How to Prep Your Quilt Business for the Holidays (and Survive the Slow Seasons)

 In this episode of Quilting on the Side, Tori and Andi break down how quilt pattern designers, quilting teachers, and longarm quilters can prep their businesses for the busy holiday season - without being glued to their laptops. They walk through what really needs to stay consistent (like newsletters and YouTube), how to set up simple holiday sales systems on your website, and why December and summer slowdowns are normal in the quilting industry. You’ll leave with practical steps, data-driven ideas, and a mindset boost to help you ride the ups and downs of your quilt business with more confidence. 

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Listen to the Black Friday/ Holiday Sale episode here!

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Co-Hosts:

Tori McElwain @heytori.tech

Andi Stanfield @truebluequilts

Transcript

Andi (01:04)
Welcome back to another episode of Quilting on the Side. We are so thrilled when people reach out and say that they've gotten useful information, and so we want to definitely keep things real. We're recording this in the middle of November, so we are headed into probably the busiest time of year for...

Tori McElwain (01:14)
information.

Andi (01:26)
people in general with all of the holidays and vacation time that you have to use up and wanting to enjoy time with family that entrepreneurs especially can feel stretched very, very thin. But I know Tori, you've spent a lot of time thinking about putting processes in place to perhaps make that a little bit easier. So what are your thoughts on this prepping ahead for busy holiday times?

Tori McElwain (01:53)
So we want you to be able to take time away from your business. Like me and Andy were just talking about it, how you need to be able to enjoy your time away from your business and make sure that you set everything up to where it can run on autopilot while you are hanging out, eating turkey, opening presents, and chilling with the people that you care about the most. So one thing I wanted to do was lead with the question, what need, and that's the key word here, what needs to be consistent?

So if you have dedicated your time to making sure you have a consistent newsletter, you wanna make sure that you're able to schedule that ahead of time and to make it easy on you. So for me, so I wrote down everything that I would need to be consistent, which is exactly what I'm doing at this time is setting all this stuff up. But the first thing that I put was my email newsletter. So I send a newsletter out every other week. So every two weeks we send a newsletter out on the 1st and the 15th. So I wanna make sure that those are prepped and ready. I tend to put more current things in

like the personalized letter at the top of my newsletter and then maybe down near the bottom if I come up with if somebody else is having a cool special or I see something that my audience might really like I'll make sure to input it before I send it. However, I can prep it and so I have because my newsletter has a personalized letter. It has a blog post that is going to help with this time of the season. It could be a new one. It could be an old one that I pulled from my library. Same thing with a podcast. I always have a podcast episode in there whether it's Quilting on the Side.

or another one that maybe I guested on or found really, really interesting that I think my audience would really like. So I prep all of those parts so that it's easy for me to insert any new stuff and then send it. So all that's prep, that's my number one is my email newsletter. The next thing is I take care of my digital marketing members, my coaching program. So that's looking at the DMMC, the digital marketing matter coaching, DMMC.

All of our live events that we do scheduling those out so they work for everyone's calendar as much as we can during those holidays. So they still get that value to still get the group coaching. They still get their social media social where we're reading together. We're having fun. Like in Halloween, we did a party, which was really fun. Um, making sure I get all that handled, scheduled all the reminders up, which I actually get to send to my VA who's amazing. So she sets up all those reminders. They're like, Hey, you know, 24 an hour we're going to do the

whatever live event is coming, she assesses those up. So I gotta make sure those are covered. And then we also have a Facebook group where I send weekly posts out for them. It has information, inspiration, like that kind of thing. And then right now I'm committed to YouTube, which is at least a weekly video on digital marketing. And then I'm also doing, I'm trying to sell a hundred books by the end of 2026.

