The Sweet Spot Between Excellence & Efficiency

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In this episode, I discuss how excellence and efficiency can coexist in creative entrepreneurship.

Episode Highlights:

• Finding the balance between providing excellent service and maintaining profitability
• The difference between excellence and perfection
• Creating a "sweet spot" where excellence and efficiency intersect
• The importance of developing signature techniques and systems

Key Insights:

• Excellence means quality work without getting trapped in perfectionism
• Efficiency requires developing systems, signature techniques, and time management
• Tracking time helps establish fair pricing and improves profitability
• Batch processing tasks (client meetings, invoicing) increases productivity
• Developing expertise in a limited set of designs/offerings creates both quality and speed

Resources Mentioned:

• Machine quilting for beginners course
• YouTube live stream playlist for quilting shortcuts
• Pricing spreadsheet for quilters: stitchedbysusan.com/pricing

Sponsor:

• Cozy Earth bamboo sheets - Use code "MEASURE" for 40% off at cozyearth.com

Want to try free motion quilting but don't know where to start? Here's 3 simple steps to get going.

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Episode Transcript

Susan (00:04):
Welcome to season five of Measure Twice.
Cut Once.
This whole season is anexploration into behind the
scenes of not just quilting, butbuilding a creative business
that truly lights you up.
As someone who's navigated theexciting and sometimes bumpy
world of turning a passion intoa profession, I'm excited to
pull back the curtain and sharemy own experiences.

(00:26):
Some episodes will be just medelving into my personal
journey.
While others will feature guestswho are also navigating the
world of creativeentrepreneurship.
We'll explore the nitty grittyof building a creative business,
the lessons learned and theunexpected challenges that come
with transforming your craftinto a thriving enterprise.
And don't worry, I'm not leavingstorytelling behind.

(00:48):
Instead, I'll be weaving theminto the conversations about
what it takes to grow a businesswhile staying true to your
creative spirit.
So whether you're dreaming ofstarting your own business, or
you just love hearing aboutcreative entrepreneurship, this
season is for you.
Hey, quilters, do you have apile of unfinished quilts as
high as a North Dakota snowbank?

(01:09):
And does the thought of machinequilting them feel just too
overwhelming To even begin?
Over the last 10 years, I'vequilted more than 1400 client
quilts, and I understand exactlythe paralysis that's holding you
back.
My brand new machine quiltingfor beginners course cuts
through that paralysis withpractical tools and techniques
for assessing and prepping andthe actual quilting process for

(01:32):
both domestic machines and longarms.
There's no fancy tools orcomplicated methods.
Just clear step-by-step guidanceto get you quilting with
confidence.
You'll learn the exact methods Iuse to achieve high quality
results.
Find the direct link in the shownotes or visit stitched by
susan.com and follow the learntab to start your quilting

(01:53):
journey today.
Every ethical entrepreneur, service provider
and maker wants to provideexcellence to their customers.
Am I right?
It's a matter of pride.
It's a matter of fulfillment.
It's a matter of personalsatisfaction.
But there's another side to thiscoin as self-starters, as
entrepreneurs.

(02:13):
We also need our venture,whatever it may be, to be
profitable.
It's also a matter of pride andfulfillment and personal
satisfaction, and often it'squite essential for our bread
and butter.
It's our living.
We count on it.
So we have to be profitable inorder to continue to be in fact
sustainable.
So can these two things coexist?

(02:35):
Can excellence and efficiency besimultaneous?
My opinion.
Yes.
Yes, they can.
In fact, I'd like to show youhow each can enhance the other.
Merriam Webster definesexcellence this way.
The quality of being outstandingor extremely good, and notice

(02:55):
excellence does not equalperfection.
More on that later.
What does excellence mean to youin your venture?
Are you a writer and you wantyour work to be well formatted
and grammatically correct andreally engaging?
Or maybe you're a custom cakebaker and you need to deliver
cakes that taste as good as theylook and bring your customers

(03:17):
back for the next specialoccasion.
Or perhaps you're a machinequilter and you need your
stitches to be beautiful, yourpatterns to be precise, and your
finished quilts to be square andflat.
Well, let me take you into thequilting studio for just a
moment.
Imagine you're standing in frontof your longarm quilting
machine, A customer's preciousquilt top is loaded.

(03:39):
It's ready.
And mind you, this isn't justfabric, it's hours of their
work, possibly family memories,definitely creative expression.
What does excellence mean here?
While it means good tension andeven stitches, it means smooth
curves and graceful lines.
It absolutely means no puckersor tucks on the backing of the

(04:02):
quilt.
And it means that sometimeselusive flat and square quilt,
when it's all said and done, itmeans design choices that
enhance the piecing rather thancompeting with it.
And it absolutely means a clientwho feels you did justice to
their lovely quilt.
Here's where many quilters getstuck.

