Here Endeth the Lesson

          By the fall of 2012, my transition was complete.  I had gone from a disinterested bystander of my wife's hobby to a full time job as the co-owner of a quilt shop.  If a customer wants low loft fusible batting I know what they're talking about. I'm knowledgeable about shot cottons, eyelash yarn and and greige goods. I also know that long stemmed Egyptian cotton is the best for thread, and that high quality thread is double gassed so that it creates less lint when it's used in a sewing machine.  Etc., etc., etc. The rest of the journey is a lot of "inside baseball" stuff about the quilting business that bores me to write it.  I can imagine how boring it would be to read it.  So the blog stops here.  If you want to keep up with what we're doing at Judy Lea's Quilt Studio, you can check out our Facebook Page or sign up for our newsletter at www.judyleasquiltstudio.com.
          Some final observations.  In the dark times of 2009 I wasn't sure if I would ever work again.  It's a sad fact that after you reach your mid fifties, you're basically unemployable.  In a professional or managerial position, you typically have a 42 year old hiring manager interviewing 38 year olds who have achieved about as much as you have, just not as many times.  As someone once said, "people don't want to hire their parents friends to work for them".   If you apply for a more menial job, the hiring manager looks at you and thinks, "this guy has worked for 30 years and he wants this (crummy) job?  He must have something wrong with him".  Realistically you only have only 2 choices, get hired by an ex colleague, or create your own job by starting a business.
          The situation that I ended up in is pretty sweet.  I can walk to work.  Judy and I have total control over the hours we work, how the shop runs and all other issues therein.  The pressure on us is fairly low. We could close the shop tomorrow, liquidate the inventory, go home and retire for good. Or we could go back to doing quilt shows and travel around the country again.  The building will eventually be sold and we'll at least recover the money we spent on renovations.  I've read articles where people say that they're going to continue to work after retiring.  Say what??  I thought retirement meant that you quit working.  What they mean to say is they want a job that is fun and fulfilling.  Not the stress filled, soul crushing, back breaking job that you need to support a family and "get ahead".   I've got the perfect "retirement job".
          The job does have it's stresses, and so far Judy and I haven't been able to take much money out of the business.  Not a surprise.  I was speaking with the owner of a big quilt shop, and he said that he wasn't able to take money out for the first 4 years.
          Some advice for those of you that might want to do the same thing as Judy and I did.  You're marriage needs to be rock solid.  You'll be spending 24/7 with your spouse, and all the stresses of running a business will cross over to your relationship.  I'm a very lucky man in this regard.  This September Judy and I will be celebrating our 44th wedding anniversary.  We've had our ups and downs, but in the end we've been a great team.
          They say that life is what happens to you when you're making other plans.  I can testify to that.  Thanks for reading my blog.
          
         

Was it worth it?

          The building was opened and sales were on the rise.  Was it worth it?  From a financial perspective, absolutely not.  Virginia could have simply invested $5,000 to $10,000 to clean up the duplex and brought in renters.  The real estate agent who sold us the building pulled no punches. "The people who rent these kinds of places do not live like you do." she said,  "You don't need stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops.  Just make sure that everything is clean and in working order."   Virginia could have made 10 times the rent we were paying her by doing that.  Moreover, the building would be much more saleable as a duplex with renters than as a commercial building.
          As for Judy and me, we'd have to be in business another 50 years to pay for the renovations through our business profits.  Profit margins are extremely thin in the retail industry, more so in the Arts and Crafts retail space.   According to our trade association, the typical quilt shop owner makes less than $10,000 per year.  34% pay themselves nothing at all. 
          If not for the money, why did we do it?  For Virginia, the renovation was something to do and when it was completed, a place to hang out every day.  For Judy, she gets to pursue her art and hang out with other quilting enthusiasts.   Essentially, the building is a super duper sewing room with friends that  give you money.  Plus, she can spend lots and lots of money buying fabric, thread and other things.  For me, I finally had a full time job.   The year I was unemployed was agony.  I'd been working since I was 15 and have derived a good deal of my self worth from my job and being the breadwinner.  I'm not judging anyone who is enjoying their retirement, but I just have to have to have a job.        
          As I mentioned in a previous post, every business large or small must address the same issues.  I'm constantly dealing with marketing, sales, information technology, facilities management, staffing, logistics, finance, customer service, telecommunications, insurance, taxes and regulations.  The explosion of social media has turned me into an Internet marketing maven.  I'm responsible for a Web site and a Web Store.  We're on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and of course this blog.  I write and publish online newsletters twice a month.  A great deal of business is done on email, which must be monitored constantly.  I love the intellectual stimulation.  Best of all, there's the basic human joy of setting a challenging goal and achieving it.
          Was it worth it?  Absolutely. 

