Sewing classes can dramatically increase your store’s revenue and strengthen your local crafting community. But between managing the cutting table and ordering new fabric, you hardly have time to manually record class registrations over the phone.
With the right sewing class management strategy, you can reap the financial benefits of in-store workshops without the administrative burden. Use these six tips to automate the grunt work and grow your business.
To make your workshops truly profitable (and avoid pulling your hair out), you need to get your logistics in order before the first student even walks in. Here are six strategies to fill seats and keep your store running smoothly, all without disrupting your daily operations.
Start by determining your baseline expenses and maximum capacity. Consider factors like:
You may find that you need to raise registration fees to cover the cost of expert teachers, or that you need to move your cozy class corner to a more spacious section of the store to accommodate students’ sewing machines.
By calculating these factors ahead of time, you can get a realistic sense of your store’s capacity and pinpoint the attendance targets you need to meet.
Related Read: Are Fabric Stores Profitable? 7 Factors To Consider
Capture customers you might otherwise lose by offering 24/7 class registration and payments. If customers can book a class whenever they think of it — whether they’re on their couch at 9 p.m. or in line for a coffee at 6 a.m. — they’ll be much more likely to sign up than if you force them to wait until regular business hours to call.
Plus, when students can pay online instead of bringing cash or a check to class, everyone wins. You don’t have to spend time chasing down students to collect outstanding fees, and students get the convenience of instant checkout using the method they prefer.
Point of sale (POS) systems such as Like Sew make it easy for students to register and pay for classes online — they can even check out with the custom kits you set up earlier.
You can significantly increase sign-ups by tailoring your class schedule to your specific target audience.
For instance, a craft industry survey found that 85% of quilters are aged 60 or older, and 70% are retired. So if you want to cater to the average quilter, you can safely schedule quilting classes on weekdays during regular business hours.
But if you’re targeting a younger audience, or if you want to accommodate quilters with full- or part-time jobs, you should schedule classes outside of typical work and school hours.
With Like Sew’s built-in class scheduling software, you can choose the dates and times that work for your students, add additional sessions to any class, and set up repeating events.
Keep students engaged — and eliminate manual outreach — by putting your communications on autopilot. Studies show that people who receive a simple text notification are about 62% more likely to show up, which means you can drastically reduce no-show rates without lifting a finger.
Consider the time it would take to call every registered student the day before a class, leave voicemails, and field return calls just to remind them of the start time. By automating this process, you get back hours of administrative time every single week, all while tangibly improving students’ experience.
With Like Sew, you can set up automatic email and text reminders, or message students at any time right from your POS.
Related Read: Email Marketing That Doesn’t Sound Like Every Other Fabric Store
Accurate class reporting tells you exactly what’s working and what’s not. Data eliminates the guesswork, so you can see which classes generate revenue and which fall flat.
Like Sew’s class reports, for instance, show you how many students registered for any given class. And if you filter by instructor, you can see which teachers attract the most students.
By looking at reports for past classes, you might notice that advanced classes don’t get nearly as many students as beginner-level ones, or that some teachers consistently draw in far more students than others.
With this data, you can spend less time hosting sparsely attended workshops and more time planning classes your students will love.
Train your staff on class management essentials so they can answer questions, send messages, and check students in, even when you’re not in the store.
User-friendly software dramatically shortens this learning curve. If your employees have to contend with cluttered spreadsheets or handwritten sticky notes, then mistakes like double bookings are bound to happen.
Give them a single, intuitive platform instead, and you’ll transform a stressful administrative chore into a foolproof process anyone on your payroll can handle with confidence.
Related Read: How To Train Staff: A Quick Guide for Quilt Store Owners
Here are quick answers to common questions about organizing in-store sewing classes.
How do you price sewing or quilting classes to be profitable but still accessible?
Strike a balance between profitability and accessibility by marking up registration fees by a reasonable percentage, such as 30–100%.
For example, if you calculate that each student would need to pay $40 for your store to break even, you could reasonably charge $80 per seat. Or if students would need to pay $120 to reach the break-even point, you could keep classes as accessible as possible by charging $160 per seat.
What supplies do students need for a “learn to quilt” class?
For a beginner-level quilting class, students will need basics like:
You can choose which supplies your students need to bring themselves. For instance, if your store provides sewing machines, an ironing station, and cutting supplies, you could require that students bring their own fabric, batting, thread, and notions.
To save everyone time, create custom kits so students can quickly purchase the supplies they need.
Can I offer discounted pricing to repeat customers?
Yes. If you use a system such as Like Sew, members of your store’s loyalty program can use their reward points when registering for classes.
When you’re creating a class, simply check or uncheck the boxes labeled “Eligible for Discounts” and “Eligible for Rewards Points.”
How can I promote upcoming classes?
Make sure customers know about upcoming classes by promoting them on your website and via email.
In Like Sew, you can do both using its integrated marketing features. You can showcase up to four of your future classes directly on your site, and automatically email customers about upcoming classes.
Successful sewing class management shouldn’t mean you have to work overtime just to catch up on paperwork. By moving registration and payment online, giving your staff a unified system, automating student communications, and using data to plan better classes, you can turn what was once a logistical nightmare into a reliable source of revenue.
The right software lets you accomplish all these things from a single central location. Like Sew is an all-in-one POS built specifically for quilt and fabric stores, so you can give students a flawless experience while keeping your day-to-day operations running smoothly.
Use our Build and Price tool to get a custom quote in minutes and see how Like Sew can adapt to your store’s needs.