So I'm working on those videos and getting that information out about how I'm doing the book club to help push sales during this time. And that will help me get to H &H and get a booster. So that is all the stuff that I want to make sure is consistent during my main holidays, which are going to be like Thanksgiving and Christmas. I want to make sure that all of that is covered so I can just. I won't be relaxing. I two little kids, like he's so busy that I don't want to have to worry about my business while I am like.

hiding presents from my very curious seven-year-old and trying to figure out how to wrap them without him seeing things and like stuff like that. So that's what I would need to be consistent with. So Andy, I would love to hear from your point of view as a quilting pattern designer and teacher, what comes to mind when I ask you what needs to be consistent just during the next or the last two months of 2025?

Andi (05:24)
Yeah, looking at the end of the year as an it well there's there's multiple aspects. Pattern design, you know, you probably need to start earlier in the year to to plan when you're going to have releases and things available for your audience. And this is where you you kind of have to just take that into consideration.

people are not gonna be making as much. We all know there's the last minute sewing. We have those stories of putting on a binding at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve so that the quilt can be opened on Christmas Day. ⁓ So there's that aspect of it, but people are not actively searching to start a new project, which is what you're trying to tap into with pattern design. So perhaps that aspect,

of your business becomes a treat. Like you can enjoy the season and spend some creative time sketching out things that will come to fruition, you know, in another season. But for classes, again, you probably want to be focused on really small projects, quick finishes so that people can, you know, get that little creative hit and

walk away with something useful that ties into the events going on around us. So, and that is gift giving. things.

Tori McElwain (07:03)
that makes me

think of ⁓ the ornaments. ⁓ Ornament classes, tape runners, ⁓ those mug holders. Or like I've seen a lot ⁓ of growing of the, we call them ice cream holders, not bowl cozies, but ice cream cozies for like Ben and Jerry's type size. Yeah.

Andi (07:05)
Mm-hmm

Yes. Yeah, ice cream cozies that are a little bit taller, ⁓

mug rugs, ⁓ wine bags are a great hostess gift. So yeah, a lot of those things can ⁓ be really popular at the holiday season. So focusing your classes around ⁓ things like that and just, you know, be aware that classes may not fill up in

Tori McElwain (07:25)
Bye.

Andi (07:46)
December because people are busy with other family holidays and get togethers. ⁓ So yeah, just being aware of what's on the calendar and managing expectations I think is a lot of it that you you have to be able to judge the audience readiness to take you up on your offer. So you know just because you have this really cool design if you

Tori McElwain (07:52)
makes you think of a free-selling.

Andi (08:15)
offer it at the wrong time, then it's not gonna go as far. And one of the things that we preach all the time is reflection and looking at your data. And so if you have been through a holiday season, take some time to look back at those numbers and see it. You know, do some analysis, some self-reflection. Did I offer this at the wrong time? Was it too big a project for the season?

and people's time availability, how could I repackage it for a better experience ⁓ all around? maybe it's as simple as doing a mock-up in holiday colors of a pattern that you've already offered. So ⁓ lots of options there to get ready for the holidays.

Tori McElwain (08:51)
Then we.

Yeah,

we did go through that with the Black Friday episode a few episodes ago. So I'll definitely link that below. So if you're interested on doing a sale, getting class out there, getting a and we talked specifically about about about Black Friday, but it can be an anytime sales thing. So go ahead and listen to that on sales. But Andy, I do want to hear what do you think needs to be consistent in your business over the next couple months?

Andi (09:25)
Just all the things that you've said, ⁓ email newsletters and that really is a feature that you can take an afternoon, an evening, some quiet time, ⁓ draft them all out, whether you just keep them in whatever Word document, know, format, Google Docs, whatever, and then copy and paste them into your email system or if you can actually save drafts in your email.

provider so that they're scheduled and ready to go out. As you said, that would take ⁓ a lot off my plate and make sure I'm showing up throughout the season. And having those

Tori McElwain (10:06)
Can you not do that? Sorry, hold on,

on. Hold on, hold on, Andy, can you not do that? Can you not save drafts in your email service provider?

Andi (10:14)
I'm sure I can, I just haven't taken the time to.

