I love to watch The Food Network on TV. I'm always fascinated by the chefs who take food to a whole other level. One show that's especially interesting is Throwdown with Bobby Flay.
If you are unfamiliar with this show; chef, restaurateur, and media personality, Bobby Flay, profiles a chef who is the master of one particular food. He convinces the person they are going to have a show on TFN and then shows up to challenge them to a cooking throwdown. Guest judges taste both dishes and decide who's tasted better.

What I find so intriguing about this show, is that, although many of the chef's profiled, own restaurants or bakeries, that sell several different kinds of food, they have taken the time to focus on, and perfect, one particular item on their menu. In turn they are now considered to be the top in their field by their customers and peers. All for one single one food item.
For example one chef specialized in making the very best donuts. Another made a fantastic Chicken Cacciatore. And still another couple, had customers who raved over their blueberry pancakes.
All of these people are had become specialists in a field that is already segmented in multiple categories, such as pizzerias, bakeries and breakfast diners.

Drapery workrooms are are not that different from the food industry. By our nature, we are specialists in the wider field of interior design. We have already decided to focus on creating window treatments and other soft furnishings.
But within this speciality there is room for you to specialize even further. You can take one aspect of the industry you really like, and are really good at; explore it, research it and become the go-to person for this special item.

Take Ann Johnson of Sew Easy Windows. She owns a drapery workroom in which she does all kinds of window treatments. Ann though, is really, really, good at swags. So good in fact, that she has written two books that focus on nothing but swags. Books that others in the industry covet. Imagine that - 2 books on just swags. By specializing in swags, Ann has found a new niche for her business, giving talks and selling books about swags.

Kitty Stein was so good at the business side of the drapery workroom she has written numerous books and magazine articles about the business of running a workroom. She was even recently honored with a Lifetime Educator Award. Her speciality in the greater field of custom fabrications was to share her business knowledge.
Leslie Fehling of Leslie Fehling Designs is so good at embroidery techniques for custom furnishings, and making slipcovers she ran her own school, Summerhill Weekend Sewing Retreats, to teach others.

Merlyn Corcoran is so good at making Minutes Matter Studio renderings she now holds educational seminars for the company.

Finding what you're really good at doesn't mean you have to give up the general field custom furnishings. But, you can find real joy in discovering what you're best at. It could be cornice boards, or a certain type of valance. Maybe you are really good at drafting patterns and can sell them to other workrooms. Whatever niche you decide to focus on, learn how to be the best at it. By specializing in our speciality, of custom furnishings you could find a new way to make money, gain the respect of your industry peer, or maybe even win an industry throwdown at the next International Window Coverings Expo.

 The other day I went out on a drapery call with a designer. The customer seemed to really value the designer's input, and would frequently ask her what she thought about the different items they were picking. They were working along smoothly, until it came to picking between two different pieces of hardware. The client asked a couple times which one the designer liked best, and the designer kept deferring back to the client. They finally settled on one, but I couldn't help thinking that it could have gone a little smoother.
Very often when we are with a customer we are unwilling to give a definitive opinion, for fear of choosing something for them they won't like. Unfortunately, what we don't consider, is that the customer has hired us exactly for that reason. They were unable to come up with a design or a decision on their own and are looking to us - the experts - to guide them. We know what works best and what design will look better and it's our job to help steer the client that way. Now I'm not suggesting we strong arm the customer into a box pleat valance because it's easy to sew. What I am suggesting is that when you're asked for your opinion; Give it. When asked if you like the fancy finial more than the simpler one say, "Yes." Not, "Well it's really up to you, what do you think?"
The customer has hired us as an expert. So, show you really are one, and give your opinion when asked.

When I was thinking about starting something that I could write on a regular basis for the drapery industry, I debated over a newsletter, or a blog. I finally rejected the newsletter idea mostly because it would need to be sent out on a regular basis with a set deadline. A blog gave me more freedom to write when I wanted.

I need all that freedom because I'm the mother of three young children. Two of whom, are still at home with me. Over the years I've run my workroom, I've found that walking that tightrope between family and work, has been a difficult one. If I tried to devote time to the business, I would get upset at the children for interrupting me. If I tried to devote time to the children, I could hear my neglected business calling me.
So many people in this industry work at home and juggle children, pets and spouses. Sometimes they find the workroom is taking over their home, and their life. Suddenly the balance between work and home is lost.
To regain that balance you need to create some rules for yourself aü      Have a dedicated space for your workroom, tools, fabric books etc. Do not let it spill out of this space and into the rest of your home. If you start to run out of space, spend a day clearing out the clutter. Sometimes even just getting rid of all those empty fabric tubes can create a lot of new space. 
    1.      Have a dedicated space for your workroom, tools, fabric books etc. Do not let it spill out of this space and into the rest of your home. If you start to run out of space, spend a day clearing out the clutter. Sometimes even just getting rid of all those empty fabric tubes can create a lot of new space.

