Last week I received an email from Clara Vargas, a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Army. Clara is currently stationed at Shinand Airbase in Afghanistan. Clara and her team of American and International soldiers are tasked with the mission of educating more than 4,000 widowed Afghan women how to sew. The goal is two fold: to show the Afghan people that they can do for themselves rather than rely on charity or terrorists for survival and to show them that American troops are there to keep them safe and to help them rebuild their country for themselves and their children. At the end of 2010, when Lisa Steele, owner of Bella Fabrics in Virginia Beach, Va., and Clara’s home shop owner, learned of the program, she jumped on board and began pulling other shop owners as well as industry giants, such as Checker, into a program to support Clara’s mission. You can learn more about the program at www.clarascalling.com.

Back to my email. I received an email from Clara along with some of her other industry contacts letting us know that Lisa had been named 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year by the Isle of Wight County (Va.) Department of Economic Development. Clara and I then traded emails back and forth about the mission and what is happening now. I sent her a copy of the article I wrote last summer in The Professional Quilterand she sent me pictures I’ve placed on the blog and on Facebook of the Afghan women smiling with their new sewing machines.In her email, Clara wrote to me, “I always said, ‘You don’t have to be a Soldier to make a different around the World.’ You’re one of my Heros! I truly LOVE the article.”God is good to me, he provided you to our mission. I thank you again, for keeping our Soldiers safe in Afghanistan, we are winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, and I believe because of that more Soldiers will returned Home to their loved ones.”Her email got me thinking about the ripple effect and how even the smallest thing we do makes a difference. Did I think writing an article and publicizing the mission was keeping solders safe? It’s easy for me to look at what I do and not see something significant. OK, I publish a magazine and coach women on how to grow their creative businesses. If I really think about it, I can see how helping someone grow her business in turn lets her support herself, add to her family support or change how she views the importance of her contribution. But I need to look even further to the people that person will effect. It’s really pretty astounding what one person can do in the scheme of things.

It’s definitely Quilt Show Season! AQS/Paducah was last week, Quilt Festival/Cincinnati and MQX the week before, and Machine Quilters Showcase and Quilt Market are in a couple of weeks. That’s just the larger shows. I think you can find a local show almost any weekend now. This past weekend I enjoyed one of the local guild’s annual shows.

Vending at these shows can be draining and it’s key to keep your energy up if you are to have a good show. Here are eight tips to help you have your best show yet:

1. Set an intention or goal for the show. Is it to make a certain amount of sales, to get your patterns picked up by a distributor, to test a new product, to get rid of aging stock? When you are clear on your intent, you’ll be more focused, and your results will show that.

2. Establish eye contact with show visitors, smile and engage them in a conversation. Ask questions that will lead to an answer that is not yes or no. Share something of yourself and your product. Your customer is buying you as much as she is buying your product. And, I’m sure you’ve been to a show where the vendor sits on a chair in the corner of an empty booth. Of course it’s empty; no one feels welcome to enter! Get up and greet your customer.

3. Demo if you can. Nothing draws a crowd like a demonstration. Next time you are at a show as a visitor, take a look at the more crowded booths. Many will have a group watching a demo. This engages your customer and leads to more sales.

4. Qualify your buyer, i.e., separate the browsers from the buyers. Quilt Market is filled with what I call “the entourage,” quilters who want to see what Market is all about. And, I love quilters who want to become involved in our industry; they keep our industry vital. However, while they may have some influence or be the buyer of the future, they are not the decision-maker today. I’m not saying to ignore them or be rude. You can engage them in a conversation, only find out who makes the buying decision and try to get to that person.

5. Have plenty of handouts and brochures. Not everyone is ready to make a decision when they first meet you. Some like to take materials back to the hotel room and compare before buying. Be sure to bring an original of your handouts in the event you need to get copies during the show.

6. Have a way for people to contact you later. I recently visited an artists cooperative, and while all the artists had business cards none included a web site on the card. Many times, I’d like to peruse the artist’s web site and see what other work she might have. Not all your buyers will purchase while they are in your booth or even at the show. Make it easy for them to see your product line.

7. Put your website, phone number, booth number on all your handouts and receipts. Buyers will share their finds with their friends and this will lead to more sales. At one of the first shows I vended in the 1990s, a friend stopped by the booth and showed me a new notion. She wanted to purchase another, only she didn’t know the name of the vendor or where he was located, and the receipt offered no help. Neither did I. (As it turned out, he was in my row!)

8. Keep up your energy. If you are doing multi-day shows, it’s easy to get run-down. Have healthy snacks and water in the booth. Try to stick to your regular sleeping routine, something I find hard to do at shows. If your energy is zapped, it will show in your results.

Hope these tips add to the success of your next show.

Please share your best vending tips below.

