Positive Yarn

After a long winter that provided your customers ample opportunity to curl up with that favorite project or play with the goodies they bought with their Christmas gift card (to your store, of course!), warm weather is finally upon us. Unfortunately, that also means customers may be thinking more about their gardens than their craft rooms. Let’s look at 5 ways to get them back to thinking about your business all summer long.

1. Have a stitch-out. You’ve probably hosted your share of stitch-ins during the colder months, especially when everyone was concerned about finishing up their holiday presents. But what about a “stitch-out”? Set up a canopy in the parking lot or in your yard, if you have one. Place some comfy lawn chairs and a table for some warm-weather snacks and invite your favorite customers to sit a spell. This is an ideal time to bring out your clearance inventory for display, too. After all, it’s primo garage sale season, so why can’t your store have one, too? By the way, if you feel like grilling out early on, May is National Bar-B-Que, Beef, Salad, Egg, Strawberry and Asparagus Month. It’s also National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month, so maybe hold the eggs and strawberries.
2. Deck the halls. It’s never too early to start thinking about holiday projects. Pick an endcap and dress it up like a fireplace mantle. Scatter some fake snow all around and pick your favorite Santa, snowmen, mitten and other wintery patterns to showcase. Have a “Countdown to Christmas” behind the register — your customers may giggle at the “238 days till…” but it will also remind them that if think they want to have stockings done for all their kids, they better start picking up some threads.
3. Embrace sun and fun. Take the opportunity to have another part of the store reflect the season. Stock some pretty knitting needles and yarns displayed in an array of flower pots. Fill a kiddie pool with clearance kits. Highlight your kits for summer flip-flops, belts and sun hats.
4. Host a “staycation sweepstakes.” The economy has made staying at home for vacation chic, so why not help customers out even more? Try offering discount coupons with purchase for the local zoo, restaurant, or some other attraction that your customers might be heading toward soon. Better yet, network with other business owners to see if you can work out a swap — you offer a discount coupon for the local boutique and they offer their customers a coupon for your shop, for example. If nothing else, just offering customers a chance to win a gas gift card is always welcome.
5. Cater to kids. Kids get bored. I speak from experience here, as both a former bored kid and as a harried mom. Summer vacation seems like such a cool thing until a few weeks in, when they’ve mastered every game they own on their Nintendo DS, have gone swimming at every neighbor’s house they could, and are starting to recite SpongeBob Squarepants episodes from memory. If they get dragged along to your shop, why not keep them occupied? Devote a small space to a TV playing a kid-friendly DVD (the DVD player can always get repurposed during stitching times for a technique series, for example), and set up a children’s table and chair set with some paper and crayons. Some sewing cards and yarn could be an early introduction to basic stitches, although you may want to keep those on a higher shelf — toddlers might think the plastic needle is tasty. Also, set up a “hip” endcap (just don’t call it “hip,” you oldster!) showcasing patterns that might appeal to teens and yes, tweens, too. If you’re looking for inspiration, look to Knitty.com or Sublime Stitching for starters. If beading is in your repertoire, consider stocking Kalmbach Publishing’s new “Cool Jewels: Beading Projects for Teens” to keep the summer boredom at bay.

Ready, set, go? If you have summer success stories to share, let me know! Comment below or email me.

Recently, the Yarn Group of The National NeedleArts Association (TNNA) posted video of its fashion show on YarnGroup.org’s home page. Although it’s just a few minutes long, it showcases the latest designs, fibers and colors of the spring season.

This accomplishes a few things:

• It shows the Yarn Group is serious about spreading the word that needlework “ain’t your grandma’s hobby” (well, maybe it is, but it can be young and hip, too).
• It gives fiber enthusiasts a chance to see what the trends are, either because they didn’t get to see the show in person at TNNA’s winter conference or as a reinforcement of what they saw if they did.
• It gives local yarn shop (LYS) members the opportunity to share the show with their customers, thus making them the heroes when it comes to what’s hot in colors, styles, textures, etc.

The video actually resides on YouTube, along with a few other TNNA videos tagged beside it (another win-win: If you get someone who’s interested in this one, they are likely to click on a related video, too — again, more awareness of TNNA and of the needlework industry at large). The YarnGroup.org Webmaster simply copied the code YouTube generates specifically for use on a separate Web site and placed it on the home page. This is legal (since it’s their work), easy and oh yes, FREE.

What’s the marketing takeaway here? Well, it’s always good exposure to do your own “fashion show” or similar event (and if you need help putting it together, contact me — it’s one of my business specialties). But if you do, make sure someone has a video camera to record it. Make participants aware that it’s going to be recorded, and if kids are involved you may have to get a parent to sign a document saying they’re aware their child is going to be a part of the video. Upload the video to YouTube, post the code YouTube provides onto your Web site, and send a press release out to local media, customers, family and friends that includes the link.

YouTube has many other uses for your business, as well. How about recording a quick demonstration of a complex stitch you’re teaching in one of your classes? For students who prefer to work things out at home, or need a reminder at 2 a.m. when they’re in the mood to work on it and are confounded as to “Now how did she do that again?” — YouTube is there 24/7, and can be replayed again and again until they get comfortable with the technique. Make sure you use lots of search terms when posting the video to YouTube, because you might also be helping people around the world with the same dilemma.

What about a tour of your shop? If you’re gearing up for summer business and know that tourists like to stop in during vacation, go beyond the still photos your competition is doing: Give a 360-degree look at what your shop has to offer and post it on your site. Let the viewer see you in the video — a friendly face that wants them to stop in and stay a while. Show a busy class, the shop’s resident cat or dog, the staffer who works tirelessly in the framing department. It doesn’t have to be long or elaborate, but remember that showing, not just telling, can have such a great impact. Check out Yarn Lady’s video here.

