Positive Yarn

The girls and their grandma pause for a pose at Lots of Knots. Debbie Gruber is in the background in the red shirt — caught in mid-stride as she's off to accomplish another task.

I knew I liked Debbie Gruber from the moment I met her. The owner of Lots of Knots Ceramics, which is tucked inside the Lodi, OH, outlet mall, exudes friendliness and fun. My two daughters and I had gone into her shop several weeks ago, on a quiet weeknight, to look at all the neat works of art in progress and to inquire about birthday parties.

“Birthdays? Oh yes, we’ve done ‘em, from 2 to 92,” Gruber said with a laugh.

I explained that I needed separate, but concurrent celebrations, because my younger daughter’s birthday is Aug. 6 and my older daughter’s birthday is Aug. 11 — but with my husband out of town, I personally was only up for one outing with their respective friends! No problem, Gruber said.

Gruber did not disappoint on Saturday, when I came to her door laden with a crock pot of sloppy joes, as well as bags filled with hamburger buns, chips, soda, cake, ice cream and an assortment of plates, cups and plasticware. There were balloons on the door, a designated gift/food table and pretty tablecloths on the guest tables (under less-pretty tablecloths for the girls to paint on first). Each of my kids was allowed to invite three friends, all of whom showed up eager to make their own ceramic dinosaur, kitty, puppy or other bisque knickknack.

As soon as she met me at the door, Gruber helped me unpack, took the ice cream back to her own shop freezer, and appeared with a wooden spoon in hand before I had a chance to realize mine was left at home. She and her assistants immediately engaged all of the girls, so there was no time to be bored or left wondering what was to come next. They were too busy picking out their selection from the “party table” and then deciding upon just the right colors to use.

For my part, I sank into a chair across from a couple other moms and let the party play out for a bit in front of Lots of Knots’ big glass window (where, I noticed, the merry-making caught the eye of more than one child as he or she passed in front of the store).

Gruber is sweet as can be, but she was also no-nonsense when needed. She made sure there wasn’t any fighting over paint, for example, and also swiftly recognized when attention spans were spent and it was time to eat and open presents. It definitely wasn’t her first rodeo. With my oldest turning 11, it’s not mine, either, but it was a relief to turn much of the responsibility over to Gruber and her team. In fact, she told me when I first booked the event, “We welcome other parents to stay, but to be honest, it’s almost easier when we’re allowed to do what we do without interference.”

Her shop was large enough to host what looked to be a few regular customers, as well as a young family who came to sit and paint and enjoy one another’s company. Things went smoothly to the end, at which time the older girls were anxious to explore the mall’s other stores in the hopes of buying matching T-shirts for the first day of school. (Ah, sixth grade!)

I panicked a bit, because I hadn’t thought things through: Did I really want half a pan of sloppy joe sauce simmering in my car trunk on a hot August evening? Once again, it was Gruber to the rescue: “Go ahead and shop, I’ll put everything up for you in the fridge.”

I told her to have as many sandwiches as she liked and, forever grateful, I was then pulled down the alley to a tween clothing store. An hour later, we all returned to Lots of Knots to pick up our respective sprayed ceramic pieces, which were individually wrapped in scrap fabric and plastic bags for a safe ride home. As we said our goodbyes, the moms all murmured how they “didn’t know this was here” and “what a great concept” and “the girls really had fun.”

I tipped Gruber about 15% of the bill, and her surprise led me to believe that she doesn’t receive that very often. I’m hoping my group’s positive feelings about the event truly lead back to return business to Gruber and her crew.

Over the years, I have been to many birthday parties in a variety of venues — including my own wonderful grownups-only one at Potomac Bead Shop. Still, Lots of Knots was special to me for two reasons in particular:

1. The shop accommodated my needs: From really having two parties in one to allowing me to store the food and gifts while I shopped nearby, I can’t say enough about the great way I was treated.
2. The enthusiasm was contagious: Gruber in particular never lost her upbeat attitude. When she announced that there was a choice of either glitter or glow-in-the-dark paint to be had, she sounded as excited as the kids did. We all left with smiles.

So now it’s your turn: What has been your experience with hosting parties at your shop? Is it worth the effort? If not, what needs to change to make a good return on your investment? Share your insights below or drop me a line at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.

