Better Business Through Quilting
There’s something you should know know about me.
I’m a quilter.
A quilted portrait of the US Vice President that I made for Women’s History Month, 2020.
Most business analogies tend to be about sports, cars or war; and I realize a lot of people don’t know much about quilting. So to get you up to speed: like all good things, quilting starts with an idea. A purpose. A market need. A user story.
Someone’s getting married.
Someone is having a baby.
It’s cold in the family room in the wintertime.
I need something cozy to wrap up in when I watch “This is Us.”
Based on that need, a quilter figures out what’s in the stash of fabric he or she currently owns, and what’s still needed to bring the quilt to life. They drill down on specifics to get to a design that embodies what the quilt is being created for.
Does it need to be done fast?
Complicated geometries are likely out. Easy to construct patterns based on pre-cuts can really accelerate getting something together quickly.
Is size a critical factor?
If not, a lap quilt may fit the bill, versus taking on a California king-sized project.
What fabric do you already have?
What tone are you trying to set? Are Civil War reproduction fabrics the way to go, or is Tula Pink more appropriate?
If you think about it, a quilter is a project, and product, manager.
Quilters know that you need to begin with the end in mind. That occasionally you have to cut apart what was and rearrange it with something new to get a better final product. And, in the midst of all the chaotic bits and pieces, they know there's good to be had and can keep their mind on how it all fits together.
In my sales, marketing and business development career, I've stitched together technology, data, people and ideas to create connections, build sustainable revenue streams and establish beneficial relationships.
The result? In one case, by just reimagining the branding for a service and creating a message customers could value and understand - with no changes to the service itself - sales grew sixty-five times what they'd been just two years earlier.
Better business, through quilting.