Positive Yarn

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!

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.

Perhaps it’s only fitting that I tackle this topic on President’s Day, when retailers of all stripes decide to celebrate Presidents Lincoln, Washington, et. al. with a deep discount on their products and services: Are today’s consumers programmed to never pay full price again?

I take my inspiration from “Is there an alternative to discounting?” an editorial written by Creative Leisure News’ Mike Hartnett, in which he quotes a Dec. 8 New Yorker article that quips “60% off is the new black.” He also refers to an industry analyst who calls the trend “cocaine discounting… You get customers hooked on sales, and they just demand more and more.”

It’s easy to point to retail giant Wal-Mart as being at least a contributor to this problem. Their nationwide slogan has evolved from “Always Low Prices” to “Save Money. Live Better.” But with reported layoffs coming to even this once-unstoppable mass merchandiser, it’s becoming apparent that low prices alone cannot make up for the sales volume being lost to this economy.

How does a business combat price? Quality and loyalty. You get what you pay for is a lesson learned over and over again for everyday consumers, and whenever you can personally reinforce that point, by all means do so. Today’s customers want their crafting to be unique and personal, and if it’s good for the environment, so much the better. Keep that in mind as you plan classes and order inventory — there are a plethora of ideas that can be tailored for your clientele, whether it’s a reusable water bottle carrier pattern made with environmentally friendly yarns, or using and creating a green scrapbook, replete with “soy-based inks, recycled paper and recycled and reusable packaging.”

Loyalty, of course, is likely what has gotten your business this far — repeat customers who love what you bring to the table from an inventory and creative support standpoint. The increasing popularity of rewards programs (I personally only do grocery shopping at Giant Eagle because I am “addicted” to the fuelperks! program) is the subject of a new report from a UK analysis firm, The Pepper Corp. Financial Crisis: Is there a future in retail rewards? makes the point that straight-up discounting is only a short-term solution. According to TheWiseMarketer.com, the paper offers as a better alternative “a well designed rewards program that offers a lower price alternative to savage discounting, while at the same time engages customers.” Not only that, but the information a rewards program provides on the customer gives retailers insights as to what’s hot and what’s not, and why they purchase what they do. A free copy can be obtained by emailing Pepper Corp.’s Sam Stephenson.

A perfect example of this is the I Buy NEO community card program — self-described as “a collaboration of citizens, businesses, non-profits, schools, chambers and community development corporations focused on positive and lasting change in Northeast Ohio.” Sign up for a card, show your membership at participating local businesses, and receive a discount. From dog kennels to jewelry, to yes, craft and needle arts shops (Knitting on the Square in Chardon and Isle of Beads in Cleveland Heights, to name two) — this new program aims to bring a higher profile to independent shops. And yes, it does go back to discounts … but at least it’s done on your terms.

Got a discounting (or discounting alternative) story to share? I want to know! Please email me or comment below.

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?