Tootin’ Yer Horn

Posted on January 27, 2022 by prairiemoonquilts in Quilting For Hire

Something I generally have a bit of trouble with. No one likes a braggart, and I don’t like being one.

Sharing useful information, however, is another matter, so NOT showing and telling things about yourself and what you are doing can also be considered selfish, in a way. I think God intends for us to share our gifts and talents with the world, in a helpful and humble way. There’s a fine line to walk here.

As quilters, we’re typically the generous sort, so we love to share what we’re working on, and help out our fellow quilters in whatever way we can. As quilters, we also help out LOTS of people in need who aren’t quilters!

This doesn’t apply to only those who have a business of longarm Quilting for Hire. It can apply to any quilter who wants to share their talents: with patterns, tutorials, tips, tools, storage ideas, videos, book reviews, etc.

Even if you don’t do these things yourself, you can share links and info to point folks in the direction of those who do. I try to quite often link to things posted by other people that I think you, as my readers, might find helpful or useful or just plain interesting (like sucking you into more quilt-alongs, right?). I don’t need to re-write what they’re talking about — no need to re-invent the wheel here — I can just encourage you to go visit the ones who have already done the work!

And make no mistake, it IS work. It’s a lot of work to write a pattern or tutorial, film and edit a video, maintain a website/online store, or even craft a blog post on a useful topic. And then you need to let people know about it! That’s called marketing yourself. And it’s not necessarily a fun thing to do, or even think about.

There’s good marketing, and there’s bad marketing. There’s marketing that makes people like you and your stuff, and there’s marketing that turns people away and sours them on you and your stuff. Have you ever decided NOT to buy something from a company simply because of the way they marketed themselves? Yeah, that.

Then there are some who are simply so charming and likable, you want to buy one of everything they have!

I’m here to tell you that I’m certainly no marketing expert, but there’s a chapter in my book, Quilting for Hire, that talks about it. That chapter is there because it’s important. You can’t get customers for your longarm business if no one knows you’re in business. (You can’t get visitors to your website and blog, or customers to your store, if no one knows you have them.) And you have to be nice about it. It’s scary — it’s even scarier if you’re shy.

In my book, I talk about marketing that is specific to the business of quilting for hire. For a reason. Sometimes following general marketing advice can be overkill or be more work than you actually need to do for a quilting business. General marketing advice doesn’t always pinpoint exactly what you need to do to promote your longarm quilting.

However, if you want even more advice than what I offer in my book, there is a great resource that might help you dig a bit deeper into marketing your business. You can find it here: Marketing Plan Workbook.

This workbook was published by the folks who host and maintain the back-end of my website for me: MayeCreate Design. I love them. They designed my website and logo, keep me out of hot water as far as internet stuff goes, and take care of all the hard stuff for me, so that I can simply post fun stuff to entertain my readers.

This workbook goes into great detail about developing an entire marketing plan for your business. It asks lots of important questions, such as: “Who do you want to work with?”, and “What problem do you solve for them?”

It’s a free download from their site HERE. It’ll go along good with your Quilting for Hire workbook, even if you only do parts of it.

And now, I’m gonna do a little horn-tootin’ of my own!

My book is making its way out into the world, and its getting great reviews, and I’m super happy about that. Since I’m a worry wart, I “what-iffed” things to death while I was waiting on the book to come out. “What if no one likes it?” “What if it doesn’t have enough information?” “What if I left out something important?”

It really, really does my heart good to see this:

This is Patricia’s book, and she says: “I am full steam ahead on starting and planning my business. This exactly what I needed without all that clickbait out there. Looking forward to what the next year will bring, now that I have a direction to run in.”

Here are some more of the reviews the book has gotten:

“I love this book! Great information and instruction for the business of longarm quilting.”

“so far, so good! ..thank you for the speedy shipping.”

“I just began reading chapter 1, and I’m enjoying the writing style and book design. I can see how this book could easily become the ‘reference manual’ for a quilt business. The book has been printed on quality paper, and the chapters are color tabbed like a reference book. Thank you, Shelly!”

“This book is excellent for anyone wanting to start a quilting business or for someone who needs help with an existing business. I almost read the entire book in one sitting. There are excellent forms, checklists, and references throughout the book. I highly recommend this book to everyone in the quilting world.”

“The book is very informative and easy to understand. I recommend it to anyone interested in offering Longarming to clients.”

“Wonderfully written exceeded my expectations”

“This book is very nice. I haven’t had a chance to read much of it but it is full of great info and downloadable forms. Buy it if you’re thinking about starting a quilting business or if like me, you want to increase your business. There’s lots of bookkeeping and tax information in here. Worth the money for me! Thanks for writing it!!”

“A great book with LOTS of information and plenty tips and suggestions. It really covers so many situations for all levels of quilter wanting to start a business. It is laid out in a way that reading it is easy, smooth and quick.”

“I love this book! I just received it in the mail this week and I’m almost done with it and I can’t get enough. I have a dream of owning and starting up a long arm business someday soon. Thank you for all the advice and information.”

And Kelly Cline, of Kelly Cline quilting, had this to say:
“I LOVE to promote my friends!! You’ve GOT to get Shelly Pagliai‘s new book, QUILTING FOR HIRE!!! If you are considering longarm quilting as a career, or maybe you’ve just begun, or maybe you’re wondering how to be successful in this career choice, this is the longarm business Bible I wish I would have had when I started 10 years ago!

I found myself laughing out loud on almost every page. Informative, easy to read, filled with forms (downloadable), and filled with thought provoking questions. This is a must have book if you’re even slightly thinking about becoming a longarm quilter for hire! Get one in Shelly’s Etsy shop. Way to go Shelly!”

 

Please make note of the fact that SHE is helping to market ME — such a kind and wonderful thing to do. It helps you market yourself, if you help market others. It really does work!

You can purchase the book HERE.

And if you want to ask me any questions, don’t hesitate — just contact me! I’d love to help you with your quilting business.

9 responses to “Tootin’ Yer Horn”

  1. Debbi says:

    Congratulations on your book. You are so down to earth and practical I know it will be great. You’ve even tempted me…I have a longarm and struggle to do my own quilts, so who am I kidding? Thinking it might be good info to have should I decide to quilt for others here and there…not necessarily a business tho…hmmmm

  2. Sandy says:

    Love this post.

  3. Christi Bentley says:

    Congratulations on the book. I’m looking forward to getting a copy. Love your blog. How are the goats and pets? They haven’t made an appearance in the blog lately.

  4. Shirley Guier says:

    Congratulations! I’m so very excited for you. It is written and organized extremely well. Great job!

  5. Linda Eaves says:

    Congratulations on your book!

  6. Kerry says:

    Congratulations on the book – and a good Cowboy quote. He does come up with so many gems!

  7. Angie in SoCal says:

    Congratulations on your book! Sent a copy as a gift to my daughter now that she’s retired. She won’t be longarm quilting, but she likes to sell quilted items.

  8. Pam C says:

    Congratulations on the success your book is making! I have started reading my copy and
    Love how it is written.
    Thanks for all the hard work you put into it!

  9. Scarlett Ragas says:

    CONGRATULATIONS, SHELLY!!!

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