(04:23):
Excellence can become a trap.
Have you ever spent eight hourson a custom quilting design for
a quilt that maybe the client ispaying you$150 to finish, or
maybe you've ripped out and requilted the same section four
times because it wasn't perfector stayed up until 2:00 AM
finishing a quilt because youadded extra details.

(04:45):
The client didn't even requestif I had a dime for every time a
quilter said to me, but thequilt deserved it.
That's reaching for perfection,and that's excellence without
efficiency.
And for an entrepreneur, it's arecipe for burnout and financial
struggle.

(05:06):
Let's think of excellence andefficiency for a minute as a
Venn diagram.
I don't know if you rememberthis from grade school math, but
a Venn diagram is when you havetwo circles, two quantities, and
somewhere they overlap, andwhere they overlap is this
little melon shaped sweet spot.
That's what we're talking abouttoday, thinking of efficiency on

(05:29):
one side.
Excellence on the other side andthe sweet spot where they
overlap, where you're not toofar into one or into the other,
but a balancing of both.
So, efficiency for a machinequilter might mean having some
go-to designs that you canexecute quickly and confidently.
It might mean a consistentintake process and discussion

(05:53):
with your client of any extrasthat are not readily visible,
right?
It might mean.
Creating systems, repeatablemethods for how you load and
quilt and finish and bundle upand fold each project.
It might mean tracking your timeto know exactly how long
different types of quilting cantake you, and certainly it means

(06:15):
getting to know your machine sothat you can quickly
troubleshoot issues and not getbogged down.
Also, think for a minute about aquilter whose work you can spot
maybe in your Instagram feed.
It's kind of like going to a, anart gallery and recognizing an
artist.
We can do this for quilters too.
And you know, it's thatparticular quilters because of
that perfect ribbon candy motifthat they use so often, or a

(06:38):
very distinctive swirly fill.
These signature designs aren'tjust beautiful, they're
strategic.
These quilters have developedmotifs that flow naturally come
easily from their hands designsThey can stitch without
hesitation or struggle or hardlyhaving to think about it
anymore.
And what began as a favoritepattern?

(06:59):
Has evolved into both theirartistic signature and their
efficiency secret weapon, andhere's how their hands know that
movement so well.
They can achieve reallybeautiful results in half the
time.
That it might take to learn andexecute a totally new design for

(07:19):
them.
And that is a brilliantintersection of artistry and
frankly, business savvy.
We talked a little earlier,briefly about a cake baker,
another creative professionwhere the excellence slash
efficiency balance is crucial.
So let's think about that for amoment.
'cause you might not be aquilter.
You might have anotheroccupation.

(07:41):
And I want you to see how thiscould apply to you too.
So think about this baker whomaybe spends hours and hours on
elaborate fondant decorationsfor every cake.
Maybe they insist on makingcustom flavors for each and
every order.
Maybe they stay up all nightperfecting sugar flowers.
Their work might be superior,definitely excellent, but if

(08:04):
they're selling celebrationcakes for$150 each and spending
15 hours on each one, that's$10an hour, less their costs.
That's hardly sustainable,right?
So an efficient baker woulddevelop systems, they would
perfect a few versatile basecake recipes that they could
rely on.
Every time, they wouldn't haveto test them.

(08:25):
They wouldn't have to riskfailure.
They could be confident in them.
They might create some signaturedecorating techniques that they
use over and over again withconfidence and with speed.
They might prep components likebuttercream and cake layers in
batches, and they might need tolearn how to understand when a
cake is beautifully finishedversus when they're just

(08:47):
draining time, adding detailsout of proportion to the time
invested.
So they need to learn tounderstand that sweet spot
between excellence andefficiency, because efficiency
without excellence on the otherside of our pendulum swing is
just rushing.
It's just cutting corners.
In quilters terms, it's it'sslap dash work.

(09:08):
It might have wrinkles on thebacking.
It might be a quilt that's notsquare when it's finished or
even it came to you square andyou've kind of wrung it out of
shape.
That's not work that's going tomake you happy.
That's definitely not work thatwill keep your clients coming
back.
And that's not what we're after.
We are looking for that sweetspot, that magical middle of the

(09:28):
Venn diagram.
That's where you're doingexcellent work within efficient
systems.
We talked a little about thisearlier, what it might look like
for a quilter.
Let's elaborate a little bit andbe specific about it for a
quilter, how about you develop acollection of 12 edge to edge
designs that you can executebeautifully and quickly?