         

We Get Lucky

         Mid April of 2012 the building was ready.  However, before we could have our grand opening we had to fulfill our contract to return to the AQS show in Paducah.  No problem.  We figured that since we did so well during the flooded out show in 2011, we could do even better with a bigger booth and more experience.  The profits from Paducah would help pay for the renovations. Wrong!  With no floods our competitors were out for blood, including Eleanor Burns and her warehouses full of discount fabric.  Our sales were 15% less than the year before and costs were double.  We headed back to Concord lighter in the wallet.
        Our Grand Opening of the new shop was the first weekend in May.  We had a big party, lots of goodies and made decent sales numbers that day.  Father Jay, the Assistant Pastor of our church came and blessed us, the business and everybody there.
          We were off to a good start and waited for customers to pour in.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  May,  June and July we would go days without a single customer.  We worked our mailing list, advertised in the local newspaper, were on Google places, YP.com, the national Yellow Pages, The Quilters Travel Companion and the Quilt Shop Navigator.  I had given a presentation to our local quilt guild, which meets around the corner from the shop.    We were on Facebook and had a Web site.  Still, not much sales. Judy was having hysterics.  She told me and Virginia, "If business doesn't pick up by January, I'm liquidating the inventory, going into my sewing room (at home) and never coming out again!"  "Just once in my life I'd like to have a successful business!"  She had conveniently forgotten about the Stained Glass Studio she and Virginia had in the 1980's.  That one was quite a success.

Our 15 minutes of fame!

          August sales were a bit better, and then we caught a couple of lucky breaks.  Whether it was Father Jay's blessing or just dumb luck, in August we got a call from Lisa Thornton, a reporter for the Charlotte Observer.  They wanted to profile our business for the Local Section of the Sunday paper.  We were thrilled.   The article ran the week before labor day.   Business started picking up immediately.
          Then came our big break.  Susan Edmonson, a nationally recognized fiber artist and teacher who lives in Concord showed up one day.  She wanted to rent out part of the studio to teach her classes.  She had an ongoing monthly class (known in the trade as a "Block of the Month Club") that she wanted to bring in right away.  Later we could discuss what other classes she might want to teach at the studio.  This was a great deal for us because her students would be in the shop once a month and would buy supplies for the class and whatever else we could sell them.  After we agreed to the financial arrangements, we asked Susan how many students she would be bringing in.  Nineteen.   Nineteen!!  We only had 3 parking spaces and 200 square feet of classroom space!  We would make do.  I hustled over to the Church across the street to see if Pastor Pickett would allow us use their parking lot for the overflow.  No problem.  They now use our parking lot for their overflow on Sundays and we use theirs during the week.  We expanded our classroom and bought another big table.  The first day of class I played parking lot attendant and things went fine.  To this day Susan and her students have been a cornerstone of our business. As an added bonus, Susan is a wonderful, vibrant person who's fun to be around.
          New customers from the newspaper article, Susan and her students, and organic growth from just being there finally got the studio going.   Once again I learned the lesson that success takes a little bit of luck.
       
               

"The Reveal" as they say on HGTV

Front Kitchen Before

Exterior Before

Living Room/Bedroom Before

 

Front Porch Before

Main Bathroom Before

Exterior After

Front Kitchen After

Front Porch After.  Note that the tree is gone.

