Dear U.S. QUILT SHOP OWNERS (excluding Alaska & Hawaii),

I am running on fumes these days and my summer is flying by.  It is very depressing.  Quilters are really an exhausting bunch.  I am sure you knew that already, but it was news to me.  Anyway, I want to recharge, enjoy August and take a break from being so social on social media.  Do you blame me?

For those of you that follow my blogs at www.scottfortunoff.com, I hope you saw my recent post about shaking things up in the fabric industry.  Instead of me waiting for you to shake things up, I am going to kick start the shaking and then you can shake as you see fit.

For those of you that follow the Scott Fortunoff Executive Facebook page, you hopefully have seen the various quilt shop tours that I have been taping.  If not, please search for the Scott Fortunoff Executive FB Page and scroll down until you find a tour video i.e. there are 3 recent Wisconsin videos.  The videos are my way of exposing everyone to the amazing U.S. quilt shops.  It also stimulates discussions, interactions, engagement and in lots of cases transactions.  YAY!

Now that I have a couple tours under my belt, I started to get lots of invites.  Since I am just one person, who still has a very very full day job, I can’t get out to every shop.  This got me thinking, how can I do this without having to travel all around the U.S.?  That is when the light bulb went off and in there lies the:

August 2018 JAFTEX Facebook Live Shop Tour Challenge

INSTRUCTIONS & RULES:

• Either tape a Facebook (FB) live tour of your bricks and mortar shop or create a video tour of your bricks and mortar shop and post it to your shop’s Facebook page.  If you don’t have a Facebook page, this would be a good time to get that going.
• When you post the video, you would then have to tag me by writing in the text @jaftexpresident (it’s the profile with the yellow rose, not my personal page).
• After I receive your mention via FB, I will approve the video.
• Videos should be 15 minutes or less.  Consider a timer.
• Give some thought to 3-5 important subjects to highlight.  The subjects will keep you on track.
• Mention your address, phone number, website and nearby highways or landmarks.  Do that at least once in the beginning and once at the end.
• The video should feature anything special about your shop.  Do you run a club?  Do you have a one of a kind class?  Do you offer something that no other shop around you offers?  In other words, what makes you stand out in the crowd?  Have you created any special tools or patterns that are special to you?  Have you written a book?  Show off your shop’s best assets.
• The video will need to feature as many Jaftex Fabrics as possible (Blank Quilting, FreeSpirit Fabrics, Henry Glass Fabrics, Studioe Fabrics, 3 Wishes Fabrics or A.E. Nathan Co., Inc.)  You could also include other company fabrics that we distribute (Stof Fabrics Of Denmark, Oasis Fabrics, Sykel or even Air-lite Batting.)
• Consider tidying up around the shop.
• Consider updating your decorations and displays.  Maybe move stuff around.
• Be creative.
• Have fun.  (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING OF ALL)
• Don’t stress or be nervous as showing off your shop should come naturally.
• If you are camera shy, you could talk while the video is going and not be on screen.  Or have one of your employees do the speaking.
• Make sure to speak clearly and loudly.  Please talk slower than I do.
• Make sure the lighting is good.
• Make sure you have a good internet connection if posting live.
• Try keeping the camera steady.  Try not to move the camera too fast as people like to take everything in and no one wants to get nauseous.
• I will be accepting videos for the entire month of August based on eastern standard time.  The sooner you post, the more likes you could potentially receive.  No shares before August 1.
• After you post your video, I encourage you to engage with all the people that comment.  This is a great opportunity to answer questions and tell people more about things you may have missed or not gone into in great detail.  It’s also a good time to share photos of things in your shop in detail that are asked about i.e. a recent customer wanted to see more of the cat fabrics so the shop owner took a still photo and posted that in reply.
• Social media is for being social, so be social and let social media work for you.
• Play nice!
• Please spread the word.
• US shops only, excluding Alaska & Hawaii.  Sorry everyone else!

WINNERS & PRIZES:

• The winner will be the ONE shop with the most likes attained on the Scott Fortunoff Executive FB Page as of 12 noon eastern standard time on Monday September 3.  Therefore, it would be in your best interests to get as many of your fans and followers involved.
• The grand prize will be that you just promoted your shop in an awesome way and you also did an amazing FB live or tape showing off your amazing and unique quilt shop….and Jaftex fabrics.  No seriously, do you think that would be the only prize?  You all know me better than that.
• The winner gets me.  Yup, me!  I will come to your shop at an agreed upon date that works for both of us.  When I visit, we can do another video if you wish.  I would be willing to speak at an event that you host or arrange for your customers.  Or, we can figure out something else.  I am pretty open to anything within reason and some unreasonable things too.  And of course, there will be a fabric component where I give you a bunch of free fabric….something that you won’t be upset about…I promise.  All prizes and travelling, etc. will be at MY EXPENSE.
• My one request of the winner would be that they come up with a charitable component to my visit.  That would be something that we could discuss and figure out.  It is crucial to keep giving back and this was the perfect opportunity.
• I will make all the final decisions as this is MY contest.  I reserve the right to make any executive decision needed to make this run smoothly and be finished according to the determined time frame.  If participants don’t behave like adults, they will be disqualified or banned all together.  I don’t have time for nonsense or drama.  If there is a tie, there will have to be a tie-breaker that I will come up with at that time.
• You must be a Jaftex direct customer who purchased fabric from a direct sales rep in the beginning of 2017 or later i.e. not through distributors.  Placing a first PO in August would also qualify you.
• You must be in good financial standing with all Jaftex Companies in order to win….so please get those old bills cleaned up asap.
• YOU need to make sure that you meet all the criteria from above because when I see who got the most likes, I will make sure all these criteria are met.  If they are not satisfied, I will then pick the next winner with the most likes who satisfies all the criteria.

GOT QUESTIONS? 

• All questions must be posted in the comments section of this blog or in the Facebook post that this blog is posted in on the Scott Fortunoff Executive FB Page.  I will answer all questions within a day or two.  All questions will be answered in the location where they are asked so everyone can see the questions and answers.
• Do not email me personally or anyone else in my organization or you will be disqualified.  Sorry, but as I mention in the beginning, I need to control my life and I can’t have a lot of emails on this filling my in box or taking up my co-workers’ time.  This is all me and no one else is involved.
• Please do not call me or reach out to me any other way.  Calling or other unapproved contact will result in you being disqualified.  Again, I need to keep this simple for my sanity as I LOL reading the latter statement.

Good luck to all!  Thank you in advance for participating and being willing to try something a little different and outside of the proverbial box.  In my opinion, this will be a huge win for all of us, the industry and consumers alike.  I am truly excited for all of you and I can’t wait to watch some if not all of the videos.  Let’s do this!  Take one!  Go!