CCE- Jenny Hart, oh how we all love you. How does it feel to be a craft celeb?

JH- This question makes me blush. I never imagined what I was doing would lead to so much exposure and the kinds of incredible experiences I’ve had. And, I’m always far more excited to see my embroidery in a magazine than my face, that’s for sure! To have people paying attention to my work, and enjoying it, has been really wonderful and rewarding. Having people that I don’t know reach out to me and say that they learned how to embroider from me, or that I changed their ideas about embroidery is something that I would never trade. It comes with a lot of pressure, though!

CCE- You not only own your own incredibly successful business, Sublime Stitching but you started the Craft Mafia. How do you think starting the Mafia helped your business?

JH- Oh, I definitely can’t take credit for starting the Austin Craft Mafia (which led to the Craft Mafia network)! I mean, it was born out of three of us coming together (Jennifer Perkins, Tina Sparkles and me) at a time when I was toying with the idea of starting Sublime Stitching. The actual formation of the Austin Craft Mafia group was Tina’s idea and it took nine of us to make it happen. The explosion of interest around our group was something none of us expected. But, we did intend for such a group to serve as a model of mutual support and a way for us to amplify and promote each other’s businesses. What ended up happening was the idea of a Craft Mafia gaining so much attention! Being in the Mafia brought other kinds of attention to my business that it might not have attracted on its own, which is the model for the network. By one member having attention, hopefully the other members of the group will benefit from the exposure as well by linking back into the network. That was how Jennifer, Tina and I were doing it ourselves very early on: sharing print ads together, including each other’s promo materials in our outgoing orders, telling interviewers about each other when we had contact with the press. Just good ol’ word of mouth.

CCE- I know you have had a crazy busy few years with work, travel, shows, etc. How do you manage it all?

JH- It’s tough, for sure. The demands can be simply overwhelming. But I insist on downtime in the evenings and weekends. I often end up working on Saturdays recently, but will not work on Sundays. Managing time and daily demands is really hard, because you want to say yes to everything that comes your way, enact every idea that you have…I feel pulled in so many different directions each day, and it can be really hard to just put my head down and focus on the task at hand (like answering these interview questions). I’m really trying to say no to more things right now because I realized I was saying yes to more outside projects than I could handle, which actually meant I was saying “no” to my own business. I guess, I’m trying to say -I don’t know how I manage it all. Most days I feel like I can’t!

CCE- You have several employees to help run your business. What are some good lessons learned in the hiring process?

JH- I currently have only two part-time employees: an office manager and order filler / inventory manager. So, this is a very, very lean operation. I’ve learned over the years that it’s extremely hard to find the help you need. I would say it’s the hardest part of it all, to be honest. No one is going to care about your business like you do. Lessons learned?

Check references, always.
Never entrust your finances and financial decisions to someone else. The buck must stop with you. (Or, you’ll have no bucks.)
Paying an employee more will not cause them to do a better job.
Consider hiring via a temp agency if you feel overwhelmed by reading resumes
Remember that it’s a business and the people you pay are paid to do a job. No guilt involved.

But, the best criteria I’ve learned came from my most valued advisor (another businessperson who owns and operates multiple companies) said his criteria for hiring boils down to: Can they do the job? Will they do the job? Will they get along with others as they do the job?

I wrote a longer column about hiring here: Crafting a Business: Give Yourself a Hand