As was mentioned earlier, a successful quilting shop is a successful business first and a quilting shop second. The guide lines I have read from the SBA is that for a small business to succeed it has to have capitalization to run 5 years without making a profit. It takes that long for a business to establish a customer base, to make a reputation, etc. If you can't finance your business that long without a seeing a profit then you don't have enough money to start your business. Perhaps the best run quilts shops are not owned by the quilter or the sewing machine expert, but the person with the money who hires the quilter and the sewing machine expert. You probably need more experience in the business field than in the quilting field to make a success of a quilting store.
Last edited by TanyaL; 01-28-2013 at 02:48 PM.