Positive Yarn

The Medina Needlework Guild’s 28th annual Needle Art Show at the Brunswick Library is currently under way, and I think it’s going pretty well. Both my girls took first place in the junior category — although I must admit, they were the only entrants this year in the junior category. I won a third-place ribbon for my over-one pincushion rendition of a day lily, so I’m pretty psyched. Evidently, the round robin that a fellow EGA member entered won second place, and the judges decreed that all six of us who participated in a stripe of the final sampler will get a ribbon, too. Photos coming soon, I promise.

I had to get up early this morning to be a hostess with two other members, Jeanne and Jan. When I left the house, the rest of the family was sound asleep — even the cat. (The dog awoke to “walk me to the door,” but my hunch is that she, too, soon after drifted back to her natural state: zonked.) But Hubby and the girls came to the library right as my shift ended to take a look around, take in the fact that both girls are official blue-ribbon stitchers, and then take me to lunch.

Over Happy Meals, I asked my husband if it was OK for me to drive up I-71 to Cleveland to explore the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo going on at the IX Center. I think he was just glad I didn’t ask him to go with me! So once again I was on the road, ready to absorb the new trends and techniques going on in the sewing world.

The show did not disappoint. While I am woefully limited in my machine sewing skills, I found plenty of hand sewing-focused vendors to suit me. And the aisles hawking all that the Janomes, Berninas and Husqvarna Vikings, just to name a few, got me feeling pretty inspired, too.

Because classes were signed up for in advance, I didn’t get to check out any of the seminars. I did, however, get to see a stunning New Designer fashion show, as well as a display of 2008 Hoffman Challenge Dolls & Clothing, “From Knock-Out to Knock-Off: Gorgeous Gowns from the Silver Screen,” “5 x 4: Quilt Artists Meeting Their Challenges” and Robert Kaufman Quilt Quest 2008, among other fantastic sights. These displays travel to all the Sewing Expos around the U.S.: Atlanta and Tampa, FL have already taken place, but coming later this year are programs in Worcester, MA; Chantilly, VA; Kansas City, MO; Minneapolis and Chicago.

I also met some really wonderful people, such as Judy and Peggy at Shaffer’s Countryside Quilting, Sue and Honor at Sue’s Sparklers, Cindy and her team at Quilter’s Fancy, and Barb and Joe at Barb Originals.

More about my experiences at the expo, as well as photos of my make-and-takes, are coming later this weekend. Right now, though, I’m signing off from my computer to play with all the cool things I bought! (OK, photos coming of that, too!)

Because my husband and I are co-owners of our business, I got a kick out of this WikiHow on how to date an entrepreneur. I’d agree with about 99% of the points made!

The article made me wonder about what our relationship would have been like had one or the other already been in business while we were dating. The reality is that we met because I was his boss for the student newspaper in college, and money was so tight back then we could only afford coffee and pie on “dinner” dates. (Did I mention I’ve gained about 5 pounds a year since then?) We’ve worked side by side for a total of about five of the 14 years we’ve known each other, and now I can’t remember what it’s like not to have him as both my business partner and best friend.

These days, with clients on both coasts and email being available 24/7, we’re just as likely to be staring at our respective laptop screens at 8 p.m. as we are at 8 a.m. Back in those early days when we just couldn’t get enough of seeing each other, either the business or the relationship would have had to give, I think. Twelve-and-a-half years of wedded bliss later, I am much more accepting of his desire to finish “one more file” before sitting down for dinner than I used to be.

Of course, the luxury of being an independent contractor means that we can pick and choose our work hours. Our relationships with our daughters and each other come first, and the day we signed our LLC papers to become a formal business, we pledged to dissolve it should work ever interfere with our marriage. The economy has shrunk our pool of clients slightly, but we are able to still provide a good living for our family — perhaps even more so because we are less overworked and thus more pleasant to be around! We’re definitely placing a premium on family time these days.

The Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE), the Northeast Ohio small-business consortium to which we belong, had an excellent article in its February issue titled “Married to the Business.” You can read it for free as a Nxtbook Media page right here; just “flip” to page 18. It seems that the successful-business couples (and former couples; one pair decided they worked just as well divorced) approached their work with a similar attitude: Family first, and then the business.

On one hand, Gooch & Gooch LLC is our “baby” just as much as our daughters are. It needs nurturing, attention — and once in a while, in-depth discussions about what we are going to do about resolving a given problem. But on the other hand, we often remind each other that no one’s headstone says “I wish I would have worked more.”

The work/life balance is one that all entrepreneurs must struggle with, and I’m curious whether any readers would like to share their pointers. Please feel free to comment below or email me at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.

So here I am, ready to take Gooch & Gooch (my half, anyway — my husband can keep on plugging away) into a new direction and focus on helping people in a field that I love. I’m scared to death, but I just got back from a COSE conference and feel emboldened.

Based in Cleveland, COSE is an acronym for the Council of Smaller Enterprises. I’ve just spent two days with some fantastic small-business owners from all over Northeast Ohio. We’ve done a lot of talking about new media and how to harness it. Now it’s time for me to file the business cards away, quit talking about what I want to do and start doing it.

I’ve spent 13 years in business-to-business media, the majority of which has been spent on covering the professional pest management industry. But as great a group as the pest controllers are — Joe the Plumber seriously pales in comparison when it comes to being down to earth, loyal, patriotic and er, licensed — I want to shift my focus toward things that interest me personally. I want to write about, and help publicize, professionals who design with and/or supply the pretties I love so much: beads, yarns, threads, fabrics. What can I say? Sites like Etsy.com and IndiePublic.com were practically designed with me in mind!

Business Directions Owner Sherry Mulne, an absolutely fantastic person and a marketing communications consultant for The National NeedleArts Association, took a chance on me last year as her part-time assistant. I am delighted to report that working for Sherry has been great, and has been a wonderful introduction to the business side of the needle arts (defined as crochet, knit, embroidery, counted cross-stitch and needlepoint; tattoos are merely a matter of personal preference). While I hope to continue fulfilling assignments for Sherry, I want to start taking on additional clients involved in needle arts and related crafts. I want to help build a brand for an independent retail shop. I want to spread the word about some wonderful patterns someone has designed. I want to get someone’s handmade item into everyone’s Christmas stocking.

Want, want, want. I guess I should first pull back and identify the needs.

That’s where you come in. What can I do to help build your business, and in turn, help build mine?