Tori McElwain (10:15)
okay, you just never done it? Okay,

you know, I'm like, wait a minute, that's what's so nice about having that is so that you can draft them all in there. okay, sorry, I just wanted to make sure I was like, Andy, if you can't do that, you need a new service provider. Yeah, that's gonna take so much off your plate.

Andi (10:27)
right? And

yeah, and part of it is, you know, you've just highlighted one thing is taking a few extra minutes, maybe an extra hour to learn your system so that you can use all of its wonderful capabilities. So yeah, it just, you know, and I want to let people know that as a solopreneur, as someone

Tori McElwain (10:42)
Yeah.

Yes.

Andi (10:57)
working a side hustle, it's on the side. It's okay that it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the people that are doing this full-time. And so that is ⁓ something that we need to keep in mind throughout our lives is that everybody's on their own journey. Comparing ourselves to whoever is doing more and making more money and having more success, that's that

doesn't mean anything. So stick to the path you're on, figure out ways to grow at a pace that's comfortable and that fits your current circumstances is the best advice. But I'm straying far away from our primary topic of what needs to get done. ⁓ Scheduling and planning ahead for those YouTube videos, like you said, that's my...

Tori McElwain (11:41)
Thank you.

Andi (11:53)
Bread and Butter these days is showing up on video and I like to go live. So at least having my project list and things organized enough so that I can grab those materials and turn on the camera and have a live stream is, know, pre-planning is, runs across all of the things.

Tori McElwain (12:18)
Okay, so we've got email newsletters for sure. We've got prepping for YouTube videos and the project. I think that's really practical advice, prepping the materials you need. So like you said, you can grab it and go. That way if you need to, you need like that hour because your kids, and your kids not home and you have an hour to wrap, can wrap real quick and then grab yourself and get online. Like always we give a holiday prep because we have to cook, we have to like wrap presents, we have to like be sneaky about it too. Cause you know, you don't want to spoil the surprise. So.

Andi (12:35)
Yep.

Tori McElwain (12:45)
Is there anything else that you're doing now that you would want to stay consistent with? We've got emails and we've got ⁓ YouTube. Anything else?

Andi (12:54)
⁓ Yeah, just like I said, the pattern design, I need to really set aside some time so that, you know, my January, February, my 2026 plans actually can take flight is I'm going to have to, you know, set aside that writing time for those projects. yeah, making sure

Tori McElwain (13:14)
Yeah.

So would you want to work

on that now? And then that way it reaches into January. That way you can kind of take that time to actually do the more practical things. Like you have ideas going through, so you can put that on the back burner, enjoy your holidays. And then when it's January timeframe, jump into the more like practical stuff, like landing pages and actually write in the curriculum or like all that stuff.

Andi (13:40)
Yeah, yeah, just it take and it's all as I've said, it's planning, take some time to think about when you want those things to happen and then back them up. So if there is some, you know, writing time or some specific sewing time, whatever that needs to happen in December, you can get that on the calendar. And as you were talking about all these different things,

Tori McElwain (13:44)
it's all

Andi (14:10)
you know, with our busy lives, with the busy holiday schedule, it reminded me of the story about filling your jar with rocks and you always want to put in those big rocks first. So we talk about that on our quarterly planning, you know, schedule out those family vacations and events and, you know, if you've got this work event that has to happen on this, then you know that time is blocked off and you're not.

inadvertently scheduling other things. So take a look at those year-end doctor appointments even to know when you will be away from home and not being able to work on your business. So that's going to be key. And then once you've got those, then you can plug in, know, okay, I'm going to take this Saturday that I don't have other stuff going on. I'm going to spend half the day on family holiday prep and half the day on business prep. So.

Tori McElwain (14:49)
advice.

And when she's talking about quarterly planning, that's with our Patreon community. So and every year in our Patreon at the $15 or no, free, it's anyone for the quarterly planning. We offer it to anyone free or paid within Patreon to come in for quarterly planning. So we help you with ⁓ planning out your quarter, your next three months. And we do that every three months.