The Point of It All in Washington, DC, recently renovated their shop and documented it here. They also put it in their blog, which owner Susan Battle refers to as the “hokey video my husband, Chris, made.” Personally I didn’t think hokey (well, the music perhaps is a matter of personal taste!); I thought pretty darn cool.

Are you using YouTube as more than just a source of entertainment? Let me know how it’s building your business: Comment below or email me here.

While professionally, I try to meet — and exceed — my project deadlines, my personal life is filled with the potholes of procrastination. Why didn’t my Christmas cards go out this year? Part of the reason, I must admit, is because of the time lost playing Solitaire on my husband’s iPhone this holiday season. Why is my wedding dress, circa 1996, still hanging in my closet on a wire hanger instead of being preserved in a box? My excuse has morphed over the years from not having the money to now not having the time.

The problem (or perhaps my saving grace) is that I always have remorse after the fact. For example, as I got ready for bed a couple nights ago after spending three hours on the Internet surfing really random, but somewhat interesting things, I lamented that I could have been stitching/folding laundry/paying bills/spending quality time with my family. Why those thoughts weren’t occurring to me as I clicked hither and yon hours before, I don’t know. I realize that everyone needs some down time now and then — but on the other hand, I firmly believe we only have one go-around in this world, and it’s up to each of us to make the most of our time.

So I admit that I had a chuckle this morning when my husband emailed me a link to a CNN health feature, “Putting a price on procrastination.” I encourage you to check it out in its entirety (don’t put it off!), but the gist is that this Web site will light a fire under you to accomplish a goal you’ve been slow to move on, be it losing weight, finally calling an old friend, cleaning out old inventory or whatever else is on your mind but not off your list yet.

What’s the catch? Well, if you don’t make your set deadline, you have to pay up. The site itself is free — they just make a donation to your charity of choice. And while your money could go to a charity you like, it really ups the ante if you put it toward one you don’t!

If the site is not your cup of tea (or maybe you just won’t get around to joining it), consider another point the CNN article makes: Procrastination could be costing you in and of itself. If you are not religiously setting aside money for retirement, for example, the interest you could be making today is not going to be there when you start to get serious about deposits five years from now.

Similarly, if you’re not ordering inventory in an appropriate volume because it’s “too much hassle” to change the invoice order, you’re paying that price every time — be it more frequent drops because you’re selling more or less profit margin because you’re selling less.

New Year’s resolutions rarely stick, I realize, though they have a better chance if there’s a support system or incentive in place. Have both, and you’re that much closer to scratching something major from your “to-do” list.

Who knows — you may even see me at the dry cleaner’s in 2009.

Hey, wanna have kids?

Professionally speaking, of course. In this tight economy, it makes sense to appeal to all demographics — and where there are children, there are bound to be parents following close behind, opening their wallets to their darlings’ whim.

I know, because I am one of the wallet openers. And while my husband and I take great pains to ensure we keep our daughters from being spoiled rotten, we have certainly done our fair share of shopping for them.

We also shop — a LOT — for children’s birthday presents for the parties to which we are invited. This weekend alone, I need to buy a gift for my best friend’s daughter and another for the neighbor’s little girl who’s having a roller skating party. In fact, I’ve been to a myriad of interactive birthdays. The celebrations where a couple friends from school come over and help blow out your candles in the dining room is sooo passe. We’ve been skating, golfing, go-karting and bowling, jumped on inflatables, painted ready-to-decorate ceramics, baked cupcakes in a professional kitchen, and the list goes on.

So, why not grab a big piece of that birthday cake? Joanns does it, and so does Michaels. Host a party on otherwise-quiet Sunday afternoons, where a group of 8 to 10 kids can crochet a little purse, bead a keychain or stitch a bookmark. Even boys can get enthusiastic about it in a group setting — peer pressure can be used for good, not evil when it comes to overcoming their reservations about trying out something that seems so “girly” at face value. In fact, Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts troops would appreciate a chance to spend an afternoon at your shop. Make sure birthday guests know you’re available for troop events, and make troops aware of your penchant for parties.

Kids’ creativity never ceases to amaze me, and to introduce children to the needlearts is definitely rewarding. My fourth grader has crocheted leashes for every single stuffed animal she and her sister own, and has made bracelets and necklaces for all of her friends. (I hope to eventually interest her in progressing beyond the chain stitch, but for now, she’s happy.) Both girls also took full advantage this fall of the Stan Hywet Needlework Guild’s children’s booth at the annual Ohio Mart festival, where they learned how to stitch on plastic canvas for free and took home two very cool ornaments:

The best part about children’s parties is if you hold them in the back room, the parents will tend to wander out front. And when they see their child really enjoying the project, it gets the wheels turning about what they can buy to sustain the interest. Try making an endcap all about kids — the Disney patterns, the brightly colored threads and yarns, the plastic needles. Show they can not only make and take, but if the next party happens to be held at home, you can supply the parents with enough activites to keep the kids occupied until the pizza arrives. In fact, just last weekend my fourth grader went to a slumber party and came home triumphantly with a new elastic necklace and a silk poinsettia wreath she made by herself (with the help of the birthday girl’s mom and her glue gun). They beat the heck out of a goody bag, because she wears the necklace nearly every day, and the wreath is pretty enough we can display Christmas after Christmas.

Similarly, the look of pride and accomplishment on my first grader’s face when she finished her Dora the Explorer “Begin to Sew” finger puppets a couple weeks ago is one I’ll never forget. These are memories I want to make again and again.

If your store has reached out to the under-10 set, be it birthday parties or otherwise, please share your experiences by commenting below.