Leathergoods Business

Public·13 members

November 10, 2022

Calculating the price of your work

Hello there!

Is anyone here willing to share how you calculate the price of your work?

When considering how much leather is spent do you approximately estimate how many pieces can fit in one skin (or a particular piece which of you know the cost) and divide the price of the leather by pieces to get the price of one or some other method?

After calculating total cost of all the material needed do you add some extra for waste or something else?

What is some avarage charge for a working hour?

Is final selling price combination of material prices and working hours or is there something more you add?

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ferrimarijeta

Nov 12, 2022

Hi! Thank you for such a quick response. Much appreciated!

Rebecca

January 21, 2022

How do you search public records/copyrights/wherever else to make sure a name is not already in use?

201 Views

Leathercraft Masterclass

Jan 21, 2022

@Rebecca In the UK we use this:

Company name availability checker - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

While that doesn't help you in the states, I'm sure the government over there will provide an equivalent.

https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/launch-your-business/choose-your-business-name maybe?

ddunn68

January 19, 2022

Existential Question about hand stitching

I would like to hear the feelings of you all about the importance and relevance of hand stitching to "the customer" at large. Do you feel people really care in general? If you could include where you are located that would be great because I'm curious to see if there are differences geographically in how people place importance on hand stitched leather goods. Cheers, David

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Leathercraft Masterclass

Jan 19, 2022

@ddunn68 Depends in how well your clients are educated on the matters of luxury goods.

If they are frequent buyers of the finer things in life, then they will warm towards anything with the word 'hand', be it hand stitched, hand carved, hand painted, hand finished etc.

I was in Bentley motors last week and the salesman (I was not buying a Bentley lol) kept going on about the leather, where it came from (alpine Swiss calf), how it is painstakingly selected by hand, how the steering wheel is hand stitched by one craftsman, the wood panelling finished by hand here in the UK etc. He didn't mention the horsepower, 0-60 times or the top speed (ample I might add), he also didn't know what I do for a living.

Had I been over at Ford, I imagine they would be having a different conversation about different subjects with me. Probably along the lines of value for money, safety and specs.

Hand stitching is a luxury process, so it's not something the masses will appreciate unless you educate them as to why it's a benefit.

This is what originally got me interested in the finer side of leathercraft. Creating products for people who can truly appreciate the craftsmanship.

How to sell hand stitching to the masses: Draw a picture showing the difference between a saddle stitch and a weaker machine lock stitch.

How to sell hand stitching to a luxury consumer: Tell them how long it took you to stitch it and how many years you trained to get there. They'll need that info to impress their friends later.

Jaime Reyna

November 9, 2021

Pricing Alligator Items

I'm currently working on my first items using alligator. When I purchased the hide, I noticed a lot of other hides vary in price greatly, even ones that were the same size and color.

My question is, how would I go about pricing an item I make when the materials vary in price every time? If I had a wallet design that was popular, it doesn't seem I would be able to have a set price when the cost of the alligator changes.

Just looking for some insight. Thanks.

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Jaime Reyna

Nov 18, 2021

Thanks for the responses fellas. DDunn, I can see what you are talking about already. I had made a card wallet with alligator on the lower pocket face only. Someone saw it, liked it and asked me about it so I shot back a price and it was almost as if they were offended. I am by no means a big name in the game but the price was reasonable I thought. I told myself “oh well” and moved on. ill post a pic of the finished item. I did sell the one in the pic and that person was happy with it. There’s a few things I forgot to do before finishing it up but I’ll remember those things on the next one.

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