Andi (15:21)
Yeah.

So as you can see, Tori, I'm just kind of taking this whole season and embracing the it's a pause in my business because times are slow. But what if I wanted to dive in? You know, I've got a lot of products that I could, you know, all of a sudden flash sale holiday time, we're seeing everybody have sales and make offers.

So what are some things I could do specifically to, you know, if I wanted to have a big holiday promotion about my rectangle stuff?

Tori McElwain (16:04)
I love that. Okay. So if you're like me and maybe Andy who jump into the last minute and say, I'm going to do a sale, this is what I would suggest. And if you did listen to our black Friday episode and you've already planned a sale, would, I have a little checklist for you to go through and see if you've got all these things in place. But the reason I'm going to go over these is so that you can step away. You can let the sale run and you can step away and you just get those chimes coming in like, Ooh, this one's sold. This one's sold. That's hopefully that's what we're hoping for. Okay. So first I would create your

copy your your sale language. So is this a pre-holiday sale? Is this a end of 2025 sale? What is this sale for? So your sales language and why you are doing this sale. So is this for a customer appreciation? You're getting 50 % off my entire shop because it's the holidays and I feel like it. Are you doing this bundle because you're launching a really cool block of the month on January in January and this class these two classes that you're bundling together are going to set you up for success for that pattern.

So why are you doing this and why now? That's kind of like your sales language. And there's more bits and pieces you can work out, but those are like the two main ones. You want to come up with a fun name and a fun reason. Fun reason. Sorry if I didn't say that clearly. Fun reason. Okay. And then I would set up a few things to keep it hands off, but create some natural urgency. So a banner on your site. So that is something that's just like this big line, usually in a bold color. So something on brand, but something that kind of stands out. It's like,

This is the pre-hol- mine is a pre-holiday sale. I got a pre-holiday sale going on where you can get, I'm calling it the workshop accelerator. So it's getting everybody ready for the book club in January is what it's doing. So I got this big, I think I did it candy cane red. So I did like candy cane red. I've got this, the next one is so the banner candy cane red, get this now. And then I would put a pop-up.

So usually when I speak to entrepreneurs in the quilting industry, we typically have a pop-up for a lead magnet. Take that one down and replace it with your sail and try to keep it on theme. So with mine, I'm like candy cane. So I've got this candy cane raining down behind my little sail thing on my pop-up. So it's a really cute like candy cane thing. And honestly, that's what started it. I went to see what was already created on the back end of my site. You know, they have those templates. So one was raining candy canes and I'm like, that's perfect.

use that, set it up nice and easy and simple. And then what I would do, so you've got your banner on your homepage. Let's say that's where you put it, or you can put it in your header or your footer, probably header is where I would actually put it, is header. So that's on every single page, but you got your banner, you've got a pop-up. And then I would take that sale language that you made and create a landing page just for that offer.

Or if you can make it an easy like add on to a landing page, you can do that as well. Make sure it's like, this is for the sale. This block right here, it's candy canes. This is the holiday sale block. And then I can just remove that at the end of the sale. And then I would take your sale language and create a few emails just for that sale. Then I would create a few social posts using the same language just for that sale. And then I would look out in our collaboration opportunities. So like in...

The Patreon community, about to have a... We have in December a live question and answer. I almost forgot the name. Live question and answer. You can bring your sale and be like, hey, is anybody putting sales in their newsletter this season? I would love to put my sale in your newsletter if you have a space for that. And then also keep your eye out for other people's sales that you think your audience will love. So those are two ways to make it easier and to focus on your sale. That way the sale just runs after you schedule the email, schedule the post.

and you can just chill. And again, just look for those notifications. How does that sound for you, Andy?

