, and without customers you won't have a business. It really is that simple, and that hard.

A lot of businesses fail within their first year. I don't say that to frighten you, but because you need to go into this with your eyes open.

I also want to tackle something I see in sewing groups all the time. Somebody asks about starting a business, and a chorus of people reply that you "can't make a living from selling handmade things". It's a shame that so many sewists believe it.

I don't believe it's true. There are heaps of people out there making a living from the things they sew. The ones who struggle tend to start making whatever they fancy and hope for the best. The ones who succeed put the right strategies in place first, and that's what this book will help you do.

Getting your foundations sorted before you launch gives a new business its best chance of making it past that first year. It also means you can enjoy your launch, instead of lying awake worrying that you've forgotten something important.

How this book works

This book follows my online course The Sewing Biz Starter Kit, so it moves in the same order that I'd walk you through if we were working together. I've made downloadable resources available in Chapter 11.

A quick word on the legal and money chapters. Rules about registering, tax, insurance and product testing vary depending on where you live. I'll point you towards what to look into, but you'll always need to check the rules that apply in your own area.

You can read the whole book in one go if you like, to get the big picture. Or you can take it one chapter at a time, put each one into practice and only move on when you're ready. Both work. Choose whichever suits the way you like to learn.

What's great about turning your hobby into a business is that you probably have more in place already than you think. If you've been sewing for a while, it's quite likely you already own a lot of the equipment you'll need. You're not starting from scratch.

Grab a pen

Throughout the book you'll find exercises and checklists to work through. I recommend getting a notebook just for your business.

You don't have to do it on paper. But there's something about writing your thoughts and plans down and giving your business a real, physical place to live. It helps the whole thing take shape much faster than when it's all rattling round in your head.

Exercise: Before you turn to the next chapter

1. Get your notebook ready.
2. Write the name of your business at the top of the first page. If you don't have one yet, just write "My Sewing Business". We'll sort the name out properly later.
3. Underneath, write one sentence about why you want to do this: more time with your family, flexibility around your health, a bit of extra income, or whatever it is for you.
4. Copy out the marketing definition: Putting the right product, in front of the right person, at the right time.

That's your first page done. Starting, even in a small way like this, is always better than dreaming about starting. In the next chapter we'll fill many more pages, because it's time to empty your head of every idea you've ever had.