Knitting For Profit

Knitting information, ideas and success stories from women who create real cash flow from their knitting and crochet.


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Knitting Online Success Story – JJ from begintoknit.com Part 2

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

This is Part 2 of my interview with JJ, Click Here for Part 1.

[Liz]: Can I just ask you while we were talking about begintoknit and the internet marketing and setting up – I think a lot of people find the challenge of when you first start getting online and learning how set things up, because there’s just so many courses out there. And there’s so much that you can do, so it’s quite hard to get focused sometimes. So how did you decide, and how did you learn how to set up your blog and your orders and everything that you’ve done, how did you learn to do that?

[J.J]: Well I actually ran into a program online; see I had seen time and time again this stuff about lists. What is your list- grow your list. I’m like whatever, what does that even mean? And I had kept coming across it every time I started investigating something about internet marketing and initially it turned me off because I’m like- ‘what are you doing? Are you creating your own cult or what?’ [A knitting cult?!] There you go!

And as I started to investigate it, it made more sense. Internet marketing is the epitome of relationship marketing and relationship marketing is all about interacting with the people you’re marketing too, and in fact I’m almost a little uncomfortable using the term marketing. Because when people talk about marketing, they think; commercials, they think print ads, they think high pressure sales and with internet marketing it really is not about that at all.

I’ve had absolutely no problem for asking someone to pay for a good product that I put out there. I don’t think there is anything at all wrong with that, I really do not, but if as an internet marketer your first goal is not to help people and to improve the lives of individuals- you’re going to get eaten alive and people are not going to come to you for anything. Our goal-my husband and I- our whole goal in anything that we do is always about how can we improve a person’s individual state, how can we elevate people? How can we help people to be better? And absolutely the products that we are providing- what we do- we give people all kinds of freebies. We really like to give stuff away but we recognize the value of paying for something that’s worth having. I can’t reiterate that enough investment makes something more valuable.

I myself, I’m currently in an internet marketing course or internship program or however you want to term it with an organization called Prosperity Based Living and it’s in a larger organization called Champion Vision and the leader of that is Dan Kushel. If anybody whose listening has done anything with internet marketing, they’re very much familiar with that name. He’s very much a self made man, in many ways and when he’s interacting with people, he just doesn’t talk about- well let’s get you started in internet marketing, let me give you three or four things that you can do and from there on out blah blah blah. It’s really not about the hard sell, they are actually literally about walking you through your beginning and encouraging you to continue and when you work with these people you really get a sense of them trying to improve your quality of life- that’s their goal.

So for me that’s very impressive and to me ultimately that’s what internet marketing should be about, monetizing your internet marketing should be secondary. And I know that sounds counter-intuitive, we tend to think of wanting to make everyone wanting to pay for every little tid-bit you give there, but really monetizing your products are secondary you really want to give people quality information, to build that trust with them, they know that you’re giving them something worth having. So if you do give them a product that you are selling them, it’s that much more worth it to them.

Investment makes something… Investment makes the heart grow fonder? I don’t know if that makes sense to you. But your book, “Knitting For Profit” – see we’re affiliates for your information also, my husband and I- see this is something we wanted to do we wanted to monetize his knitting ability and he enjoys putting himself out there with it now which is really awesome I see so much change in him. It’s amazing to me, it’s thrilling and it’s encouraging. So it makes me want to put myself out there that much more you know? So we started looking through ClickBank anybody who’s tried to market their own information products knows about ClickBank, it’s basically a real simple, easy way to put your product out there and have other people help you sell it. And Liz we found your product “Knitting For Profit” on ClickBank we bought it, we looked at it and I was very impressed with the knitting for profit E-Book. I went to your blog and I was very impressed with the blog and the quantity and quality of the information that you put out there.

Our blog is just starting and we have a specific challenge in that-and this is kind of funny- our blog is dual language, we actually have two blogs. Anything we post on our main blog which is just begintoknit.com/blog we duplicate that in Spanish on begintoknit.com/blog2. [That’s a fantastic idea, I really like that.] And you would not imagine the thrill I got when we published our first article and I went through- and I started looking for where it was on Google and someone had actually translated my first article into Spanish on their website. I was so thrilled I was unbelievably thrilled, and it’s neat because, you know my husband being Spanish, Spanish being my second language it’s another passion of mine.

