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Interview with Megan Ducket of Sew What? Inc.

July 27, 2006 in An interview

Megan Ducket is owner and founder of Sew What? a custom theatrical drape maker (no, seriously, read on). Megan started out tiny, working and sewing at her kitchen table. Today she has 33 employees making backdrops for the likes of Maroon 5, Slip Knot, Green Day, Avril Lavigne, Prince, Sting, Elton John, and Madonna. Plus red velvet curtains for the cover of Rolling Stone and even stage curtains for elementary schools. Last month, Dell and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) awarded her their annual Small-Business Excellence Award. Megan has graciously agreed to share some of her entrepreneurial journey with us.

Read on for insights on how to build a successful business dominating a tiny niche.

1) Megan, tell us a little about how you got started.

Admittedly my interest and abilities as a seamstress came as a bit of a surprise to me. I began by accepting the challenge of some theatrical “prop” projects as night and weekend work. Although I am the craft oriented type, I never thought it was a calling of mine. I actually had taken an apprenticeship in Australia as a theatre lighting technician!

So there I was, on the kitchen table, sewing unique items for special events and movie premieres. The more unique the piece, the more I was challenged by customers! I recall when the projects became too big for the table and I moved onto the floor in the garage – even spilling out onto the driveway at times. My husband and I both worked full time for a Rock and Roll staging company named All Access, so as you can imagine, adding the sewing hours by night definitely kept me busy.

When tax time came in 1997, the realization that I had nearly matched my day job income with the income from my night work inspired a decision to quit my day job and rent an 800 square foot unit at the local airport. After the initial investment of the warehouse and one sewing machine, I was able to sustain a self-funding business such that the profits covered all growth and expenses.

2) You've made a name for yourself in some pretty high profile markets, to what do you attribute your continued success with this crowd?

I try never to assume that any client’s business is a given. By trying to always present services and products as if each contact is our first opportunity to make a good impression, we have pushed ourselves to pursue excellence. We are creative, and passionate about what we do, and that is clear when speaking with any of us on the telephone, or reading any page on the website for that matter. I hope that Sew What? Inc will become a household name in the high profile markets for creativity, flexibility, passion and product. Our continued success will rely on providing these factors to each customer again and again.

3) The high profile customers surely bring buzz, but what portion of your business are the less glamorous customers. e.g. the schools, community theatres, trade show booths, etc? How important are they to your success as a business?

We respect the business we receive from all customers – both big and small. Some of our most rewarding projects are for small churches or under-funded schools, where we are able to help them by creative manufacturing and cost saving suggestions. It is exciting to hear from the congregation or students that the stage drapes and theatre supplies we provided have had a positive effect. This type of customer currently accounts for around 50% of our business.

4) I notice one of your titles (besides President) is Marketing Manager. Can you share a bit of your marketing philosophy with us?

Well let me warn you Carson – when I get to talking about marketing and branding I can go on for hours! In the beginning, marketing is not an area that interested me, so during the first four years or so, I made no efforts to market the company. I was guilty of the small business owner trap, by thinking: “I’m busy without it – why bother?” Not until I lost a large bid in 2002 due to a “lack of credibility” did I realize the importance of branding and the business credibility built by sharp marketing.

Realizing that the “clip art” letterhead was not going to cut it anymore, I decided to seek assistance – not simply with a new logo and stationery – I needed to create a brand. I found (and connected with) Star Marketing by way of a referral. Owner Chris Sandberg and his talented team have become an extension of our business and a part of my day to day. Chris’ team really “got” what we were about – so much so that when I read the branding strategy they penned for us, I felt very emotional. I found myself thinking: “Finally, someone who understands me and what I am doing here!” Most small businesses are “niche” in one way of another. Our challenge is that we offer theatrical draperies and exhibit supplies to a broad range of customers. While a theatre may want to order a backdrop or stage drape, they have no interest in exhibit supplies or pipe and base. What immediately connected me to Star Marketing was their ability to understand these different markets and help me develop a plan that brings it all together – web, print advertising (coming soon), PR, and so on.

The power of the web is incredible. Our website has been designed and redesigned – three times in fact. Don’t settle for second best. If you can make something better, then look for a way to achieve it sensibly. Once your site is built, the secret is to optimize it to get the full benefit of traffic. I contract with Cindy McMahan of Search Marketing Pros, who is top in her class. Cindy has helped us reach both national and global clients.

My marketing philosophy is as follows: Position carefully, maintain a customer-centric focus, develop a brand that speaks for who you are (not what you think the client base wants you to be), let your passion for your product show in every piece of literature, correspondence and advertisement. Last but not least – be brave!

5) What marketing efforts have you attempted which turned out to be stinkers?