2.      Set aside time to spend with your children, and time to spend on your business.

3.      Keep your business phone separate, on a different phone line, on a cell phone or with a different ring.

4.      Set specific working hours. Then stick to them.

5.      Don't answer the phone or check email after work hours.

6.      If you have to work on treatments in the evening give yourself an hour or at least a 1/2 hour to wind down and relax before going to bed. Work only on the treatments, not on other parts of your business.

7.      Don't check your email, your Facebook page, Twitter, or the phone before heading in to the workroom to work on treatments.

8.      Don't do quotes when you have a window treatment due for installation the next day.

9.      When you're in the workroom give yourself over fully to the workroom. When you're with your family do the same thing.

10. Try to return all your phone calls at one time, away from children and barking dogs.

11. Create a dedicated space for your children to play in, while you're working. Give them something new to play with each day so they don't get bored.

12. Take frequent breaks so you can interact with them and then get back to work.

13. Consider hiring a babysitter for one day a week or even just for a couple hours.

14. Make friends in the neighborhood and set up a babysitting co-op where you exchange babysitting on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

15. Take a break to take your pet for a quick walk. It's good for them, good for you and it may help you clear your mind and solve a difficult problem.

16. Take up a new hobby.

17. Create a working schedule for your jobs. One you can see every day. Try and give yourself a time frame for working on treatments to get them completed in a timely manner.

18. Set up specific days of the week to do your installs or new appointments. You don't have to tell your clients this, just say, "I'm available on Tuesday and Thursday this week, what does your schedule look like."

19. Set some policies for your business including contracts, and stick to them for ALL your clients, wholesale and retail.

20. Take time out to have fun. Go on a date with your husband, have drinks with the girls. Learn a new hobby.

21. Let go and let your house get a little dirty. Remember houses are for living in, not to be a constant show piece.

22. Learn to be flexible. Kids get sick, fabrics are on back order. You can't control everything.

23. Realize that just like your life businesses can have different stages too. Sometimes the business is run part time. At a later stage you may be able to run it full time. You have the ablility to change that whenever you want.

s much as I love watching home improvement shows, one thing that drives me nuts, is when they start taking sledgehammers to perfectly good cabinets, counter tops and toilets. TLC's show, Moving Up is one of the biggest offenders. The host, Doug Wilson loves to play up to the camera by plowing a sledgehammer into a perfectly good cabinet. Often times, they destroy a kitchen that was remodeled by the previous homeowners only 2 or 3 years ago. The main reason this drives me so crazy, is that I know that with a little bit of effort, those cabinets could be easily removed in one piece and donated to a building recycling center to be resold. Pittsburgh, has a just such a non-profit center, called Construction Junction. The place is a warehouse bigger than Home Depot or Lowe's, filled to the brim with a thousand doors, recycled wood, entire kitchens, and once when I was there; they even had a phone booth and revolving door for a photography dark room. Not only can you buy recycled materials there, you can also donate them, and get a great tax write off. Many centers will accept drapery hardware, window treatments old furniture, and left over wood. These centers are wonderful resources for the drapery workroom. You can save yourself tons of money when putting together your workroom. Some of the great things Construction Junction most recently advertised were, 4 drawer file cabinets for only $40. Peg board for a couple dollars a sheet. Huge blocks of foam for $14.00 a bundle. Clothing display racks, a workbench, a chop saw, lights, solid wood doors, just waiting to become a new worktable; and even a pretty red tool bench. These recycling centers can be found across the United States and Canada. So the next time you are looking for some building materials, or when you want to clean out your workroom look up your local building recycling center. To find a center near you, check out the Building Materials Reuse Association and click on the directory.

This brilliant little idea comes courtesy of Rachael Malak, from Sew Lovely, in Cranberry, PA. Almost every home has some sort of abandoned workout gear laying around. Put those barbell pieces to good use as worktable weights. Cut a round piece of interlining or lining and wrap it around the barbell and close it with a rubber band.

