It Pays To Be An Old Sew-And-Sew

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Have you ever wished you could find a home business that requires only a modest initial investment, entails little or no overhead, and propagates itself entirely by word of mouth? If so, maybe you should do what I did: Start a home sewing business.

A few years ago-when I began to look around for ways to fortify my then-sagging bank account-I decided that I simply would not take a job outside my home. I had a four-year-old daughter, and I didn't want to farm her out to a baby-sitter during the day while I faced the "work world". After investigating several alternatives, I finally decided to set up my own home sewing and custom dressmaking business.

Mind you, at the time I was hardly what you could call an experienced seamstress. (I had taught myself to sew over a three-year period, progressing from diapershirts, to dresses for myself, to jackets for my husband.) My experience was-in a word-limited ... but I figured that if I proceeded slowly, cut carefully, and followed the pattern instructions religiously, I could convince paying customers that I knew what I was doing. So I forged ahead.

EARLY PREPARATIONS

As I began to plan my "sew for dough" venture, I took inventory of my tools and supplies to see if I had everything I'd need to do any and all kinds of sewing ... and right away, I made my first mistake: I bought a very expensive sewing machine with a multitude of gadgets and dials. (Little did I know then that I would never be called upon to use all those fancy accessories. A simple machine with just the basic stitches—straight, stretch, and zigzag—and a buttonhole-maker would have served my purposes well. and saved me a big chunk of money.)

Fortunately, we had a spare bedroom in our house and I was able to appropriate it for my "sewing headquarters". (Although it's not essential that you have a separate room for sewing, it certainly is a convenience. Customers feel much more comfortable dressing and undressing in a part of the house that's away from the family traffic pattern.) An old bookcase became my pattern file, and my husband installed long shelves on one wall to take care of fabric storage. (A fabric storage area is essential, since some customers bring in as many as 10 or 12 patterns and fabrics at one time.)

I also bought a file box (with index cards) to keep track of my customers, and a full-length mirror ... and I had the phone company install a wall phone with an extra-long cord. (I wanted to be able to keep on sewing while my gabby friends discussed their solutions to the world's problems.)

A $3.00 AD PUT M E IN BUSINESS

As soon as I'd organized my equipment and readied my sewing room, I went ahead and ordered some printed business cards and-when they came-passed them out to my friends. Then I waited ... and waited ... and waited. Nothing happened.

For a while, all I could do was stare gloomily at my empty shelves and blank file cards and wonder to myself, "Where could I have gone wrong?" Then it came to me: I suddenly realized that all my friends were talented seamstresses in their own right, and that I would have to obtain customers from outside my circle of friends.

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