I got back on Sunday evening from Las Vegas where I attended Ali Brown‘s SHINE conference. I went with specific goals in mind and certainly made headway on them.

One of my goals was to start to create a plan for 2010. Before I can do that, though, I need to take a look at where I am now and how I got there. One of my favorite resources for this is Your Best Year Yet by Jinny S. Ditzler.  I’ve been using this little book for years. It offers a framework to define your personal values, identify the various roles you play and create goals for those roles. Here are some of Jinny’s questions plus a couple of my own:

1. What did I accomplish?
2. What were my biggest disappointments?
3. What did I learn?
4. How do I limit myself and how can I stop?
5. What are my goals for next year?
6. Where do I need to education or support to get there?
7. How can I make sure I achieve my top goals?

I find one of the most empowering aspects of Jinny’s system is the look at the successes of the year. It let’s you focus on my successes not get weighed down by what didn’t work. It also lets you get off the treadmill of working on my business to see if you really are on course.

So take some time this week to start planning for 2010 by looking back at 2009. Ask and answer these questions. Let me know how this system works for you.

The Fall issue of The Professional Quilter includes a profile of Shelly Stokes, owner of Cedar Canyon Textiles, distributor of Shiva Paintstiks and related products. Here’s an excerpt from the profile in Shelly’s own words:

The Shiva paint company attempted to bring the paintstiks into the quilting world in the 1980s. However, the rotary cutter hit the market at the same time, and everyone wanted to strip-piece quilts rather than paint fabric, at least here in the United States; the fiber artists in the United Kingdom started working with paintstiks around that time and so have more years of experience with them.

After working with paintstiks for a while, I decided to write a book – the right product at the right time. I think it’s fair to say that I have done much of the work to make the product visible in the quilting market in the last few years, particularly here in the United States, but I am certainly not the first one to “discover” the product and its wonderful application on fabric.

Before I started working on the book in earnest, I went to visit Jack Richeson and Company to make sure that their wonderful paintstiks would be readily available to my customers. The Richesons supported my idea, and in 2004, Cedar Canyon Textiles became an official distributor for the paintstik products.

It took almost nine months of hard work, but my book was ready in May of 2005. Once a good set of instructions was available, the market for paint expanded dramatically. As it became clear that the paint was going to dominate our business, I had a hard choice to make: grow a business or continue to teach and create art. Because I had been away from the day-to-day job market for ten years, the business was very appealing. I’ll get back to more of my own quilting in my next round of “retirement.” We did the last of our retail shows in 2005 and made the transition to our new identity as the Paintstik Place.

In life and in business, one thing leads to another. As the fiber art and quilting world embraced the paintstiks, we saw the opportunity to venture into accessory products. In 2006, we manufactured four sets of rubbing plates for use with the paintstiks and started a pattern line in 2007.

To read more of Shelly’s story along with her business tips in Issue 109 of The Professional Quilter, your subscription or membership in the IAPQ must be current. Learn about all the benefits of IAPQ membership here

Do you have systems in your business? Maybe you haven’t given much thought to what systems can do for you. Here are just three benefits: They can give you more time to be creative. You’ll have time to work on your business rather than just in your business. And, they will let you grow your business.

If you are like most of our readers, you’re a small business owner or solopreneur. At some point you’ll discover you can’t do it all. That’s the time to get started with systems, if you haven’t already.

How do you go about creating systems? I’m actually in the process of creating systems for some of the processes I do. My goal is to hire someone to handle some of our processes so I can devote my time to creating new products. To that end, I am writing down step-by-step how each process is handled. Yes, it is taking me extra time, but I know in the end it will pay off.

Here are just three ideas that you might try for your business:

Handling Fabric. After our last teleclass on organizing, one of our listeners contacted me about how she would start the year with her fabric organized and then the studio would quickly become unmanageable. It was something she repeated on a frequent basis. I suggested she write down her process for storing her fabric, i.e, develop a system for storing her fabric, and then hire a high school girl to come in a couple of times a week to get it back in order. This lets this quilter focus on what we could call her genius or brilliance.

Teaching or Media Requests. Do you scramble looking for all the materials to send when you get a request to teach or promote your business? Create a system to keep all those materials easily accessible. You could create folders on your computer or in your physical file cabinet to include photos, short and long bio, résumé, your brochure, anything that you are ever asked for. By keeping everything in one place, it will be easy to find. That means less stress looking for it or less time having to recreate something you find shortly thereafter.

Online Marketing. Are you sending out e-zines or updating your blog? Do you need to update your Facebook page or Tweet? Do you use a shopping cart and autoresponders? I have a couple of suggestions here. Create a schedule for doing this. For example, on Friday set aside several hours to write your newsletter, a few blog posts, and updates to Facebook and tweets. Many of these can be scheduled ahead of time. An assistant or virtual assistant can also be valuable setting up and maintaining these for you. That allows you time to work on activities that add to the bottom line of your business.

And, a big plus for creating and working the systems is you have lots of energy. And, when you have more energy, you’ll work at a higher level in your brilliance.

What ideas do you have for systems?

