No, don't judge me....

The remodel has not yet begun, but cleaning, sorting and organizing has, thanks to my good friend Jilian. Jilian was an employee at StitchCraft for two years. We've become good friends and I give her the title master organizer. I would go away on a trip, or for the weekend when my shop was open, and she would reorganize the entire shop for me. That meant more sales because you have to move your merchandise around so customers can "see" it better.

Many times, we would reorganize and a long time customer would say,"I never saw this before - when did you get it in?" We would just chuckle to ourselves thinking That's been in the shop for three months now , but finally you can see it :-)

So, I didn't want to bore you with what this room originally looked like, but here it is better organized, so I know where EVERYTHING IS! It took Jilian and I about a day and a half to get it to this point, but soon, the fun will begin with painting, shelving, window treatments, more lighting, a new cover for the sofa (or a new love seat and chairs) and more.

 
From right to left; desk, sewing table, storage drawers with art supplies, papers.

From left to right: Bureau with knitting, embroidery, beading and sewing supplies. Remember the tree in the shop? There it is on top of the bureau. I love that tree. The closet is now housing my knitting needles. I have hundreds. You can't see them well, but they're there. There is also a dress form in the closet.

Sitting area. Ignore the mess which is the playroom adjacent. Still haven't organized that room.

Area with crafting books and weaving supplies. My floor loom is in another room because it's just too big for this room. I have two rigid heddle looms that will fit. That other door is a powder room. The total space is 14' x 14'.

So where is my stash you ask?

My home has a storage room and it's in there. I will move some of it into my studio when it's completely finished, but the majority of it will stay in containers. We have moths in the Pacific Northwest and I don't have an interest in losing my stash to them. Below is the yarn stash. Ten, 18-gallon Rubbermaid storage containers. I think I have enough for two lifetimes worth of knitting.

And below is the fabric stash. Not too big, one bureau full.

Finishing the studio might take me another six months, everything is a process. I've been looking at Studios magazine and Where Women Create (via Somerset Studio) for inspiration. I love Heather Bailey's studio the most. Here is a link to her flicker stream of studio photos. I can't wait to brighten it up! Here's another inspiring studio: Anna Marie Horner's studio here...

I've been a baaaaaad blogger! I can't help it, really...I'm having a great time with my kids. I even made this heavenly pie today via The Yarnista! She does yarn, but she does this too!!!! Yup, domestic bliss...

It's so good. Here is a link to her Peanut Butter and Chocolate Mousse Pie...

So sorry! I've been quite busy. Planning vacations, summer camps for the kids, two overnight field trips, school PTO, organizing my house, sending out knitting teaching proposals (I was asked to submit for Oregon Flock and Fiber in September), prepping for Madrona 2012, and more...I will try to get another business plan post out this month. Funny how you leave a 60 hour-per-week work schedule only to replace it with lots of other stuff. But I am happy to say I've made time to read and exercise daily. I'm dancing again at Oregon Ballet Theater. They have a really nice adult program in the evenings and during the day, after I drop off the kids at school. I'm planning my knitting/weaving studio makeover. I will take before and after pictures to show you.

When I decided to write the business plan for my yarn shop, I wondered how much capital (money invested in my business) I needed. I knew that I wanted to feel comfortable for at least a year, if no one showed up at my doors. While that was highly unlikely, I wanted that psychological security because I was investing so much of my hard earned money.

I had two big advantages in determining how much money I needed. Two years prior to opening my own shop, I looked at the financial documents of two local yarn shops that were for sale. I was genuinely interested in purchasing each shop, but in the end, neither of the shops were ideal (and as I figured out later, were asking way too much money for what they were actually worth). Because I saw how much money those shops spent on the cost of their goods sold, I could roughly calculate how much inventory they had. I also saw their gross income (income before expenses) over a number of years. I saw their numbers at the height of their businesses, and I saw their declining current numbers.

The trade organization for needlework shops and related businesses is The National NeedleArts Association. They created wonderful publications that give you great information about what it takes to open up a yarn, needlepoint, or cross stitch shop. Here is a link to their publication information for businesses. Their Business Advisory Series was an invaluable resource to me when writing my business plan. For $25, you can get these publications and begin your investment calculations.

Many people have no idea how much money you need to open a yarn shop. Over the years, I've read that some people started selling yarn out of their homes with under $5,000 invested. Some start with $25,000 and a small retail space in a small community. In my market, with one other yarn shop and three craft stores nearby, I had a fair amount of competition. I decided to start with $65,000 in inventory. I was going to need more for fixtures, computers, software, and other start-up items. I took into account a full year's worth of monthly expenses to get me through the early days, while advertising and marketing my shop took effect. So, I settled on the number $150,000. It was a nice round number.

