Creating gifts for weddings, birthdays and any other occasion is something that I always enjoyed!  One day a friend of mine asked me if I would like to embroider names on some jackets for him.  He had a sporting goods store and wanted to offer this service to his customers.  That was the beginning of my embroidery career!

In 1978 I started with a free hand embroidery machine in the basement of my home.  Despite all of the troubles, issues and mistakes that I made; my business grew very quickly and I moved out of my home into a retail location.

I soon needed to purchase a computerized embroidery machine and decided to go to the bank to borrow the money.  Borrowing money from the bank was not quite as easy as I thought it would be.  The loan officer told me I needed a Business Plan.  I had never even heard of a Business Plan!  The loan officer directed me to the Small Business Administration and with their help I created my first one. That Business Plan saw many updates and I have created many more since that time.

Starting a business without a plan and without the knowledge of how to run a business is not a good idea.  During that time I made so many costly mistakes, I had a lot of struggles to go through and I did not have anyone that I could turn to for help. I almost lost my business because I did not know how to price my embroidery to create a profit.  I thought that I had to be the lowest priced embroiderer in the area in order to get any work.  My accountant came to the rescue and helped me create a total pricing structure and it really changed my whole business!   In 1998, I sold my business and decided retire; however retirement did not work out for me!

In 2000 I started my training and consulting business as The Embroidery Coach. My goal is to see that every embroiderer has all of the right systems, processes and tools in place from the very beginning of their business.  If you are someone that has already started your embroidery business and is not seeing a good profit, then we need to talk!

Through my book “The Truth About Embroidery Business Success”, 7 Elements to a Highly Profitable Home-Based Embroidery Business, I have been able to guide new embroidery startups and prospective embroiderers in the right direction to help them get started properly. I have had the honor of helping hundreds of embroiderers get started with their embroidery businesses’ and it is very gratifying for me to watch them grow.

I have written many articles for “Stitches Magazine” and “Printwear Magazine”and I have been a speaker at the NBM Tradeshows and the ASI Show in Chicago.  This has allowed me to personally meet a lot of great people that are already in the Embroidery Business or are thinking about starting their own Embroidery Business.

Great Honor From Stitches Magazine!

Stitches Magazine honored me in June of 2010 with the distinction of being one of “20 Creative Thinkers” and in December of 2010 #28 of 56 “Most Powerful People” in the apparel decorating industry!

In 2011 I was again honored with being of the ” 75 Most Powerful People in the apparel decorating industry!”   Thank you Stitched Magazine!

It was also my privilege to help the Apparel & Design Department at Rhode Island School of Design add Embroidery to their curriculum.  They are really great people to work with and teach.  I know that they are going to be very successful with their new program.

To See Why I decided to become The Embroidery Coach