Today I am talking to the quilt store owners and industry brands out there. Be clear I am speaking straight to you, no holds barred. My pom-poms and cheery disposition are at the dry-cleaner and I am on my fourth cup of caffeine of the morning so this is going to be me “unplugged”.. be warned.
International Quilt Market is at the end of month and a lot of shops are still on the fence about attending. Be assured that the convention area and local hotels are ready for you. In some crazy twist of fate that area was spared the devastation of greater Houston and Quilt Market ( and Festival) will going on just as planned.
Currently the sewing and quilting industry is at a crossroads like a petrified squirrel caught trying to decided what make of itself and which way to move. Let me be clear, the road of the business world is littered with the tiny corpses of squirrels who could not make a choice and were mowed over as they dithered about what to do next.
Let you and your brand not be the next furry dead thing on the side of the road!
BRANDS
If you are a brand who is going to be at Market… get thee to they e-mail machine and send out reasons for stores to come. Quilt Market can be a great time for store owners to score great deals.. free shipping, extra yardage, loyalty pricing… Make it worth it for them to come to Quilt Market and see you!!! Sitting on your collective asses waiting for customers to stumble into your booth and be wow’d by your product is no longer an option. If I see one more group of company reps sitting in a booth chatting to each other and not greeting customers the second they enter the booth then you know what… just pack it the fuck up and don’t come to Market. Yes, I know it is hard work, suck it up chuck..this is how this game is played. Get out there woo those quilt shops, provide intensive education for both them and the consumer. Be the best support ever to those quilt shops to keep them alive and kicking!
QUILT SHOPS
If you are not online yet or pursuing an aggressive social media presence in the name of your store then just decide that your remaining years in this industry are drastically limited. {mic drop}
Yes, I said it and you can just hop off the pity train or the one where you bitch about Missouri Star or MassDrop and how they are “stealing” your customers. You have just as much access to the World Wide Web as either of these companies. There are ENDLESS resources available to you to get your store online and in front of people who want to be your raving fans and customers.
The race to the bottom HAS to be over… there is no further we can dig and it is a lost cause to try. While sewing and quilting are egalitarian pursuits there is a great deal of room to re-create this hobby into one of affluence, diversity and welcome with stores that wrap their customers in the finest of service, atmosphere and goods while holding their arms open to all who want to be part of the quilting lifestyle. (psssst scroll down to see my class on just this subject!)
Owning a store is hard work… nearly thankless at times and we wonder why we do it but so much of that is based in the low monetary return we see as shop owners and yet things are not hopeless but they do mean taking action ( remember that squirrel?)
Start by coming to market, come learn, come make a plan. Come move past your fear of social media, online selling and creating a brand that has people thinking of you first when they are thinking about buying some fabric.
The fact is that while I will always be a raving fan of the local quilt store we live in the time of the omni-channel consumer and to succeed you are going to need to not only be the Quilt shop on their town corner but the one in their e-mail box and Facebook as well.
Maddie’s Quilt Market Picks for Fall 2017 Houston.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 8:00-10:00 AM 200. INTRODUCTION TO PATENTS, TRADEMARKS, AND COPYRIGHT LAW
Heather Kubiak, Kubiak Law Firm/Craft As Desired
Learn to identify and protect your intellectual property. Avoid infringing on others’ ideas, blogs, and creative works.
9:00-10:00 AM 201. GRASSROOTS QUILTING—GROWING YOUR BUSINESS FROM THE GROUND UP *$16
Learn about four concepts that will help you reshape and sharpen your retail senses as you grow
your business.
6:00-7:00 PM 210. QUILT LIZZY U.S.—HOW I FRANCHISED MY BUSINESS *$20
Susan Harris, Quilt Lizzy U.S., LLC
Meet Susan Harris, the entertaining owner of the first quilt shop franchise in America. Learn how in five years, starting from scratch, she grew her quilt shop into a multi-store empire and franchised the business.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28 8:00-10:00 AM 300. KIDS REALLY ARE SEWING—GET THEM IN YOUR STORE!
Tracy Mooney, Generation Q Magazine
Are you wondering how to get the next generation in your door? Tracy will share tips for implementing
a kid’s club, tricks for keeping the kids coming back for more, and offer curriculum help through the GenQ “Cut & Sew Club” booklets.