The Professional Quilter includes articles to help you create success with your quilt business. If your subscription is not current and you need to renew, or you want to start a new subscription, here’s a link to our order page

I’m really excited to announce that The Professional Quilter is becoming part of the International Association of Professional Quilters.

Over the last few years most of you have noticed that we’ve harnessed the power of the Internet to offer more information to help you, the serious quilter, create business success. We publish this e-zine with business tips, tools and techniques to help you build your business. We regularly sponsor teleclasses and longer teleseminars all geared to guide you as you grow your business.

As I talked with subscribers and participants in our programs and looked at what we offered, I knew the best way to help you uplevel your business was to package these products together, along with some other goodies. Members of the IAPQ will receive:

• The Professional Quilter, our quarterly business journal;
• access to monthly teleclasses with experts both in and outside the quilt world;
• access to a monthly tele-networking/ mastermind event;
• a free consultation with an intellectual property attorney;
• an IAPQ lapel pin designed by our art director, Kim Bartko;
• discounts on our books and other resources;
• and more.

The actual value of these benefits easily exceeds $700; the value of these benefits to you is priceless as you build and grow your business. You can see complete details of the benefits on our redesigned Web site.

If you are a subscriber to The Professional Quilter, I know that you are interested in how your current subscription converts to IAPQ membership. Effective immediately, we will no longer accept single subscriptions. The regular price of the IAPQ membership is $137. Through December 31, 2009, we are offering an introductory price of $97 for the first year. We will never offer a special at this rate again. When you convert your subscription online and input the expiration date shown on your address label, you will be credited for the amount remaining on your subscription, in most cases $7.49 an issue. Details are on the Join Page on our site.

I know that networking with other professional quilters is important. Please join me on our new IAPQ Facebook group page where you can interact with like-minded quilters. Here’s the quick link.

I look forward to helping you uplevel your quilt business. Our mission at the IAPQ is to provide the resources to educate and empower you to create your own success in our industry. Whether you’ve been in business for years or you’re just starting out, you’ll find the resources you need to create your own success at the IAPQ.

Learn about all the benefits of IAPQ membership here.

Join us in the PQ Café on Thursday, September 17 at 8 pm Eastern for our next call  Get Organized, Finally! with Morna McEver Golletz and special guest Debra Lipp.

Have you tried a variety of methods to organize your quilting “stuff”? Do you buy every new organizing gadget you see? Is your studio space disorganized and inefficient – and you know it could be improved – but you don’t know where to start? Or, are the  organization strategies you’ve tried just not working for you? Do you migrate to the kitchen table to work even through you have designated a space for sewing?

It’s possible that you’re trying to put the proverbial round peg in the square hole because you haven’t fully analyzed what does and does not work for YOU and why. You’re trying to use tools that someone else says will work for you. Debra Lipp, a Corcoran College of Art + Design-trained graphic designer, is a task analyzer and organizational specialist who works with creative people. She loves to understand an individual’s thinking process and help to discover what works for them – as an individual. And, lucky for us, she’s also a quilter/fiber artist.

This teleclass is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 17 at 8 pm, Eastern Daylight Time. Registration includes the teleclass and MP3 downloadable recording, so if you can’t come to the class, you’ll get the recording to listen to at a time that works for you. Here are details.

Many aspiring pattern designers ask themselves: Should I publish my designs as patterns, the kind commonly packaged in plastic bags? Or should I publish books, staple-bound or with a spine? In the Summer issue of The Professional Quilter, pattern designer Kay Mackenzie took a look at this topic. Here’s an excerpt from her article:

Patterns and books both have their places in our wonderful world of quilting. For starters, an idea may lend itself better to one or the other. If the design’s instructions will fit on just a few pieces of paper, then a pattern seems a natural choice. If your idea is concept-driven, then perhaps a book is a better fit. Maybe you’re simply drawn to the aesthetics of one and less than attracted to the practical aspects of producing the other. Maybe one is a more natural expression of your creative juices.

Though patterns and books share some common aspects, in a lot of ways they’re different animals when it comes to getting them done. And, any time you’re thinking about getting into publishing, you’ll need to do a good bit of research. Here are just a few of the things to consider when you make your decision.

• With books, unlike pattern printing, you’ll have to decide in advance how many copies of your book to print. It’s a guessing game! Larger runs equal less cost per copy. But if you print too many, you may be stuck with cartons of books that you can’t sell. If you print too few,  you can always reprint, but the cost per copy is more, making your profit margin smaller.
• Once the books are back from the printer, they’re good to go – no assembly required. You will, however, want to check them over. (Ask mehow I know that.) The trade-off is that you will need to have enough storage space on-site for all of the cartons or pay for off-site storage. The cartons must be protected from dampness, so don’t use the garage!
• Patterns will need to be assembled so you’ll need labor – either your own or some kids’ – to fold and stuff them. Patterns need lessstorage space than books because you can print them you go.
• Distributors are a major chunk of how things work in our quilting industry, and for this discussion this refers to the quilt-shop trade.(The bookstore trade is a whole other issue and worth researching if you decide you want to do a book.) You do want to sell to industry distributors, and here’s a thought about how that relates to books vs. patterns. While exceptions exist, distributors might prefer that you have a line of patterns before they will consider picking you up. Books are considered on their individual merits, so one well-made book can be submitted to distributors.
• Brush up on typography and page design principles. Don’t include too many typefaces on a page and avoid overused fonts. A couple offantastic books that will set you straight are The Non-Designer’s Design Book and The Non-Designer’s Type Book, both by design guru Robin Williams. And, think to the future. Develop a distinctive, branded look for your pattern line.

