Botanical blunderings on a budget - good life starts here.

Keiss_21

The bag turned out well, you can see it here if you want. Niece turns 18 tomorrow, so I hope she likes it.

Glad to hear you have plans for charging at a later date, and I do understand your thinking Pippi.

Gearing myself up to phone a lady tomorrow and tell her I will be charging £250 to knit her a long coat and skirt! :eek: The pattern is from the 1970s and the yarns are not produced anymore, so substitutes will need to be found. The materials will be on top of the above cost, not sure how she will take it.

I was given valuable advice by the women at my quilting group. They said not to quote an hourly rate, but a price for the final product as I am a craftswoman and not a piece-worker...apparently!!

Still a scarey amount to ask for...oh well, she can only say "no". She's apparently pretty well off, so she may not......:o. I only got offered the work last Friday, so still getting used to the idea of knitting to order. Could be a lucrative area if I do get the work though.

Right, off to do some of my own knitting, while I have the chance!

Uniscots97

Keiss let us know how it goes. I don't think some people appreciate how much work goes into knitting/sewing etc.

Keiss_21

unixgirluk wrote: »

Keiss let us know how it goes. I don't think some people appreciate how much work goes into knitting/sewing etc.

Will do Unix x

Triciaxx

Hi Pippi :hello:

I do understand you not accepting money for the flowers at the cafe but be careful how you explain that to them. If someone was providing something for my business and not letting me pay, I would be reluctant to ask them to supply anything else (in your case, fruit and veg) in case I was seen to be taking advantage.

If you explain the idea of it being an exercise to explore what works and make it clear that is what it is, it should work well. I do like to see fresh flowers in a cafe and am much more likely to go back to that one rather than sit with plastic flowers on my table!

I also am very familiar with the 'safe place' concept.:rotfl:

Pippilongstocking

Hey there Keiss well done on the pricing, when doing a garden job I price for the whole job (plus a bit of wriggle room) and don't price for piece meal either. Goodluck, if she wants it and appreciates quality, she'll pay!

Triciaxx - yeah I've explained it well to her - and also the potential for herbs/fruit/veg in the future - I'm hoping its the start of something good.


Today still a bit sniffly, banks to do etc - gorgeous day here. Mr F not great still, might try and get him to a dr today


PAD £3.27 to lloyds card
PAD £30 to captain

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning Pippi and to everyone else too.

Pippi I totally get your 'Research & Development' phase with the flowers and (eventually) the produce, but do customers know where the flowers that are on the tables now are coming from? Have you established a brand/name/logo that accompanies the flowers or is displayed somewhere in the premises?

I had a friend who grows lots of cottage garden plants and wanted to raise a certain amount of money for a charity that was very dear to her heart. Although she wasn't doing it as a business, she wanted the flowers to be presented as professionally as possible, so she [STRIKE]badgered[/STRIKE] <ahem> [STRIKE]smoothtalked[/STRIKE] <ahem> sought assistance from a friend who could wield a pencil a little bit, and got them to come up with a suitable design to adorn a small label/flyer that accompanied the flowers, telling people about the flowers, how they were grown and the charity that was being supported from their sale. I think if I was sat in the isle of flowers bestest tea emporium, I'd like to know about the flowers provenance, maybe not to buy there and then (or maybe to ), but to log for future reference.

Just a thought .....

Keiss that bag is beautiful! L&F is a funky name too :T. With regards to the knitted coat and skirt, I know it seems alot, but the fact is the client is likely to be getting a pretty unique outfit (unless the world is awash with 1970's knitting patterns) and frankly the only other place you would get an outfit something like would be from a designer/boutique. I'm sure the price tag would be in the 000's! So ask for your fair price - crafts are skilled work and need to be paid fairly for the skills involved.

Just a thought ......

Right, off to do me chores. Most of the laundry done now!

Have a great day all!

Greying

Karmacat

Morning Pippi and all! Keiss, I *love* the pix you posted of the bag you made, very beautiful - and the little embroideries really make it, even tho you did them to cover up marks! Fantastic.

Pippi, okay, a lot of good points have been made about you not charging, which is good (the points, not you not-charging ) and in return you've made a lot of good points yourself about building relationships, but I just want to make a couple more, okay?

Firstly, Keiss's point about accepting something rather than what they're offering is a *really* good one - its much easier to go from them paying a token £1 to market value, than to go from paying nothing to market value.

The other thing is, I've been self employed for over 20 years now, and every time I see a client, they pay me. And I charge a lot per hour, usually, and people are nearly always in distress when they come to me, so it can be very tough. The way I cope with it is to have rules, boundaries in therapy terms, about the charges, and about time. Once I break those rules, I'm really in trouble, because I don't *like* charging for what I do. Its necessary, completely so, because if I didn't charge, I wouldn't be here for them to see, I'd be stacking shelves in Sainsbo, but I still don't like it. I have 3 reduced rate places (and those reduced rates can go *really* low sometimes - I've charged a tenth of my hourly rate before now, just to ensure that people can continue to see me), but I still charge.

You *have* to learn to charge. The next time someone offers to pay you (!) why don't you say, lets make it a token £1, £2, whatever, because I'm using it as a marketing experiment/learning to value my products, and in a couple of months time we can look at it again.


?????



ETA - love what Greying wrote about a little card about provenance.

Greying_Pilgrim

Excellent perspective KC - hadn't thought about the 'leap' from £0 to market price. You're correct, the adjustment from 'a charge' to market price will be a much better transition.

Greying

ETA - I really must get on with my chores now!!!

Cheery_Daff

Interesting stuff about charging and valuing your time here! :T

Keiss, don't be shy, if someone wants you to hand knit an entire outfit for them - what on earth do they expect?! (and does it work out at a reasonable hourly rate for you??). They could always knit it themselves - but they won't because it would take time and energy so they're in a position to pay for your time and energy - so let them!

(((((((((()))))))))))))) hugs all round today, at work, got to dash...

Keiss_21

Thanks for all your valuable and wise words everyone, going to ring about the coat this morning. I'll let you know what happens.

This morning's plans have been interupted by the gas men...they have been digging up and checking/replacing valves and pipes along all the houses in our village, so today it's our turn. We're luckier than most, they only need to dig up a small bit of our front garden..if they want to go further, they have to move a whole pile of bricks . Next door are having all their courtyard/patio dug up! :eek: As we'll have no gas this afternoon, I won't be making bread being made today Luckily I bought a loaf yeaterday....just as well now!

Right, need to get this phone call over and done with...tootles off to write down all the questions and statements I want to ask/say beforehand.