9:00-10:00 AM 301. CREATING CONSUMER CONFIDENCE—MACHINE SALES
Teri Lucas, Generation Q Magazine
Fifteen tips and techniques for making sewing machines sales now and in the future. Includes staff training and consumer conversations.
6:00-7:00 PM 340. DON’T PLAN TO FAIL BY FAILING TO PLAN YOUR BUSINESS
Ebony Love, LoveBug Studios
There’s more to business than wholesale supplies. Learn the 10 key plan components you need to create
a thriving business.
6:00-8:00 PM 341. BUILDING A “LITTLE BLUE BOX” CULTURE IN AN AGE OF BIG BOX BRANDS $25
Maddie Kertay, BadAss Quilters Society. —- SHAMELESS PLUG FOR MY EVENT
No one wins on a race to the bottom. Come learn how to create a luxury quilt store culture in an age
of mass discount hysteria. Please bring a notebook with plenty of space for inspirational notes, plans,
and ideas.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29
9:00-10:00 AM 401. INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING—FROM IDEA TO BOOK IN SIX MONTHS OR LESS!
Ebony Love, LoveBug Studios
You have a book inside you, let’s get it out! Learn what it takes to make your book a reality by publishing under your own imprint.
6:00-7:00 PM 440. CREATING CONFIDENCE IN THE IN-STORE TALENT
Teri Lucas, Generation Q Magazine
Develop and create confidence in your in-store talent. Tips for identifying and developing staff talent, building their confidence, and giving them some of the work—enabling you to have some of the fun of owning a quilt shop.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30 8:00-10:00 AM 500. LEGAL AND PRACTICAL TIPS FOR RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS *$30
Heather Kubiak, Kubiak Law Firm/Craft As Desired
Protect yourself from personal liability by identifying legal pitfalls in your contracts, leases, insurance policies, and dealing with governmental agencies.
Going to be staying for Festival?… check out the great business classes from Cheryl Sleboda!!
p.s. Share this with a quilt store owner you know… I banged out this post in 20 minutes, typos can be expected!
I moved to a new area within the UK and went along to a “quilting workshop” at a store with someone else who had recently moved to same area (we had became immediate friends because of our quilting love). The two shop owners who taught the course were very snooty, telling us we needed to buy supplies in their shop next door (even though we had tons of fabric with us). We would spend five two hours sessions at £10.00 per session (approx $20.00 dollars per session, I think) learning how to make one block, then 5 sessions learning the next block etc. This meant the ten block quilt would cost £500.00 to learn to make, plus about that again on fabric, bought from them at full price. They also wanted to check our sewing machines were up to the standard required??!! We are fully wanting to support local business and meet local people, but have instead formed a sewing group runs from our homes!
I would love to attend quilt market!. As a fairly new shop owner I could greatly benefit from it. The problem is finances. I have to keep the shelves stocked with new fabric and we are still struggling to pay the bills. Maybe next year.
Thank you Maddie for laying it out there! I manage a retail store (not a LQS) and so my expectations are high when it comes to customer service and the customer experience. I’m fortunate to live in an area where we have several LQS within a reasonable driving distance (less than an hour). Some provide great customer service and some could use a refresher course! I’m a pretty traditional quilter in style but am open to trying new techniques and styles. I don’t expect every store to carry everything but it would be nice if they were a little more aware of the different things going on in the quilting world. This is where I think the fabric companies and sales reps need to do a better job as well. It’s their responsibility to excite the shop owner so the shop owner can carry that excitement back to their store! If I’m in your store I want to buy! Love me, excite me, share with me, make me feel welcome and I will buy! Make your email newsletter interesting, include a link to your website, post on social media so I’ll want to follow you and I’ll be loyal!
I just attended the AQS show in Des Moines, IA and saw firsthand vendors who were on their cell phones and laptops. I passed by the booth – several times – of a very well known designer and the person sitting there never looked up from the laptop he was working on. I was invisible. Why be there at all? I also noted the absence of any new and intriguing products. My interest in quilting is waning. I stopped at the LQS on my way home and it was bustling with customers and they have little online presence. It has all gotten so expensive and I have so much already, that if someone wants my business, they’re going to have to make it interesting for me. I tried the “box a month” this year and received so much I didn’t need. I understand the draw of it though if you’re new to quilting. I support online and local quilt shops and appreciate having those resources – just want them to notice that I stopped by….
