{"id":45,"date":"2024-06-11T01:47:51","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T01:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/powerhousetips.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/11\/test-your-business-idea-with-small-steps-starting-a-quilt-retreat\/"},"modified":"2024-06-11T01:47:51","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T01:47:51","slug":"test-your-business-idea-with-small-steps-starting-a-quilt-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powerhousetips.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/11\/test-your-business-idea-with-small-steps-starting-a-quilt-retreat\/","title":{"rendered":"Test your business idea with small steps: starting a quilt retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Uniontown, Washington, (population 300) has a strong base of arts, artisan and craft entrepreneurship. When <a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">she\u2019s<\/a> toured Uniontown, a woman spoke up who wants to start a quilt retreat, a place for people to come and quilt together. More than a local quilting bee, she\u2019s imagining a full retreat space. She owns a historic home [\u2026]<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15441\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15441\" class=\"wp-image-15441 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Quilters-Mattie-Vaughn-and-Mollie-Hawkins-at-East-Baker-Historical-Society-Community-Center-in-Newton-Baker-County-GA.-Photo-by-USDA-by-Bob-Nichols-800x531.jpg\" alt=\"Two women with dark skin and white hair are working on a quilt in a quilting frame. \" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Quilters-Mattie-Vaughn-and-Mollie-Hawkins-at-East-Baker-Historical-Society-Community-Center-in-Newton-Baker-County-GA.-Photo-by-USDA-by-Bob-Nichols-800x531.jpg 800w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Quilters-Mattie-Vaughn-and-Mollie-Hawkins-at-East-Baker-Historical-Society-Community-Center-in-Newton-Baker-County-GA.-Photo-by-USDA-by-Bob-Nichols-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Quilters-Mattie-Vaughn-and-Mollie-Hawkins-at-East-Baker-Historical-Society-Community-Center-in-Newton-Baker-County-GA.-Photo-by-USDA-by-Bob-Nichols-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Quilters-Mattie-Vaughn-and-Mollie-Hawkins-at-East-Baker-Historical-Society-Community-Center-in-Newton-Baker-County-GA.-Photo-by-USDA-by-Bob-Nichols-scaled.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-15441\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Want to host a quilting retreat? Take small steps to get it started. USDA photo by Bob Nichols<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/uniontownwa.org\/\">Uniontown, Washington<\/a>, (population 300) has a strong base of arts, artisan and craft entrepreneurship. When <a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">she\u2019s<\/a> toured Uniontown, a woman spoke up who wants to start a quilt retreat, a place for people to come and quilt together. More than a local quilting bee, she&#8217;s imagining a full retreat space. She owns a historic home that was the site of an old convent in the 1890s. There&#8217;s an outbuilding that would be a great retreat location.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15442\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15442\" class=\"wp-image-15442 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Dahmen-Barn-Uniontown-WA.-Photo-by-Becky-McCray-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"A Dutch gabled barn with white painted sides with many windows, that has been converted for use as artist studios and galleries. A fence in the foreground was made of upcycled machinery wheels.\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Dahmen-Barn-Uniontown-WA.-Photo-by-Becky-McCray-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Dahmen-Barn-Uniontown-WA.-Photo-by-Becky-McCray-800x600.jpg 800w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Dahmen-Barn-Uniontown-WA.-Photo-by-Becky-McCray-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Dahmen-Barn-Uniontown-WA.-Photo-by-Becky-McCray.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-15442\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uniontown, Washington, is home to the Artists at the Dahmen Barn, a shared arts and crafts gallery and studio space. The whole town has a strong cultural scene. Photo by Becky McCray.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>The old way: Build it and expect them to come<\/h2>\n<p>The old way to get started would be to do all the costly renovations <a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">enough,<\/a>. Then she can organize the <a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">enough,<\/a> event all herself, and then market it to attract people. <a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">she\u2019s<\/a>f no one or only a few people are ready to sign up, the failure is all on her. She didn&#8217;t market it well enough, she didn&#8217;t design it in the way that the market wanted or she just didn&#8217;t work hard enough.<\/p>\n<h2>New way: <a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">she\u2019s<\/a>dea Friendly<\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">she\u2019s<\/a>dea Friendly way is to build it together. Give as many people as possible a small but meaningful role in designing and creating the event, the space and the community. Here&#8217;s how to <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2020\/10\/the-idea-friendly-method-to-surviving-a-business-crisis.html\">apply the <a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">she\u2019s<\/a>dea Friendly Method<\/a> to her quilt retreat business idea.<\/p>\n<h2>Gather Your Crowd<\/h2>\n<p>Since she has connections with other quilters online, she could start with a virtual quilting event to gather people to her idea.<\/p>\n<p>Could she start a virtual quilt project that gave more people a small but meaningful role?<\/p>\n<p>Could she hold online sessions to gather people around the idea?<\/p>\n<p>Each conversation with others will bring her new ideas and inspiration. <a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">she\u2019s<\/a>t will draw more people to be part of the project.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">she\u2019s<\/a>f no one is interested, she&#8217;ll find out early, before all the expense and risk.<\/p>\n<h2>Build Connections<\/h2>\n<p>She could ask her newly-gathered crowd for ideas and for help finding the resources she needs.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than buy enough quilting equipment for all the participants in future retreats, could she find connections to borrow equipment just for the <a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">enough,<\/a> event?<\/p>\n<p>Do some people want to play a part by helping with marketing, or travel arrangements?<\/p>\n<h2>Take Small Steps<\/h2>\n<p>Rather than wait to design and build the ultimate retreat space, she can start with these small virtual steps and community building. Then she can step up to hold a very small <a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">enough,<\/a> test retreat, and keep building from there.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/setcpros.com\/powerhouse\/\">she\u2019s<\/a>dea Friendly Method helps you test your ideas in tiny, temporary ways, often together with another business.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/get-updates.html\">Subscribe to SmallBizSurvival.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-15440\" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Three-quilts-on-display-in-early-2020-at-Mississippi-Cultural-Crossroads-Port-Gibson-MS.-Photo-by-Sheila-Scarborough-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Three quilts on display in early 2020 at Mississippi Cultural Crossroads Port Gibson Mississippi. Photo by Sheila Scarborough. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Three-quilts-on-display-in-early-2020-at-Mississippi-Cultural-Crossroads-Port-Gibson-MS.-Photo-by-Sheila-Scarborough-800x600.jpg 800w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Three-quilts-on-display-in-early-2020-at-Mississippi-Cultural-Crossroads-Port-Gibson-MS.-Photo-by-Sheila-Scarborough-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Three-quilts-on-display-in-early-2020-at-Mississippi-Cultural-Crossroads-Port-Gibson-MS.-Photo-by-Sheila-Scarborough-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Three-quilts-on-display-in-early-2020-at-Mississippi-Cultural-Crossroads-Port-Gibson-MS.-Photo-by-Sheila-Scarborough.jpg 896w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Uniontown, Washington, (population 300) has a strong base of arts, artisan and craft entrepreneurship. When she\u2019s toured Uniontown, a woman&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-small-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powerhousetips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powerhousetips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powerhousetips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powerhousetips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powerhousetips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/powerhousetips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powerhousetips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powerhousetips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powerhousetips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powerhousetips.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}