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From the Business Desk: Leveraging your Strengths

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From the Business Desk is back.  From the Business Desk is a semi-regular series that looks at some of the important factors in running a Small Fiber Arts Business.  This feature revolves around market evaluation, and some tips to find the right niche for your business.

As any small business owner knows, it’s a fierce world out there to break into any market.  Be it establishing a LYS, becoming your own design company, breaking into the teaching circuit, all of these arenas seem to have well established entities that have solid client bases that seem to have everything put together.  How will you ever be able to differentiate your new business and your ideas from the existing market, you may ask yourself.  One of the handiest tricks of the business trade to help you accomplish this is the SWOT analysis.  Standing for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, this analysis can help you start to make sense of your business’s place in the market, and areas which you can develop to better differentiate and market your ideas.

SWOT Matrix overview.  Image courtesy of wikipedia.org

Fitting neatly into a 2 x 2 matrix (one of my favorite visualizations for many different business strategies), the SWOT analysis can help you identify some key attributes both about your business as well as the marketplace.

Strengths are the things that your business does quite well or has a key competitive factor; items could include physical location of a shop in a high-traffic downtown area, or having a well rounded resume of instruction at a variety of locations.

Weaknesses are known areas where you could use some improvement; an example of this could be that you don’t really possess a strong skill-set on computer tools like Excel or Microsoft Publisher as a designer.

Opportunities are areas that in your opinion the market or industry has not fully realized, such as there being a wealth of crocheters living in a particular town, but no dedicated crochet instructor.

Threats can be anything externally that stands the chance of impeding the growth and progress of your business.  Threats can be micro, such as the fact that there is already a teacher who has been teaching a particular class that you want to start teaching at a regional fair, or macro, such as the overall state of the retail yarn market in a particular state.
Remember, these should be fairly high-level; while it’s good to have an in-depth analysis of your business and the market, for the first time that you do this exercise, try to distill it down to the top three or four attributes in each category.

Once you have developed your ideas and thoughts, it’s time to tweak the matrix to help understand how this can lead to a strong business plan development.

SWOT action item Matrix

By combining each of these categories in a grid, you can identify specific action items that emerge from the attribute clusters.  The two most important areas to be aware of and consider are the Strength-Opportunities  and the Weakness-Threat quadrants.  These two reflect the immediate areas for business development and defense strategy respectively.

Breaking down your businesses’ market position utilizing the SWOT analysis, you can simply and easily lay the groundwork for a comprehensive business plan that can help you take advantage of market opportunities.  One final note about the SWOT analysis; it is not meant to be a static market.  Over time, both your business strengths and weaknesses as well as your perceived opportunities and threats in the market can significantly change.  It’s a good idea to review and update this grid on a regular schedule (here at Tinking Turtle we review our SWOT items quarterly and develop a new SWOT matrix annually).  By doing this, you can ensure that you are aware of where you need to focus your business development objectives for the near future.

~ Mr. Turtle

From the Business Desk: Finishing Projects

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After a delay due to some career changes that Jen talked about earlier, From the Business Desk is back.  From the Business Desk is a semi-regular series that looks at some of the important factors in running a Small Fiber Arts Business.  This feature revolves around ensuring that all of your business projects have fully completed.


As a small business owner, staying on top of everything necessary to run your business is no small task.  With a constant turmoil of new projects, new customers, and everyday business inquiries, it is important to understand what is required for you to close out your existing projects; by successfully and formally closing out a project, it can be put to rest with all parties comfortable that their requirements have been met.

Not all Project Management needs to be this complicated. A few
simple tips can keep you on track to successful completion.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantt_chart

One of the first items to be aware of in the closing stage of a project is that it’s important to identify up front what the final items on your project or to-do list are.  For example, if you are working on establishing and running a new class at your shop, you may think that the project is complete when the class runs.  Thinking this out ahead of time can help you identify  items that are always good to check off before putting a project to bed  Namely, ensuring that all compensation and contractual terms have been met and a project post-mortem to document lessons learned.  Following through with these steps ensures that you don’t forget some of the important elements of a project for any business: getting paid, and meeting legal obligations.  A post-mortem, either publicly or internally is a good time for one or more parties involved to learn from the project, documenting what went well and what could use improvement for next time.