Section Two: The Statement of Purpose...

If you're looking for any financing, a short, concise Statement of Purpose is a great way to grab the attention of your potential investor. It lets them see what kind of dollars you're looking for at-a-glance. Below, I give two Statement of Purposes. One for an investor, and one without. We were fortunate and did not need an outside investor or bank loan. For the purposes of this blog, I will use "Business, LLC" to represent your business.

Statement of Purpose (To Investor)

This business plan has been developed as a planning, operating and policy guide for the Manager of Business, LLC, and as a financing proposal to submit to ______ .

Ms./Mr. _________, the Manager of Business, LLC, is investing a sum of $100,000. This sum, together with a $50,000 loan from ___________, will be sufficient to purchase capital equipment, beginning inventory, cover start-up costs and provide adequate working capital to successfully initiate this new business.

Statement of Purpose (Without An Outside Investor)

This business plan has been developed as a planning, operating and policy guide for the Manager of StitchCraft, LLC.

Nicholette Hoyer, the Manager of StitchCraft, LLC, is investing a sum of $150,000. This sum will be sufficient to purchase capital equipment, beginning inventory, cover start-up costs and provide adequate working capital to successfully initiate this new business.

If you're wanting to rent a space for a retail business, or get funding from a private investor or bank, you should first write a business plan. A complete, well written business plan is your ticket to any financial help you need and will serve as a guide for you as you move through your business. For example, a knowledgeable landlord is not likely to show you a space without a business plan. They want to be sure that the potential business is going to work, and that you have the capital to make it through the lease for at least three to five years. A bank will not lend you money without a business plan and copies of your current financial information.

What exactly is a business plan? It's your ideas and dreams written down including financial information that shows your potential income and cash flow (cash flow is like your checking account statement). A business plan lets you see if your dream can come true (is it going to be able to support itself) and if it would be worth the investment of time and money (after I'm in business, how long will it take me to break even, how many hours will I need to work, realistically). Here's a basic outline of a business plan. It is the business plan that I used for StitchCraft. There are other ways of writing outlines, but here are my basic elements:

• Cover Page
• Statement Of Purpose
• Basic Business Description
• Market Analysis
• Marketing Plan
• Location Information
• Organization and Management
• Supporting Documents
• Summery of Financial Sources and Uses of Funds
• Projected Income Statement (Three Years)
• Cash Flow Analysis (Three Years)

Writing your business plan can take months. You will  interview prospective landlords, vendors, check out your competition, understand your market, gather information on advertising costs, utility costs, insurance costs, interview an accountant to get a basic understanding of taxes and what type of business (Corporation, LLC, Sole Proprietor, etc.) would benefit your current financial situation. You will also need a good business lawyer. For this blog, I'm going to focus on the business plan outline above and break them down into more detail as I move from subject to subject. In this post, I address the Cover Page.

The Cover Page is your introductory page, and the easiest to complete. Mine was as follows:

Business Plan For
StitchCraft, LLC

Submitted To (Landlord)

By Nicholette Hoyer
Address
Phone and Fax Number
Email Address

Date

You can substitute Landlord with Bank, Potential Investor's Names, your mom, etc. And, you should make sure that if you give it to someone other than a Bank (most banks keep your plan confidential) that you have them sign a legal confidentiality note. You wouldn't want anyone to steal your business plan. In the best case scenario, I would have the prospective person meet with you and review the plan in your presence. That way, you're readily available to answer any of their initial questions.

In October 2007, I decided to learn how to write a business plan.  In all honesty, I was not thinking of opening up a yarn shop at that time. I just wanted to get all my ideas about owning a yarn shop down on paper and see if my brain could still function properly after having two children, homeschooling and being out of the workforce for over eight years. I'd never written a business plan before. I found books at the library, but none of them were very clear, offered up any really good examples (specifically for the craft industry), or really gave me the tools that I personally needed because I'm such a hands-on, kinesthetic person. Discouraged by the books and after some internet research, I went to my local SCORE office.

SCORE provides free counseling to people that are interested in opening up a small business. They also counsel small businesses that are up and running, and can give you suggestions to make your business more successful. At SCORE, I met with retail counselor Bruce Lulow. He gave me a great, little workbook for $25 that outlined a basic business plan, and I was ready to go. It took me one month to write the business plan (I spent hours a day doing it) with Bruce meeting with me, monitoring my progress along the way. We met every week, sometimes twice weekly. After the plan was complete, I was ready to implement.