Andi (19:53)
Yeah, that definitely sounds doable. I can get something eye-catching up on my website. I can change the pop-out ad to, you know, be on message. And yeah, schedule a few more emails. I always love collaborating, so that's a great idea. And you know that I'm always looking for content and working with other people is a great way to

⁓ collaborate and to give both people, both parties, some new content is to say, hey, meet my friend. They can take it away and that takes some of the heavy lift off of ⁓ your plate. ⁓ Let's pivot a little bit and because I'm starting to have some brainstorms around long form content and blog posts and whether it's blog posts or

YouTube videos or sharing on Instagram, know, whatever you can work it out. But ⁓ what are some year end content ideas that you can feature on long form content? Get those scheduled ahead.

Tori McElwain (21:13)
Well, it depends on what you're, so.

Andi (21:14)
So I'm moving away from sales and because I'm thinking of things like, you know, year end recaps are gonna be all over the place on, you YouTube. Instagram had that top nine thing that goes around all the time. You know, if you can get ahead on some of these trendy ⁓ on topic content ideas, it just makes the season flow a little more smoothly because you have

Tori McElwain (21:17)
yeah.

Andi (21:43)
planned ahead, which seems to be our whole theme with ⁓ business.

Tori McElwain (21:48)
Now, if you are doing a sale though, I wouldn't put the energy into that. I would put the energy into what ⁓ long-form content can I create to push people toward the sale. It's okay to repeat yourself a lot during this time because there's a lot of noise right now and especially in the end of November and the beginning of December, there's going to be a lot of noise. So if you posted seven times about one sale, your audience is hardly going to see it.

Like, so make sure that you are sharing it. And I would write a few blog posts that push people towards what your sale is. Even if it's a sale on my entire shop, you can go through like Andy said and do like a reflection on. And 2025, I launched these two patterns or these five patterns or this one wonderful, in-depth, gorgeous pattern. And it is now 15 % off and talk about your story, your wide inspiration, fill out an entire blog post. And that can be a way to get more eyes on your content. It also helps search engines.

Sorry, I just typed this out.

Andi (22:45)
Yeah, and I

love that when you're talking about ways to support your sale is you don't just beat someone over the head with, I put a discount out there, take advantage, but telling those stories. I created this pattern because, and oh, by the way, it's on sale or, I wondered what this...

pattern would look like in a new color way. And by the way, it's on sale. you know, I really appreciate that being able to highlight one topic in multiple different ways. And that way you're not as repetitive with your messaging.

Tori McElwain (23:28)
That makes me think of if you're doing an entire shop sale, because I know a lot of pattern designers will just put their shop on sale. You can do a pattern of the day. You can do like the 24 days of Christmas and do 24. If you have 24 patterns, put them out there. People love to see your patterns again, especially because some of your older patterns, your newer audience hasn't seen them. And Instagram is trying out this whole like keyword content push like TikTok does where they focus on content rather than on

Andi (23:35)
Yeah. ⁓

Tori McElwain (23:55)
who your followers already are. So they're trying this whole thing, last half of the, maybe the entire year really, but they're trying that. So now is a great time to get those patterns out and talk. And like Andy said, tell the story behind the pattern. just be like, here's my follow the stars pattern. It's beautiful. Yay. Which of course it is. I might be biased, but it is beautiful. But what I would do is say I was inspired, like I would say I would start with a hook first off and catch their attention. So a hook could be on that one. Like, you'll never guess.

Andi (24:13)
Ha

Tori McElwain (24:24)
when I wrote this pattern. I was stuck on the couch next to my debilitated husband who was recovering from back surgery. 100 % true story. I was inspired to write not only this star pattern, but five others because all we did was watch Star Wars for two months. And I realized at the end of writing this pattern that I took inspiration from Star Wars. And you can see that in XYZ. So I could kind of put that. And then this...

And you can also do the same pattern. I can talk about how it's an amazing baby gift. So if you have a little one, so I can start off with a question as a hook, like, do you have a baby born being born in December? I have the quilt for you. This is going to be I finished that call in the weekend. So I like to put that in my marketing. like, hey, I finished this call on the weekend. You can too. So like finding different ways where you can tell the story a couple different ways and how they can use that pattern can also be great. And then doing that 24 days of Christmas, you're like.