We’re able to head a whole different niche and our true goal is to get out there and give people something to work with- we want to give people information. So our information is building, its building slowly but its building and we’re trying to get as much quality information out there as possible and we’re trying to provide people with some free resources as well as connecting up with wonderful resources like your website. And obviously as affiliates for your product, your product is one that we’re also out there providing to people and currently on begintoknit.com what we do provide initially is a free e-course.

So anybody listening- if you know somebody that wants to learn how to knit so they can fully take advantage of Liz’s product- send them on over we’ll give them a free e-course on beginning knitting.

Liz: [And that’s using your unique set of teaching… the way your husband teaches?]

Yes it is extraordinarily simple; we did as much as we could to provide as many full colored photographs as we could to illustrate as closely and as specifically as we could how to do the actual movements with your hands. It’s a five step course but the first step is actually just about what you need. So it only takes four specific steps to allow you to get started on a simple knitting project and after we go through the initial e-course then we start providing patterns for beginning knitters to be able to do confidently and effectively.

Then as we go forward we’re going to provide the intermediate knitting e-book as a purchased product. We’re working right now on the video series on the initial e-course and the intermediate as well.

Liz: [That’s fantastic, to get ranked on Google as well as to get some video on YouTube as well.]

Absolutely and I also I have four little hams, also known as my children-and Ruth has actually told me that she wants to be active in this process so the whole thing I mean, not only has it been beneficial from a monetary perspective, not only has it been beneficial in that we have a way to help people which is the cry of our hearts- we want to help people but it’s also become this amazing family project. Everyone in the family has something they can do. Even my littlest child, she’s three years old, and she’s singing the farmer in the dell and it’s the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. And I actually did unashamedly put a big plug in there for begintoknit.com and why not? She’s a beautiful adorable little girl and people can get a free e-course out of watching her- why not?

Ruth actually did a Squidoo Page, squidoo.com, and that’s a fun little web directory. You can go in there and you can donate part of your money or all of it if you want- you can donate it to whatever cause may be beneficial to you, one that you personally support. Ruth and I both have Squidoo pages; my son wants to put one up about Lego’s. Hey he’s a boy- he’s all boy so he may as well. And we’re both supporting the local Salvation Army through it and mine is specifically about knitting, her own is about crafting in general. There’s links on the blog about it and I’m so proud of my kids what they’re also doing with this particular aspect of our family life. It’s been amazing just to watch –especially Ruth- flourish with her writing skills in this. So it’s become such a family affair and the internet marketing aspect of it, the more I see of that interacting with people the more I enjoy it

[Liz]: Wonderful, so is that how you are going to promote begintoknit? Because I think that’s something else that a lot of people initially struggle with, how to get known, how to get out there and to connect with people and build that list. So what’s your strategy for doing that?

[J.J]: Well I have actually come up with two strategies that have begun to really show fruit for me, one of them is article marketing. Now here’s the really cool thing about article marketing. Often times when you start studying about search engine optimization, I know that’s a big giant word. Basically all that is, is Google Rankings. When someone plugs in your keyword- you want your page to be close to the top because you’re going to have people more likely to click on you.

Part of what Google uses to decide whether or not your blog, your website, your forum, or whatever is worth people going to is how many different places are linked to it, that’s incoming links. Now obviously you also want a lot of outgoing links on your site that lead to other people who do similar things as what you do. Which- I’ve linked to you, you’ve linked to me, and there’s a couple of other people out there that I’ve linked up to, there’s a number of products I’ve linked up to. But getting the articles out there, that’s other websites that have articles that are linking back to me. Other people get in there and they start looking at my articles then they come back to my website. Article marketing is very powerful, and I love writing, so it’s a joy for me to get out there, put out stuff that’s good quality information, touching stories, inspirational stories- stuff to encourage people, stuff to inform people.