A friend of mine is in charge of her needlework guild’s membership address book. Her responsibilities include calling local shops to see whether they will offer a member discount through the year. If they do, they receive a free mention in the book.

As in past years, this was mostly just a courtesy call — the majority of shops welcomed the free exposure. But this year, she encountered two shop owners who verbally took her to task for members not coming in.

One just vented her frustration, which, while perhaps unprofessional, was at least understandable.

The other told her, “Forget it. No one came in, and maybe they’ll notice if I don’t give a discount this year.”

My friend was not asking for a paid renewal, in which case I could see the owner declining. She was asking to rerun a free ad in a local guild membership address book — a highly targeted market. The owner didn’t even have to submit anything; her ad was already on file.

When my friend told me about this, she also noted that she knew of at least four of her fellow members who had been in that particular shop in recent months. When she mentioned that to the owner during their conversation, the woman sniffed, “Two, maybe.”

Whether it was four, two or one, doesn’t every customer count? And if “no one” was coming in, what was it costing her? The 10% discount she wasn’t giving to anyone?

I see four ways where wine could have been made with these sour grapes, if only the owner could get past her pride:

1. She was missing an opportunity to get valuable feedback, to ask my friend, “Do you know why more members aren’t coming in?” It could have less to do with price and more to do with shop hours or parking availability. While these may not be easily fixed, they’re at least tangible issues to address.
2. Had she attended a guild function as a guest, to mix with members and build relationships, she might have garnered some interest. Think of how many networking event converations end in “Send me your email address” or “Stop by the shop” or “Let me call you next week.”
3. Had she offered to speak to the guild about an area of expertise, she could have positioned herself as a local expert and thus the “go-to” person when a member was looking for what her shop offers.
4. If a discount program wasn’t bringing them in, perhaps a frequent shopper program would. Maybe a referral program would grab attention (Forbes recently published a great article about this). I guess you could say she was “switching strategies” by dropping the free ad, but her abrupt manner sabotaged any customer relations she was looking to build. Bottom line: If one method isn’t working, switch gears gracefully. Don’t just grab your marbles and go home.

By the actions she did take, the owner ended up getting brand exposure — just not the kind any business owner wants. My friend has told her story to all her local and non-local friends, and inevitably receives the same surprised reaction.

“Maybe they’ll notice if I don’t give a discount this year”? How self-defeating. Why would they notice, when they’re going to the competitors who appear in the book and whose shops are top of mind?

I’m attending for TNNA tomorrow, and I already have my comfy shoes packed (I’m not repeating the mistake of last year!). In addition to non-painful footwear, here are some other tips for you if your schedule allows you to exhibit at and/or attend a trade show this summer:

Classified information: ESP, an exhibit display manufacturer, knows a thing or three about expos and shares its collective wisdom on its Tips page. My favorite is applicable whether you’re exhibiting or attending (A=the booth you came to see; B=the booth you didn’t know about but might have something for you; C=the booth whose product or service is simply not your cup of tea): “There are three types of prospects, and treating each one correctly can save you and them time:

• Customer A. Ready-to-buy or order now.
  This is why you are exhibiting at the show, spend quality time with them.
• Customer B. Have an interest, but need more information.
  You want to convert these people to Type A. Try to discover who they are. You will be able to do more with them than just giving them a product brochure that they won’t read later.
• Customer C. Do not have an interest.
  They either do not want or need your product, or at least think they don’t. Don’t spend time with them; try to avoid them. An exception is if your booth is overstaffed and people need to look busy. If that’s the case, send someone home!”

Thanks, anyway: This gem was found online at Skyline.com (itself a great clearinghouse for trade show tips). The Center for Exhibition Industry Research offers four ways to end a conversation at a booth when you know the person falls into the “C” category as described above. Use one or more of the following in conjunction with a handshake, business card and brochure or small giveaway:

• “I’m glad we had this opportunity to talk today…”
• “I’ve taken enough of your time today…”
• “Based on the information shared today, we can’t help you, but here’s our website if you need us in the future.”
• “Thanks for dropping by…”

Top 10 list: None other than “Trade Show Joe” offers his top picks:

• Initiate Preshow Promotions
• Prepare 3-6 Engaging Questions Before the Show
• Provide Incentives for People to Leave Contact Information
• Set Measurable Goals for the Show
• Establish and Even Gender Balance in Your Booth
• Create the Right First Impression
• Keep Notes on Prospects
• Remember the 80/20 Rule… Listen 80% – Talk 20%
• Minimize Using Trite Questions (May I Help You, How Are You, etc.)
• Avoid Sitting, Eating and Drinking in the Booth

Get a checkup: As you might imagine, Exhibitor magazine has fantastic tips on everything from making a small space work to using technology at the show. Here’s a great one to keep in mind when you’re traveling with your staff, whether you’re in the booth or walking the floor: “Why wait until after the show to figure out how you did? Hold daily meetings with staffers immediately before the exhibit hall opens each day. Ask everyone to report how they’re doing and compare their activity to show objectives.

What’s working? What isn’t? How can you improve performance? What victories do people have to report? What areas need improvement?

A daily meeting is a great place to make mid-course corrections and motivate yourself and your staff for the day ahead.”

These are just a few of the many recommendations out there a simple Internet search can bring. Personal experience can always add a few more. For example, when I was a young “booth babe” (ha!), we were instructed to always dress better than our competitor and thus stand out in business suits among a sea of polo shirts and jeans or khakis. It was also a mortal sin to leave a purse or briefcase on a chair; the area behind the table had to remain clutter-free to again, keep up the professional look. The rules vary by industry, of course — I’m not taking any power suits to TNNA. But I’m interested in your say… what tips do you have to share for a terrific trade show experience? What side do you fall on when it comes to knitting or stitching behind the table? I’ve seen arguments for and against, so feel free to speak your mind in the comment section below or email me at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com. And come see me at 1450T if you’re attending TNNA this weekend… I promise to follow as many of the tips as I can!

HandiCraft is bringing stitching techniques and patterns to an iPad near you. (Photo: TechnicalMadeEasy.com)

My friends and colleagues run the gamut of already having Apple’s latest whizbang gadget to teasingly wondering aloud whether iPad comes in both maxi and light day varieties.

I guess I’m somewhere in the middle. I do have an iPhone, but it’s the first-generation version that my husband gave me after he nabbed the second-generation version (his is now faster, has video capabilities… and I’m sure has many other benefits that he could tell you about but I could not, at least not without a quick Google search first). When he gave me the iPhone for Christmas — all dolled up in a pretty case, so it looked less like a hand-me-down — I thought, gee, it’s nice and all, but it’s way too much tech for my taste. Up to then, my primary reason for using my cell was so I could call home while out and about and discern whether my family’s preference was me bringing home groceries or Happy Meals for dinner. (The answer was always the latter, but I’d always call anyway.)

But life changed in a big way for me when he handed me that phone. I now have an mp3 player, which was a new experience in itself — no more searching around for CDs to listen to while I did housework; I could now stick headphones into my iPhone and dance away the dust.

I can now check email anytime, anywhere — and answer it, too. Thanks to the phone’s Internet capabilities, I can instantly find answers to any burning question, like what year did Cheers end (let me save you the trouble: 1993) or what time our library closes (8 p.m. on weeknights). I now have Solitaire, Bookworm and, most recently, Angry Birds to keep me occupied during countless basketball practices. I have Lose it!, a calorie-counting program that so far has helped me drop 7 lbs. Heck, I can even post to this blog from my phone, if I want to type one-fingered for paragraphs on end.

But the iPad, to me, looks like an oversized iPhone. Aside from watching movies and reading books on it, I’m hard pressed to see why I’d need the bigger screen.

Still, it’s just a matter of time before my techie hubby brings one home, I’m sure. And tonight, he emailed me (which I read on my iPhone, of course), this little gem of an application:

http://www.technicalmadeeasy.com/handicraft.html

“Sew like a pro!” proclaims the HandiCraft copy, noting that it has the goods on quilting, knitting, crochet and embroidery — all on your iPad. The company, Technical Made Easy LLC, is also behind the iPhone/iTouch apps Easy Quilt, Easy Stitch, Vital Records, and interestingly, Stupid Points, to award friends when they do something stupid.

“Patterns, Tools, Resources and Lessons (are) all at your fingertips,” HandiCraft declares, “offering full coverage without the need for an Internet connection. A great resource for beginners and advanced crafters, with full video instruction on each topic.”

So, perhaps he’s one day closer to his Father’s Day present. (Well played, Hon.)

