Do you love to sew but wonder how you can turn your hobby into a sewing business? Many have turned their passion for sewing into profitable businesses. The following tips will help you generate ideas for planning your business so that you can work from home.

1. Start a Sewing Club

Find a fabric store already holding classes and offer to start a sewing club. The owner may agree because you're offering an added benefit to their current customers. You'll have access to people who are already interested in sewing or want tailored clothes because they're buying from a fabric store. The owner may also include information about your sewing business when they market the club in their newsletter or other email marketing campaigns.

2. Teach Sewing Classes

You can earn extra income for your sewing business by teaching children, teens and adults how to sew. You can teach at community centers, adult learning centers, community colleges or libraries. You can offer to teach classes through programs that hire teachers, or you can start and promote your own class. Not only will you make money, but teaching establishes you as an expert which will help your marketing efforts.

3. Package and Sell Sewing Information

Concentrating solely on sewing for customers is very labor intensive. You only have so many hours in a day to complete projects. While this may be rewarding, it might not be sustainable. Consider packaging what you know and selling it online or as a mail order sewing business. You can create and sell your own patterns. You can produce your own sewing videos or distribute ones created by others. You can create how-to books and ebooks on sewing. You can even create your own curriculum for students.

Creating information products for your sewing business is ideal because people can buy your products while you sleep, and the opportunity to make more money is not based on how many hours of sewing you can do.

4. Sell Sewing Supplies

When you teach, speak or conduct workshops, you indirectly prepare your students to buy from you. This is a great opportunity to sell sewing supplies. Find wholesalers that sell the supplies that you use and like. You can sell them to your students at retail prices and offer small discounts. You can also sell it to customers that you're sewing for, and sell them on your website.

5. Create a Portfolio

Pictures are worth a thousand words in a sewing business. Take pictures of past projects and compile them into a portfolio to show potential customers. If you've already taught classes and have pictures, include those too. You can use a scrapbook, picture album or an art portfolio. You should also include them on your website or blog. If you need some or if you don't have enough, offer free classes and take pictures. Schedule time to sew a few creations right away, and take pictures of each project.

6. Beat out the Competition

Get a competitive advantage in your sewing business by offering the following:

• Fast turnaround times
• Free pickup and delivery
• Quality work

You'll leave many of your competitors behind if you make these 3 things a priority and do them consistently.

Starting a sewing business can be very rewarding if you love to sew and want to work from home. The business of sewing may seem intimidating, but in time you can automate the operation of your business and have more time to do the craft you love.

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Daphne Mallory, Esq. is the co-owner of Mallory Writing Services and has written more than 100 articles helping home based business owners and entrepreneurs start and market their business. You can learn more about her here.