(09:50):
Now, this comes a little bitfrom my.
Personal preference of quilting.
Totally free motion.
Edge to edge work.
So what about I plan my time andI learn 12 different designs in
a variety of tastes and styles,and I know them all and I know
them all well, right?
So I can become so skilled atthese, or you can, that you can

(10:11):
quilt them in your sleeppractically.
Your clients love them becausethey're gorgeous, because
there's a broad variety and youlove them because you can price
them appropriately and completethem.
In a timeframe that keeps yourbusiness happy.
How about you batch produce someof your work?
For example, maybe every clientfills out the same intake form

(10:32):
so that all the pertinentdetails are in one place, their
phone number, the type, thecolor of thread that they want,
um, the date that they wouldlike it by all in one place.
So you're never looking forthat, right?
Maybe your client meetings allhappen on Monday mornings.
Maybe your invoicing is all doneFriday afternoon.
In this way, you're using yourtime much more efficiently with

(10:54):
a system, or maybe you simplylook for tools.
You intentionally look for toolsand methods that make better use
of your time while maintainingyour high standard of
excellence.
You've perhaps, over the years,heard me talk about my method
for loading quilts on the longarm.
It has some significantshortcuts.

(11:15):
And it's quite different fromthe standard method that most
long arm machine brandsrecommend, but I have found ways
over time to keep the excellenceand to gain the time.
For example, I can load a queensize quilt in under 10 minutes
on my long arm, so that to me isa no brainer.
I do love.
To do a thing really well whenI'm going to do it, but I also

(11:38):
love, it's just in my nature tofind a faster way to do it.
In fact, just the other day, mysister was teasing me about this
Trust you, she said to find ashortcut, and it's true.
It's true that is just in mynature.
I do a lot of live streams onYouTube and I have digital
courses as well.
And these all really highlight alot of these efficiencies.

(12:00):
If you'd like to see how I loadmy quilts and many other
shortcuts, I have put a link formy live stream YouTube playlist
in the show notes so that youcan watch some of these things
in action and it will be maybemore clear.
But truly there's nothing thatmakes me happier.
Then seeing or helping anotherquilter transform their process,
watching them go from feeling abit overwhelmed to confident and

(12:24):
chiefly, it's a result of theseefficiencies, these methods of
getting things done, and themagic really starts happening
when excellence and efficiencystart feeding each other.
The more efficient you become,the more quilts you can complete
with excellence.
The more excellent yourreputation becomes, the more you

(12:44):
can earn making your efficientsystems even more profitable.
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quilts?
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(13:05):
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(13:27):
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We'll, thank you tomorrow.
One of the concrete ways that I've been able to see my
efficiencies grow is throughtracking my time to establish my

(13:51):
pricing.
For the first many months ofquilting for clients, I
literally clocked with astopwatch.
All the time spent on aparticular project, and I tried
to track all of it.
The time spent with the client,the time spent loading it, the
time spent.
Standing and thinking, what am Igonna quilt on this?
That was all time invested inthat project, and I had to know

(14:13):
how much time I was spending inorder to set a fair price.
So then I worked backward fromwhat I needed to earn per hour
divided by how long it actuallytook.
And then from there Iestablished a rate per square
inch of quilting.
That's a very common method formachine quilters to charge by
the square inch so that it'sdirectly related to the size of

(14:33):
the project.
But the magic kind of happenedhere as time went on and I did
more and more quilts and gotsmoother and more efficient in
my processes.
I went from loading a quilt in20 minutes to 10 minutes.
And troubleshooting time orunpicking time went down per
quilt as my skill, as myknowledge increased.

(14:55):
So my rate per square inchdidn't change then, so therefore
I'm now earning a better rate asI get faster and more efficient
and more skilled.
So that's on me.
I can get a better rate of payas I grow in skill and speed and
my own inner character demandsthat I maintain my high level of
excellence.

(15:15):
So excellence and efficiency arenot opposing forces, rather
they're partners in yourquilting business or whatever
your entrepreneurial businessis.
One leads the other, follows andbuilds on the first one, and
together they create somethingthat is in fact beautiful and
sustainable.
What's one area in your businesswhere you could achieve more

(15:38):
efficiency without sacrificingexcellence or where you could
elevate your excellence withoutsacrificing efficiency?
That sweet spot is just waitingfor you to find it.
if you are in fact a quilter forhire, I have created a really
helpful spreadsheet for you.
It's a practical way to thinkthrough your costs and assets

(16:00):
and then to arrive at a pricepoint for your quilting
services.
So if that's something that youare struggling with, take
advantage of that spreadsheetthat I've built out for you to
help you.
And you can do that by going tostitched by susan.com/pricing.
Until next time, may yoursorrows be patched and your joys

(16:20):
be quilted.