Entrepreneurial Experience
The Prophecy
My high school did something called “Senior Prophecies,” where my classmates would try to predict who we would be when we got older. Interestingly, my prophecy was about owning a truck dealership. The truck part of the prophecy came about because I was one of the few females in the school who drove a truck. That crimson red Toyota was part of my identity and I was proud of it!
I have no idea where they came up with the entrepreneurship aspect. I don’t remember telling anyone I wanted to become an entrepreneur, and I’m not sure I even wanted to at that age, but my classmates must have seen entrepreneurship ability in me. I didn’t think much about my prophecy until after I took my first business class and I knew I would be an entrepreneur one day!
Turning A Hobby Into A Career
After acknowledging that I wanted to run a business one day, I set out to determine what kind of business it would be. I’m a creative person and I decided I wanted to run a company where I could use that creativity. Of all my artsy hobby’s, my sewing skills were my greatest strength. And fabric art was where I decided to put my energy. Before I could sell any products, I needed to hone my sewing skills a little more. So, I decided I would get an accounting job and acquire new creative skills at the same time. Eight years later I was ready to ease into the entrepreneurial world. I decided to name the company Elizabeth Chandler Designs (Chandler was my married name) and created a blog, a website, joined Etsy, and printed business cards. I thought I had made it!
For the next four years I juggled a full-time job and ran my business. This was exhilarating… and exhausting. Even after putting all this effort into my business, my products weren’t selling as much as I would have liked, and I was discouraged. Needless to say, something wasn’t working, and I wanted to quit. But before I hung up my sewing hat I tried one more sales tactic. There was a new trend in the arts and crafts world (which at that time was a $32 billion industry). Some of the people who were buying hand crafts, didn’t simply want to purchase them, they wanted to make them too. There was a common theme among most of these people, they didn’t think they were creative. Because of this, they hadn’t ever explored the possibility that they could, or should, pursue learning a creative skill. When I put all the pieces together, a light bulb went off! I was going to offer beginner sewing classes!
Getting Started
I tweaked a few things on my website and listed sewing lessons as a product option. Within a week – literally, 1 week – I scheduled my first sewing lesson with a mother and her 8-year-old daughter. These were people that I didn’t know and who found my website organically by simply typing, “Sewing Lessons Greenville, SC” into Google. I was thrilled that my gamble had instantly paid off. It wasn’t until much later when I realized this was a big deal… no, it was… HUGE! Companies pay millions in advertising dollars just to have someone find them on the internet. But me, no, I didn’t pay one additional cent. And because I tweaked my website in about 30 minutes there was practically no opportunity cost.
After my initial high, panic set in. What was I going to teach? How was I going to teach? Where was I going to teach? Do I even have the ability to teach? The where was a somewhat simple answer. I decided to teach at my house. Looking back, this was an intelligent yet insane decision. Now for the what. The answer – another somewhat stupid decision – was to ask them what they wanted to learn. They said, “pajama pants.” Pajama pants, seriously? That’s not the easiest first project. The how, was the most horrifying question to answer. And that question opened a pandora’s box of more questions. Specifically, should an 8-year-old be around sharp objects like pins, needles, and scissors? And, how much am I going to charge?
Success!
I am proud to say; the lesson was a success! Even though neither one of them had ever sat at a sewing machine before, they made the pajama pants and I only had to give out one band-aid. After they left, I was so relieved. As exciting as this experience was, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through it again. The voice in my head said, “No worries, this was just a one-time thing. Nobody else is going to contact you.” So, I shoved the possibility of ever teaching again to the back of my mind. A few months went by without any activity on my website. But then, I got another hit. It was a friend of the mother-daughter pair I previously taught. I had a referral! Another HUGE deal! This lady wanted to sign her daughter up for a series of 3 lessons. Awesome! Another daunting task lay before me, I had to come up with 3 sewing projects. Unfortunately, these lessons didn’t go as smoothly as the first one did. There were issues with time management, the “child’s ability” to master certain tasks, and my frustration level. Even with all these hiccups, we made it through, and everyone walked away happy. And I received another referral.
By the time I was 6 months into my new teaching hobby, I had taught about 15 people of all different ages and skill levels. I had somewhat grasped the way to handle a private and semi-private lesson. And I understood to some degree what projects seemed to work best and at what age a child should start learning how to sew. I felt comfortable balancing my day job with my weekend sewing lessons. I was in a good place. And… then… it happened. The lesson requests were coming nonstop. I was spending hours scheduling appointments and my calendar was full every weekend for the next 6 months. I even added an evening class once a week. It was like the UPS Super Bowl commercial where a new business is counting the number of orders they are receiving. Sales start off slow and everyone is super excited. And then sales start to take off exponentially. When reality sinks in, they aren’t very excited anymore because they know they can’t fill all the orders. On a much smaller scale, that was me – literally.
Expansion
At this point, I had a big decision to make. It was not feasible to continue the way things were currently. I was exhausted and didn’t have any free time. It was time to scale back. Luckily my business classes gave me the skills to know what my next move should be. The most fundamental concept of economics says that when price goes up demand goes down. So, I raised my price until I noticed a decrease in demand. However, word was spreading, and I was still getting more demand than I could handle. I decided to reformat my classes to teach less often but with more people in each class. After making this adjustment, not only was I earning more money per person, but I was earning more money per session. I was spending my teaching time more efficiently and I had more free time on the weekends.