You can even use old hand weights the same way, and make them nice looking, by using some pretty leftover fabric. Sew up a pillow, stick the weight inside, and close it up. Instant worktable weights.

I love the fact that there are drapery patterns to help me make window treatments. Being a self-taught sewer, I'm not very good at coming up with my own patterns. To have them already made, makes my life infinitely easier. But, I am still astounded, that there are so few people selling patterns. And I'm often more astounded, that since there are so few, not everyone knows who they are. Most workrooms (I'm making sweeping generalities here.) know about M'Fay and Patterns Plus.

According to both their websites they have both been in business since 1990. Patterns Plus was created and is run by Joan Willis a workroom manager who speaks and teaches extensively in the industry. M'Fay is run by Marylan Fay, who also ran a workroom and retail showroom for years, before closing it, to concentrate on her pattern business. Both of the companies have many of the traditional patterns such as swags, kingstons, and balloon shades, but they also have a number of more interesting and fun valances.

Recently Rowley Company has begun selling M'Fay patterns in their catalog. M'fay has been putting out several interesting and fun new patterns each year.

Two more recent entries into the pattern business are Decorate Now and Pate Meadows. Decorate Now, is a workroom, run since 1985 by Lisabeth Martin. The number of patterns she carries is not as extensive as the other companies, but her patterns are very well thought out, and the directions are very detailed. Also, several of her patterns, can be altered in 3 or 4 different ways. Lisabeth's website also includes several interesting workroom products including M-Tape adhesive tape and a wall mounted fabric rack.

Pate Meadows, is run by the design team of Leigh Pate and Caterina Meadows, two lovely southern ladies, I had the pleasure of meeting several years ago. The have two lines of patterns, their Show Home Patterns and a line they produced together with Southern Living. Their designs have a fun, fresh youthful feel about them. A great feature on their website is their picture gallery featuring their patterns made into actual window treatments. It's a great way to get ideas on how to alter the patterns to get new looks.

The newest entrant into the pattern field is The Details Pattern Company. The patterns are designed to add detail to panels. They only have a few, but the Ribbon Edge Panel is gorgeous enough to take a peek at the website.

 When I first started working, I spent a day or two a week, working in another woman's workroom. So a lot of what I did in my own workroom I did mostly because that's what I had learned from her. One of those things was to put a band on the top of all my valances and swags, and Velcro them all to the top of the board. This extra step took a lot of time, a lot of bulk and a large number of broken needles trying to sew through all those swag layers.
I have since abandoned this technique and staple my swags and valances right to the top of the boards. Many workrooms continue this practice, because customers seem to feel they need to be able to remove the valances for cleaning.
You too, can make life easier, save yourself some time, and money, and add a little something to your marketing, by dropping the Velcro and picking up the stapler.

In order to counter the client's "How do I clean the valance/swag/drapes?" question. Create a small postcard with 5 or 6 tips on how to take care of your valances, swags and drapes. Give the postcard to your client at the end of the install, or mail it to them a week after the job is completed. As an added bonus you could give your client a lint roller with your name and address printed on it.

Some of the tips on the post card could be:
* Vacum the front and top of the valance at least once a month.
* Avoid catching the trim in the vacum by covering to mouth of the vacum attachment with an old nylon stocking and securing it with a rubber band. (This is also a great way to pick earrings which have fallen behind the dresser.)
* Use a lint roller to remove any large pieces of dust that remain on the fabric.
* Steam the valance lightly to freshen it up. (Be careful of water spots on silk and satin.)

To take this marketing idea further; make up more postcards, and mail them to the client every spring and fall, reminding them to clean their treatments, and maybe start a new project with you. You can expand the cleaning tips, to ideas on how to refresh outdoor cushions, coverlets or table linens.

If you're feeling extra ambitious you can offer begin your own cleaning service selling your customers a package of bi-yearly or even quarterly services.

 I have a confession to make. I am a DIY TV Junkie. I long ago graduated from the HGTV Design on a Dime type shows, and now I want to see shows on how to rip down a wall. How to install an kitchen. How to retile my entire front hallway. I’ve even graduated from Better Homes and Gardens and other shelter magazines and I find myself perusing Home Depot for The Family Handyman, This Old House and Woodworking.
Every tool in the house belongs to me. The miter saw, the jig saw and even the router, I’ve only ever used once. I also find that at some point or other every tool in my workshop garage, eventually walks into my workroom. So when it’s time to do a home repair project, like, oh say, replacing a sink’s shut off valve I have to dig through the workroom to find all my tools.
That’s why I’m so in love with DIY’s show Cool Tools and their once yearly show about the National Hardware Show. Everytime I watch it I think, “That would be a great tool for my workroom. And that would be a great tool and that.”
So here are some clever tools, that would work in your workroom.

