Building a Business

It's been interesting, over the last year or so, to watch a friend turn a hobby into a small business.

Word of mouth is terrific!

Like many hobbyists who work in fabric, Liz had developed a HUGE pile of scrap fabric... But what to do with it?  Then she got the idea to make cute little aprons with those leftovers and, later, purses from this same fabric treasure trove.  By now, of course, she's running out to buy more fabric!

This growing business gives Liz a great way to exercise her fantastic eye for color and pattern.  (No kiddin' the girl can match beiges without a sample along with her in the store!  Amazing eye and memory for color.) Because... her friends like the products.  REALLY like the products.  At this point she's finished her fifth set of  purses for a wedding; each bridesmaid getting a coordinated purse holding, usually, the traditional gift of jewelry from the bride.  These sets (or just, you know, one solo purse) can be as customized as desired... pick yer fabrics, pick yer linings if you want, pick vintage decoration...  suit yerself.

Very very popular!

Today I'm happy to announce the opening of her brand-new on-line store Liz's Whimsies.  Check it out!

Word of mouth?  Alice says she shops here!

Architecture in the Mail

The website BiblioOdyssey has a fun post on vintage business letterhead featuring architectural renderings, from the Biggert Collection at Columbia University's Avery Architectural Library.

This page is my favorite: how proud the company is of their split rivets!  And of their building.  There's something wonderful about this honest pride in creating a useful product.

Columbia University, Avery Architectural Library, Robert Biggert Collection

Believed fair use.

Set Designer's Life - Reimbursibles

This is the hardest thing...  As a designer, you have to save receipts for everything you buy for a show and then turn them in to be reimbursed!


I know this doesn't sound that hard - BIZ 101 - but it's surprisingly hard to follow through on.  You forget to label the receipt immediately because you're grappling with cards or cash, wallet, purchase, there's someone waiting on you and so on.  You lose or mis-file the receipt.  You're so darn busy finishing the show that you put off organizing receipts.  Time passes...  A year later, as you do your taxes, you realize that you forgot to ask for repayment and that all those forgot-to-asks add up to a tidy sum.  Maybe a car payment.

So today I'm herding a sliding mess of tiny, slippery receipt slips across my desk, trying to catch up.  Yuck.

Taxes!

Aaaargh!  Hate doing taxes.  I'm figuring mileage... apparently I did nothing last year but sit in the car (some days did feel like that), because my business miles are way up from the previous year.  Then again, much of my work was in Fort Worth (a 100 mile jaunt) and I had a show in Oklahoma City.

Why am I surprised?