In coming posts, I will share parts of my business plan, ideas, things that worked and didn't work, what owning the business meant for my family life, with you here. If you or anyone you know is interested in writing a business plan for a yarn shop, quilt shop or another needlework shop, link them to this blog. I've been in the needlework business for 8 years in the capacity of designer, instructor and shop owner. After much thought and reflection, I have come to the conclusion that I like teaching best. I want to teach you how to open up your own business by sharing my experiences.

While it was not without mistakes, StitchCraft was an award-winning business for a reason. I am very humble about my experiences with my shop. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to own a small business, and I believe that the current economic state of the US can only get better with the help of existing and new small businesses.

Here's a great article by Mary Mooney who writes the Knitting Blog on OregonLive.com.

"For knitters, helping folks in need is as automatic as stashing yarn. We don't think about it, we just do it. And we take pride in doing it well.
And that's why in light of recent events in Japan, I'm making this public service announcement to our fiberly tribe, the same announcement I made last year when folks started knitting to help Haiti: Don't do it. Do NOT knit anything to send to Japan. Not socks, not mittens, not blankets. Not those washcloths that absolutely anyone can use. Not a thing.
Here's why:

In Oregon

Oregon suffered tsunami damage after the devastating earthquake in Japan:

» News stories

» Photos

» Photo essays

The country's infrastructure is shot. Shipping anything to Japan is a nightmare right now. Even if you can get stuff over there, distribution's a mess. The aid agencies say the single most important thing we can do is donate cash, so that they can get exactly what they need with as few complications (like shipping stuff across the Pacific) as possible. Believe them, folks. Please.
Earlier this year The Oregonian ran a story about people in the Pacific Northwest looking back on Haiti a year after the quake. It included a segment about a young woman who turned plastic shopping bags into tarps for Haitians. Great idea by a lovely, enthusiastic young person desperate to help. She planned to get 50 made, and others pitched in to make it happen. Know how many of her lovingly constructed tarps made it to Haiti? Three. It would've cost $3,000 to ship the rest.
So here's my challenge to you loving, gifted and generous people: Let's learn from our mistakes. Let's help Japan, and let's do it right. Send a donation to an aid agency that's targeting Japan. Create a pattern to sell on Etsy and donate the proceeds. Go through your stash and sell some of it to benefit Japan. Sell your beautiful handiwork and donate the cash. Tell everyone you know what you're doing, and why you've chosen not to send handcrafted items to Japan.
We've got talent and skill that can help ease the suffering across the Pacific. Let's make sure our help gets there."
-- Mary Mooney

So, this was the first week that I didn't have to think about the shop. The space is cleaned out, taxes for January are submitted, bills paid. Life is pretty good. I updated my resume (it's always good to do that while it's fresh in my memory), helped out with the auction event at my children's school, and continue to plug away at organizing my house.

My husband and his friend are a HUGE help. They took the fixtures apart for people to pick them up, made runs to the dump and recycling center, and now, they're fixing up and organizing our garage to make a bicycle work station for my husband. He really deserves the work station, with all he's done. Next on the list is organizing the storage room. It will house my yarn stash, camping, skiing, climbing equipment, etc. It will probably take another month. Then, I get to organize my fiber arts studio! The living room and dining room need an update as well.

I've decided I'm going to call my new blog (when the site gets updated) to "So You Want To Be A Yarn Shop Owner". There is a TON of interest on this subject, and I'm going to spill the beans about how to write a business plan, how much money do you need, how much time, the upsides, the downsides, etc. I hope you find it interesting as you continue to read along with this blog.

Here are some early-stage shop breakdown pics.

Well, Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat was really awesome in spite of some unusual coincidences.

First, I was going to take off for Tacoma Wednesday morning when we got a snow storm! I dropped the kids off at school, which is in a very hilly area. I was re-routed to the Washington State University campus where they made us wait until the snow cleared the hills which are at the entrance and exit to the campus. The kids school (The Gardner School) is on the East side of the campus. I waited for about an hour and a half for them to clear the streets so I could escape to Madrona.

Here's the view from the deck (not too bad here) and then the view at the WSU campus where I was stranded.

Of course, as it is here in the Pacific Northwest lowlands, the snow melted by noon. So, I finally got out to Madrona.