An app like this does lead to me wondering how professional needlework artists, manufacturers and retailers can harness this technology. Video segments, Skype sessions (check out DMC’s “Emma Broidery’s” blog post about some recent interactive training with needlepoint designer Beth Gantz here), virtual pattern portfolios, interactive presentations… it all can start at the touch of a button.

So what do you think? Do you have an iPad already, or is on your wish list? Or do you feel it’s technology that’s not worth the investment at this time? And if you do have one, how are you using it for your business? Sound off below or drop me a line at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.

I recently came across a press release touting the results of a brand-new study from the Craft & Hobby Association. (To see the release in its entirety, click here.)

Designer Beth Gantz may be onto something sweet and delicious: combining needlepoint with "cake decor"!

The 2009 Attitude & Usage (A&U) Study surveyed approximately 6,000 households to see how many craft projects they did during the year. Although there was an estimated $27. 4 billion spent on crafting (supplies, classes, etc.), the study found that the percentage of participating households has remained at a steady 56% — the same as in the previous three years, in fact. In 2008, sales were $27.3 billion, so that’s not exactly a huge gain. But on the other hand, there’s something to be said for it not being a loss.

“The A&U Study tracks trends in four broad categories comprised of General Crafts, Needle & Sewing Crafts, Painting & Finishing Crafts, and Floral Crafts,” the release explains. “During 2009, the General Crafts category represented 44% of industry sales and was +18% over the prior year.  Strong category performance was driven by growth in the Woodworking, Cake Decorating, and Jewelry Making segments.”

While the other three categories saw declining sales overall, there were some segments within that did well: “Home Decor Painting/Accessorizing/Finishing, Knitting, and Wedding/Bridal crafts all grew in 2009.”

The study ranked the Top 10 segments, based on sales and participation, and it’s little surprise that scrapbooking remains No. 1. While many of us have all the paper, stamps and stickers we could ever hope to complete albums with to last a couple lifetimes, it seemed that handmade gifts from the heart — like a special memory box for grandma at Christmas, for example — were popular. (For the record, cardmaking is broken out from the scrapbooking category and is ranked at No. 7.)

Because we are taking more “staycations,” it also makes sense that home decor comes in at No. 2. If we’re stuck at home, we might as well spruce it up, right?

I suggest needlepoint businesses in particular take note of what came in after No. 3-ranked woodworking: cake decorating and art/drawing at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively.

Whether you’re talking color, clean lines or overall artistry, there are definite parallels to cake design and needlepoint design. In fact, Medina’s own Sandy Rodgers was a very well respected cake designer before she turned her considerable talents loose on the more permanent medium of fabric — check out her gorgeous work on her “Life Before Embroidery” page here. (And if you’re not familiar with her current needlework, for shame! Click here!)

If your local bakery is offering cake-decorating classes, for example, see whether there’s some synergy to be had with their students. Offer to promote their teaching schedule in your shop if they do the same for yours, with flyers touting something to the effect of “Got cake? Get canvas!” Or perhaps co-sponsor a seminar on color choices.

Similar opportunities may lie with the local community center’s introduction to drawing and painting classes. Offer to be a guest speaker and show in what ways painting on a canvas to be stitched can be similar to and different from just regularly listening to your muse.

I’m actually surprised that jewelry-making came in at No. 6, because it seems so popular with crafters of all ages — and especially working moms. Projects you can do with a glass of wine on your right and a good conversationalist on your left, and still get something beautiful completed in less than three hours, are few and far between. Still, traditional shops take note: Once consumers get the “bead bug,” so to speak, they’re looking to embellish everything they can. Do you have beads on display that can complement certain projects? Selected packets of beads to add sparkle to that shawl they’re currently working on? Quick kits to work up a beaded key fob to go with that new felted purse? Tiny needlepoint frames that can go on a chain and let them show off their work like their Victorian counterparts once did?

Perhaps most important to note is what the study found to be the main motivators for crafting. At No. 1 was a sense of accomplishment. Think about that: Are you letting your customers know that you’re proud of their work? You, the expert, are seeing them transform from novice to skilled artisan with each project they complete? Are you giving encouragement to students who are looking at a mistake or a daunting task, and showing them just how much they have achieved already? When they ask for your input on choosing a project, are you considering how much they can challenge themselves without getting in over their heads?