And that’s all free for the taking, they can take it as much as they want and do whatever they want with it and then they can read that article and they link back to my website. So that’s one way I generate traffic.

The other thing has been very, very effective for me, have been give-a-way programs. Now that, I kind of accidently came upon and I’m definitely going to have to put something about this in my blog-just because it’s been so interesting. There’s a whole side to internet marketing that’s about people reselling private label rights products. Basically they go and they pull up as many private products that they can, that other people would give them the right to alter; brand and sell- and they really make a lot of money doing this.

And one little section of that kind of marketing are the JV Giveaways. What is that? Well a number of people with a free product get on these give-a-ways and they put their product in there. Let’s say they have three different products and they’re trying to build three different lists. Remember I said something about the list earlier, that’s when you get people set up on an email list, that you send them emails. That’s what my e-course is, it’s through email and basically you have permission to contact these people. Ideally you’re going to give them free products, you’re going to give them quality information, and you’re going to present them quality monetized products.

I’m only going to sell stuff that I think is quality and I want people to realize that when they see my product, they’re going to see I’m giving them a good product. So these JV partnerships, these give-a-way programs- the whole point is you get in there and you give away a good product. You start getting people to opt into your list and you’re able then to take advantage of that relationship- they saw your product, they know it’s good, if they like it they stay subscribed if they don’t they unsubscribe and you haven’t lost anything. It doesn’t cost you anything if you’re only putting in one product.

Now a lot of times people will upgrade and that’s how they make their money. Well I’ve never upgraded and I would say a full third of my opt-ins on my email list has come through these free give-aways. Yeah- and I’m not even trying. I put in this little product and they do their give-away program and people see my product, and they’re interested and intrigued and they sign up for it-Boom there you go.

[Liz]: I was just going to say, there’s probably people listening now who would be interested to learn more about that or actually going to do that, do you have a website address or anything that you can send them to?

[J.J]: Oh you know what? Not initially, but right now as a family we’re working on developing a whole new website aside from begintoknit, and I think that’s one of the aspects of that new website- as soon as it comes up- if people stay connected to begintoknit.com and that email list- I would absolutely be able to send them that information. And at some point I’m also going to pick out the one’s that do the best at this, because I only want to work with the best, I only want to give out quality products and I only want to provide people with quality contacts, so at this point right I’m looking for people that do the best quality program and have actually gotten me the most quality leads. I’m in a lot of different programs right now where that is concerned, and I need to backtrack and see exactly where the best leads have come from. I do have a contact that I have a relationship with and I’m going to kind of touch base with him specifically on who he recommends but if people just keep in contact with me on begintoknit.com, especially in the blog – so it’s begintoknit.com/blog. I’m going to be putting that on the blog very soon, I’ve got to interact with my contact and then and I want to make sure that I’m getting people the absolute best product and contact that they can get.

Liz: [Fantastic, and that’s a great value.] It is, it’s wonderful and it’s free!

Liz: [You can’t get better value than that] Absolutely, and something else I’ve begun to notice as far as traffic is twitter.

Liz: [Ah Yes, yes I’ve seen that too.] Yeah! I was really surprised I just went in and just did a search on how many people knit on twitter and all I did was go into their help screen and I did a specific search by topic for ‘Knit’ and it’s like wow- there are so many people out there that do that. So that’s another tremendous resource, you interact with these people and you can actually start specifically, I mean this is all relationship stuff so you don’t want to start bombarding people with your product. That’s not where it’s at. The idea is you want to learn about people so you take advantage first of all of the lists that you’ve built, you ask them what they want and you give them what they want. You want to give people something that they’re going to consider valuable. And with twitter it’s a great resource because you also find out what people enjoy, what their looking for, what they need and I have learned a huge amount of information just by floating through twitter and just seeing what people are talking about.

[Liz]: The other thing actually you’ve mentioned to me before with your blog, you were talking about getting other contributors in. I think one of the things with blogging is that keeping up with a blog, keeping up with a lot of articles can be daunting for some people. That was a really bright idea that you had there- that you started getting other people to contribute to your blog as well.

