“How do you get so much done?”

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received in my former businesses was when my IT lead advised me to buy the best equipment you can afford for the things you use daily. So, for instance, since I used my monitor seemingly every minute of every day, so it often seemed, I bought the best, sharpest, clearest, highest end monitor that I could swing at the time. Now, my napkins, paper towels and trash bags were nothing to write home about, but they did get the job done. Since those items were going to be disposed of, I wasn’t worried about getting high end.

I’ve tried to keep that motto going when we started this new business – The Quilted Twins – to a certain degree.

So, when people ask us how we get so much done, I like to credit smart buying, smart tools, and just being smart with our time and energy. Those things are crucial to the efficiency of our business. I’ll discuss our fabulous help at a later point in time.

When I was a teenager I loved to read the book Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth. I haven’t read many books multiple times, but this is one that I have. I was fascinated by someone who studied whether it was faster to button your shirt up or button it down, and how much faster. My twin and I would, at college, often times check out the fastest route to a classroom by each of us leaving our adjoining rooms at the same time, and one of us would head off one direction, and the other a different one. We pledged to not run, walk super fast or stop and talk, so we could accurately figure out which path was quicker to the desired classroom. Not only quicker, but how much quicker!

So, it’s no wonder we find ourselves timing ourselves to find out which way is the fastest way to re-shelve bolts or to put fabric up on the site, with us constantly tweaking our methods and systems.

1.       We have invested in good tools.

It didn’t take us long to figure out that a 45mm blade wasn’t big enough for our needs. We figured out that if we cut multiple layers of fabrics at the same time, that we could get nice, even cuts, efficiently, and eliminate long lines, hurt arms and rotator cuff injuries. So, we invested in 60mm blades.

 I found that my hands and arms were hurting, so we started using the Fiskars Ergonomic Cutters. Some of our staff have found that wrist braces help. So we buy good ones that work.

We found that the Quilter’s Cut Blades, which we sell, lasted longer, and were less expensive than either Fiskars or Olfa. Hence, we were saving money AND time, as we weren’t having to chase down more blades or stop and change them as often. We decided to offer them to you as well. You can get yours here.

2.       I buy big.

I start with the fabric buying. Did you know that it takes just as many emails to a supplier to say, “I need 1 bolt of black solid” as it does to say, “I need 100 bolts of solid black?” If you can deal with something fewer times, then you can get it done more quickly and efficiently than dealing with something multiple times. It does not take 100X longer to put up 100 bolts of black than 1. So, I try to buy as much as I can each time I buy something we use regularly. The problem does become one of storage. Where to do so? We do get ever so creative with that.

I also buy our tape, plastic zip top bags and labels in bulk. As well we order shipping boxes and bags in bulk. None of this running to Walmart to buy a ream of paper. We buy paper by the case; plastic baggies for panels and packs by the thousands and shipping boxes are ordered by the 25 packs, 100 at a time.

This means it takes less time to deal with it when it comes in. Yes, it does take longer to open and store 72 rolls of tape than 6, but not 12x longer!

3.       We listen and notice our customers’ needs. One of the smartest, and energy efficient things we’ve purchased for our store is our shopping carts. Seriously? Who would have thought of these cute carts for a fabric store? Well, who would have thought that we use them just as much as the customers do between open days? Well, we do! When we open those pallets, we fill them with bolts, for easier, more efficient carting, than carrying them two at a time.

We also realized that we needed super heavy duty rolling carts, with which to cart our bolts from one end of the store to the other. So, we spent $100 each to buy these mega carts, which hold up to 1000 pounds. It was a super smart investment over our $69 jobs that bent when we put 500 pounds on them!

We do have many ways in which we can grow, increase our efficiency and become a better store, but we are growing, learning and working on becoming better every day.

You’ve now learned a few of our tricks of our trade, but the most important feature of our business is our staff! We’ll cover that in later posts!

Now, go and enjoy the day!

Thanks, Rachael, for the blog post!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Stay safe!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!

Here’s one of the beauties we have!