That final point is important because of Motivator No. 2, relaxation!

I encourage you to read over all the survey’s results, and see how they apply to how you’re currently doing business. The release has a lot of info on its own, but CHA makes a full review of their results available for purchase.

I’d love to keep the conversation going, so please share your questions and insights in the comments section below, or drop me a line at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.

With two big projects for work taking up so much of my time, I haven’t had a chance to stitch for weeks. And I miss it, terribly.

The fruits of my "non-labor."

Lucky for me, several friends took it upon themselves to throw me a surprise birthday party a couple weeks ago at The Potomac Bead Co. It was so wonderful to kick back, gossip with friends and simply create.

This weekend will be my needlework guild’s annual show (at the Brunswick, OH, library if you’re in the vicinity!), so I’ll once again be surrounded by inspiration — and hopefully, a little bit of time to stitch.

If you’re feeling like you’ve become too immersed in the day-to-day of business, and not enough time for the reason why you got into it — the creativity — I encourage you to take a step back, even if it’s just for a little while. Spend some time with a loved one. Call an old friend.

It’s a goal I have for myself this week. It’s easier said than done, but it’s probably the most important thing on my to-do list.

Share your tips for setting aside time to create — post a comment below or drop me a line at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com!

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) says that women own about 28% of the more than 23 million non-farm businesses in the nation — and if you add in another 2.7 million firms that are co-owned equally by women and men, the figure jumps to about 34%.

Last year, the SBA’s Office of Advocacy published a report titled “Self-Employed Women and Time Use,” authored by university business economists Tami Gurley-Calvez, Katherine Harper and Amelia Biehl. Drawing from data on a group of earlier studies, and adding in a new Time Use survey where participants kept a daily diary to chronicle their work, leisure and sleep periods, the results of this study are interesting. Having been in the salaried world and in the self-employed world, and comparing my work hours, I am still trying to figure out whether I fall into their “average”:

Several patterns are clear from the time-use data. On average, women spent less time on work and work-related activities than men, and self-employed women spent less time on work than wage-and-salary women. Self-employed women spent the most time in primary and secondary (defined as having a second parent home, but occupied with work or other activity) child care activities….

These time-use patterns are consistent with the hypothesis that women are more likely to choose self-employment because of family or other off-the-job concerns. Time spent on off-the-job activities such as volunteering, exercising and traveling, differ by gender, but there do not appear to be significant differences in this variable between wage-and-salary and self-employed women….

On average, the self-employed spend less time in work activities than wage-and-salary workers, and women spend less time in work activities than men. Wage-and-salary women spent about 7.3 hours (30 percent of their time) in work activities, compared with 8.2 hours (34 percent) for men. The difference was larger for the self-employed, where women spent about 6.2 hours (26 percent) on work activities, compared with 7.6 hours (32 percent) for men. There were also marked differences in time usage across industry groups, indicating that there might be significant differences in lifestyle

and career factors that motivate self-employment in each industry. For example, self-employed women and men in financial services spent between 1 and 1.4 fewer hours a day on work activities than their wage-and-salary counterparts.

The team broke out a few different categories when calculating the percentage of time devoted to “off-the-job” activities, including “household activities” (note, this is different than child-rearing, where self-employed women with children spent more time doing so than men or their female wage-and-salary counterparts):

Self-employed women spent about 2.8 hours per day on household activities, followed by wage-and-salary women, who spent about 2.3 hours, and men, who spent just under 2 hours. This translates into self-employed women spending about 3.5 more hours in household activities per week than wage-and-salary employed women and 6 more hours than men.

The point of the research was to see how women, by education, race, marital status and financial level, fit into the overall current picture of self-employed Americans. You can download a PDF of the entire report and its findings here, but the authors’ results summary suggests a few areas where the SBA can focus attention on helping women work for themselves:

The results suggest several areas where policy could be used to address the chronically lower rates of self-employment among women. First, the time-use evidence indicates that women, and particularly self-employed women, allocate more time to care activities and household production. Programs that enhance work-life balance or facilitate secondary child care opportunities (where a parent works from the same location as the child, but is not responsible for primary child care) would likely make self-employment more attractive for women. Further, policies to offset racial disparities in self-employment and increase human capital through the accumulation of education would serve to encourage greater numbers of women to seek self-employment.

