Starting your own business is a big decision and undertaking. You will need to research your market and educate yourself on all the legal requirements that you will need to adhere to. The following are just a few pointers on where to start your research and find the information that you may require.
This site will give you nearly all the information (plus lots you might not want to hear):Â www.business.gov.au
You will need to educate yourself on the following requirements:
Registering your business name (if you choose to have a different name to your own)• Registering for an ABN to enable you to legally purchase wholesale• Registering for GST. Please ask for advice from your accountant to fully understand the requirements of
GST and tax returns etc
• Checking with your local council regarding running a business from your chosen location.
• Business Insurance – public liability insurance. (your homeowners policy will NOT cover you if you
are running a business from home)
Once you have achieved all this however, you will be ready to fly high and run your own business to suit YOUR personal time constraints and those of your family. Running a business from home is hard work but can be extremely rewarding.
• Just imagine being able to be home with your children, husband, parents etc for whenever they need you.
• Being able to go to work in your jammies if you choose to do so.
• Set your own working hours that suit YOU rather than an employer.
This is my work order that you can develop your own from. You are welcome to download this pdf and use the parts that suit you and your business to create your own work order for use in your business.
ADVERTISING
Now that you have commenced your own machine quilting business, you need to let the world know that you are open for business. You have probably been practicing madly to ensure that your quilting skills are sufficient to ‘put your work out there’ to encourage positive word of mouth advertising. This truly is the BEST form of advertising that you can have……
The following are some further suggestions – in no particular order – that you can do to promote yourself and your business:
- Advertise in your local guild newsletter
- Advertise in your local school newsletters
- Approach your local quilt shop to offer to quilt a sample in exchange for them displaying your card/brochure and your name on the sample on display
- Advertise in appropriate National Magazines
- Setup your own Business Facebook Page, which is free, that customers might find you or you can direct them to it. www.facebook.com
- Setup your own website to show the type and quality of work that you are doing, with information for potential customers to work out pricing and contact details. Only needs to be a 5-7 page static site that gets updated with quilting photos as you grow!
- Setup your own Instagram business account & share all your amazing photos of quilts & quilting www.instagram.com/app
Happy quilting in business!
Tracey Browning