This is an example of using Insightly to keep track of project tasks.
This is the project list for the pattern Sweet Strawberries.

Keeping track of all of this can be overwhelming; fortunately there are several options available that are easy to use in web form.  I’d recommend ZOHO Projects or Freedcamp as two of the better solutions available out there for someone just getting started.  Other options include systems that link Customer Relationship Management and Project Management.  Here at Tinking Turtle, our CRM system, Insightly includes an integrated Project Management module.  This provides additional functionality to link projects to various associated parties, and track when a project is waiting on a third party to take action.

No matter how extensive or basic your knowledge of projects is, ensuring that you take some time on all of your projects to double check that your steps are completed is well worth the peace of mind..  The more projects that can be completed without final steps left un-done, the easier managing the entire workload of your business can be.

~ Mr. Turtle

Safely into the New Home

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Our new (rental) house, from the front.

As you might have been aware, the last three weeks have been a gradual transition, moving from busy Silver Spring, MD to the slower pace of Ashland, VA.  I’m just getting settled into the new home, my desk set up (roughly) in the new space.  I sit from the spareness of my makeshift desk, Watson in my lap, as I try to figure out what I need to get done.  I went to find a pen to make a list and it took 15 minutes.  Finding the paper to write on took 10 more.  It’s going to be a couple of pretty rough weeks for the business.

It seems the answer to every question is, “It’s packed, somewhere.”

But I can see, out of the shape of chaos, how things will be when they are done.  Just like knowing that tangled yarn will, eventually, become an orderly ball, I know that somewhere, there are the threads of a routine and habit.  I know that the boxes will vanish.  We’ll get more shelving, so I can see my yarn.  There will be a real desk instead of a temporary setup.  It will come.

Right now, I’m enjoying the bright light shining into my workspace, and a list of things that will get done and checked off.  I like that I’m no longer living in a bare-bones apartment.  I’m comforted by the familiarity of my things and my furniture, my cats and my tea.  It will be all right.

Pardon our Interruption

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As we mentioned last week, Tinking Turtle is in the midst of some pretty major changes.  We are moving the business as well as moving to a new website.  As such, postings and information may be a bit sparse over the next several weeks, but rest assured, we haven’t gone anywhere!  You can refer to our previous post linked above for any FAQs, leave us a comment here, message us on Ravelry (JenniferRaymond), or email us at tinkingturtle@gmail.com!

We’ll keep this post on top during our move.  We’ll post as we are able below, but be sure to get out there and enjoy Spring!

Best,

The Tinking Turtle team.

Idea of Thirds for Online Content

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This is the next edition of a semi-regular series From the Business Desk I am writing to look at some of the important factors in running a Small Fiber Arts Business.  This feature revolves around some ideas and concepts that you can use when posting content online and via social media.

Driving content to any website or blog isn’t easy.  Especially with the proliferation of social media and so-called link aggregation sites like Buzzfeed or Tumblr, online viewers are faced with an overwhelming amount of content to sift through.  How can you, the publisher, rise above the noise, and provide your audience with a healthy variety of content to keep them engaged and continuing to return to your site?  Social Media giant Facebook has some analysis from their experience, much of it is good advice: ask questions, vary your style, and keep up your volume.

In terms of content, however, there’s a quick little memonic that I’ve always believed in to help you not only have varied style and volume, but different topics as well.  I think this is particularly apropos for the fiberarts industry, where so much of the culture and community is derived from sharing new ideas and teaching others’ new tips and techniques. It’s called the Idea (or rule) of Thirds for Online Content.  It goes like this:

1/3 of your content should be Informational
1/3 should be Instructional
1/3 should be Personal

Here at Tinking Turtle, we try (and emphasis on try given life’s challenges as mentioned before) to come up with a monthly posting schedule and theme, and then break down the posts based on these buckets.

This is our Posting Schedule for last November.  Note the other topics for me at the bottom… I’m just now getting to writing about the Idea of Thirds!