So does your work-play-sleep schedule match with their findings? Did you start your business to achieve more financial success than you had in your previous work life, or for more flexibility with your kids and/or your social life? Are you working a 40-hour week? Do your work and leisure activities blur?

And in the end, does it matter if you’re doing what you love to do?

After paying a hefty mechanic’s bill this week to ensure we can once again stop our car at will, my husband and I are watching our budget a bit more closely. So when our kids came home this afternoon with a “wish list” for a slew of books from the school book fair, I immediately swung into action: I logged on to our public library’s Web site instead.

Now, I certainly have nothing against Scholastic, the love for reading they inspire in kids or the help they give our schools and school libraries. I fully intend to let the girls get a couple of books — ideally, some Mad Libs or other “interactive” book that doesn’t lend itself to being in library circulation. But otherwise, I’m loath to add to our own collection when I know that they’ll read the books, stick them under the bed and never mention them again.

Our library is a part of ClevNet, which brings together the inventory of 31 library systems across nine counties in Northeast Ohio into one nifty database. You can put a reserve on a book housed in a branch 80 miles away, and know that you’ll likely get a call from your local branch in a just a day or two to let you know it’s waiting for you.

By the time I waded through the girls’ lists, I put a total of 11 books on hold on the library’s Web site in a matter of minutes — just searching, clicking and saving online, with my library card number as my account. Bingo: I get happy kids and save about $80. I’m also eliminating the clutter factor of nearly a dozen books around the house long-term.

The convenience of the interactive Web site (which also lets you renew books online, which has often saved me from paying fines) just can’t be underestimated. I feel the same way about my bank, which lets me pay bills and transfer funds on its site at any time of day or night. Heck, we’ve even ordered pizza online!

It’s your turn

So, what’s your site doing for your customers? Are you just listing class times, or are you linking them to an email (or better yet, a form) to sign up for the class today? Are you just describing your products, or are you letting them order and pay via PayPal or some similar payment option? Are you just talking about what’s coming soon, or are you giving visitors the chance to pre-order? Are you giving visitors the chance to sign up for your free enewsletter? Reserve a gift card? Ask a stupid question?

Check out the online homes of Wellslee’s All Strung Out, Mobile, AL, here, and Needle in a Haystack, Alameda, CA, here, as great examples of shops doing nearly all of the above. And if you want to toot your own horn about your virtual business, please feel free to comment below or drop me a line at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com. I wanna know (and perhaps shop)!

Quick: Do you know where your stash of printer ink is so you don’t have to spend an hour looking for it before you can change it? How’s that shoebox full of receipts for tax time working out for you? Can you remember what you just promised that last customer that you’d do for her “sometime this week”?

When I attended Northeast Ohio’s Council of Smaller Enterprises’ annual conference last month, I knew straightaway that one of my must-see seminars would be “De-clutter Your Life and Workspace.” While I put my assignments for my clients at the forefront and maintain them in a fairly organized fashion, my personal papers are a different story. They include a sea of “I love you, Mom” drawings, coupons I hate to throw away but never use, and receipts I keep meaning to file away. I was hoping this presentation could be the kick I needed to fight the onslaught of clutter in my home office.

I’m pleased to say I was not disappointed.

The presenter, Chris Perrow, has 15 years’ experience as a professional organizer through her consulting company, Perrow Systems. The engaging speaker is also a corporate trainer for FirstMerit Bank.

“Nothing I can tell you that’s new, not since Aristotle first organized the species,” she said at the start. “But fast-forward to today, and not only do we have all the stuff we always had to do, but now we have an in-box to deal with, too.”

In fact, she said, the average person performs 580 tasks a day.

Organization basically comes down to chaos control, she said, because we’ve become a society programmed to constantly berate ourselves with “I should do this, I have to do that, I could do this.”

As a result, she said, “our mental filing cabinets might look a lot like our physical space — overflowing.”

The propensity for clutter has spawned a growing industry: When Perrow first joined the National Association of Professional Organizers (yes, such an animal exists) 15 years ago, there were approximately 800 members. Today, there are more than 4,000.

“As a society, we are all drowning in chaos,” she laments.

And now the solution, folks

The important thing to consider is, what are the priorities of your work? “Energy follows thought,” Perrow says. “If you walk into a room of chaos, your energy level drops, which means your level of creativity drops.”