Every story, every quilt has a story, whether it's even you sat down to design this quilt because you needed to use a charm pack because maybe, I don't know, I went batik sent to a charm pack and you're like, I don't know how to use this. Let me figure this out. Oh, I came up with this quilt because they sent me this. Like even there's a story behind your own struggle, your own frustration, your own like love of the fabric or why would you do this?

It's probably a bad look, but maybe a struggle with how do I include the brown like I got the greens I know exactly where I want to put the greens But there's this brown and that was a struggle and this is what I came up with What do you think by the way this pattern is on sale link in my bio and get them moving and that helps just kind of you know Build out your social build out your blogs and helps prep the sale it helps prep

Andi (25:52)
you

you

Tori McElwain (26:07)
not only that, but also your sales in the new year because they might be eyeing it. They might be like, OK, I'm going to get me that after Christmas. And then after Christmas, you can even send a follow up and be like, hey, did you not get what you wanted in your stocking this year? Maybe check out what we still have on sale. It's still there if you would like to grab one until January 1st or something like that. So you can even follow up and keep it going a little bit longer and kind of appeal to their.

there get something for you because I feel like as women we kind of need that sometimes. So I don't I hope nobody hears us and it's like, oh, that's another email I have to send but it's so kind to just remind other moms, grandmas, women in your life that they need something for them too. And I think taking that approach can also kind of extend your sale and help your business and help your customers. It's all kind of together in that way. So I kind of went on a tangent.

Andi (27:01)
Yeah.

I think that's one of the themes of this ⁓ episode is, you know, you follow your tangents and sometimes you end up a little ways away than you intended, but ⁓ wonderful discoveries along the way. So.

Tori McElwain (27:19)
Well,

I think also that both of us are in this reflective time. Because naturally we kind of do take this time to start reflecting, even though our business brain and all the advice that we're giving is like, you need to be doing action, not reflecting. But we are in the reflective time. And on that note, if your sale doesn't go the way that you want, we want to kind of speak to

the roller coaster of the quilting industry. So Andy, wanna go ahead and open up that opportunity for you to kind of chime in with that. And then I'll be happy to follow up with anything else to add.

Andi (27:56)
Yeah, we've said, know, spend the time reflecting and sometimes that news is not great. You had a launch or an offer that just fell flat, you know, minimal sales, crickets, we've all heard the terms. so a couple things.

Protect your mindset, protect your ⁓ emotional self that, you know, if you can't deal with that bad news, you know, if it happens to be, take some time away and, you know, come back when you're feeling stronger, you know. We all get hit by the various ⁓ winds of life that can throw us off course. And the best

advice, I guess, is to just keep going. It's always too soon to give up. So, you know, put your big girl panties on and live to fight another day, I guess, is because lots of silly analogies there. ⁓ But and it also it does help to have a sympathetic ear. know, Tori, I've said before, you're my quilting bestie, my business accountability partner. I always know I can.

Tori McElwain (29:01)
Yeah.

Andi (29:16)
come to you for both the sympathy factor that, yeah, man, that sucks, this is tough. And then also the kick in the pants. Like, you know, come on, Andy, you're not doing what you know you need to do to make this a success. So let's try again and do it better next time. So.

Tori McElwain (29:32)
Definitely. So I was holding on to my thought so that I didn't forget it.

Andi (29:36)
When things... Yeah, yeah.

So when sales don't go so well, how do you recover?

