Small business for a woman: pillow making

A person who has some hobby will sooner or later begin to think about whether it is possible to extract some kind of benefit from his favorite pastime, for example, financially. Such thoughts may come at various moments in life; in addition, they are often preceded by certain circumstances, which, as you know, are different for everyone.

In this article, we will analyze the main aspects of how to make a source of additional income (albeit small at first) out of your favorite pastime. Particular attention in the article will be given to women.

So, let’s say a woman sews well, but at the moment she is not working, but is sitting at home with her child. Or she is just a housewife who is tired of constant household chores and also wants to participate in the formation of the family budget.

Where to start?

There are 5 main points that will help you bring your idea to life – these are:
Business idea
Determining the target audience
Business processes
Business plan
Bringing to life

Let’s consider each of them in detail:

Business is an idea
In general, when thinking about any project, the most important thing is to start with an idea. A well-defined business idea is half the success. That is, if you love to sew, then sewing will become your main activity. Since the next step is to determine the target audience, then, going back, you should stop and think about what exactly you will sew. For example, consider sewing pillows.
Of course, you can also sew more serious things, such as dresses, suits or elaborate outfits, but this requires experience, certain skills, and most importantly, the trust of customers, which is quite difficult to win at the initial stage. So let’s focus on pillows. Pillows were determined with a business idea.

Target audience
After you have decided to sew pillows, determine what they will be – classic or gift. It makes sense to make pillows as a gift, which will be smaller models than those on which people are used to sleeping. And gift pillows are good because you can embroider something unusual, beautiful and individual on them. An additional plus is that no one else will have such a pillow.
That is, the target audience in this case will be friends, acquaintances, acquaintances of friends, etc. After you manage to prove yourself, you will have both regular customers and third-party customers, but not all at once.

Business processes

Business processes allow you to more clearly trace the entire path of the pillow in this case, from the performer (that is, you) to the client.
To make it more clear, take a piece of paper and draw with a pen how you imagine your small business. Think carefully about what you need. In this case, there is only one process, the movement of the pillow from you to the client, but here there are additional sub-processes. These include: material, accessories, pillow fillers, spare parts for a sewing machine, people through whom you will find your first customers, etc. Draw arrows from one object to another – this will allow you to identify the weakest points of the project at the initial stage. Using this method, you will be able to schematically depict everyone who is planned to be involved in the implementation of a business project.
By the way, in this case, the arrows between objects are transactions, the movement of which, over time, must be clear and debugged.

Business plan

A business plan is the basis of any business, as it takes into account all possible options for developing your own business. The business plan should clearly reflect the financial, organizational and marketing components.
Of course, at the first stage, your business plan will be quite simple; most importantly, it should be able to visually demonstrate the balance of expenses and income. To do this, simply write down how much money was spent per week or month and how much money it brought in the end. After that, divide the amount of income by the amount of expenses, and you will get the profitability of products, that is, you will see how much money each ruble spent brought.
By comparing the results over and over again, you can see in which direction your business is moving in order to correct it if necessary.

And finally, implementation.

This stage summarizes all the previous ones and brings your business idea to life. You should start with small volumes of production, gradually establishing distribution channels and finding new potential customers.

Helpful Tips

Since we are talking about tailoring pillows to order, it would be appropriate to give practical advice that will help establish sales.

Where to begin?

We have already said above that first you need to make several copies of the pillows and just give them to someone. Buyers are unlikely to find themselves right away, so it makes sense to start focusing on gift options. Decorative pillows can be sewn from cotton, cambric, calico, velvet, batting, calico, plush, velveteen, jacquard, crepe or crepe-satin. Velor, silk, leather strips are best used as pillow decor elements. Brocade and satin are ideal for creating festive options that will be used exclusively for decorative purposes.
As for the filler for the pillow, it can be a synthetic winterizer, synthetic winterizer, foam rubber (if we are talking about a pillow-roller), fibertek, fabric patches. You should not use cotton wool as a filler, as it most often wrinkles inside the pillow and strays into lumps.

Make the first 5-6 pillows measuring 35×35 or 40×40 cm. For each of them, use different fabrics, both in texture and in price. This will help to identify which of the pillows people will like the most. It will be even better if you time the gift for any holiday. If it is a birthday, then on the pillow you can depict lines of congratulations on your birthday or any other event. The pillow can be decorated in absolutely any way – it can depict beautiful landscapes, the coat of arms of a football team, the image of world monuments, or simply make a printed pattern. There are many options, you just have to choose. Yes, and during the work, be sure to write down how many resources were spent in terms of value.

After you sew a few pillows and give them to people, someone will definitely ask you where you got these pillows and if you can order another one. Yes, yes, this will be the start of your business. Important: be sure to take pictures of your work, and make sure that the quality of the shooting is up to the mark.

We are looking for clients

Even though word of mouth works great, you need to take extra care of potential distribution channels. Recently, advertising in social networks has gained particular popularity, where the main promotion tool is the recommendation of friends and acquaintances. On the Internet, this is called "repost" or "repost" (from the English repost). Use well-known social networks, regardless of whether you sit in them yourself or not. Use the ones your friends are in, ask them to recommend your page to their other friends.

But you need to do this only if you have completed at least 12-15 works to order. Since for the page you need photos of the work performed. In addition, a person who previously ordered a pillow from you and was satisfied with the result will probably write words of gratitude in the comments. And this will play into the hands.

Be sure to create a page for your business on Instagram, where you post photos of the work done with a description of each individual pillow.

About price

The price of the issue is a very important factor in all respects. Mentally consider how much profit from each pillow will be a satisfactory result for you. Do not set the bar too high – most often in such cases 30-50% of the cost of work is added, but 50% is already for very good quality goods.
Always remember that overcharging every month is stupid and you will lose all customers. Stop at a price that will satisfy you, and keep the bar for a long time, at least six months.

Legal registration

Sooner or later, the question will arise of the need to give legal form to your business. This means that the case will need to be registered. Most often in such cases, the status of an individual entrepreneur is issued. In this case, a legal entity may not be created at the first stage.
By the way, after registration with the authorized tax authorities, you will be offered a choice of any tax payment formula: OSNO, USN, UTII, PSN and ESHN. The tax will be calculated for you at the end of the first financial year; compared to other legal statuses, for individual entrepreneurs it is minimal.

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