[J.J]: Absolutely, I especially have a tender heart towards previous generations. Mostly because I don’t think our older folks are valued in society in general, especially in the United States. I can tell you there’s not the reverence for the older generation as there ought to be that’s my personal opinion. I would love to hear from those seasoned knitters, who have had specific experiences or who have some little kind of trick or tip about different ways knitting has helped them or ways they have found to really explode their ability with knitting.

Just how knitting makes them feel- all of these sorts of things my husband and I are just really fascinated hearing people’s stories- learning from them. A couple of older gals that are at our church, interacting with them and looking at some of the stuff they’ve created – I’ve been just absolutely amazed at what they have been able to show us and I have been really astonished, surprised and thrilled to see some of the younger girls- who have taken up the needles on their own and we have been able to actually interact with some of them.

My husband has actually given some tips and tricks to some of the younger girls in our church. Yeah! This one gal was like I really want to knit, but I’m not sure how to go about it, you know- do you have any suggestions? Because she always sees me with the shawls or the scarves, the sweater my husband made me, one thing or another. And she’s like I always see you with these great handmade items where do I get more information on it? And I said- talk to him, and she’s like you’re kidding, ‘No-talk to him, he can help you, he wants to do this’. So a number of people have gone to my husband for this information, but yes I am fascinated by people’s stories. It’s not just technique that I’m interested in finding out about, I want to hear people talk about why they started to knit or why knitting is an important part of their life.

Knitting is part of a lifestyle and it is something that will stop you and slow you down, and it will teach you patience and teaches you perseverance sometimes it teaches you how to overcome frustration- when you have that new stitch that you’re trying to learn. I can’t tell you how many times, and remarkably it can be so interactive if you have a partner that you can knit with. My husband, there have been a number of times when he’s seen a pattern or something in a book that he’s gotten from the library- which is a great resource by the way, go to your local library get books on knitting- and that’s how he’s developed so many patterns, he’ll take something out of a book that he’s gotten at the library and he’ll put a couple of things together- boom he’s got a new stitch. And there have been a number of times where he’s just sitting there and he sees something, and it looks so pretty and he’s like I just really want to do this I just can’t get it to work. And we’ll sit there and we’ll puzzle over it and I’ll read the pattern and I’ll try it and I’ll be like well I’m not sure but I think this is what its saying. And he’ll take the needles and say I think you’ve got it up to there but I think this is what happens next. It’s fun and it’s a good way to get that television turned off and to get the interaction happening.

I’m fascinated at hearing people’s why behind the knitting and that’s some of the stuff I really want people to contribute to the blog about. I want to read it, if for no other reason and we want to share people’s personal stories and their testimonials about knitting and it’s just touching to me, to hear that.

[Liz]: Ok, well the final question I just wanted to ask you was in terms of starting, we’re talking to a lot of people obviously who are looking to starting a knitting business or starting up online, what would be your piece of advice for someone just starting out?

[J.J]: Oh… The biggest, the biggest thing is about passion. If there’s one thing that you may have picked up about me is that when I am doing something it has to come from my gut, it has to be something I am passionate about. Having that passion is going to carry you through those times when you’re starting to get frustrated, it’s going to carry you through those times when it doesn’t look like it’s quite going the way you’re expecting it to. That passion is going to help push you through seeking help when you need it and people are going to pick up on that- if you are not passionate about doing it, don’t do it. And by all means I’m not telling you don’t try to make money knitting, that’s not at all what I’m telling you. I would venture to say that if you’re even looking at the possibility, chances are you’re more passionate about knitting than most people out there. But anything that you do, that you want to make a business out of, if you are not passionate about it you will not make it. Honestly, it’s that simple, that’s number one.

Number two I would say get as much information as you can- and not just from mediocre resources, get information from top-notch resources. I hate the term ‘Guru’, honestly, but if you are looking to getting into an internet business you need to talk to the gurus, I really do hate that word. But if you’re talking to someone who has made money online chances are they’re going to tell you how to make money online. If you’re talking to someone that has made money knitting, then that person is someone you want to interact with.

