“Look at this,” Ann Howington Zipper says as she points to a small section of a quilt that had arrived in her latest shipment. “I can’t send a quilt out like this.”

This reporter looks hard and can’t see anything wrong.

Zipper points to very tiny dots — a faint imperfection in one small spot on the fabric. That quilt joins a stack that won’t be sent out to her customers.

That’s just the way Zipper is.

In 2006, Zipper founded Comfort in The Word, a company that sells baby quilts adorned with scriptures. Her product retails for under $40 at hospital gift shops, Christian gift stores, other shops and directly through her company. Strong customer service and maintaining her good name are important to her. Although she typically sells about 300 to 400 quilts a month, only a handful have been returned over the years, Zipper is proud to say.

It’s also safe to say that Comfort in The Word is more than a business to Zipper. A devout Christian, she is passionate about her mission to spread the word of God and make people happy with her products. She says her business isn’t only about making money, as she donates many of her quilts to charity and wants to make sure her price point is affordable to many people.

Still, this is a business, her husband, Bruce Zipper, gently reminds her. And with so many satisfied customers over the years, there is no reason this product can’t take off, they both agree. That’s when we brought in Phillip Harris, a counselor from SCORE Miami-Dade who has owned product and service businesses and has decades of experience in sales and marketing, to perform a Miami Herald Small Business Makeover. Joining the team: Zipper’s husband, who is a stock broker, and Miriam Grossman-Rodriguez, her accountant.

Harris was impressed with the artisan-like quality of Zipper’s product, which she designed but is manufactured in China. The quilt measures 40 inches by 45 inches, comes in pink and blue and contains nine scriptures embroidered on the fabric. He was also impressed by her organization skills. With the help of her accountant, her financial information and record keeping in her small home office are in great order, something many small businesses have trouble with.

So to get at the crux of her challenges, Harris first asked Zipper to fill out a one-page business plan, that asked for brief descriptions of Zipper’s vision for Comfort in The Word, mission, measurement of success, strategies and action plan. Then they discussed her existing customers and sales channels — she currently has about 500 active accounts — as well as pricing, target markets, branding and sales methods.

“In this business our biggest problem has always been and will always be getting money to pay for the next shipment,” says Zipper, who explains she purchases from China twice a year with relatively small orders (4,000 quilts). The process takes three months from the time of order to the time of delivery and she has to pay up front.

Another problem: Receiving too many quilts with defects that she can’t sell. The company gets a credit from the manufacturer for those, but that doesn’t help getting the orders out faster. There was some discussion over whether, just perhaps, Zipper, who is known to use a magnifying glass to survey the quilts, might be a little too picky. “Damages are money,” Zipper concedes, “but it is my good name.”