Home Grown: Cher Fashion keeps Central Point woman in stitches

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Cheri Williams does custom sewing and alterations from her Hanley Road home.Bob Pennell

Editor's note: This is one in a weekly series of profiles on locally owned and operated businesses in Southern Oregon.

What do you do and how long have you been doing it? Alterations and custom sewing. I'm slowly getting into machine embroidery as well. I've been doing this the last five years as a business.

How long have you lived in the Rogue Valley? I've been here 18 years. Our family of eight moved here from Santa Maria, Calif., in 1991.

What inspired you to go into this line of work? I've always loved to sew. As a child, I made doll clothes. Then, in 4-H, I made aprons and progressed all the way into evening wear. My husband is 6-foot-1 and weighed 128 pounds when we got married. Everything he wore had to be altered. I had to redo his clothes to fit him, lengthening pants and taking jackets in.

What decision or action would you change if you could do it again? I would have started the business sooner instead of just doing it for friends and family. There are very few people who do this. Doing alterations is much different than home sewing because you have to take things apart and put them back again so it looks like it's never been touched.

What's the toughest business decision you've made? My advertising and marketing. Most of it has been word of mouth. But I do have business cards out in several locations. I had an ad in the Yellow book and then dropped it because I was working elsewhere as well.

Who are your competitors? My daughter, Amy Reed, has her own business but she specializes more in wedding gowns and formals. Dry cleaners offer alteration service and then there is Hem Sewing Service as well.

What are your goals? I want to get a couple more industrial sewing machines, including a hemmer. I want to set more aside for retirement. Right now, I have people from Grants Pass to Ashland and also have a customer that comes down from Eugene. I would like to train someone else because there are so few people who do this.

What training or education did you need? I have a degree in fashion design and alteration that I received in 1990 at Allan Hancock Community College in Santa Maria, Calif. The main person teaching the classes was trained in Europe, so I felt like I had really good instruction there. I got a degree in accounting from Southern Oregon University in 2003 so I could do my own book work and I wrote my own business plan.

What's your advice for budding entrepreneurs? Do something you really love. Some jobs don't pay that well, but if you love it, you'll love your work. Write a business plan so you will know what you're getting into.

To suggest ideas for this column, about businesses that are at least five years old, contact reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com

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