So far I haven’t suffered too many blunders, but I will say that there have been some monies spent unwisely at times. I am a stickler for quantifying results, so I usually catch the problem / lack of results sooner rather than later.

There were the discount coupons I distributed without an expiration date – that wasn’t cool. Also some monies wasted on printing unpolished and brandless literature – that was not very wise. I am very careful now to really assess the expenditure before signing the check. The several dozen business and marketing books in my collection help as well, and gathering opinions from others to consider when making my decisions is extremely helpful.

6) As a successful entrepreneur and businesswoman, you have many important demands on your time, yet you still manage to accomplish much. What's your secret to time management?

Time management can be a struggle. I am extremely regimented when it comes to completing tasks in a timely manner – I don’t allow projects to linger. I try to keep some sort of schedule at work in terms of time committed to certain tasks. For example email correspondence in the morning, sales calls and customer service throughout the day, marketing tasks for at least 1.5 hours in the afternoon. I stay late if necessary or log into the system from home to finish up work after putting our 3 year old son to bed.

One of the greatest lessons for time management I learned (at a women’s business convention) is to get help in the home. Since hiring a college student to assist with household tasks three mornings a week, I am now able to focus home time on family rather than chores. This has been life changing.

7) What inspires you?

I believe there are benefits to surrounding yourself with the types of people you admire and those you want to learn from. I find myself greatly inspired by people. I attribute the success of the business in part to the mentorship of other business owners whom I greatly admire and respect.

I am also inspired by those characters that I may not have met, such as Michael Dell for example. His is a story that is truly inspirational. I learned much from the story of his business, which is shared in his book. It will be a tremendous honor to actually meet him in September as a result of winning the NFIB/Dell Small Business Excellence Award for 2006. I would encourage other small business entrepreneurs to participate in this award program that is so generously sponsored by Dell and the National Federation Of Independent Business.

8) Any parting advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs hoping to take their niche by storm the way you have?

I am a firm believer that many types of business can be grown incrementally. (Granted – not all, and so I speak only from my personal experience) Take your vision and break it into the smallest and lowest common denominators. With your final goal in mind, you can choose wisely where to start and how to spend you money. Surround yourself with those whom you admire, always do your own research, and only risk what you are willing to lose. True passion will soon bubble to the surface and you will be able to build a strong and successful business from the ground up.

Just remember there will be bumps in the road and doors that close, so be prepared with a thick skin and a determination to get up and try again. Persistence, self-education (learning from your mistakes) and determination are keys to success.

Thanks Megan for sharing your ideas and inspiration. We wish you continued success.

Happy Links

July 26, 2006 in Happy Links

• Top 10 Rocketboom Business Notions
  Andrew, the lone survivor of the Rocketboom duo shares the "10 things I have learned about entrepreneurial business in 2.0 land while trying not to do business." #3 was my fav.
• Top 10 Dumbest Online Business Ideas That Made It Big Time.
  I loved this list - totally inspiring.
• 103bees - online web analytics SEM tool.
  This deserves a full review here on WH (if you've tried it, please submit) looks very promising.
• Most businesses self destruct
  This tidbit of second-hand advise from Jason Fried really set me to thinking. "We just do what we do best. We focus on our business, our customers, and our vision. Most businesses self destruct anyway so we just make sure ours doesn’t." Brilliant.
• Ignore the competition
  Kathy Sierra with similar ideas to the one above - more fleshed out. "What would happen if we completely, utterly, totally ignored the competition? What if we stopped thinking about competition at all?" And a bloody brilliant job she's done herself with the Head First books which have redefined a book genre.
• 26 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs, Inc. Magazine
  Not new (it's from last year), but new to me and I enjoyed looking through it.
  

Happy Quote

July 24, 2006 in Happy Quotes

"Life is really simple as far as I'm concerned. There is no luck, you work hard and study things intently. If you do that for long and hard enough you're successful."
- Jason Calacanis (founder of Weblogs, Inc. (Engadget, etc), which he sold to AOL for ~$30 million).

OOo Label Templates

July 24, 2006 in 3 out of 5 stars, Free

What is it?

OOo Label Templates: Free blank label templates, many same sizes needed for  Avery Labels. Set-up site is very quick, designing and creating labels is pretty simple. Most business use all types of labels and the types offered here cover all needs. Since the ISO has approved the Opendocument format and  lot of Governments and intuitions are adopting the ODF format, these templates are extremely useful in the work place.

Who makes it?

WorldLabel.com

Why is it the killerest?

They are free for download and save a lot of time and energy trying to find or create a template from scratch. They also correspond with Worldlabel products and you can save enormous amount of money buying their "generic Avery labels".

What could be improved?

They could include some instruction on how to use the templates for  beginners.

How much does it cost?

Free

Rating?

