A Blanket Statement

As you read the profile it is immediately apparent that most of the characteristics of the Successful Quilter are not new. They are established entrepreneurial skills with quilt perspective added. This should lower our tension level about change and the near-future.

A Successful Quilter is:

1. Positive! A glass is half full person, opportunity oriented.

2. A well informed generalist. Always adding new information patches and preparing for the next pattern shift.

3. Active in her own life. Takes responsibility and is willing to fail and learn from it.

4. A decision maker. Makes decisions based on a definite but flexible strategy and based on the feedback from a skilled team.

5. A trendspotter. Able to unhook the prejudice of a current "normal" to turn a trend into an opportunity. Can see beyond "it should be" to visualize what "it could be".

6. Has excellent communications skills, including courtesy, listening, current vocabulary and an image that reflects her current and potential achievement.

7. An Innovator using informed intuition to make decisions in a complex world.

8. Strongly held values and ethics that she is willing to update.

9. Networks artfully. Lives the quilt.

She is skilled at change. Adaptable - a Darwinner.

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Improving the Quilting Bee

As highly talented entrepreneurs women are the best potential quilters but another group runs a close second. Recent immigrants to Canada have learned to adapt to change. By changing countries they have had to look at everything in their life from a new point of view.

Today's Newcomers are highly educated and experienced. Imagine what would happen to the creativity level of the quilting if women entrepreneurs hired Newcomers? When this suggestion is made many small employers respond that they could not pay the corporate wages that the Newcomer's skills and experience should command. In reality corporations are not hiring very many and below entry level positions at poor wages are not unusual.

Think what you can offer. A supportive and more personal work environment where each employee must wear many hats thereby expanding their skills and activating their potential.

You would get more than skills you would get international contacts. You will have employees with a new perspective and an outsider's view of your business to stimulate innovation and keep you ahead of the market. Your only problem may be making Newcomers aware of your business. Many come from countries where small business is marginal and only huge corporations and the government offer good positions. They may not even consider small business as a potential place of employment.