You need quality resources you need quality information. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there a little bit- my relationship with Liz has developed just because I shot her off an email. And was I nervous about doing that? Yeah I was a little nervous because you obviously have a well developed concept, you have a well developed idea, and you have a well developed blog, so yeah that was a little intimidating. But you’re a very personable person; you’re very knowledgeable about what you’re doing so I consider you a tremendous resource- your book Knitting For Profit is very good. What you have done, you have obviously done what you set out to do and that’s what you need to do. You need to interact with people that have done what they set out to do; you need to get those suggestions and advice from those people.

Number one is passion, number two is information, number three—be willing to invest whatever it takes, and that’s not necessarily money, that’s about time, that’s about personal commitment that is about being able to sacrifice something in order to do it. Let’s say for example that you’re looking at your budget and you’re realize you’re only a few dollars away for being able to pay for that Domain Hosting, you know what? Give up Star Bucks; give up Dunkin Donuts or whatever- that McDonald’s stop in the morning or whatever it is that you don’t need. Be willing to give that up- who knows you might actually end up with better health out of it, you never know, but be willing to sacrifice those things.

Make sure your team is in on this with you, when I talk about my team, my team is my family. My husband has actually been after me for a while, he knew that I wanted to do something; he knew that I was capable of doing something but I hadn’t found it. I hadn’t found the ‘it’ I was looking for, when I found it my passion began to grow, I began to get the information I needed to make it work and I saw his support. I said I need this I need your support on this I need to know that you’d be behind me if I did this. He said absolutely I support you, I said it’s going to take a sacrifice of time, it’s going to take a sacrifice of money, and it’s going to take a sacrifice of energy on my part. I’m not going to be able to do as much in the house keeping and all of those things. You know obviously I’m not slacking off on everything in my household but it has taken a huge chunk of my time and I don’t begrudge that because I do still at this point have a part time job. But I am very close of working myself out of that part time job and I’m willing to do that, I’m willing to put that time and that energy into it.

So number one is passion, number two is information, number three is do whatever it takes. So just don’t be afraid if you find a good resource, if it costs you a little money, it takes a monetary investment. You know what the fact of the matter is that if everything you invest in your business is free, you may not take it as seriously. If the information that you’re getting is all free information, you may not be getting the quality of information that you deserve to make your business really work.

Honestly the initial information I got for the internet marketing, for the affiliate marketing, for the website design all of this stuff that I gleamed through the free information. You know what it was good information but I kept finding hurdles that I had to overcome and that was because I hadn’t developed the relationship with the people that had the information that I needed, I got that relationship and I got that information by paying for it. It’s a tremendous resource if you can find somebody that has what you need. If you are willing to pay for it do so, and I’m not going to tell you who to go to because it really depends on how you want to monetize your knitting business or your information business or whatever type of business you want to go into. Obviously there’s a lot of different avenues people can take- if they want to do the public domain marketing or whatever it is they want to do with this. Re-sale products, or if they’re selling hard products, if they want to sell something on E-Bay or Etsy or whatever it is that they’re trying to sell on.

There’s a number of different people out there that have successful, good businesses that they have developed over those sorts of resources and those people would be the one that they would need to go to. I can give suggestions- I have some tremendous mentors and I can definitely suggest them. But a lot of times the best resources and the most valuable resources are going to be the ones that you find, that you have gotten quality information from. I encourage people to do their research, get their information. So number on passion, number two information, number three, do what it takes, and number four be willing to pay for it. So there you go that’s what I would tell someone who wants to start their own business.

[Liz]: Excellent that is a really fantastic summary! Well hey, I think we’re at the end here, I really appreciate you spending the time today, I found this really interesting I’ve learnt a lot. I’m impressed and I love your passion and I love the way you love knitting and this new direction in your life. It’s really inspiring.

[J.J] It’s wonderful, and I’m glad I can share it and I’m honored that you wanted to share this with people and that you want and that you wanted to talk to me about it, I was really touched. But I was excited to have the opportunity to do this and thank you very much for the opportunity to share.

