Life

Well, life got in the way for a short time. Some good things, some bad things. We have a three year old australian shepherd that suffers from a severe case of epilepsy. Basically the drugs give us very little control (three of them now) and the drugs to treat her while having seizures are useless. So every 7-14 days we have a three day run of seizures. Not fun.

On the good side, today I got my driver's license!

I spent a bit of time relaxing tonight working on my Japanese fabric quilt - fabrics my sister living in Japan had sent me a few years back. One thing I learned tonight is that there is always one side of the stitches that pulls out much easier then the other. The other thing I learned is that when you are doing strip quilting pay attention to how many strips you're doing. I now have to pick apart a great deal of strips.
Oh well, lesson learned!

Competition in Business

I'm a great believer in niches. There's space for everyone and everything, you just need to find out who, what, where, and why. When I decided that I wanted to open my own store I looked at similar stores in the area. There are the typical fabric stores like fabricland and a few independents. I haven't actually been to any of them and hope to make a visit in the next few weeks. I don't want to carry the same things as they do, I'd like to be complimentary, if I can. One thing to think about is demographics. When I worked for "BIGNAMERETAILER" they actually hired a consultant who looked at population, growth, spending habits etc. Obviously I can't do this, but I can look at the populations surrounding me currently, and what they will grow to in the next ten years. I can look at the stores currently in town, and see if I can figure out what makes one successful over another. Location? Quantity of product? Customer Service? I see locations in town that have had retailer after retailer open and close in the same location, so obviously that is a big clue. I guess it's true what they say, LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!

Japanese Fabric

I'm lucky, my sister has lived in Japan for the last five years or so. She's sent me some wonderful fabrics and I'm pretty interested in perhaps carrying some of them. I've spent a few days work on a quilt using some of what she's sent me, mixed in with a main color to make the Japanese fabric go a bit further.
I've just finished sewing a huge amounts of  strips for and ironing the seam and I'm really liking the way they're coming together, and I love the fabric. It sews nicely and irons nicely.
And speaking of sewing, I broke down and bought a new sewing machine this year. A fancy one, though not over the top. I've had a lot of trouble with the tension and was *this* close to bringing it in when I realized I hadn't been threading the drop in bobbin correctly. Oops! This should be a lesson, read the INSTRUCTIONS!
I kind of long for my old fashioned front loading bobbin... but this one has some fancy stitches I'm excited to try!
I found some pictures today of a store using what looks like Ikea shelves for their fabric. I like the way this looks, though I'm also thinking of lifting the shelves off the floor. I'd also like the fabric to only run in the centre of the shelves, leaving the bottom for such things as batting, and the top shelves for books and merchandising (quilts etc.) I have a shopping list for Ikea and hoped to get there today but it didn't happen. I'd like to do some experimenting with fitting the bolts of fabric and perhaps using some of the extra shelves for book/magazine holders or doors.

First Post!

Well, I've started this blog to trace the history of my *maybe* store. After working in design and construction for the past 15+ years (lets leave it at 15+) I've decided it's time for a career change. Part of this is because the constant computer work has destroyed my wrists (I've had carpal tunnel release surgery on both wrists) and part of is just needing something new. I want to work doing something I enjoy, and I also want to be my own boss.
So for years now I've designed retail stores as well as the construction drawings to build them. I've got an odd sense of what works for retail, visually, signage etc.
I think I can do this!
For the last month I've been doing research into opening a business. It was fairly broad at first but now I'm starting to narrow it down. At first I was thinking of fabric/quilting, yarn/crochet/knitting and cross-stitch, but I think the key is to narrow it down, specialize and make myself stand out with DIFFERENT.
I want fabrics that you can't find just anywhere, and a location that make people want to drive for an hour to get there and hang out. I'd like to have a lesson area, even if I need to hire someone with more experience for classes. I can visualize it in my head right now (though I don't think the location exists here to fit)
I think Mission is a good location. We're poised for huge growth in the next ten years with huge new developments in Silverdale (and hopefully the waterfront) and the district really wants to encourage people working in the place they live. So there you go.. it's a start anyway!