Boring business related questions.

O

Omega Leather Works

Joined
Jun 13, 2007
Messages
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Just wondering what you guys do when asked about turn around times.

As my work and business moves forward I'm trying to standardize a few things. Obviously turn around depends on a lot of things, but I can already see that I need to give this some thought.

I would prefer to not say that I have long lead times, but that may be a best answer.

How do you handle shipping fees? When I was selling pre-made work I got in the nasty habit of including shipping in my prices. This worked fine, but now I'm almost exclusively doing custom work where I have the customers knife in hand. Shipping their knife back with enough insurance to cover a loss has gotten too expensive. I've had a couple of orders where I didn't make anything at all.

So! Do you ask for a specific amount, with options to insure, or...?
Also, how do you feel about your customers shipping to you via the different carriers? I much prefer USPS because it's more secure on my end. FedEx and UPS will leave a package at my door unless the customer pays for sig confirmation. I'm not comfortable with that.

Am I over thinking this? Maybe the answer is "two week turn around", and $6 flat fee, $15 insured. That would probably cover my bases, just wondering if you guys do it this way, or if maybe I'm missing something.

Thanks guys. Your help, in so many ways, has been an enormous influence on OL already. I would buy all of you a cup of coffee if I could. :)
 
Let me be the first to say you over think everything! :p

Seriously though, I'm heading away from the computer, but I am sure there will be someone else along who can answer your questions about over thinking, er, business. :D
 
Haha, no that's totally fair. I realize that I keep I ask a lot of questions. I have had some great advice already from fellow members, but I like to hear how others do things. I figure it can't hurt to ask. :o

I'm prepared to hear comments that aren't exactly what I'd like to hear, but it's all part of the game and I'm learning.
 
My turn around time (because I am retired, do not have a day job, am not dependent on the income from this, and I have one hell of a well equipped shop) is 48 hours or less from receipt of your knife. I don't make anything that is not fully lined. I do not require, nor do I want any money up front. There will be an invoice in the box when you receive your knife and sheath back and you pay from that invoice. The invoice amount is the cost to you for the sheath plus Shipping and Handling which is the cost of Small, Medium or Large flat rate priority mail boxes plus any insurance fees and/or other shipping considerations such as signature confirmation etc. (There is no such thing with me as a set mailing fee other than the PO set fees for the various sizes of Flat rate Boxes.) The invoice is due and payable immediately upon your receipt of the goods. You personal check is just fine with me or a USPS Money Order if that is more convenient for you. I email you when the package leaves my shop with the USPS Tracking number. So far in 10 plus years, I have never been screwed by my very lenient "ship first and then be paid" policy ,nor have I had to deal with any bad checks. A lot of people shake their head at my policy, but so far ("if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it") it has worked beautifully, and it just feels good to trust people.

Paul
 
Thanks Paul. I like your trusting approach. I've sent out a couple of sheaths that weren't paid for and have received payment in full. This also fixes the shipping issue. I think that I may start doing this exactly as you have layed it out.

I don't require a down payment or anything like that. I just ask for payment after I've sent the customer the final pics with their knife in its sheath and that has worked well, aside from the shipping costs. It will also be nice to accept forms of payment other than just paypal.
 
sheathmaker said:
My turn around time (because I am retired, do not have a day job, am not dependent on the income from this, and I have one hell of a well equipped shop) is 48 hours or less from receipt of your knife. I don't make anything that is not fully lined. I do not require, nor do I want any money up front. There will be an invoice in the box when you receive your knife and sheath back and you pay from that invoice. The invoice amount is the cost to you for the sheath plus Shipping and Handling which is the cost of Small, Medium or Large flat rate priority mail boxes plus any insurance fees and/or other shipping considerations such as signature confirmation etc. (There is no such thing with me as a set mailing fee other than the PO set fees for the various sizes of Flat rate Boxes.) The invoice is due and payable immediately upon your receipt of the goods. You personal check is just fine with me or a USPS Money Order if that is more convenient for you. I email you when the package leaves my shop with the USPS Tracking number. So far in 10 plus years, I have never been screwed by my very lenient "ship first and then be paid" policy ,nor have I had to deal with any bad checks. A lot of people shake their head at my policy, but so far ("if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it") it has worked beautifully, and it just feels good to trust people.

Paul
Click to expand...

My fathers Handshake was the law he lived his life by .
I suspect your Handshake is as secure as his was .
It is refreshing to hear that sort of honesty and honour is alive and kicking .

