Chapter 70 Making Money - from my book Changes

One of my favorite color combinations for a scarf.

Chapter 70

Making Money

Part of my strategy for healing and getting away from abuse was to learn how to provide for myself financially.  As someone who was, with the best of intentions, beautifully and lovingly groomed to be a stay at home mom, with art schooling as my educational background, I decided to see what I could do, using my skills and making art.

I was actually gearing up for selling art when I was still in Florida, in the months before I left for Oregon.  I started playing with painting, both watercolor and oil, but I remembered my sister mentioned she learned how to make felt, and that intrigued me.

My first year in college I took a course called Weaving, Spinning, and Dyeing.  I learned how much I love to work with wool as a medium, so I decided to look into the ancient art of felting.

Watching you tube videos got me started.  I learned some of the basics and purchased some beautiful colors of soft merino wool roving from the online store called Paradise Fibers.  I made a scarf that I would use myself and also use as an example in marketing.  I created a bag, organized with all the wool colors I had, in three plastic containers; the kind used for bead organization.  I also ordered some business cards.

My approach was to wear my scarf everywhere I went and offer to make scarves for people, referencing the colors in the sample color bag I conveniently brought everywhere with me.

My first success was at a little, not busy, bank; down the street where I opened  my business account.

I spoke with the tellers, a couple young women, and showed them my scarf, letting them touch it to see how soft it was.  I asked if they might be interested in having me make a scarf for them.

It was November, approaching the holidays, and the weather was beginning to be cooler.  I showed them the color palette by bringing out the color samples I had with me.

They each said they would be interested in having me make a scarf for them, but they didn’t have any money that day to prepay.  I was charging $65 at that time to make a custom scarf.

I wondered if the tellers were just being polite and didn’t really want to pay me to make a scarf for them.  Self doubt entered into my mind.  But I chose to take the things they said at face value and believe them.  So I went back the next day to collect the money.

Again, they said they didn’t have any cash with them.  One of them asked if I would take a check.

“Of course,” I said.

The other one asked if she could borrow the $65 from the first one.  It was agreed on that one would pay for both of them and they collectively gave me a check for $130.

I took out my color samples and they chose the colors they wanted me to use.  I made notes about their choices.  I told them I would bring them their scarves in a few days.  Then I went home and got to work.

After making the scarves, I took them to the tellers to deliver them.  One of the women was pleased with her scarf and the other one was not really happy with it.  The scarf I made did not fit her idea.

Instead of being discouraged, I got more information from that teller and tried again, knowing I could always sell the scarf I had made to someone else later on.

I went home and made her scarf again, after better communication, and she was delighted with the finished scarf!

Next, I asked the two tellers if they would be interested in learning how to make a scarf like the ones they bought.  They were both very interested so I set up a workshop for them at my home.  I collected the money ahead of time, charging the same amount as I did when I made them myself, $65.

They came to the house at the appointed time and I instructed them in making the scarves.  We had set aside 5 hours and as the women worked, one of them was worried that hers wouldn’t look nice when finished.  I encouraged her and she kept at it.  Once the scarves were finished and drying, the woman who was not sure her’s would turn out well ended up being very happy with the result.  She said, “You can’t ruin these, can you?”

While the women were at my home, they saw a couple of other scarves I had made and loved them, and each of the women bought another scarf to give as gifts at Christmas.

Besides these sales, I also sold three scarves to my dentist’s wife.  She gave them away as Christmas presents.

So, 9 sales times $65 each, added up to $585 in the month of November.  I was encouraged and continued making and selling scarves after I moved to Oregon in January.

Interestingly, my dentist phoned me one day to inform me that a pure merino wool scarf at the nice store he and his wife were shopping at cost $200, and it was just a plain solid color … not a custom made beautiful scarf.  I appreciated that he was letting me know I might want to charge more.