[Liz]: Well thank you, I think people will have learned a lot from this, and if anyone wants to contact you- I highly recommend they sign up with your newsletter which is at begintoknit.com or check out the blog at begintoknit.com/blog or if you speak Spanish, begintoknit.com/blog2. OK, so thank you very much for being with us J.J

[J.J] You’re absolutely welcome and thank you for having me!

If you would also like to make some money from promoting the Knitting For Profit E-Book like JJ, learn more about becoming an affiliate at www.knittingforprofit.com/affiliates.html. It's a fast, easy way to start making money from your existing knitting or crochet website or blog!

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Knitting Online Success Story – JJ from begintoknit.com

Monday, September 21st, 2009

This is a great interview to listen to if you are keen to get your knitting or crochet online, and we’ll be following up with the teleseminar on Thursday/Friday to answer all your questions (check out the post below to register). As I mentioned in my last post, I really enjoyed this interview and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you!

Just click on the play button below and you’ll be able to hear the recording which runs for about 50 minutes, or you can read the transcript in the two posts below.

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Posted in Knitting Websites, Make Money Knitting, Success Stories & Interviews | 2 Comments »

Knitting Online Success Story – JJ from begintoknit.com Part 1

Monday, September 21st, 2009

This is the transcript from my interview with JJ so if you prefer reading to listening, or you want to check a resource that is mentioned you’ll find the entire interview here – enjoy!

[Liz]: Today I’m talking to Jenny Vasquez from www.begintoknit.com, or J.J. as she actually likes to be known because that name includes the other half of her team – her husband who is also a knitter. Now J.J. has a wonderful and inspiring story which I wanted to share with you.

Because of the economic conditions at the moment in the U.S. she made the decision to take control of her own future and she’s taken the most important steps towards achieving this by starting her own business. She’s using a combination of strategies in her business; including teaching and the volume strategies. So now she’s using the power of the internet to get herself and her fabulous products and services going.

So J.J. would you like to tell us a bit about your background and perhaps introduce your husband and how you discovered his secret talents?

[J.J]: Absolutely – well my husband whose name is Juan; he’s a wonderful, wonderful man and an incredibly talented man, who was actually quite shy about his ability with knitting. We had been married about a month and we had very much a very quick relationship, so we hadn’t probably known each other more than about seven months all told, after we had been married about a month and I actually pulled out a magazine that had some crochet patterns in it and I said— Oh look I wonder if I can make this and he said well can’t you just make it by looking at the picture? And I said no… I absolutely have to go by the pattern, I’m a good knitter, but I’m not an exceptional knitter. I have to have a pattern to follow. He says well I can do that by just looking at it, and I didn’t take him seriously I thought he was joking with me. And the next thing I knew we started hitting the local discount stores and bulk retailers and getting all kinds of knitting needles and crochet hooks and yarns of all different colors and variations and shortly thereafter I found out we were expecting our first child, we’d only been married a couple of months and here’s my husband with this incredible skill so we started making all sorts of stuff for the baby before she was even born.

[Liz]: Fantastic and were you actually selling some of your products at that point?

[J.J]: At that point immediately? No – mostly because he was just shy about anyone knowing that he did this. And for myself, it wasn’t really something that occurred to me because even though I knew how to crochet, it didn’t seem like something that I would be able to make lucrative because I did it for my own hobby. My husband on the other hand, he was very proficient – I had no idea, but because he’s a man, he’s a Hispanic man and that’s not typical hobby for a Hispanic man, he was very shy about it. It took probably about two years before the cat got out of the bag. That he had this incredible skill and then we started occasionally selling some stuffed animals and the occasional baby layette and stuff like that and I kinda had to take the hit for a while – “Oh yeah I made that”- even though I felt horrible about fibbing about it but he justified it saying— you know the two are one, you’re my wife so it’s just as much you as me. But once the ball started to roll on that- yeah we had people that were very interested in the products that he was making, for purchases…

It started really slow, it wasn’t something that came regular or frequently, it was sporadic just people would see something that they were interested in. Most of the stuff initially that we made was just for our own personal use as family members and as gifts for other people. But this past year we really saw the value of his ability to knit not only is he a creative knitter but he’s a prolific knitter. He knits very quickly, very accurately with a great deal of skill. We could be sitting there watching a movie and he’s knitting away. He could finish a scarf by the time we’re done with the movie!