Ken
 
I as well do not take anything up front, I will send pics of the sheath and blade as you do Strig and then they send payment. My usual turn around time is two weeks but mostly I get them back before, im a part timer and I need a buffer as more than one thing is on the bench and all my work is done by hand, no sewing machine, so it takes some time. I like to trust people, I dont like to take money before my work is done, I feel rushed at that point if that make any sense? Shipping is usually pretty close each time and if they want ins back I ask them to add a few dollars to the total and it works out.
 
No help from me.
Never sold a thing :)

Interesting to read the responses though :)
 
Well I'll buck against the system here. I run more on a production level and quit taking custom jobs last year, they were just slowing things down way too much with numerous email, people wanting to change things half way through the build and trying to keep logging inventory in and out of peoples knives. A knife here and there is fine but when you get 50 of them in a week it becomes a bit hectic. The last straw was when some... fine intelligent individual, just threw their Busse in a box with nothing to wrap the knife or cover the edge and one of my guys required stitches for their genius. I took Paul's approach on that one and sent it back with a bill for the ER.

Like just about everything else you custom order from anywhere everything is pre paid with a stated lead time that have yet to miss on 10k sheaths. The pay later approach just wouldn't work for what I do, the time it would take to keep track of invoices, dealing with the quarterly tax paperwork of who paid what, who still owes, check bounces etc would take hours I just don't have to spare and just be an additional headache that I don't need.

If your trying to make a business out of it then you need to standardize your shipping approach and supplies or you will be wasting a great deal of time and money. Flat Rate boxes make it easy if people are sending you knives. If your not making anything off your work then you are simply offering your work too cheap and it is going to be quite difficult to justify doubling your prices suddenly later when you actually want to pay the bills with your work. I've said it before, sitting down and making a solid business plan would eliminate a lot of the problems your running into and help you map out what you need to do, plan equipment, tool and supply purchases, future growth and rather importantly, what you should be charging in order to stay business. Everybody wants the fellow becker/esee/fiddleback, insert other favorite knife forum, Ol buddy Ol pal discount.
 
Your advice is always welcome and seemingly always timely.

A simple, but honest, question. How do you make a business plan? I don't expect you to write a book, just wondering if there were resources that you used to help model your business.

You and I are in very different places. I go back and forth about what I should be doing. Should I try to build in bulk and sell them in the various sub-forums, or should I try to build the custom end. Doing custom work is pretty stressful at my experience level. I try to make sure everything is high quality in terms of material, design and finishing, but sometimes that means I scrap something that is half finished. Those are total losses, but I chuck it up to learning. Luckily every single customer I've had has been awesome. There's just no way I'd do this if they weren't.

I'm also seriously considering taking a week off and just organizing everything that I can. My current "shop" is strewn out all over the house and garage. I spend a lot of time running around frustrated. Probably good timing too because I'm nearly out of leather (of all things) and my supplier hasn't even charged me for my pending order. They are (literally) rebuilding their business after the quake destroyed part of their building, but this is another lesson learned about getting too far along without planning for materials.

As for the buddy discount. I haven't had that one yet, but I have had repeat customers that, rightfully, expect the price from the first time we worked together. I forsee issues with this kind of pitfall.
 
A business plan is something we had to do many times in college. Basically you need to take all of your ideas and lay them out along with realistic costs of doing things and get it to work with the resources you have. This helps you plan your growth and how much to set aside to fund expansion and new equipment. I think what would be best is to decide the niche that you want to work in first. Some people specialize in only one thing or style and it works great for them. I like to vary my stuff quite a bit more and it works great for me.

For me, organization is key, One of the first things I tell people in my shop is that if I have to look for something because they are too lazy to put it back they are going to find my foot square in their ass. I know many people who can joyfully work in a giant mess but not me. Every single thing in the shop has a place and is organized from pattern making all the way to the shipping end so it flows. It makes things go much faster when you don't have to spend all your time digging for something or remembering where you left the thing from last time and you'd be surprised how much walking you have to do in a day when things are scattered.
My advice, if you have a garage, get a storage shed and clean it out, all of it and commandeer it for your shop. Nothing that is not shop related can go in it. That sqf space is also a write off on your taxes but only if it is completely dedicated to what you are doing. That means no lawnmower, xmas decorations, car parts etc sharing the space.
 
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