Reviewed by Patrick Paroline

Hamachi

July 20, 2006 in 5 out of 5 stars, A piece of software, Technology

What is it?

Hamachi: It's a zero-configuration virtual private networking (VPN) application. It essentially gives you a LAN over the Internet.

(Warning: This is a more technical one, but for you entrepreneurs with remote associates this is solid gold).

Who makes it?

Applied Networking Inc.

Why is it the killerest?

Hamachi is to VPN what Skype is to VOIP. It's a simple, clean, VPN application, that just works. Astounding really especially when you compare it to the horrible commercial VPN alternatives out there.

Solid support for Windows, passable versions for Linux and Mac (OS X).

Best of all - Hamachi is free.

What could be improved?

In the vast majority of cases this does indeed work (worked perfectly for me) but the support forums do have some pleas for help. With 3,000,000 users though - that's to be expected. (Incidentally, the support forums really do appear to be helpful.) Mac version doesn't have a GUI (yet).

How much does it cost?

Astoundingly Free

Rating?

Reviewed by Carson McComas

Wall Street Journal Daily Summary

July 19, 2006 in 4 out of 5 stars, A service, Free

What is it?

Wall Street Journal Daily Summary: A free, quickly digestible, daily summary of the Wall Street Journal. Think of it as the Cliff Notes for today's WSJ.

Who makes it?

Seeking Alpha, Ltd.

Why is it the killerest?

Lifehacker posted this a couple weeks ago, I subscribed to the RSS feed and have been very impressed by it. They do a quick summary of the WSJ headlines, and a blurb for each on the stock/ETF implications of the news behind story. It's really quite well done and I'm surprised it's free as it's quality and obviously takes hours to compose. This is a great way to stay apprised of top stories in the business world.

How much does it cost?

Free

Rating?

Reviewed by Carson McComas

Happy Links

July 18, 2006 in Happy Links

• A - Z of Professional Blogging
  Problogger Darren Rowse puts together this excellent blogging resource list including tools and ways to make money.
• Site building/Affiliate marketing toolkit
  Markus Frind chimes in with his own similar, if much less comprehensive, list.
• Reviewed: Google Checkout Payment System
  Ian Lurie takes the new system through the paces as a merchant, and a buyer.
• Talking About Failure
  Brad Feld thinks we need to give failure more air time when we discuss entrepreneurism.
• Your Website Demographics
  This predictive tool, (a "proof of concept" only they claim) part of Microsoft's new AdWords competitor gives you  a feel for how the demographics to your site break down. Here at WH, it says we're 69% male, 31% female.
• Shiny and deep
  This is vintage Seth Godin with a pithy, excellent tip on how to market your thing.
• So, what's wrong with small business?
  Another Seth post - this one drawing a distinction between entrepreneurs and small business people. "The more I see both, the happier it appears that small business people are. They often make more money, take fewer risks, sleep better and build something for the ages, something they believe in and can polish and be proud of." Hmm...
• Ten Ways To Improve Your Website Conversion Rate
  Dave Child offers up a few useful tips.
• What lessons can we learn from successful entrepreneurs?
  This time, Donald Trump does the asking, and gets some good answers.

Happy Quote

July 14, 2006 in Happy Quotes

"All big things in this world are done by people who are naive and have an idea that is obviously impossible."

- Charles Hamilton (1876–1961), English writer

Simplybill

July 11, 2006 in 3 out of 5 stars, Hosted software, Invoicing

What is it?

Simplybill: An online invoicing tool/service

Who makes it?

Simplybill

Why is it the killerest?

Very simple to use, plus inexpensive (starting at free). It allows you to email invoices, or print them for snail mailing. Has a time tracking desktop widget (paying accounts only) that synchs with Simplybill (PC only right now, a Mac one coming in the next few days). Sends reminders and thank yous. It alerts you when invoices are overdue. Supports recurring invoices.

What could be improved?

An API might be nice.

How much does it cost?

From Free to $25 a month

Rating?

Reviewed by Carson McComas

Dabble DB

July 10, 2006 in 4 out of 5 stars, Hosted "Office", Hosted software

What is it?

Dabble DB: A hosted web application replacement for desktop "consumer" level database software.

Who makes it?

Smallthought Systems, Inc.

Why is it the killerest?

It's a nice, simple, and quite impressive, hosted spreadsheet/database solution. It has a clean and simple interface, but it's also very powerful. It's obvious that a great deal of thought, work, and refinement has gone into this product.

What could be improved?

I'm not sure how much sensitive or critical information I'd want to trust to a hosted environment like this.

A novice will still have a learning curve (as they would with any solution).

How much does it cost?

From $10 to $150/mo. Starts with a free 1 month trial.

Rating?

Reviewed by Carson McComas