Each of these buckets can engage a different set of readers, or engage frequent readers in different ways.  The Informational grouping for content can encompass topics such as reviews of new patterns, new yarns, new books, or other knowledge based topics that you the poster want to share with your audience, for example this post you’re reading!  Instructional topics are pretty straight forward, and engage the folks’ who peruse your site hoping to learn something new (like Jen’s Embroidering with Crochet piece) or with a question to be answered.  Instructional topics can also lead into a more active offline engagement with readers, as once they have learned a technique or style they may want to pursue that with you through one on one interactions or even taking an in depth class.

Personal topics are topic matter most commonly associated with blogs; they are stories, experiences, and musings of the poster (such as my German Restaurant post about the origins of the Tinking Turtle name from last year) and add a human element to a website.  Readers want to know they are dealing with people, not robots, and having this down to earth content helps drive that connection to keep them coming back.

There are any number of ways you can break down posting content to achieve variety to provide engaging and provoking content.  The Idea of Thirds is one great concept to keep in the back of your mind when contemplating your online content, whatever the platform, going forward!

~ Mr. Turtle

Changes Afoot

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AttributionNoncommercial Some rights reserved by mattcornock

You might’ve noticed I’ve been a little distracted lately – and it’s been for a good reason. Michael and I will be moving to Ashland, Virginia (just north of Richmond) during the month of May.  It’s actually multi-step move, as Michael’s new job with Capital One starts at the end of April, but my obligations (and the end of our lease) hold us in the area until late May.

Now, I’m sure that you might have several questions in relation to this change, which I’ll do my best to answer here.

What will happen if I’m signed up for a class with you?
Any classes I have planned now through the end of the summer will happen as usual.  I’ll be traveling to the area regularly to teach the classes – Ashland isn’t too far for me to make the trip!

Will you be continuing to do finishing?
I will!  While the details are still be ironed out, I’ll be traveling frequently enough to the DC area that there will be regular pickups and dropoffs of work.  I’ll also be rolling out a modified pricing list that will better represent time estimates for your benefit.

Will you still be teaching in the DC area?
Yes!  For those of you who love to take my classes at Fibre Space and Woolwinders, I will be maintaining my relationship with both stores, and coming up to teach at regular intervals (at least once a month, with the exception of some summer months.


What if I want to take a private lesson with you?
I love teaching private lessons, and will continue to do so at both Woolwinders and Fibre Space.  If you are interested in taking a private lesson with me specifically, drop me a note, and I’d be happy to schedule you around my group classes.

Technology and Organization: How to stay on top of your files.

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This is the next edition of a semi-regular series From the Business Desk I am writing to look at some of the important factors in running a Small Fiber Arts Business.  This month’s feature revolves around using some technology solutions to manage the data and documents your business creates.
In today’s technological age, more and more business documents are being created, transmitted, and stored solely in an electronic format.  Gone are the days of massive file rooms and large physical filing cabinets full of records; for small businesses in particular, digital storage is a booming need.  Being able to store and organize documents smartly is a crucial aspect of any business operation, and the time and effort saved through organization can make a real difference for a business of one or two employees.  This is especially true for fiber arts design shops, where the products, patterns, and media being created comprise the bulk of the value for the business.
For the small business today, there are a wealth of resources available, ranging from free to very cost effective.  These resources are able to store documents in a manner where they can be easily accessible to the business, yet secure and organized to protect the data.  Cloud storage, available through Google, Apple, or Dropbox, to name but a few, can initially be used for free.  This online storage can be accessed anywhere that you have an internet connection.
More locally is the emerging concept of a Personal Cloud.  A personal cloud is a hybrid setup of storage; a cross between an internet based Cloud Storage service and a personal hard drive attached to a computer.  Also known technically as Network Attached Storage (NAS), this technology solution allows you to create, save, and share documents locally within your own business or home network.  
Tinking Turtle’s Personal Cloud looks like any Windows file structure, and
is organized and accessible across multiple computers.

Tinking Turtle has recently set up our own Personal Cloud system to store all of our business data including design information, contracts, and other important documents, in one simple, easy to access location that any computer on our business network can connect to.  This allows us to categorize and file designs and other business documents in an organized, hierarchical manner, while still preserving the ability to share these among members of the business.

Personal Cloud providers such as Western Digital or Seagate now offer affordible data storage solutions with a wide range of features, including automatic backups, audio and video streaming services, and even the ability to access documents anywhere across the internet.  This functionality offers small businesses a key competitive advantage, as by being organized with your company data, you are better able to use your available resources.