I want so badly to go to market this time but I just can afford it. I was so glad that I went to spring market, my store had been open for one month at that point and I feel like what I learned really helped me jump start it! I do plan to go to Houston next year though. As a shop owner, I feel like there is no time for me to get comfortable and my main purpose in going to market was not only to see the newest and brightest but mostly it was to LEARN! I signed up for every class I could and I took away from them things that have already paid for themselves. I am totally going to steal a couple of things I learned in your class BTW. 😉
I won’t see you this fall but I will next year!!
As a HOUSTON area resident, PLEASE COME ATTEND QUILT MARKET & QUILT FESTIVAL!!
Houston is ready!!
The GRB Convention Center is ready!! (The Houston Grand Opera is sharing the space this year!)
The INTERNATIONAL QUILT FESTIVAL & volunteers are ready!!
PLEASE COME VISIT US!!
I have always wanted to attend Market, as I’ve attended, taken classes and been a Quilt Angel at Festival for a number of years.
I still consider myself a newbie/beginner when it comes to sewing & quilting and Festival is my place to try new things for a ½ day or day.
I was blessed to be introduced to quilting by my LQS, which at the time was owned/managed by 3 sisters. They were welcoming & friendly and I felt comfortable at their location. They were patient with all my questions and listened to my ideas and helped me work through the ideas I had.
This shop even had an instructor that started the kids sewing & quilting as young as kindergarten!!
This LQS has moved to a location a bit farther from me, but I still make it a point to call them first about classes and to try to browse/shop at least once a month.
I was even blessed further when we moved to another state and I found another fabulous LQS! It was more geared toward modern quilting and that was new for me. They too listened to my ideas, welcomed me, taught my children to sew and gave me a comfortable place to be. I miss that shop, but fortunately they do have an online presence and I can call or email with requests and orders.
Many of the LQS vendors that frequent Festival are welcoming and gracious, but many do need to do a better job of having an functional online presence – not just an email. There are so many vendors I’ve purchased from at Festival that I would like to order from again, but they don’t have a website, Facebook page, Easy store, etc. So, I cannot be a repeat customer unless they make the trip back to Festival.
Yes, I’ve ordered from MSQC and KQ online, but that is not the same as an in-person LQS experience. The only online shop that I’ve had an in-person experience online is The Fabric Cobbler in Indiana. That woman works her bum off for her customers, staff, and family…all treating them the way she wants to be treated when she shops.
To manufacturers, work your hardest to WOW us!! We will reward you with sold out collections of fabric and requests for reprints!
Unfortunately, I cannot attend Market but will be making my first trip to Quilt Festival. Don’t know what to expect, but I would certainly hope vendors will be glad that I, along with 1,000s of others, have spent the money and time to attend. Yes, make it worth our effort! Hoping to pick up some tips for my home-based machine quilting business.
Hear, Hear! I am just a lowly consumer…BUT I drive the 30 miles into Austin Texas (or farther) by-passing the local quilt shop less than a mile from my home….because every time I walk in there, its a refrigerator. So cold, you could hang meat. Yeah, I’m new in town…I’ve only lived here a year. But how are they going to get to know me, if they won’t even make eye contact? Guess what? Not going back…taken that vow.
The other pet peeve is the local Quilt Guild. The “we don’t want you” flavor is there too. Women work…I don’t know if they realize that. So guild meetings on a weekday in the morning are impossible which has a ripple effect to the local quilt shop. It’s probably all the same folks but I won’t go off about inbreeding….
Whew…thanks for letting this lowly consumer get that off the long arm….
Are these quilts made by quilters in the U.S., or are they made in third world sweat shops? Quilters in the U.S. Should not have to compete with a foreign market. By the same token: foreign quilters. Should not be exploited. Support American made crafts.