[Liz: Wow !] Yes he’s incredibly gifted. Now mind you that wouldn’t be something that’s a terribly complicated pattern but you’re basic just switching out colors or something like that- he could do that fairly quickly.

Now winter around here business is not very good, this area is highly industrialized and we’re hit very hard with winter. Because our local economy is so based on the RV industry and mobile homes, in the winter time business drops off, sales drop off and business all over the place in one fashion or another just drops off. Well this past year was particularly bad – there were about three weeks solid that he didn’t work at all. One day I just happened to be wearing one of the scarves he knit me (it’s just something he does every now and then – he’ll come up with something and surprise me – and I really love it I feel so special), and a girl at work came up and said “Oh, I love that scarf – where’d you get it?” And I said well my husband made it for me… She’s like “no way! I don’t believe you” Oh yeah- I’ve got three of them just like it but different colors and different patterns. Well how much for him to make me one? I said well how much would you pay, and it just kinda blew, up from there all of a sudden.

I happen to mention to someone else – oh yeah my husband made this. “Oh really” You know? And it just kept growing like that- and she mentioned it to someone- that my husband was making her one, and I couldn’t believe how fast the orders started coming in. Even with the economy as bad as it is, around Christmas time people wouldn’t think anything of spending ten dollars on a gift for someone. And it’s just really surprising- and they’re very…. handmade high quality and we can do them custom. Around here, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the university of Notre Dame but it’s a big deal around here there’s a lot of Notre Dame fans. And we can do them custom- there’s just all kinds of ways that we were able to really tailor make the business for the area.

It really was tremendous. We actually covered the income that he lost through that time of not working- we were able to almost completely replace it with the knitting orders.

[Liz: Fantastic] I can tell you he was tired, but he worked hard and he was so proud of the work he did. And it felt really good to me because I was able to see other people- see I really did the marketing on it, and I assisted him on picking out the patterns and there were some things that he wasn’t really sure what the best way to edge it may be or something along those lines. I helped him do the tassels and I helped him do the edging on some of them. I basically did the cleanup work because I was still working regularly at that point- I worked for a retailer and Christmas is a big time for us. So I was actually working a little overtime. But it was wonderful for me, because I’m so proud of his skill and his tremendous talent. I was really, really happy to see him really take ownership of that and he was able to say “I did this”, and it really felt good.

[Liz]: What a really fantastic story! So now from there are you going to keep doing that or are you now going to focus on your online business? Give us an idea of what you’re up to now, you have your scarves..

[J.J] That’s one thing that my husband does- he’s actually proficient in both knitting and crochet, so as our business grows we will become more inclusive of other crafts and hobbies of that fashion. He has a wide selection of- he’s actually begun to develop his own knitting and crochet patterns for rugs different kinds of home items- home décor items. He does doilies- he just covered a whole realm of possibilities. We’ve noticed that knitting is a very good seasonal business, we have been put on to a few bazaars in the area, where knitters would actually get together the day after thanksgiving- it’s the biggest day in the states here. Thanksgiving falls on the third Thursday of every November- so it’s the almost the unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

So as we go forward he’s been building up his stock, because I’ve been focusing more on the online business, he’s been focusing on what we call the hard products, which are the actual knitted products.

I have been working on developing his information products which are the patterns that he’s creating, and his techniques – the way he learned to knit, because the way he learned was very organic. As a child he would watch his older sister knit and crochet, and he’s a very visual learner. He picked up a huge amount just by watching her and then he actually fell ill for a period of time where he was unable to do physical work, but he didn’t want to just lay there like a lump, he needed to do something- he’s one of these busy bodies that is not happy unless he’s active and he’s a highly motivated individual so he was very frustrated at that point.