Tori McElwain (29:42)
Yeah,

I did want to touch on because you're totally right when you're ready to sit down and look at those analytics and how your sales went and really take some time to think about it you do want to be in a strong mindset right and then in a time where it's like okay I'm gonna set my emotions to the side I'm gonna think about this more logically. I did want to let our listeners know that the quilting industry does tend to have trends and we do

as an industry have the same experience with these trends. Now there are a few people who will hear what I'm about to say and be like, that's not me. And that's okay. You may be the outlier. Cause there are people out there who could run an amazing sale during these slower times and they can do great because they know their audience. know what's going to sell or maybe they got lucky and there's just an amazing product they've had that blew up. So those are going to be more of the outliers. And I mean, it could be like 15%.

wonderful even during these times. And then, know, 75 % of us are just like, where's the business? So these key times and, ⁓ and you can agree or disagree to paste on, I would love to hear your experience, but I definitely see a huge low in the summer. And I know we've mentioned that before. So if you are trying to run sales, if you're listening to this in May and you're like, I'm not getting any sales. Well, that's typical between, and I will say May is kind of touch and go. It could be good in May. could not be.

Andi (30:38)
You

Tori McElwain (31:02)
June through, I wanna say definitely June or July, there's definitely a huge lull in the quilting industry. No one's really buying, no one's really creating. They're all out in the sun having fun or just laying on their cold tile trying to cool off. Like they're not actively quilting right now and they're not actively shopping. They spend a lot more time off social media and they're not stuck inside, which with quilting, we tend to be more stuck inside. So this is where like the short projects are good, the hand quilting, cause they can travel everywhere, that kind of stuff.

Andi (31:15)
You

Tori McElwain (31:31)
So there's a davenet lull in like June and July. And then there's another lull in December where people are finishing projects. They're not really starting any. Like Andy said, there are some little ones that are probably really great to like, you you know, get your last minute Christmas gift on this weekend with me. Like that could be really fun. But there are for the most part, a drop in business during December for the quilting industry. And then it picks back up December through about March or April. And then May, like I said,

Maybe and then June or July, no business or very little. And like I said, if you do have successful sales in like July with Christmas in July, that might be a great one to kind of pick it up a little bit. But typically those in the quilting industry, especially if it's your first or second year, you will not see any business between July, June or July and even December because of the way the quilting industry works. So Andy, go ahead.

Andi (32:04)
Yeah. Yeah.

I'm

thinking as you're talking about that because I totally agree with those ⁓ downturn times, know, the seasonal and the thread running through that is that when we have those like family times that pull us away from quilting, holidays in December, end of school summer vacation type stuff in June and July. So those things are gonna pull us out of our quilting room. But I also think

that some of that depends on which part of the quilting industry you're in because obviously quilting is a big umbrella and we've got long armors. Okay, well, November, December might be busy because people are planning to give those quilts as gifts and you have a big push to help them get those gifts ready. ⁓ Pattern design, we've talked about there, you know,

If you have stuff ready to put on sale in December, that's great, but ⁓ that may take a little more ⁓ planning and a longer ramp to get that ⁓ sale season running. But if it is established, you may have great success there for those ⁓ advent countdown projects that we talked about the 24 days of Christmas. So yeah, think there is definitely a roller coaster and the

the longer you're in the industry, the more time you take studying those numbers, those trends will be more evident. And so we're just, I guess, encouraging you to make data-driven decisions. you know, so you need to spend the time reflecting and then do that planning so that you can take advantage, put the effort in when the sales are high and that can carry you through some of these low times and...

putting some systems in place, as you mentioned, things on your website that will make it easier for things to run in the background while you're offline enjoying the season.

Tori McElwain (34:26)
I think that's excellent advice. And I'd love to put a plug in that. do do free 30 minute sessions. So if you need someone to help you walk through a simple plan, I am here free 30 minutes. We can get together and plan it out for you. And this is Tori, if you only listen. This is Tori.

Andi (34:40)
Yes. Yes, Tori's

the great business coach and her strategy sessions are amazing. So definitely take her up on that offer.

Tori McElwain (34:50)
Thank you, Andy. So we hope you found this episode practical and actionable and it hopes you feel less alone if you're having a lull in sales during this time and you're not expecting it. I did have a few clients tell me that like they're like, where is it? It's like, okay, it's okay. It's normal. It's

Andi (35:01)
you