BOSCH MiterFinder Digital Protractor / Angle Finder w/ Leg Extension & Carrying Case - A digital angle finder. Just stick it in the angle of those annoying bay windows and it will digitally calculate and remember the angle.

 ProHold Wrist Band By McFeelys - Great for installations or even just working in the workroom. Never look for pins or screws again

The VIKA USA Twofold Workbench and Scaffold. Just think, when installing you won't have to climb down the ladder, mover the ladder, climb back up the ladder. Instead you can just move across the scaffold. It raises up higher for a great mini work table too.

 Welcome to The Needle and The Thread. My name is Sydney Hardiman and I’ve been running a drapery workroom since 2001. I have a BA in Literature and Communication arts and like to try and put that to use by writing articles about the window treatment industry. I love writing articles and doing research. Sometimes I come across something interesting that I want to share, but the information isn’t large enough or detailed enough for an entire magazine article. Sometimes I just want to give my opinion on something going on in the industry. So here’s my new blog. I hope you learn a little something from what you read, here and that you take the time to come on back and see what’s new.

 Now that we've established you will be creating a website; here are a few tips to make it good looking and easy to use.

1. Don't make your customers hunt for your information. Put your phone number and email address in a prominent place on every page of the website. When you confine it to the "Contact Us" page you're making it more difficult to reach you.

2. Don't write long paragraphs. Use bullet points and short paragraphs. The Internet is a fast and hopping place. People want information quickly and in short bursts.

3. Make sure the backgrounds of your pages aren't distracting and don't overwhelm the rest of the information on the page.

4. Use a font and type size that is easy to read. Don't make it too small, too light colored, or too fancy, to be easily read.

5. If you're fairly new to the business, or just take terrible pictures; you may not have a huge portfolio of your work. So, scatter pictures throughout the website rather than concentrating it all in one place. When it's concentrated in an album it can seem like your body of work is a little skimpy. Instead you can jazz up each page of the site with different pictures, or even close ups of trim or hardware.

6. Use a professional head shot, not one of you and your kids, or you and your dog. Save those for your Facebook page. If you don't know anyone who can take a really good picture of you against a plain backdrop, schedule an appointment at one of those portrait studios at Target, Sears, or JCPenney. They are very inexpensive yet good enough for your use. If you get your hands on a coupon it could end up costing you as little as $10 to $20, and you'll have an extra picture to give to your sweetie as a gift.

7. Don't pass pictures of other people's work off as your own. It's called Stealing. Need I say more?

8. Keep all the basic components of your pages the same from page to page. When building your site make sure you use the same outline over and over again. This avoids confusion from your visitors and gives the site a cohesive and organized look. For example if your jump buttons for each page, are on the top on page one, don't have them on the side, on page two. Keep them the same color, size and order. I would go so far as to suggest your background should stay the same for all your pages. Use the content to make changes and give it a better look.

9. Have several people proof your wording, grammar and spelling for errors. If your website is riddled with spelling and grammar errors people are going to question your ability to sew. Choose people who will give you the brutal truth to look it over, not just someone who will tell you it looks great.

10. Use classic colors. Remember coral and teal. Are you having a bad '80's flashback right now? It's fine to use new color trends, but unless you want your website to be out of date in a year, lean more toward the trendy classics than something that will be out of date in 3 months. Also don't go too bright, you want your content to stand out not your colors.

11. Get your domain name NOW. Even if you aren't planning on putting up a website for a couple months buy your domain name now before someone else snatches it up. The cost is minimal and well worth it. Buy a couple variations of your name, you don't want someone to buy a variation of your domain name and link it to something embarrassing, and it can happen. Try and stick with .COM it's the most popular and the one people are more likely to remember.

12. Keep your information up-to-date. If you change your email address or phone number make sure you change it on your website. Same if you move. Add new pictures as you take them. Your work will always improve over time and you want your website to reflect your best work. If you no longer provide a service take the info off your website. Check your links periodically to make sure the linked sites still exsist. Never put up a We're building our website" page. Put a basic page with a picture or two and your contact info instead, or take out the page altogether. Customers want a website that works is easy to use, gives them some good information and makes their lives easier. A good website can do all of those things.