On Thursday I took class with Anita Luvera Mayer. Anita is an internationally recognized weaver and versatile fiber artist, designer and author. She was first introduced to weaving in 1955 when her mother-in-law gave her a floor loom as a wedding gift. Her focus on weaving contemporary garments began in 1972 and she has focused the last 12+ years of her work about women's stories. Although she still weaves, her creative fiber work has evolved to include many types of innovative surface design techniques as well as incredible beadwork, embroidery, freeform knitting and crochet. Anita's garment collection, Women of the World, featuring ethnic designs from the traditions of many countries, is currently touring galleries in the US.

Here are some pictures of her garments. We got a fabu up-close-and-personal look. My favorite one is the first one pictured here. It's called Renewed/Reborn.

In Anita's words...

"Recycling cloth fragments by stitching them into a whole cloth has been practiced in Japan for centuries. The resulting garments represent to me a profound story of perseverance and survival experienced by many women as they attempt to find their way in this life. We life in a youth-oriented society, and I want to share and celebrate the joys of self-discovery that come with age. I believe that gray hair, lines on the face, and gnarled hands signify that a woman has had a full and challenging life, and with the years has gained knowledge and wisdom. Renewed/Reborn is my tribute to our worn exteriors, and, on the reverse side, a celebration of the beauty within."

Does this not sum up my life right now? Finding my way in this life? I am about to turn 43, entering middle age and celebrating the changes I've had over the years, and the one's I've more recently made. I've had many careers, worn many hats and I'm looking forward to what the future is going to throw at me. I often cry in classes that move me and there were many tears of joy in Anita's class. She's so inspiring, beautiful inside and out.

Here's more of the garments...

I don't have a printed card of this piece, but she talked about all the anonymous women that did handwork and lived full lives. This piece celebrates anonymous women. All the doilies that she uses in her pieces were hand made. The photographs she got in antique shops and various other sources.

Here's another piece with her handmade scarves in the background. I apologize for not knowing the name of this piece.

On Friday, I taught Introduction to Double Knitting. The class went well. I had a typo in my pattern, but thankfully, the students found it. On Friday night, I went out to dinner with friends and wasn't feeling too hot. As it turned out, I got a virus and had a fever, chills, etc. Not fun. I was worried because I had two classes to teach on Saturday. Saturday morning I woke up, and the fever was gone replaced by cold symptoms. Must have been a 24 hour bug.

Saturday's classes went well. I've taught them both a bunch of times, so I really relaxed and enjoyed teaching this year. They were Yarn Substitution and Going To The Dark Side (Knitting with Your Opposite Hand).

Saturday night's speaker was Franklin Habit. He was a hoot! Very funny man and I share his love of ancient knitting books and patterns. He has a great blog. Here's the link to Franklin's blog.

And of course, I purchased some items in the market from Morgaine, the owner of Carolina Homespun. I purchased a beautiful, handmade weaving shuttle and a niddy noddy (can you believe I didn't own a niddy noddy?).

I absolutely love teaching at Madrona Fiber Arts retreat. The students are enthusiastic, very knowledgeable and challenging. This year, I'm teaching three classes; double knitting, yarn substitution and a class I call "Going to the Dark Side" - how to knit with your opposite hand. I'm also teaching beginners in the rotunda on Friday. I love teaching beginners and seeing their "ah ha!" moments. The retreat begins Thursday, February 17th thru Sunday, February 20th.

I'm taking class on Thursday with Anita Luvera Mayer - a fiber artist. When people leave a class with Anita they say "She's changed my life". At this stage in my fiber arts career, having left yarn shop ownership, I'm ready for and embracing change. I'm taking "Play with Surface Design" where we will experiment with surface design on fabric and come home with samples of each technique experienced in class. Since I just started weaving I like the idea of painting my finished cloth, learning how to applique, burning felt and foiling my work. Anita is Thursday nights speaker and with have her extraordinary garments with her. Her garments have toured galleries around the country.

On Friday and Saturday, I mostly teach, but I'm looking forward to seeing friends and doing a little sightseeing. I have to make a stop at the Museum of Glass.

The Hotel Murano is beautiful. Here's a picture of the Lobby and one of their rooms. The hotel itself is a museum with different glass artists showcased on each floor.

The market is really great, catering to knitters, weavers and spinners. One of my favorite yarn shops, Churchmouse Yarns, is in the market this year, as well as Carolina Homespun, owned by the lovely Morgaine Wilder who helped me to start my weaving journey last year. I also love Toots LeBlanc and Black Water Abbey Yarns.

The hotel is within walking distance from the Museum of Glass and Tacoma Art Museum.

The Chihuly Bridge of Glass is a 500 foot pedestrian bridge that links the Museum of Glass to downtown Tacoma. Dale Chihuly is an American glass sculptor and his work is phenomenal. You have to go and see it!