Front Living Room/Bedroom After

Main Bathroom After

Front Living Room After

Formerly a Vacant Lot

The renovations cost more than the purchase price of the property.  In addition to cosmetic items like cleaning and painting, We moved walls, installed a complete heating and air conditioning system, reinforced the floors, totally rewired the building, added a kitchen, remodeled two bathrooms, replaced all 14 windows, installed new flooring in the showrooms and refinished the floors in the classroom, installed all new lighting, purchased display cases/furniture, built a 38 foot handicapped ramp and a parking lot, and landscaped the property.  It took over 6 months start to finish.  It was truly a family affair. Our son Andrew, our son-in-law Cid, Virginia, our daughter-in-law Terri, Andrew's brother-in-law Trevor, Judy and I all worked major hours on the project.    A special shout out to Andrew. Couldn't have done it without him.  Also, the County Building Department and the City of Concord were helpful and friendly throughout.  I think they took pity on the novice General Contractor (me).  Also, I think they appreciated the fact that we had improved the area.
          Judy and I figured that all we had to do next was open the doors and wait for the customers to come pouring in.  The underwhelming response to the new shop was our next big shock.

Coming Down the Home Stretch

          There was one last major item on the renovation list.  Turning the vacant lot next door in a parking lot.  There was a small problem with that.  We were running out of money.  Renovation costs were 300% above our somewhat naive estimates.  So Virginia came to the rescue and volunteered to pay for the parking lot.  She also agreed to finance the 14 new windows (all with ultraviolet protection for the fabric) by raising our rent.  Once the windows were paid for our rent would fall to what we had originally agreed to.  One more financial note. During the renovations a branch from a gigantic dead tree on the property fell in the street and landed on a car.  Virginia paid for the damage to the car and we paid for the tree to be removed (about $2,000). The parking lot construction went on without a hitch. Interestingly, with the price of oil, concrete was cheaper than asphalt, which was great with us.  At that point we had 18 building inspections. We passed all but one.  The plumber had installed the wrong type of toilet seat in the rest room.  A quick trip to Home Depot fixed that.
          The last inspection we had to pass was for the parking lot.  By then Judy and I had been working on the renovation for 5 months and we were really desperate to get the shop open and generate some revenue. We had visions of losing everything and ending up pushing shopping carts full of junk down Main Street. The building inspector didn't need to be there for the parking lot inspection, so Judy and I were driving when he called.  "The parking lot looks just fine" he said, "but I can't find your backflow preventer."  Our what? backflow preventer? What in the hell is a backflow preventer?  Did it have to do with the parking lot?  Judy and I hurried over to our architect's office to see what we needed to do.  Ginger explained to us that a backflow preventer is a plumbing device required on all commercial buildings.  It's there so that if the city water pressure fails, the water in your pipes won't "flow back" into the city drinking water.   When you drive by a commercial building you'll often see what looks like a big rock on the lawn.  That's the cover for their backflow preventer.  So we called our plumber.  He was shocked.  "A backflow preventer for that (little) building? You've got to be kidding.  We're going to have to dig up the front yard to install it.  Getting the device in will cost around $1,800.  See if they'll allow you to install a double check valve instead."  The city agreed to the double check valve, and for a mere $700 we had a building that was ready to go.
          What wasn't ready to go was our inventory.  We had enough for a 200 square foot quilt show booth, and that was primarily fabric.  We needed to increase our inventory by a minimum of 250%, and order things such as thread, notions and sewing tools.  Things we never sold at the shows.
           April 2012 Judy, Virginia and I headed to Paducah to sell at the AQS show and upon our return, we were ready for our grand opening.

         


         

Judy picks a color for the building exterior. I take no responsibility.