You can read more of Kay Mackenzie’s article in the Summer issue of The Professional Quilter. If your subscription is not current and you need to renew, or you want to start a new subscription, here’s a link to our order page.

Join us in the PQ Café on Thursday, August 13 at 8 pm Eastern for our next call: Making Work at Home Work for YOU: How to get out of struggle, leave frustration behind and succeed with less effort with Morna McEver Golletz and special guest Debbie LaChusa.

Are you frustrated with trying to manage your business at home and still enjoy your family? Or have you hesitated making the leap from a job outside the home to one that is home based because you’re not sure you can make a go of it?

It is possible to go from a burned-out working mother to a happy career-at-home mom. Our special guest, Debbie LaChusa has been where you are – stressed, overloaded and burned out – and she managed to find a way to “have it all.” Today she has a career she loves that earns her a great income and the ability to be home with her children. Let Debbie share the secret to creating a marketable business that enables you to make a great living doing what you love to do.

This teleclass is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 13 at 8 pm, Eastern Daylight Time, and space is limited so don’t delay. Registration includes the teleclass and MP3 downloadable recording, so if you can’t come to the class, you’ll get the recording to listen to at a time that works for you. Here are details.

I’ve been thinking a lot on the power of intention this past year. For years in my yoga classes the instructor has had us set an intention for class, and, yes, occasionally mine is to make it through the class. About a year ago, I taped a note to the bathroom mirror that says, “What is your intention/choice for today?” I find it gets me started on a conscious path each morning.

What exactly is intention? Webster defines it as a “determination to act in a certain way or resolve.” Gary Zukav in The Mind of the Soul says it’s “the use of your will….a commitment to accomplishing an objective, to creating something that was not there or to continue creating something that is.”

Here are some tips for creating powerful intentions in your life:

1. Get clear about what kind of person you want to be. Then get clear about what you want to do and what you want to have. Clarity is very powerful. I think figuring out the kind of person you want to be is most important; the “do” and “have” will follow.

2. State your intention. Say it out loud. Say it more than once. Write it down. I’ve been known to write my intentions on a paper and put it in my pocket. I take it out during the day and read it. This is especially helpful if I think self-sabotaging behaviors (like grabbing an extra one of those cinnamon scones that I picked up at the bakery last week and put in the freezer) are around the corner or I need an extra boost of motivation to stay focused and on track.

3. Share your intention with someone who cares about your success. It’s helpful if you share your intention with someone who will hold you accountable. Offer to do the same for her.

4. Now take action to demonstrate commitment to the intention. It doesn’t have to be some big action; many little actions will compound. And, while you can have a whopping big intention for your business, your intention for today might be to find some peace in your hectic life, no small feat.

5. Celebrate or somehow acknowledge this achievement, and then take the next step or action. Then rinse and repeat.

Before you know it, setting an intention each day will become a habit. Setting an intention clearly puts you in charge, and you’ll be energized by how much you are in control. You’ll be thrilled with the person you are “being” and with your ongoing accomplishments.

I hope you’ll take the time to set an intention for yourself and/or your business each morning. Let me know how it makes a difference in your life.

Here are two quotes on intention that I like:

Today, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced its direct grants as part of the $50 million federal economic stimulus recovery package. The NEA will distribute $29.775 million to 631 nonprofit arts groups nationwide. This is in addition to the 63 state and regional sub-grants previously awarded in April, totaling $19.8 million. This recovery funding is a direct outcome of the impact made by the 100,000 members of the Americans for the Arts grassroots network who contacted their Members of Congress and wrote timely letters to the editors of local news media. These messages made a difference and have resulted in these grants which will help create and preserve arts jobs throughout the country.
If you are interested in applying for any of the grants, we sell a book titled The Directory of Grants for Crafts which includes step-by-step help on writing a winning grant proposal.

Have you tried to use the Internet to connect with your customers and not been as successful as you wish? Your online newsletter – or e-zine – is the key to connecting with your customers and increasing sales at the same time.

I’ve seen this happen day after day in my own business and want to share the secrets I’ve discovered with you. Join me on July 9, 13, 16 and 20 at 3 pm Eastern as we explore what you need to do to: plan, write and publish your e-zine; set up and begin posting to your blog; create and populate your Facebook page; join Twitter and begin Tweeting.

Registration includes the teleclasses, MP3 downloadable recording, written materials and a private yahoo group for class attendees to share their experiences, questions and discoveries. Here are details.

Join us to learn how to take your business to the next level with Internet marketing.