Biggest Struggle as a Female Entrepreneur

The other day I posted a blog to raise your hand and ask me a question. I must have been a mind reader because the suggested topic for today’s blog is Ask Me Anything! So today I will write about a question asked on my previous blog. What’s your biggest struggle as a female entrepreneur was asked by my blogger friend Lisa C, you may want to check out her blog Becoming Healthier and Becoming Better too!

I’m going to start at the beginning for those who don’t know the history our my sewing business. I started a small alterations and dressmaking business way back in the late 1960’s. We lived in a small rural town so I wasn’t really expecting too much.

I hung a “Dressmaking” sign over our mailbox and make up some business cards and that was my only advertising. I ended up having people stop for hemming and zipper replacements jobs for starters. Before long I was making dresses, prom gowns and even bridal and the attendants gowns. My next phase was making men’s suits. I kept Rich in some pretty fancy duds with navy blue wide bell bottoms and a plaid insert at the bottom to make them even wider! The jacket was the same blue with cuffs, yokes and collar of the plaid.

Dressmaking was going great and one by one I had customers ask about making other products. I added valances, draperies, bedding and bath ensembles to my product list.

Fast forward a few years and our country doctor was having a gathering of doctors but their cat had clawed the sofa. His wife called frantically asking if I would make a slipcover. I had never ventured into slipcovers but I also wouldn’t know if I could complete this task if I didn’t try. So fabric, pins and scissors in hand, I went to their house and make my first slipcover! She was so happy with it and I was too! So now I was into the slipcover business as well.

Since draperies and slipcovers took much more room than a tiny corner in our dining room, we turned the basement into my workroom. Rich built a 48″ x 96″ table from plywood and covered it with padding and canvas. As my projects grew, so did the table. The next one he built was 60″ x 144″ and I was now in full blown operation.

It was this time when I realized I was going in so many directions between hemmings, gowns, draperies and slipcovers and was so busy I decided to set my priorities on my favorite… the interior decorating items.

Fast forward again in 1994 when we relocated to South Carolina and I opened a retail location with the front being for fabrics and decorating items and the back was the workroom where we fabricated our custom products. The original table built was too large to get out of our basement so Rich made a new one with lots of shelves underneath for the fabric rolls and supplies.

I love being creative and coming up with one of a kind designs for our clients. They in turn were happy with their new look and would recommend us to others. The business kept growing through referrals and recommendations that were were times we worked around the clock.

With all my space in the workroom I could fabricate just about anything and any size window treatments. My favorite part of my business was when I could look at a window and design my own creation. I would start out with drawings, then add them to the windows. From there I completed the finished product.

BUT NOW FOR THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION!!

I think you can see I loved creating even when some were a challenge. I really never had any struggles since I started out small without needing any funding because all I needed was my sewing machine which I already had. As my business grew, I purchased different machines for the different jobs but I used saving and still no funding needed.

For over 50 years I sewed so many different items and I enjoyed every minute. So much that it really didn’t seem like work. But I did have one struggle and that was coming up with a price list for the different products. To me I would have to say that was the toughest. I never checked around with the other shops to see their prices or whether we would have enough work, I just took everything day by day.

I came up with a plan to figure the cost of the items needed for a project then plug in the approximate number of hours to complete it. If my prices were in line with what I needed for my expenses I was happy.

The only other struggle was if Rich or I had major health issues, what would happen to our business. Luck was on our side and again with wonderful clients, if we had an emergency they were very understanding. However I was stressed with the thought that we wouldn’t make our deadline but all worked out well over all these years.

I had a great business, wonderful clients, my bills were paid and I was super happy. Even after we retired in 2018, we still have our clients calling or stopping by to check up on us and let us know they still have their treatments we made many, many years ago.