          Renovations were going smoothly.  Building inspectors were approving the work (even though our carpenters kept changing our architect's plans). 
          So now it was time for the next big decision.  We had to decide on he exterior color of the building and choose a painter.  After about 30 seconds thought, we realized that we couldn't paint the exterior ourselves.  Judy's mother Virginia was visiting paint stores picking up business cards of painters.  After meeting with a couple, we settled on Jesus.  For those of you who are not Spanish speakers, that's pronounced "hey SOOS".  Jesus had that hard working immigrant mentality that I admire so much.  More importantly, he worked cheap.  We agreed to buy the paint, and his crew would take it from there.  Judy headed over to the Home Depot to pick out paint.   She chose a color called "California Lilac".  Sounded good to me.  Kind of quilt shop like.  When Jesus took the lid off the first can he and I gasped.  It was bright lavender.  And I mean BRIGHT LAVENDER.  He looked at Judy and said "you really want me to paint the building that color?".    Judy smiled and said "Yes I do.  At least people will know where we are.  And besides that, once paint is mixed you can't return it."  Jesus shrugged his shoulders as if to say "OK Senora, your the boss."  I hoped it wouldn't look so bright once it was applied.  It was a forlorn hope.
          As the paint was applied we became the talk of the town.  Cars would slow down as they drove by the building.  At our Vet's office and I mentioned the building. Dr. Moore asked "Are you going to keep it that color?"  I said "Yes we are.  That's the color".   The look on Dr. Moore's face was "Oops, I stuck my foot in my mouth on that one", and she quickly changed the subject to the treatment of our dog's ailment.  Virginia visited the building as it was being painted and had to be revived.  Remember, she's the property owner.  "What's wrong with beige?  Or white?" she asked.   Judy and Virginia got into a heated discussion which ended with Judy saying "If you want to buy all new paint yourself mother, go right ahead!"  After a lot of teeth grinding, Virginia relented and the painting went forward.
          I have to give Judy credit.  She took flak from everybody for a decision was one of the best we made.  Our sign was the color of our building.  All you had to do to give directions was say "go to the lavender house on McGill."  At church, at the bank or talking to strangers, we would tell them about the shop and they would say "That's that purple house, isn't it?"  Or words to that effect.  "All in the lavender house" is on our business cards.
          We were coming to our last big project, the parking lot.

Our Next Big Renovation Issue

The renovation of the duplex into a quilt shop was proceeding nicely, if slowly.  When you watch renovation shows on HGTV the renovation is always wrapped up in a hour (with commercials).  If you watch those shows, be sure to catch a little phrase they use before revealing the final results -"months later".  Judy and I were getting desperate to get the building open and our Certificate of Occupancy approved so we could open the shop and start recouping some of our money.
That said, carpenters were building, plumbers were plumbing and electricians were electrifying.  It was time to address a big issue - flooring.  The duplex consisted of 6 equal boxes.  Living room, bedroom and kitchen in the front, living room bedroom and kitchen in the back.  Small bathrooms were attached to each duplex. The living room and bedroom in the front was carpeted and the living room and bedroom in the back was hardwood.  Both kitchen floors had linoleum that had seen better days 30 years ago.  The back was where the eye-watering odor of cat urine was.
The easiest way to start on the flooring seemed to be to remove the carpet from the front duplex.  Oh yeah?  The carpet had been glued to the subfloor so that when you pulled it up it split off from the mesh it was sewn on.  A gluey mess remained on the floor.  Not to mention that it was back breaking labor for an old man like me.  I was down to the last piece of carpet and couldn't get it to budge. My 38 year old son happened to be there at the time.  He walked over too the spot and yanked it out like it was nothing.  Oh well.  Carpet and linoleum gone we contacted a flooring contractor and ordered flooring for the front duplex which would be our showroom.  I asked the contractor if he could get the carpet residue up before laying the floor.  He was aghast.  "That residue is full of asbestos" he said.  "If we do that you're going to have to do an asbestos abatement and that will cost at least $20,000."  After he picked me up off the floor he told me his plan.  "We'll cover the residue with plywood and lay the floor on top of that."  "That way you won't have to do the asbestos abatement."  Whew!
The next task was to tackle the cat odor.  As you may recall from a previous post, our veterinarian told us that it is impossible to remove the smell of cat urine from hardwood.  The best plan would be to remove the whole floor in the back and throw it away.  We didn't have the budget for that, so using sophisticated olfactory instruments (our noses) we determined that there were 3 kitty restrooms in the back.  We replaced the flooring and baseboards from those 3 spots, refinished the floors and painted the walls and ceilings. That took care of the odor.
In my next post I'll get to a most interesting decision  - the color of the building.