He picked up the knitting again and he kinda taught himself some specific techniques, and this is the kicker- he taught me how to knit! Yes absolutely, I knew how to crochet, I was familiar with the idea of how yarn is manipulated but as far as manipulating it with two needles- I felt very awkward with that, I actually tried to teach myself to knit a number of years ago and was just like blahhh forget it, it’s not working for me. But using the techniques that he has developed – he taught me to knit in very short order; I was very impressed as to how easy it was with the methods that he was teaching me. And I’ve actually been working on developing his teaching methods into usable, easy to follow programs that anyone- I feel- can pick up these skills.

[Liz] Fantastic, is that where the idea of begintoknit came from?

[JJ] Yes, absolutely. I knew I wanted to do something on the internet. Because aside from all the other things that fascinate me, I’m fascinated by interacting with people of all different kinds of cultures, all over the world. And its fun to interact with all these people all over, not only that but if you widen your scope to an internet business, you are not limited to the local economic issues [Yes that’s true] Yes and I mean, why not cast your net very wide? If we have something to offer people, something like the information products- and it’s so easy to provide that to people. And we’re giving them quality information, we’re not just coming up with something hodge-podge and half made, it’s stuff that we’re really putting some effort into creating for people.

We’re excited about the products that we’re developing and the internet really is the best place to do that. So as I began to kind of investigate how can I work this out, what’s going to be the best way to do this, I stumbled on a couple programs that led me in the right direction.

Now understand; I have tried so many different home based businesses. I have been in any kind of market that you would want to try to be in, I think at one point I mentioned to you I did data entry-which is a very nebulous kind of term which basically means filling out data on a computer that completely flopped. I’ve done the multi level marketing that completely flopped, for me- mind you these are things that can work for other people. But for myself- they weren’t working simply because I wasn’t really able to feel comfortable hitting up everybody that I knew individually. I didn’t want to be like- oh my goodness here she comes, she is going to sell me something today- you know? And I personally knew people like that and I didn’t want to be that way, so I just really didn’t want to, I was just completely turned off by that idea. So with all of the things that I’ve tried to do; internet marketing and the way I’ve begun to learn how to do internet marketing really has become the way for me to get the message out there on how wonderful knitting is as a hobby, how wonderful it is as a way to augment your income….it helps so many different aspects of your life, it makes you feel good, you look at something that you created and you’re like wow I did this, you know?

My husband recently taught my nine year old daughter to knit using the program that we developed. She grasped it in a matter of a couple of hours, I mean it was very quick – and she’s all excited, she’s like’ mom look at this’, and she’s making a scarf for herself and she is so thrilled with it and it’s just so awesome to see. And we’re teaching our son to crochet and knit as well. [That’s great!] I think s,o and as I begun to really try to connect with other people on the internet I am really impressed as to how many men are out there unabashedly and unashamedly admitting to their knitting skill and I pull my husband over and I say ‘look honey look I just found three more guys that know how to knit isn’t this cool?’ And he’s like ‘well I guess I’m not alone’, it’s like “no you certainly are not!”.

So that’s why we really decided to go with the internet, because there’s so many more people like you out there it’s easy to relate and yeah. This is my joy I’m the internet person and he’s the creative person and I make his creativity shine.

[Liz]: Fantastic, you’re a great team!

[J.J]: Oh yeah. It’s amazing, I don’t know- I can’t help but think god planned this out; he planned him just for me you know? And it’s so funny because in so many ways we’re so opposite of the normal gender roles, I also happen to home school my children- I have four children their ages are three, five, seven and nine. Yes they are a handful, they’re very beautiful, smart, amazing kids and I couldn’t be more proud of them. But in our family when it comes to the schooling of our children I’m the one teaching them the math, I’m the one teaching them the science; I’m the one teaching them all the nuts and bolts of everything they need to learn. And my husband is doing all of the home economics and the creative teaching- he teaches them the cooking; he teaches the knitting and crocheting. It’s a really amazing teamwork that we put together to teach our kids.

The second part of this transcript will be posted tomorrow…

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