Does it seem like your time just slips away and that at the end of the day, you didn’t accomplish all you planned? Do you have dreams about what you want to do in your spare time, only you don’t have any?

For some people it’s not being clear on what you want from your day – or even your life. There’s that clarity thing again, but it really is the key to everything. One of the exercises I often hear suggested is to look at your life and decide what your days would be like if you were not limited by time or money. Once you do that, here are some additional steps.

1. Get clear about how you are really spending your time. To do this, you will need to track how you are actually spending your time, all of it. Keep a diary – kind of like when you keep track of what you eat – of what you do with all the time in your day. Start with when you get up and go through the end of the day. Do this for at least three days, preferably a week. I guarantee you will learn something unexpected.

2. Once you see how you really spend your time, review what you do that isn’t part of that ideal day. (If your ideal day was sitting by the water in the Caribbean with an umbrella drink, you might have a lot that doesn’t fit, but at least you know what you’re aiming for!) Look at what you are doing that could be done by someone else on your team. If you don’t have a team, look at what you could have someone do if you did, and consider moving in that direction.

3. Consider what you are doing that you shouldn’t be doing at all. If you find lots of those activities, learn how to say no. Look at those where you should be limiting your time, e.g., surfing the Internet. What you do should be using your skills and helping you pursue your goals.

4. Look at what activities you pursue that are really your passion. Try to spend more time there.

5. Review which activities are “putting out fires.” You may be familiar with Stephen Covey’s quadrants from his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Things are urgent and important; important and not urgent; not important and urgent; or not important and not urgent. Your goal should be to spend time in the important and not urgent quadrant. If you are spending time in the urgent and important quadrant, you are putting out fires. Likely, this is because you didn’t prioritize or you procrastinated. Many of us spend too much time in the not important or not urgent areas and then we end up with those fires to put out.

6. If you want to spend time appropriately, plan your day the night before. That way you decide your priorities and can get more accomplished.

Remember, how you spend your time is how you spend your life.

Do you have any tips on spending your time more appropriately? Please share your thoughts below.

One of the things we talked about during the Creative Arts Business Summit was building a support team for your business. Teams are one way to leverage your business to grow. When I think of professionals in the quilt and fiber arts industry who do this, I first think of pattern designers. They know that they cannot possibly stuff all those patterns into plastic bags themselves. It’s not long before they’ve enlisted every family member and friend in that task. At some point it becomes so unwieldy, they look for additional help, often at the local sheltered workshop.

So, who do you put on your team? I like to look at the team as three legs on your company stool. You have your advisory team, your work team and your support team. And, of course, some people may be on more than one team.

Your advisory team might include your accountant, your lawyer, your banker and your insurance agent. They are people who help your business stay legal and in the black. You might talk them to once a year or once a month or as the need arises.

Your work team helps you on a more day-to-day basis or project basis to get your work out into the world. It might include the pattern stuffers and testers, your virtual assistant, your bookkeeper, your web designer and web tech person, your photographer, your sales reps.

Your support team might add your spouse, your networking group or mastermind partners, your coach. It might include your housekeeper or day care provider so you can focus on your business.

Where do you find these people to help you so that you can work on your business? Friends and colleagues are good place to start for a recommendation. Your guild or other groups you frequent are another source. You can also try Craig’s list or look online. A google search may be just what you need. I have one client who is successful using odesk.com. Another uses elance.com. Your IAPQ member benefits are another source. You can use our IP attorney if that need arises. And, if you are looking to add a virtual assistant to your team, Suzanne Moore can help you identify what your needs are.

I believe that once you add support in the way of team members you will begin to see your business grow in ways you just didn’t expect. And, it’s a wonderful change.

Who do you have on your team and when did you realize that you needed to add to your team? Please share your thoughts below.

Over the years I’ve wrestled with saying “no” to many requests. When I was two years old, I’m sure I didn’t have that problem. Just ask my family! As I grew up, I think the people pleaser in me showed up, and “no” seldom found its way into my vocabulary. As an adult, I have a distinct memory about learning how to say “no.” I was doing volunteer work at a local museum for a major fund-raising event. I was responsible getting volunteers for my committee. I still remember the woman I asked who instead of just saying “no” said, “No, I can’t help you now, but when the event takes place I’ll be glad to work.” Gosh, that no really didn’t sound so much like a no.

Yes can be the right answer many times, but none of us has unlimited time available to say yes to everything. It’s knowing when to say yes or no and then how to say it that makes the difference.

Here are seven ideas to help you say “no.”

1. Does the request move you closer to your goals? If it does, that’s great. Commit the time needed. If it doesn’t, it should be easy to say no.

