I'm about to tell you something you don't want to hear. Like the old ostensibly Mongolian saying goes, "A man about to speak the truth should keep one foot in the stirrup," and I am just as prepared for your resistance to this revelation.

New technology, whether for management, production or promotion, is not going to solve all of your problems.

There. I said it. I know you may be shouting at the screen, "You are a complete techie; weren't you the one telling us about social networking?!" "Aren't you always going on about doing something new and fresh with digitizing?! Come on!!!"

Well, though you are completely correct in all of those statements, my statement still stands, though I may have oversimplified. Let me expand upon it. New technology will not, simply by its use alone, fix all of your problems. I am speaking to a particular group of people here. I'm going to call these unfortunate folks “werewolf hunters” for reasons that will become immediately clear.

Werewolf hunters expect silver bullets: easy one-shot lethal weapons for all of the "monsters" that they find in their shop. Whether it is the slavering beast that makes their digitizing run poorly, the howling discrepancies in their accounting, or the hairy horror of their lackluster returns from online advertising, they expect some new development to come along and effortlessly slay their foes with the pull of a trigger. These fickle followers of the new greet every development as the weapon that will make the difference in their fight, only to curse its name when their new purchase doesn't immediately prove fruitful. I think werewolf hunters, as you may already imagine, are delusional.

Technology is not a silver bullet. It is a tool, like a sculptor's chisel. Though I may possess a chisel and the mallet to drive it, though I aim my blows at the finest marble, without a personal investment of time and effort in learning to use my tools, I'll likely never turn out a masterpiece. The same is true of all technologies, even those that offer automation and seem effortless at first blush. No matter how little work they may require, all tools need learning, preparation and practice to master.

You may be saying, "So you mean to tell me you don't want the best new digitizing software? Aren't you working on the social networking sites? Doesn't your shop use management software, too?" Believe me when I say that I love all of the useful new technologies I've been lucky enough to afford. I started this adventure digitizing with software that didn't have the ability to make a curved line, and there was great rejoicing when my new software allowed me draw a circle or place a void in a region of fill without manually digitizing all the segments around said void. The difference is this: I learned how to understand stitches and how they interact with fabrics and each other.

I could digitize well on the limited system I had, but when I was given the new system – a better chisel – I could more efficiently create designs, and the ease of the tools gave me a freedom to stretch my creativity. That said, there was nothing I couldn't do with the original package that I couldn't with the new package – it simply took much longer. A stitch is a stitch, and learning about the stitch makes all the difference. Moreover, it took time and practice to learn the new package, and that investment made my work all the better as I learned how best to apply my tools. It took learning and time to make my investment pay off.

So much is true for the seemingly new world of social networking. Some believe it is the silver bullet they've been waiting for, and take aim at increasing their sales, only to be frustrated when they don't see an immediate spike in their growth. They have forgotten the social element; the underlying goal is to build a network of individuals who know and trust your business, just as it is in any community. I am reasonably certain that you didn't gain instant credibility in your local area as soon as you opened shop and told a few people you were in the business. This community, though facilitated by these networking tools, is still made of people, and your credibility must be built up in the same fashion as it was when you first learned to rely on word of mouth to bring in new prospects. It is simply faster and reaches farther.

So remember, my peers, when you next take up your tools, whether you’re placing a stitch, projecting your sales or sharing with your community, that there is no quick fix to replace artistry, careful planning and the cultivation of relationships our business requires. There are no werewolves to hunt so much as unfinished sculptures, but we can hope that each new technology is a sharper chisel than that which we had learned to wield in days gone by.