Chapter 1 What is Entrepreneurship?

Lynda Hainer always loved sewing. She took her first sewing class in sixth grade and started making clothes for herself. After she married, she made clothes for her six children, and then for their children. She sewed her first quilt for her youngest son thirty-one years ago. Today, she continues to make quilts for her family and friends.

Although Lynda enjoyed piecing her quilts, she became frustrated with how her finished quilts looked when she “tied them off.” Tying off a quilt refers to the process of joining the pieced top, the batting material, and the backing fabric to form the quilt. Linda knew the solution was to invest in a long-arm machine that would allow her to do beautiful free-motion quilt designs, but these machines are expensive. They aren’t affordable for a home quilting enthusiast. That’s when Lynda hit on the idea to take money to make quilts for others. If she charged for her quilting service, the long-arm sewing machine would become an investment that eventually paid for itself.

Lynda bought a big, beautiful, expensive long-arm machine. As she taught herself to use it, she developed a small clientele. These customers would drop off quilts for her to complete. This proved an enjoyable and profitable hobby. When her father became ill, Lynda wanted to make the transition to working from home so she could care for him. That’s when Purple Door Fabric was born.

The only fabric store in town had closed in 2014. Lynda knew there was a need, not just for her quilting service, but for quality quilting fabrics. Leveraging her experience working in fabric stores, she opened up shop in a 600-square-foot building erected on her property in 2016. The efficient little space houses hundreds of bolts of cotton quilting fabric, supplies, and of course Lynda’s beloved long-arm sewing machine.

Since opening Purple Door Fabric, Lynda has upgraded to a computerized version of the machine. This allows her to quilt thousands of different patterns quickly and easily. Once she loads the quilt and programs into the machine, the rest of the process is automated. This gives Lynda time to attend to walk-in customers and manage the other aspects of her business.

In just a short year and a half, Purple Door Fabric has grown to include a second long-arm machine housed in a converted garage on the property. When her business first started, Lynda relied on word of mouth to let people know about her business, handing out business cards at quilt guild meetings. Now, she attends quilt shows and has added to her business a large van that serves as a mobile fabric store. Of course, she also uses social media, marketing Purple Door through a Facebook page.

Lynda’s husband, Jim, also helps. He has a degree in marketing and focuses on growing the business he and his wife share. He also built all the shelves and cases for the many bolts of fabric for the store and the van. The business has truly become a family affair.

Lynda admits that she and her husband have faced several challenges since starting the business. The most notable is the continued need to invest all profits back into inventory and machinery, something she had not planned to do when she started the store. Purple Door, however, has proven very popular, given that Lynda’s small town has no other fabric store. During the first half of 2017, the store completed 162 quilts for customers, not to mention selling many, many yards of fabric.

Lynda is confident that the store will turn a profit quickly but managing growth has been a challenge. Because her business is run from a location on her home property, she is limited in just how big her business can grow. The only option to expand beyond that point would be to move to an actual storefront. Lynda admits that this would not be her first choice.