Demanding and Branding
After a few more price adjustments and class format changes, there was still too much demand. I realized demand was increasing because I was becoming the “premiere” brand in Greenville, beating out retailers like Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, and Hancock’s Fabrics. Eventually, I moved my classes out of my house and started teaching classes for the Greenville, SC Parks and Recreation community center. Again, I raised the price so that I could cover the rental fees. Moving to the community center had the opposite effect from what I was expecting. Not only did the price hike not deter demand, but I was getting more publicity. After teaching at the community center for a few weeks, Furman University contacted me. They wanted me to teach for their continuing education program. Furman University!
Go Big Or Go Home!
My students were “bitten by the sewing bug,” and wanted to learn more advanced skills. As the old saying goes, “Go big or go home!” It was time to put my business skills to the test in a big way.
Market Research And Social Media
After conducting external research about the Greenville community at large, I realized that it was growing by leaps and bounds. New industry was coming to town which brought in new people. The downtown area, where I lived, was becoming revitalized; new restaurants, new developments, new retail. Property values were sky rocking, which meant I could charge even more money. The best part was that Greenville was becoming known for its creative atmosphere. Crafty businesses were popping up all over the place; farm-to-table restaurants, theatre companies, folk-rock bands, art galleries, craft beers, wineries, distilleries. The list goes on and on.
After being satisfied with the economic state of Greenville, I conducted a competition analysis and found that Hancock’s Fabrics and Michael’s had stopped teaching sewing lessons. And the classes at Hobby Lobby weren’t filling up. I was confident this was because their students were now taking lessons from me. I also found that my only direct competitor was a lady who had been teaching for 40+ years. Even though she had a more in-depth knowledge of sewing than I did, she couldn’t relate with customers in the new creative movement. She had a website, but it was from the early days of the internet and wasn’t user friendly. Many of my customers said they chose me because of my website. This showed me the power of online marketing. And the competitor analysis showed me firsthand how valuable a growth mindset and flexibility are. A company must offer relevant products to remain sustainable.
As part of my market research, I interviewed other entrepreneurs in the area to get their perspective and ask advice. Amazingly, many of these business owners offered to be my mentor throughout this process. There were several nuggets of wisdom that they ALL told me. 1) They said it was going to be very difficult to get a business off the ground. 2) I needed to pace myself because it would take at least 5 years before the company would be solid. 3) They also said I needed a strong support system at home and at work to be successful.
I'm In The Big League Now!
A year after I made that little tweak to my website, I quit my day job, signed a lease for a studio space, was charging an arm and leg for sewing lessons, and I still had a full house for every class offering. Six months after moving to the studio, I had 3 teachers working for me, increased the number of beginning classes offered, expanded class offerings to include knitting, crochet, and intermediate sewing.
During that time, I also gained a solid online presence, filmed an episode on the PBS TV show “Sew It All,” and was published in the national trade magazines Sew It All and Sew News. The year after that was also successful. I started a monthly sewing club for my students who wanted advanced lessons, and I had also been approached by Brother sewing machine company to partner with them to sell machines. Going down this road would have required me to move out of my studio and into a retail space, which would exceed my risk tolerance. So, I declined the offer.
Branching Out
In Washington, D.C. I used to attend pottery lessons at the Torpedo Factory. It was essentially a Makerspace where a diverse group of creatives come together in a shared studio space to work, teach and be in community with one another. This is the business model I wanted to transition my business into. Even though I had already expanded into different fabric arts, I wanted an even more diverse group of artists and class offerings. After trying to recruit different people, I realized the one major drawback to bringing people on board was the name of my business. It was named after me, Elizabeth Chandler. (my married name was Chandler). This business name was not going to work in the long run. So, I created a new business called Makerspace Exchange. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to devote enough attention to this business for various reasons and it never really took off. Opening a makerspace is still a goal I would like to fulfill… someday.
Moving Onward And Upward
One of the reasons I couldn’t devote enough attention to Makerspace Exchange is because my personal brand, Elizabeth Chandler Designs was still taking off. Three years after I moved into the studio, another well-known company in the sewing world, Dritz, approached me. They wanted me to film a series of how-to quilting videos which would be published on their website. This was my lucky break! Not only was I going to be featured on a website for a well-known international sewing brand, but I would be able to film at my studio with my logo and theirs, prominently featured behind me. I jumped at the chance to do it. Unfortunately, at this same time, there were many things in my personal life that needed my full attention. A few weeks after I accepted the Dritz job, I realized I couldn’t move on professionally until I balanced out my personal life. Sadly, I knew closing my business was my next move. It was agonizing to go back to Dritz and tell them I couldn’t fulfill my contract.
Even though my business didn’t turn out like I expected, it was a success! My business taught me that I’m intuitively entrepreneurial, I’m a good teacher, and a lot of people want to learn from me – not just locally, but nationally and internationally. One of the reasons it didn’t work out long term was because a business cannot be wholly successful unless home life and work life are balanced – after all, there is only one life. I didn’t notice what was going on because I lost sight of what my values were. I was too focused on becoming the next crafting superstar. I failed to listen to the entrepreneurs that told me it was going to be tough. I didn’t pace myself and I didn’t listen to them when they said I needed a strong support system. I thought I could do it all, and I thought I could do it all by myself.
When people ask me if I would do this all over again. Hell yeah I would! It was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. I felt like I had purpose and meaning. If I ever get the chance to do it again, I would do it a lot differently. For one thing, I would listen to and ask more questions of other entrepreneurs. Secondly, I would make sure I was living a balanced, value driven life full of self-care.