5 Things Sewing Businesses Waste Time & Money On

When running a business selling the items you sew, you need to be very cautious of what you spend time and money on.

To have a business, you need to be profitable. And time and money spent outside production costs tend to eat into profits the most.

It’s easy for consumers to justify spending more money because an item uses a high-quality/expensive material.

But consumers don’t see the time and money you spend on the elements surrounding your products. But those costs must be worked into your prices…so it’s best to keep them low.

Here are 5 things that can unnecessarily increase your costs and may be a waste of your time.

 

1 – Creating

It’s an easy trap to fall into…you want to increase sales, and creating a new product seems like the most obvious solution.

It may be offering an existing product in more colors/sizes/shapes/etc, or introducing a new design.

There is a time and place for new products.

But product launches should be thoughtfully planned and purposeful.

Before you start creating new products, you should have a clear idea of:

• The purpose of a new product will serve in your product line
• Who you’re creating the product for
• If there is a demand for the new product

Creating is a big part of your business. However, it’s important to create mindfully so you’re not spending time and money creating new products that don’t serve a clear purpose for your business and customers.

 

2 – Chasing customers

Finding customers is typically the hardest part of running any business.

Which is why it’s a good strategy to find a profitable target market and then create products for them.

When you don’t have a clear idea of who your target market is, you end up chasing a wide variety of customers. E.g. someone who needs a diaper bag, someone who needs an evening bag, someone who needs a backpack, etc.

And then that feeds into problem #1: creating too many types of products and product options.

When you want more customers, don’t go looking for the different types of customers you can serve.

But rather, get clear on the one customer you want to serve and then discover ways you can better serve them.

Choose a customer/target market you’ll have an easy time finding.

“Women in their 30’s” are everywhere…but how do you find that group when you want to sell to them? That’s pretty difficult.

“Women who practice yoga” is much easier to find because they’re coming together

• in yoga studios
• on yoga blogs
• to follow yoga influencers
• to read yoga magazines
• for yoga retreats and events
• etc.

If I sew bags and decide to target women who practice yoga, I can start sewing yoga bags (like gym bags), yoga mat bags, and bags to store yoga equipment (blocks, straps, mats, etc.).

Then I can market or sell them through yoga:

• studios
• blogs
• influencers
• magazines
• retreats
• etc.

Stop chasing after anyone and everyone who might want to buy your products and instead, find a profitable target market you can easily reach, and then create a business and products for them.

 

3 – Low value marketing

There are many ways to market a business. But most of them will be a waste of your time.

Once you’re clear on your target market, you’ll have a much easier time choosing the right marketing platforms and methods.

Is your target market more likely to be on TikTok or Facebook?

Don’t spend time marketing on both.

Focus your attention on a few effective channels so you can show up consistently and get good at marketing through them.

When planning paid marketing, don’t just throw a bunch of money at something because someone else has had success with it.

Test the waters and ensure you’re making a return on investment. Meaning, if you spent $50 on an ad or to sponsor a post, did that ad create new sales for you? And did it generate enough sales that you made the $50 back and then some?

It can be hard to track the results of your marketing…which means you often don’t know which efforts are sending traffic/customers to you.

So, try to plan your marketing strategically. Don’t post on different platforms at the same time or run ads through different platforms/networks at the same time.

Make one marketing push at a time, track the results as best as you can, then put time and money into the ones that give you the best return on investment while ignoring the others.

 

4 – Following the leader

We all want the magic formula for success. But it can be a huge waste of time to follow someone else’s path to success.

Every business is different, so what worked for one likely won’t work for another.

There are definitely general rules of thumb to follow. And there are very few completely original ideas…so this isn’t about reinventing the wheel.

But at the end of the day, you must put your spin on things so that you not only build a unique business, but also so you’re not blindly following someone else’s advice and are lost without it.

 

5 – Custom orders

Even if you’re building a business on customization (e.g. memory bears), it’s important to set rules and guidelines for what can and cannot be customized and ensure you’re profiting.

I’ve accepted one too many custom orders that had me driving back and forth to the fabric store, sending multiple emails back and forth, and putting extra design hours in, before I even got paid.

Not to mention, I didn’t track those extra costs, so I didn’t get paid for them…even though the custom order cost me double of what a non-custom order did.

If you want to accept custom orders, be sure you have clear guidelines for what can and cannot be customized, and that you’ve calculated the extra costs of customizing so they can be worked into the price.