Saturday, August 26, 2006

at 52

I think I know something I can't explain to anyone any younger than that. When I think something I am doing isn't working, I don't need to tinker with it right away. What's happening could be temporary, it could be made worse by my reaction to it.

Business is patchy around here. I finally have some, they threw the big money at me I asked for and they want it yesterday. I am going to try not to remember I promised myself I wouldn't be hurried beyond what's comfortable for me because I resent the pattern of being told to hurry.

I can see some worried faces and they aren't trying to make me feel like they could take the work somewhere else if I didn't hurry, they need the work done so they can get paid.

I have been promising myself that at my age I would set a certain pace and no one could make me feel they can replace me with a younger person. I can see my plan was nice for me to plan but that it won't work, I'll always have to accomodate the wishes or needs of the people holding the work and the check, and I must spend more time working for maybe less than the " plan".

At least untill the designers feel confident again that money is around the corner, and untill they do, they need support. Do I want to bend ( literally and figuratively) NO...do I want to hurry ? BIG no. I do want constancy, and I will have to give more prompt service now than I had to before to keep the incoming stream even.

1 comment:

K from WA said...

We all need to decide why we work. Is it for money, for creativity????

I know I sew for money and to be creative....

I want to be paid the most for my work, and so charge more. If I can get more for my time and sew less then it all balances out.

Seems when people pay more they wanted it faster. Well I can't work any faster... If I am paid less or more it still takes me the same amount of time.

As far as COM... if they don't buy fabric from you, then they get charged more. Simple as that. That's if you have fabric to sell...

If you were making $5 on every yard of fabric you would sell them then you charge $50 more if you used 10yds... That just makes sense. Do you need to tell them this? Not if they don't ask.

Example... I ask a customer if they already have their fabric? They tell me no but the saw a fabric at a store they loved.

I don't know if they are going to by fabric from me, or not, but I do know it will take 10 yards. I will then tact on an extra $50 to the price. If they buy from me I make an adjustment on the cost of the fabric. Other wise I am at the right price.

Does that makes sense????

Also there is no wholesale breaks in labor for slipcovers. It takes me the same amount of time sewing for retail as it does for designers. In fact I know more when I work retail, than when I work with a designer...

My 2 cents...

Karen

ps... pardon the typos