5 Ways I Manage My Time

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Things have been hopping over here at Chez Turtle lately, with a number of deadlines, both big and small, looming at the end of January.  I’ve got designing deadlines, design proposals, teaching proposals, finishing and everyday tasks vying for my attention.  And the kicker is?  I’m not by nature a very organized person – in fact, I’d venture to say that must of us who enjoy crafting tend toward the more disorganized side of things.  So how do I stay on top of things?

I share a few tips.

  1. Stay accountable – for me, it means that I’m not running my business alone.  Behind the scenes I have Mr. Turtle (my wonderful husband Michael), checking in with me and making sure things get done.  It’s a delicate balance – asking him to keep me accountable doesn’t mean I want him harping on me.  But it does mean I count on him to check in and make sure things get on my task list, big and small.
  2. Keep track of deadlines – I have a calendar to the left of my computer where I write down deadlines, so I can see, visually, when my high volume parts of the month occur.  it might seem obvious to some that it’s a good idea to keep a calendar, but at one point I had all my deadlines on little scraps of paper scattered throughout the apartment.  Naturally, it didn’t work.
  3. Break it down – I have a bunch of lists that hang out in the center of our kitchen table. There’s a monthly personal list, a monthly business list, and a weekly list, for both myself and Mr. Turtle.  The weekly list is then culled for a few things (no more than seven seems to be my sweet spot) that need to get done each day.  I break things down into tiny steps – like knitting 2″ on a shawl I have due, and I check them off as they get done.  I like watching things get crossed off.
  4. Keep it small – Mr. Turtle helps me a lot with this one.  Sometimes I get these grand ideas of what I can accomplish in a day… and he has to remind me that I need to keep things from getting overwhelming!  Small attainable goals will always beat big goals.
  5. Enable yourself to succeed – I realized that there was an item on my list that’d been copied to the new list for several weeks.  Last night I stopped and thought through why I hadn’t gotten the task done… and I realized I didn’t have the tools to get it done.  I needed information I didn’t have.  No wonder why I’d been avoiding it!  So today, instead of that task being on my list, I’ve broken the task down, and just set myself the goal of getting the information I need to finish the task.
How do you manage to keep yourself organized?

So you want to work for yourself: Now What?

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From the Business Desk

Welcome to the first edition of a semi-regular series that I will be contributing to this site focusing on the business side of running a small fiber arts business.  As introduced in the first post I wrote earlier this week, I officially

 joined the Tinking Turtle team back in August to take on management of the business side of the organization: contract management, accounting and bookkeeping, and strategic/structural planning.  I plan on writing monthly topics discussing some of the trials, tribulations, and learning experiences that have come about in the past three plus years as a small business.

For my first topic, I wanted to open the door with an overview of small business organization, as for many business owners, this is the first consideration after making the plunge and deciding you want to start being your own boss.

The most significant difference that a business owner should understand  among all levels of organization is that there is a trade off between operational flexibility and protection from risk.  As a business owner, this is accomplished by either legally separating your business and yourself into two separate entities, to reduce your individual liability and risk in the event of an issue, or by having you and the business be one and the same to maximize your flexibility and minimize your reporting requirements.

The IRS has a great overview site to discuss how different organizational structures are affected by taxation and reporting requirements.  Additionally, a wonderful resource for the crafty type person to begin to explore what option would be best for you is The Craft Artist’s Legal Guide, presented by NOLO.

Please note that the below information is presented as advice only.  If you are considering any of these specific options, it is highly recommended that you consult with an accountant or attorney to understand any additional legal ramifications of your decision.

The core business structures a small business would be considering fall into three primary groups: Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, and Corporations of various types.  Sole Proprietorship and Partnerships are considered unincorporated types of business, while the various type of Corporation, explained below, are all incorporated, which means they are legal entities filed within the state of primary operations of the business.

There are no requirements to being operating your business as a Sole Proprietorship at the macro level (certain municipalities may require business licenses, be sure to check with your local licensing board first!); once you start operations, you are operating under this structure.  With the Sole Proprietorship, your only structural requirements are to file additional forms with your income tax on an annual basis.  The drawback of this level of organization is that there is limited protection from risk as a Sole Proprietor, so you personally can be held accountable for the debts and tax liability of your business.