Your immediate goal should be to reclaim 15% of your desk — and brain! “Find your safe harbor,” she says.

But while you, like me, may already have an organizational system set up — maintaining the system is another story. I must confess that I have some fantastic filing space and drawers and… piles of papers in a basket that have been waiting patiently to be filed in said drawers for weeks now.

Perrow stresses there is no right or wrong way, just your way. “Organization is ever-changing because our workload is evolving,” she says. “So what may have worked six months ago may need to be tweaked to work today.”

True words, indeed.

Perrow is a firm believer that organization is more about energy management than time management. “Dr. Edward Hallowell came up with this great term, ‘doom dart,’ to explain those occasions where you are going along fine and then boom! You’re hit with a dart to the brain: ‘I have a meeting tomorrow morning I’m not the least bit prepared for.’ You go into instant stress mode.”

To deflect these potentially lethal darts, Perrow advises making a Top 3 list for the day ahead each day before you leave work. “With daily interruptions, things that come up, etc., you’re probably not realistically going to get more than three things crossed off your original to-do list,” she explains. “If you prioritize the three ‘must-do’ items, they’re much more likely to get accomplished than having a lengthy list of goals.”

So if you decide to get a head start on your New Year’s Resolution and tackle the chaos, let me know how you do by commenting below or dropping me a line at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com. I’m off to tackle a desk drawer that’s housing some cassette tapes from high school. Wish me luck!

There are two types of people in this society: Those who were in marching band, and those who weren’t.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to judge either way. For the record, I was a proud marcher. My husband was not. Still, he’s been supportive of our fifth-grade daughter’s decision to join her school’s beginner band. While he hasn’t been totally without his snarky moments (usually immediately after he sees how much a book, a music stand, etc. costs), he is on board with the theory that children who learn how to read and play music at a young age generally have better life skills because such tasks tap into both the logical and creative sides of their brains.

There’s also something to be said about the tremendous attractiveness of belonging. It’s a big reason why I signed up for it in ninth grade; I was starting high school after attending grade school in a different town, and I didn’t know any of my peers. I figured there was safety in numbers and I was bound to make a friend or two, even by default!

By contrast, my chatterbox daughter doesn’t have any trouble making or keeping friends, but I noticed that members of her inner circle have all signed up for the class, too. We’ll see who’s still dragging a flute case to the bus stop next year, but in the meantime it’s given them all a common bond — something to both look forward to and complain about, as pre-teens (from ages 8 to 80) are wont to do.

You might observe the same kinds of bonding going on in a beginner class or in an open stitching session. Conversations can turn on a dime from “Gee, this room is freezing” is to “Wow, this is really a cool technique.” The balancing act lies in making sure there are more positive comments than negative.

Some of your loyal customers might prefer to keep to themselves and tend to their projects, learning at their own pace and interacting only when necessary. But by and large, they’re more the exception than the rule. Chances are your most familiar faces keep returning because they feel they belong. They find inspiration in your aisles on a good day and solace from their problems on a bad one. Bright colors, cheerful workers, a sense of “it’s OK to take your time here” — all of these are a welcome change to the get-in-get-out experiences they’re probably used to in big box stores.

And while this is a perk they’re willing to pay a slight premium for, you need to continually reinforce the value you bring to them. Accomplish that with innovative classes, focusing on offering some that challenge your most expert stitchers and others that cater to the novices who are trying to work their way to the next level.

Loyalty programs can also work wonders, but if you have yet to implement one or are scratching your head over why yours isn’t going gangbusters, survey your customers. What would they want as their reward? Is it simply a discount, or do they want access to exclusive events and merchandise? Maybe it’s a free class. I’ve noticed a few local radio stations are offering listeners choices when it comes to winning on-air, and it makes perfect sense: Cast a wider net because the Bruce Springsteen fans might not bother to call for Jonas Brothers tickets, and other listeners might just want the $50 gas card.

Loyalty can stem from being proactive, too. Think of how many customers first stopped by your shop because they were new in town and wanted to meet people who shared their interest. Consider joining forces with the local Welcome Wagon affiliate or other “Welcome to the Neighborhood” outlets so that your shop is the first one new residents recognize as they familiarize themselves with their new hometown.

It all comes back to that sense of belonging. Make sure that customers always feel welcome in your shop, and they’ll come “marching” back to your door time and again.