2. How does the time commitment for a “yes” affect your priorities? Sometimes we might like to say yes, but the time away from our stated priorities is a sacrifice that we aren’t willing to make. One example might be that your priority for family time requires you to say no to requests that interfere with that. And, don’t forget that commitments to yourself count as priorities; don’t give up time you need to rejuvenate or “fill the well.”

3. It’s OK to think about the request. You can tell the person you’ll give some thought to their request and then get back to them. This gives you time to consider the request, see how it fits into your goals, priorities and commitments.

4. Don’t apologize for saying “no.” Often people will say, “I’m sorry, but I can’t because….” It’s not necessary to give a reason why you can’t. It’s your time you are guarding. If you feel the need to explain, a simple “I can’t at this time” should work.

5. Offer an option. If you want to be involved in an activity that will take too much of your time, think of how you can do something small that will be less stressful. That’s what the woman who taught me how to say “no” did. For example, if you’re asked to be responsible for arranging for snacks for your child’s soccer team for the season, offer to bring snacks for one game. When my quilt guild was in need of volunteers for its show, I offered to design the brochure and advertising materials, something I could do on my own time.

6. Try to be aware of when someone is going to ask you for something. If you are on a committee or part of a group, it’s much easier to let the chair/group know ahead of time that you are already committed and can’t take on something else.

7. Practice saying no. Try it when you are asked for personal information when you shop. Try it with telemarketers.

And, once you’ve said no, just move on. In all likelihood, you’ll feel better and much less stressed, and the person who asked just moves onto the next name on her list.

How good are you at saying, “no”? Please share your thoughts below.

Give up Perfectionism. No way, you say! Everything must be just so, the best, perfect. After all, it’s probably served you well in the past, and perfect has its place. Besides, what will happen if it’s not perfect?

This is something some of my clients wrestle with. And, I’m going to come clean and include myself there. Actually I never really thought I was squarely in that boat, or at least that it wasn’t that obvious to others. This past Sunday after church, I had a conversation with our priest, and she said to me, “You need to give up having to be perfect.” Whoa! Back to working on imperfect!

Truth be told, I had already realized this about myself and thought I’d been making progress to move from this. And, I have. I know where my perfectionism comes from and when it crops up. I know what needs to be perfect and what doesn’t, though I do struggle with it on occasion. Perfectionism has its good points. It can also become a dead end. Here are some things it can lead to:
1. Procrastination and/or indecision. If you need everything to be perfect, you wait for the best solution or the right time. You don’t want to miss it, so you wait and wait.

2. Missing the big picture because you are focusing on the details. It’s like missing the forest for all the trees.

3. Loss of creativity. I think this one is tied into procrastination, because you want perfect results so you put it off. You don’t have “failed creative efforts.” And, of course if you did, they could lead to growth. (Ironically, growth is one of the reasons people want to be perfect.)

4. Perfectionism in the extreme can lead to depression and alienation of relationships.

So how do you work on becoming a recovering perfectionist? Here are some tips to try:

1. Be aware of why you are a perfectionist and recognize when it rears its head. Know whether it’s good perfectionism or obsessive perfectionism. I think that’s often half the battle.

2. Ask yourself, “What will happen if it’s not perfect?” or even, “What will happen if I don’t have to do it perfectly?”

3. Aim for good enough. I have two signs in my office. One says “Good enough is good enough.” The other says, “Progress, not perfection.” It’s not license to slack off, it’s license to finish.

4. Look at the big picture, i.e., look at the forest not the trees. Prioritize to figure out if all the trees, aka tasks, are necessary to fill in the big picture. If not, get rid of that tree.

5. Learn how to delegate. Once you do this and begin to have faith in other people’s abilities, it becomes easier to delegate. You don’t have to do it all to be perfect. And, it may not be perfect to your way of thinking, but it will be done.

6. Just once, set a goal to do something poorly. What a concept! This is really freeing. Imagine being perfectly imperfect!

7. Celebrate. My clients know I like to have a weekly Success and Strategies Summit. If you’ve managed to let go of some of your perfectionist tendencies, celebrate it as a success.

I love quotes and searched for the perfect (!) quote on perfectionism. In the end, I decided to share the words from one of my favorite authors, Anne Lamott, from her book Bird by Bird:

Are you a perfectionist or a recovering perfectionist? Please share your thoughts below.

In the Winter 2012 issue of The Professional Quilter, Sue Tucker, Chief Financial Officer of Studio 180 Design and our financial columnist, wrote about seven resolutions you won’t want to break. One of them was “Look at Your Financial Numbers on a Monthly Basis.” Now that we are at the end of month two, how are you doing on this resolution? I know that lots of creative types just aren’t that interested in numbers. And, that’s great if you’ve got someone to input your data, but you still need to look at the numbers on a regular basis. Here’s an excerpt of the Winter issue with Sue’s article on this resolution:

How do you know if you’re making money and reaching your goals? How do you know if you need to change an approach that’s not working or cut back on expenses to make up for a shortfall in revenue? If you aren’t looking at your financial numbers on a monthly basis, you don’t. Some people look at their bank balance when the statement comes, and if there’s money there they think they’re OK. But let’s say they’ve started a slow slide. How many months will it take for that slow slide to wipe out everything in their account, at which point they’ll realize they aren’t OK? If they’d been looking at monthly numbers they would have seen the problem right at the start and been able to take action before their bank account ran out of money.

