October 10, 2007
Sandy and I had a blast at the Valley Forge Convention last week. The weather was wonderful and the educational opportunities never cease to amaze and energize.
A huge thank you to everyone who stopped by the booth and helped put a face with the name and for making the show so much fun.
Warmly-
Chris
Fabulous Fall Finds
Fall is here and we are all busy- everybody wants their draperies by the holidays. But what happens in January? Have you done what you need to do to insure business continues at the same pace then?
Our Fabulous Fall Find was a class taught by Suzanne Cox-Hudson, owner of What a Lovely Home in Avon, Ohio. She is an award winning designer and teacher beyond compare.
In her marketing class, "Beyond the Mailing List", Suzanne challenged us to name 7 things that we
were doing to market our businesses and ward off
the potential of a January slump. Before you read any further-STOP- and do this exercise for yourself. We'll wait---------
Finished? OK. We'll share with you our lists.
Chris' list for Chris Watt Studio, her workroom:
Talk it up!- word of mouth
Having a great attitude with customers
Taking educational opportunities
Joining Toastmasters
Knowing the design staff at design center showrooms
Becoming an approved vendor for a Home Owners Assoc.
For The Pillow Lady
Website
Newsletter
Ads in magazines- Threads, Custom Home Furnishings and American Sewing Guild
Seeding search engines
Booth at Conference
Teaching at the Custom Sewing Institute (more about that later)
Sandy's List for Commonwealth Staging:
Website
Meeting realtors at open houses
Following up on referrals
Postcards to For Sale by Owners
Networking
Suzanne had many more ideas- our heads are still spinning. You'll want to visit her website WhataLovelyHome.com. She offers Design, Redesign, color consultation and more in the Avon area and beyond. She also teaches seminars on a variety of topics and would be an excellant choice to book for your association meetings. Her teaching website is www.designersuccesssolutions.com.
Happy marketing-
Chris and Sandy
Questions for The Pillow Lady
The most frequently asked question at the conference was about changing from the VHS tapes to DVD's. We do have an upgrade program. Send me the VHS tapes and I will replace them with DVD's for $20.00 per title. You must pay the shipping to me but the return shipping and handling is included in the cost.
The original titles were taped before DVD technology was born. The are not in the "chapter" format but there are jumps so you can move forward and back in 5 minute intervals as well as regular fast forward, back and the all important rewind.
Contact us......
Have a question or comment? Ideas for articles you'd like to see? Write to Sandy@thepillowlady.com . We can't answer every question personally but we will include some in future newsletters.
We'd love to hear from you!
Featured Product for October
Let's Roll Video
This video is everything round. Bolsters and variations, sunbursts, round boxed, ball pillows, and round knife edged- they are all here. Chris takes the mystery out of it all and teaches you valuable workroom tricks along the way. She discusses pillow inserts, zipper insertion in a round pillow and yardage saving tips among many other things.
Have one of these pillows be your signature!