Partnerships are similar to Sole Proprietorship in that they require little formal reporting outside of an annual report to the IRS.  Partnerships are strongly recommended to prepare a formal agreement, to codify some of the responsibilities or distributions, especially if it is not an even split between the applicable parties.  Partnerships additionally do not limit individual liability, and in the event of a dispute, all partners and their assets are considered fair game.

The most formal level of organization for a small business is one of many types of Corporations.  There are three specific types, all of which exist as stand-alone entities, separate from the business owners: the S Corporation (S-Corp), the C Corporation (C-Corp or what is traditionally referred to as a Corporation) and the Limited Liability Corporation (LLC).  The largest difference between these different structures are how corporate taxes are handled; C-Corps are taxed as separate corporate entities with a separate tax governance and structure; S-Corps are what are considered “pass through” entities, where any tax burden is paid by the owners or shareholders.  LLCs are a fairly new entity that are governed by state law, and can be organized in multiple ways, but that’s a topic for another post.  Any of these forms of corporation are established by incorporating with the cognizant state authority, usually the Secretary of State.

No matter which structure you choose for your business, having a plan for how you want to establish yourself is key to being a successful business owner, and turn the craft hobby that you love into a viable profession.

Government Shutdown and the Fiber Arts Industry

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As you  might have heard, my husband, Michael, is joining the Tinking Turtle team!  For a couple of months now, he’s been behind the scenes, helping the business run smoothly, and enabling me to concentrate on the things only I can do: knitting, crochet, finishing, designing and teaching.  Michael was scheduled to start contributing to the blog later this month, but was inspired by recent political events to begin writing early.  I hope you will welcome him now and in the future as he bring a unique perspective to the Fiberarts.

Shutdown.

For the past week, Washington, DC, and the nation in general, has dealt with the uncertainty in the government. Various news outlets have highlighted different sectors that have been affected, and I began wondering, what has been the affect on the Fiberarts Industry.  Below follows a list of government departments whose services have been impacted by the shutdown, and how they may have an affect on small Fiberarts businesses.

You’ll find a landing page like this at a lot of government websites.

Being just outside of Washington DC, Tinking Turtle has the unique perspective of a front-row seat, and in a roundup wanted to share our observations as to how these events directly impact those involved in the Fiberarts industry.  This is by no means a comprehensive list, and for more information CNN interactive has a great overview by department, agency, or program that is kept up to date for future reference.

The most noticeable impact to designers and publishers is the closure of the US Copyright Office.  While the physical Copyright Office remains closed, and any pending copyright applications are frozen in their current state, new applications can, as of the time of writing, be filed via the Electronic Copyright Office to start the copyright process and establish an initial date of registration should that be necessary.  In the same vein, while it is currently open, the US Patent and Trademark Office is planning on staggered reduction of services as the shutdown situation continues without a resolution.  In discussion with a friend who is a Patent Examiner with the Patent and Trademark Office, the Office has funds to sustain itself for another business week before an orderly draw-down of staffing and services would occur over the next several weeks.

For new publishers, business owners, or yarn store owners, the Small Business Administration is closed for all serves except providing for disaster loans, so any applications for financial assistance will not be processed until funding is restored.  Additionally, for any organization or entity which is required to file quarterly taxation statements with the IRS, while the physical filings can be submitted, the IRS is not available via telephone or in-person appointments for consultations, advice, or assistance.

There are a couple of pieces of good news for retailers, publishers, and other vendors: because the United States Postal Service is not subject to congressional appropriation, it does remain open for business, and mail is continuing to be delivered.

Locally in the DC area, many of the LYSs are taking advantage of having a cadre of furloughed government employees finding themselves with more time on their hands. For example, Fibre Space, in Old Town Alexandria, VA is offering free beginning knitting lessons for any government employee. You can reference Jennifer’s post to find out about more businesses who are running specials or offering deals in light of the shutdown.

We can all hope for a swift resolution to this unfortunate situation.  However, no matter what side of the political spectrum you are on, I’d encourage you to think about or find ways to help people who are affected by the shutdown.

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