If you don’t know how you’re doing month-to-month, you can’t be making the right decisions as quickly as you should be to keep your business strong and growing. At the least you should be looking at your revenue and expenses for the month and year-to-date. That will tell you if you are making money. But in addition, many of you should be looking at month-to-month changes, annual growth, receivables and your balance sheet. Your accountant can help you identify what you should be looking at based on your business situation and help you plan the best way to get the numbers you need.

Please share how you’re doing with tracking your financials below.

During the Creative Arts Business Training Series I did a couple of weeks ago, I talked about clarity in a number of areas. One of those areas is getting clear on what your “Big Why” is. That’s the term that both of my coaches have used. I look at your Big Why as the piece behind the vision for your business and how it fits into your life, why you do what you do.

For years I never really gave it much thought. I was working to add income to our family coffers. When I first started my business, it was actually at my accountant’s suggestion. He saw I loved quilting and thought I could turn it into a business on the side. That was great, though I never really gave it much more thought. As the years went by, the business grew and changed. I earned a graduate degree in journalism and thought how wonderful it would be to combine the quilting and journalism together, which I did. Again, not really giving it a huge amount of thought. The past couple of years, I decide to actually put real thought into the process and can now articulate what I do and why. I can tell you that knowing this absolutely makes a difference. Once you figure our your “big why,” you complete your tasks, reach your goals, lifve your life with so much more ease.

OK, so how do you figure out your Big Why? Here are a couple ideas.

1. If you are having a hard time asking yourself why, instead complete the sentence: “I am doing this because ….”  or “I’m doing this so that….”

2. Take a look at your top passions and try to see what they have in common. That can lead you to your why.

3. What gets you out of bed in the morning and drives you to take inspired action.

4. Remember that the why is the driving force behind our actions. We need strong, or Big, Whys to keep going.

5. Our Big Whys can change over time so it’s a good exercise to look at yours on a yearly basis.

Please share your Big Why below.

During my call on Monday I talked about my CREATE! system for building and growing your creative arts business. The A in the system stands for Action. Action is what drives your results, yet so many of us get stuck here. What should I do first? I need to know all the steps. It has to be perfect before I go on. None of us is immune from getting in our own way.

Yet if you look at successful people, you’ll see they all have one thing in common: They take action. And taking action is really a habit that you can develop. Here are five ideas to help you build your action muscle:

1. Don’t get overwhelmed with the big picture, with having to know all the steps to accomplish your goal. You only need to know the next thing to do and act on it. After that, then pick the next step. Remember Martin Luther King said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

2. Write your SMART goals on paper or index cards and keep them in front of you. What you focus on makes a difference.

3. Decide that you will take three action steps towards your goal each day.

4. Plan your day the night before so you are ready to hit the ground running. And, you’ll find that your brain will even work on those plans while you sleep. I know that sounds odd, but I find it really happens.

5. Do it now! As you’ve probably heard, there’s no time like the present, so just start!

Here’s a wonderful quote about taking action from Leonardo da Vinci:

Please share your tips for taking action below.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking with one of my private coaching clients, and she was very excited about what she had accomplished since our previous call. She has big goals and is right on track with them. When I mentioned how thrilled I was for her, she noted that she was ready to pick something from her Reward Jar during her weekly Success and Strategies Summit.

Last month during our IAPQ member goal setting call, I mentioned that it’s a good idea to create a way to celebrate our successes. SInce we often work in isolated environments, i.e., not an outside workplace with lots of co-workers, it’s up to us to reward ourselves. I like the idea of putting a reward on a piece of paper, putting it in the jar and then picking something out for yourself when it’s time to celebrate.

As for what kind of reward you create, you need to think about what motivates you. We all have different motivators. A bike ride through the park may be just what you need. For someone else it’s a painful reminder of exercise. And, not everyone enjoys a hot bubble bath or a massage. For you, maybe it’s a trip to a nice restaurant, a visit to a new gallery, a game of toss with your dog or a shopping spree for a new pair of shoes.

How to figure out what really motivates you? It’s often that activity that brings a smile to your face. Spend some time making a list of those activities, write them on individual pieces of paper and collect them in a jar or even a fabric bowl. As you look back over your successes this week, don’t forget to reward yourself.

Please share your what’s in your reward jar below.