Mooloo's little tapestry of life, 2016

Feral_Moon

Always get full money up front on standard stuff employed. Anything else is deposit pro rata up front. And if it's a prolonged job (many travellers jobs are) then make sure you get cash up front.

Contact the woman over in Liverpool who did the Irish traveller tv show. She'll give you contacts. Her name escapes me right now but she makes a fortune doing traveller stuff. They pay big bucks for their dresses etc. Worth a look if you're local to a large travelling community. They could earn you an absolute fortune!

Savvy_sewing

Feral_Moon wrote: »

Always get full money up front on standard stuff employed. Anything else is deposit pro rata up front. And if it's a prolonged job (many travellers jobs are) then make sure you get cash up front.

Contact the woman over in Liverpool who did the Irish traveller tv show. She'll give you contacts. Her name escapes me right now but she makes a fortune doing traveller stuff. They pay big bucks for their dresses etc. Worth a look if you're local to a large travelling community. They could earn you an absolute fortune!

The travellers here don't want to pay sod all!
They expect me to drop everything to do theirs and then they don't come back. All the outstanding work for collection from over a fortnight ago to 6 months plus are travellers things. I am very wary!

greenbee

Quote travellers what it would cost you. If they don't like the price they don't have to give you the work (which sounds like a good thing really). And take the money up front. Plus you need something on your ts & cs about collection times. you may well have to keep it for a certain amount of time, but can probably charge storage if they collect before you are allowed to sell it on.

dktreesea

One or two patterns a week, especially if you have to pay to hire their stands, doesn't sound worth it to me. The lady downstairs, the one with the other shop which is a dress agency, doesn't sell patterns. Neither does the guy, a wee Turkish tailor, in the town. The only places I came up with here who do are huge fabric shops, one the size of a barn and the other selling super expensive materials. I'd say at a guess her customers are people who sew seriously like you, who can make their own stuff. I was in there just the once and she was talking to a customer about the weave of one of the fabrics, as in how many threads per inch or words to that effect. Even pattern books, given they come out 4 a year, are expensive to buy in. Like you say, people would probably just scout out the pattern and order it online. If they did want you to order it in, you could do the same, order it online for less than £4 and sell it to them for full price.


Maybe it would be better to focus, for extra money, on the haberdashery and advertise your made to order service for extra cash? Could you maybe include, somewhere in your T & Cs, that items not collected within 3 months or whatever is reasonable will be sold to recoup costs? I agree with the poster who wrote about gypsies - pay up front, or at least a substantial deposit, especially for made to order like blinging up anything. It's not worth it, to do work just to end up not paid. Not all jobs are worth doing.


Going back to the patterns, I have a similar situation in my business. When we got established we signed up with a wholesaler who gives us the standard rate off books we buy in from them. In exchange we are meant to buy so much a year through them. The problem is we have plenty of competitors who deal direct with the publishers so can undercut this price. We can't really do this because it means committing to a four figure purchase value per year just from one publisher. The wholesaler's latest effort was to offer us clearance stock, take our order, then ring us back to say they were cancelling it because another of their customers had bought the whole consignment.


So therefore I think I am going to cancel our account. I don't want to be shelling out £1,000 a year, even though it's for product, on items I am not sure I can shift at a profit.

grandma247

I buy my patterns from sew direct at half the price and free postage because I joined as a member. If you are not selling many patterns then you might be better spending the money on other things as others have said.

Savvy_sewing

I can't buy them from the manufacturer for 1/2 the price so can not compete with Sew Direct.
They cost me £4 plus vat each pattern, then they cost me all the hidden charges so definitely a loss.
To stop selling them I have to pay carriage for the full cabinets to be returned to them. Currently a cost I can't afford either. I'm in the middle of the rock and hard place!

grandma247

That is dreadful Mooloo

Savvy_sewing

Yesterday DGD went on a little school trip and after seeing her off I planned to blitz her room. Erm I didn't get to it. I had a friend pop round to collect some paperwork I had sorted for them, who stayed for a cuppa. Then a message from Biggest that she had some things for me to collect that she had sorted out for me, for another friends daughter who is having a baby. So I went to her. From there I was near my Mum so I thought I better check on Mum, and as it was lunchtime I had some lunch with Mum before taking her down the town to the post office etc.
Needless to say by the time I got home I couldn't be bothered to start on the bedroom!
So I cooked a meal, had a bath, went to bed early and read until 9.30.
I woke up with a madcap idea about a mobile workshop, probably triggered from seeing several vacant shops in the town yesterday and saying to Mum about the future dreams to expand, and looking at a shop for rent.
So I have wasted an hour looking on the Internet at mobile vans, buses and all other manor of flights of fantasy!
If I hadn't needed the loo I would probably have wasted another hour!

Well I am up now. So at least I will not go back to bed. I have 3 hours before the shop has to open. So I will at least tackle some washing and tidying down here and maybe spend a few minutes assessing the bedroom!
DGD is home tonight and I need to repack her case to go to her Mum tomorrow for a few days.

Savvy_sewing

Being up early yesterday meant that I could move on the washing and sort out bits and pieces in the kitchen and upstairs. We could see the floor again in DGD's room.
At work I spent the day finishing off as many odd jobs as I could before collecting DGD from school.
We then popped back to work to collect the vacuum and bring the rubbish home.
After tea it was washing and starting to pack her bags for her Mums today.
This morning my friend is coming over to help me blitz as two are better then one. So I have 30 minutes to finish breakfast and get dressed.
Oh the post!

Savvy_sewing

Ps.
I played about with my money yesterday evening and then did a new SOA.
In 43 days I have managed to reduce my debt by £1,022.44!!
It is starting to become a way of life to put little bits here and there and watch it grow, and then when necessary pay a chunk off of a debt.
As my Main debt is on a 0% card for 23 months, I pay £150 a month on that and have been saving as much as I can in different accounts with different titles, so there is the Drive fund, the new car, holiday, clothes and emergency. Yesterday I transferred the holiday fund to the credit card that it was bought on before the dd leaves the account. As we go on holiday next week I doubt that I will have paid for it all before we go, but I am on target to have paid off 70% before we go.
The secret seems to be to send 10% of every little income across to the savings accounts, as the drive is the priority that gets paid first. Then slowly I started to send a second 10% to the next account. Then I decided that I would always leave a round number in the bank accounts so every day first thing in the morning I check my accounts for any transactions and then send all the surplus to the savings. The other day I had £307.01 in the main house account so £7.01 went across.
I try to keep £300 in the account from week to week, and then I know if I have a DD due it is covered. So far I have not had to use my overdraft facilities at all.
I think moving money and keeping a tab on it has become an essential part of the morning now and it is so satisfying seeing the SOA debt going down so fast. It is helping me to slow down on my excess spending too.