As a quilt shop owner, I just want to say RIGHT ON, GIRFRIEND! I agree with your comments 100%. You cannot be a player in today’s retail market without being online. That’s just the way the world works now. Shop owners who think they can display bolts of fabric on their floor and customers will beat down their doors are in for a wrecking ball of hard reality. Retail doesn’t work like that anymore. It doesn’t. Shop owners need to be online and they need to be creative with their offerings. You don’t have to have the lowest price online to make sales. My shop is living proof of that. We don’t mark down our offerings, and we’re on target to have the best year we’ve ever had. Shops need to provide top notch customer service. They need to be prepared to go not only the extra mile, but ten extra miles. That $20.00 expense will turn into $100s when they tell their friends how amazing you were at solving their problem. Shops need to be active and excited on social media. Post on Facebook, learn how to Instagram, get people excited! There are shops closing every time I turn around, and that trend is going to continue, except for the shops that have learned to adapt to the new retail reality.
And as someone who who goes to Market twice a year every year, I agree with your aggravation over vendors just sitting around and ignoring you. It’s astonishing to me to walk down an aisle and see vendors sitting and sewing or reading or on their phones and not even looking up to greet people. And this happens even at the beginning of the day when everyone is fresh! I’ve vended at Market. I know how utterly exhausting it is. But if you want people to be excited about your merchandise, then you need to show some enthusiasm yourself. If you’re just going to sit in your booth playing Candy Crush until someone actually tries to get your attention to ask a question, you’ve wasted your money. Stand near the aisle. Talk to people. Hand out your fliers! I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve found something wonderful in a booth’s flier that I totally missed in the booth itself. I would never have made a purchase from them if they’d been sitting in their booth reading a book.
Well, that’s quite a diatribe I wrote. Oops? But all in all, I just want to say, you go, girl!
Yes, Yes, Yes!!! I am not going to market this fall. I can’t justify the cost of market anymore. I used to get enough free shipping to help offset the cost, that doesn’t happen anymore. I don’t need to go to a customer appreciation dinner or party…I need deals and exciting products that make my trip worthwhile. The underwhelming new products the last few years can’t tempt me to be out of my store and spend thousands on travel. I will say for those of you that are going, take advantage of Schoolhouse!! So many great things to learn there!
I am attending my very first Quilt Market this month and am incredibly excited! I’m going to use my time as best as able, and can’t wait to see what I find! I completely believe in all you said about the internet! I am the Social Media Guru for my local shop, and I found a need and filled it!
I am disappointed at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. The vendors do not greet you or are not well staffed to even get a smile from. You bet I keep walking to the next booth that is excited to have my business. Repeat business it what’s its about. Yes, I have my favorite LQS store front and online shops and visit both. I shop where I am welcomed, whether I’m buying/browsing. Those store owners that forget customer service are the ones wailing their ‘oh woe is me’ should be ashamed. Power on Maddie!
I love every bit of this!! Sage advice from a badass. <3 I'm all about purchasing from local quilt shops, but the honest truth is that I will only support the ones that I'm not treated badly in. I gave up on MY local shops, but I LOVE the ability to support others, and I can do that if they have any semblance of an online store. When I travel, we always stop in local shops, and if I have a good experience, and they have an online store, I'll continue to support them beyond my vacation time purchase! Also, I liked that you called out the MSQC/Mass Drop/etc hate. I've never understood being so hateful toward successful businesses that aren't yours. In particular, MSQC has a really fantastic, down to earth, Mom and Pop shop beginning, and they had no idea it would explode into what it is now. They built a brand around Mom (Jenny Doan), and the glory of the internet, and they helped their local community to prosper. It's a legit, fantastic success story. But the fact that we all have access to the interweb, means we can all take a bash at being a quilting or sewing sewlebrity. Please please please LQS owners, come to the interwebs…we have paypal and quilters standing by with credit cards!!!
I agree with the original post and your comment. I really like the comments about MSQC. I was in Missouri recently for a baseball trip and since my flight left on Tuesday afternoon, I got up early and drove an hour up there just to experience it (and of course I bought fabric). Without their great marketing, a woman from CA wouldn’t have known about them. And the YouTube videos they put out benefits all quilt shops. When I see something on there, I go locally to buy fabric to recreate the inspiration I get from them. Although I’m an online shopper (I love Amazon Prime) I only buy fabric in person, so I would hope other quilt shops would appreciate what MSQC is doing for them, the quilting industry and take cues of how to implement new ideas in their local area. I have NO REASON to go back to Missouri, but plan to after my visit to Hamilton so we can attend a retreat. Their amazing business idea could be recreated in other parts of the country.