Monday and back to work again! I’m fortunate and think it is quite nice to start a new work week. You get to gather my thoughts (house projects and a energetic 2-year-old tend to make the thoughts quite scattered…) and write the week’s plan and decide(-ish) on what to do when.
So, I thought I’d share what’s on my to-do list and what a work week can be like for me.
First thing on Monday morning I write down the week’s plan. It helps me to prioritize and plan. It’s not often that all things are done during one week, but then the tasks are moved over to next week. Some things are practical styff that needs to be done on certain dates, such as paying invoices, VAT, making sure to mail in documentation for accounting etc. Others are a bit more diffuse, like working with social media and marketing. It’s also this that’s unfortunately often postponed to next week (and next and next …) I have several blog posts I want to write, but to take the time is difficult. As a self-employed I have to work with this, social media marketing is the only way for me to reach out with my products. But, I’m a pattern maker, so it doesn’t really feel like I’m working when I’m, for example, writing this blog post. But that is a mind-set that I’m working on…
Monday is also the day that I do all the must-do things. For the most part, I do customer assignments as it comes, but Monday is usually the day I focus on this. Customer assignments also have the biggest priority for me, so after they are done, I know more about how much time I have to spend on everything else.
Lately, it has been very quiet with assignments for clients and I have therefore focused on my own patterns. Fieldfare joggers are now launched in both English and Swedish!! It’s so nice to finally be done with them. Next step is marketing and finilize the next product. Fieldfare joggers are a basic pattern and I want to show different “hacks” you can do and how to adjsut the fit to your own body. And I’ve decided one thing. I will not focus on sewing techniques or sewing details. There are so many other sewists who are so much better at this than I am (but I’ll give tips on where to find this info). Instead I’ll focus on what I am good at, which is how to adjust and work with patterns! A couple of weeks ago I asked in a Swedish facebook group for sewists what fit adjustments they wanted to learn and what adjustments they usually need to do. And oh, what a response I got! In other words, you are very interested in learning more about this and it suits me perfectly! So, the next step will be to start posting, both on the blog and Instagram, how to use my patterns and how you can change them. My view is that a pattern is a starting point, but that the person who should make the pattern more personal, both when it comes to design and fit. This feels great to write about and the list of adjustments I want to talk about is long!! I want to do everything at once, but I have to take one thing at a time, one adjustment first and then the next.
I also have one more pattern I want to launch soon! It’s Hazelhen tee for babies, kids and ladies. I’ve got a first draft of the text, pictures, a template for how the sewing description should look like, the material calculation is almost complete, etc. Now it’s “just” put it all together and work on the layout. I’m not looking forward to this at all, not my favorite job … That’s why I asked if Johanna from The last stich could help me with this instead. I have previously helped her with grading a pattern for a leggings and we have had a great collaboration. She works as a journalist and knows this much better than I do, so I was so happy that she could help me. Best thing is to focus on what you are good at, otherwise it will only take an extra long time and the results will usually not be as good … (My plan when I started my business was to manage the daily accounting myself. That idea I gave up after 10 min with a bookkeeper. I’m very happy with that decision.)
This is what my week looks like. Do some customer assignments, plan and work with marketing for Fieldfare joggers, plan and prepare for pattern adjustments / “pattern-hacks” and send info for Hazelhen to Johanna. And there are plenty of other things as well. Talk about the financial situation with my bookkeeper since I’ll soon be on parental leave. Take photos to Instagram, a re-accuring point on my list that is always pushed forward. I would like to sew samples, but it has to wait until the office is completely renovated. And some administrative things too, boring but necessary.
Now I can check of the “make a Monday blog post” and continue on to next thing! Hope you have a great week!