Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenn Saxena.
Jenn, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I got my start in sewing in 1991 and started quilting in 2003. For me, quilting has always been a good outlet for expressing my creative side in an analytical way. After having my first child in 2012, life priorities changed. I wanted to be a mother first and knew that I could not go back to long commutes and 60 hour weeks.
A home quilting business just seemed to make sense because it would give me the flexibility to work anytime day or night, and I could set my own hours and priorities. From even before I opened my doors I prayed that God would guide me every step of the way for the direction of the business, and He has.
I opened my doors as “Katy Quilting & Design” in October 2015. I immediately began working with a quilt charity, to get practice on my new long-arm quilting machine while building my clientele. What I learned over the following months was that I really enjoyed the charity work. I began to look for other charity opportunities and realized that this would be a core value for my business.
You see, a quilt is an heirloom, and quilts always have a story. And if I could be a part of creating an heirloom for a child or mother or person who would not otherwise be privileged to such a thing, then I wanted to do that. So in June 2016 I re-branded my business and became “Heartfully Quilted.”
Today I’m first a wife and mom to two amazing kids, ages 5 and 3. In addition to my quilting business, I am an active member in my church, in the Houston Modern Quilt Guild, and in the Katy community.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I think it has been as smooth as it can be for starting up a small business!
One struggle during the first year was trying to spend as much time as I could on revenue-generating work, but also trying to set up my business systems. There were lots of long nights on the laptop figuring things out, while also being a mom to my then 1-year-old and 3 years old. Thankfully I had a lot of support from my husband, and I would not be here today if it were not for his continued support.
Another struggle has been finding the good focus for my passion. In the first year of business, I long-arm quilted 60 quilts for charity. That’s a lot and certainly not a number that would be sustainable year after year. So I prayed and asked God to show me where he wanted me to focus next. He did just that and brought me to the Katy Cares organization. In the year that followed I worked with local quilters and the Houston Modern Quilt Guild to deliver 32 fully finished quilts to their Rachel Ballard House.
And finally, there is always the challenge of finding new customers. Believe it or not, the long-arm quilting business can be competitive. There are a lot of us out there! But in this challenge, I just trust that God will bring me the right customers, at the right time, while I focus on controlling my costs and the greater mission of the business. So far it has all worked out better than I could have planned or expected.
Heartfully Quilted – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My guiding philosophy at Heartfully Quilted (HQ) is simple: provide high quality, fairly priced quilting services, and expand the art of quilting through charity, education, and fellowship. When you choose to work with me, you are supporting my commitment to quilting charities and the quilting community.
HQ is primarily a long-arm quilting business. What this means is that my clients make their own patchwork quilt top and bring it to me to be quilted. I load their quilt top, backing material, and batting onto my long-arm machine and stitch it all together. I also make t-shirt quilts, memory quilts, and custom designed quilts for a variety of occasions. My t-shirt quilt customers like the unique style and design of their quilts.
In managing my business, it’s extremely important to me that my clients know I’ve got their back and always have their best interest in mind. Having a business background causes me to look at the market and my position within it in a way that sometimes can break tradition. The average age of a quilter is 65, and I’m not yet 40. So I tend to approach things a little differently than other places that do what I do, and I’m happy about that. I don’t just take jobs, and put them in the queue, and have a long turn around time, and maintain the status quo. I really try to understand what it is that is important to each client and provide higher quality service in a way that is meaningful to them.
And running parallel to my revenue-generating work is the charity and community building work already discussed. It’s very important that no matter how much I grow, this continues to be a core value of my business.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I look at success in two ways: people and numbers. For me to be successful and keep my life and business running well year-after-year, both are important.
The first marker is always: How am I treating the people around me? How am I meeting the needs of the people I love most? Being ruthlessly honest, if I can’t answer this question in a way that makes me proud, I need to make a change. And I need to keep asking this question and making changes day after day, year after year.
The second marker is: How am I treating my neighbors, the people I come in contact with that are not part of my direct inner circle? Am I contributing to my community in a meaningful way that adds value to the individual? Am I being the hands and feet of Jesus in my community?
The third marker is: What do my numbers say? I’ve always had the motto that when you take care of the people the numbers follow. This was the case in my corporate career, and I’m finding it to be the case in my business career from a revenue perspective. Being just 2 years into the business, a large focus so far has been controlling costs, including start-up costs, to keep my bottom line in the green. So what that means is doing a lot of the heavy lifting myself that others might typically outsource, such as taxes, accounting, web site design, etc.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jennsaxena.com
- Email: jenn@jennsaxena.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/jennsaxena
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/jennsaxena
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