Scheduling

[Mary Beth]

For all of you successful machine quilting business owners out there...how do you schedule your customer quilts and/or work your own quilts into the mix? If you have scheduling forms or whatever, I would be interested in seeing those.

Thank you in advance:)

MB

[mountainmanda]

Mary Beth-

Try taking a look a Myrna Ficken's website. She has a copy of requirements for quilt tops and her form that customers fill out upon arrival of their top to Myrna.

[countrystitcher]

I have a simple form with columns made on Excel. I have date I receive quilt, name, phone number, date I complete it and the total price. The lines are numbered so I know how many quilts I have done and who is next in line. I schedule my own quilts right in with the others, although lately it's been my Dad's quilts and not my own. He will keep me busy! I also used this form for taxes this year and it worked very well. I have a similar form for my expenses and my accountant said it worked for him. I like to keep to the saying, "Keep it simple, life is complicated".

Sharon.

[Mary Beth]

Thanks Amanda, I will take a look at Myrna's site.

Sharon, I like your moto..I have a form to fill out when the customer arrives with all the likes/dislikes, thread color, requirements, size, yada-yada....

I also have a form that I fill out that has date received, name, notes, and est. date of completion. I use Quick Books for my business stuff, because my accountant wanted that - she sent a letter in February saying she is going into the nursing field and won't be doing my taxes any more:(

Anyway...I'm looking for organization.

[simplydivine]

I over-scheduled myself last year and learned a hard lesson. I didn't like the work hours plus I only quilted ONE quilt for myself and that's just not right! :mad:

So now, I have a listing Per Month. I have 6 to 8 customer slots. (more in the fall) I always leave one empty for emergencies. If I don't get an "emergency" to fill the last spot, then I work ahead (or work on one of my own quilts). I don't feel pressured. I can also schedule my own quilts in these slots.

When the customer calls, I give them the next open slot. I don't have to hold their quilt for months and they can book ahead for future quilts. We schedule a drop off a 2-3 weeks before I'm ready to work their quilt. Sometimes I call to remind them and set up drop off dates.

I know how many hours I want to work each week, (and less in the summer!) so this works well for me. You can easily schedule more quilts, especially if they are easy pantos and all-overs.

I don't use a calendar because I was forever erasing and scratching out when quilts took longer than anticipated or other interruptions.

This seems to be working well for me. I have a work order that I fill in when they get to my studio.

Good luck!

[CucumberQuilting]

My sister who is a wonder of organization, helped me out with this for 2007. She bought a calendar book with the weeks of the month on each page. (I'm so not able to tell you what this is called ). She wrote in the dates and left space available for me to write in one quilt, approx size and type of project, custom or panto, estimate the income from it and the customer's name/phone info per week. [i'm also a full-time Mom-on-the-go. You'll have many more quilts you can do I'm sure.]

With all the interruptions to my schedule one large quilt can take me up to a week but it does take care of all my expenses and pays the bills I need to take care of right now. After meeting those obligations, if I have time at the end of the week, or an empty space in the month, it's mine to either take time off with my family or to quilt for myself.

So far this all sounds good in theory. So far, I still haven't in a year-and-a-half managed to quilt but one of my own projects, and it was required for particpating in a guild project. I'm hoping to be more full-time at quilting when my little one goes to first grade. I've also heard many people laugh at me when I said that too. soccer, tee ball, swim lessons, music...

Perhaps, more professional than the little calendar is the program built right into the Eureka Documentation--Machine Quilters Business Program. I really endorse this. My accountant is very pleased with the info I can generate with this program. It has a part for scheduling quilts and putting customers on a waiting list. I just haven't used that part of the program yet, but I'm sure I'll get going with it soon.

Best Wishes, and remember too, after a number of quilts you'll start to get the feel for how long one will take and whether or not it will fit into your schedule. Plan for the unexpected. ~~ Eva H.

[Mary Beth]

Well, since I posted this question, I have been trying to work out a system that works. Hopefully what I am doing now will work. This is it....

When a customer comes to my house, I take a look at her quilt, talk to her about what she wants; fill out a form with her personal contact info and usually they just want to know what I charge per inch..they don't ask for total cost - most of the time. Then I have a planner and I have a page that I have designed with customer name, quilt description, date received, and anticipated date of completion. Now to add to that I have a large dry erase board with each customer's name and estimated date of completion so I can try to stay on track. Still not getting my quilts done, yet, but if this works out I should have them done by the end of May....nothing on the schedule for June because of MQS and vacation.

[sewingupastorm]

Mary Beth your system sounds pretty good. Some people here have pretty complex systems. Here is mine:

I have a worksheet that I fill out with each quilt received. On the worksheet I put all the info as to the person, address, phone, e-mail etc. Then I put info on the quilt size, width x length, premeter (I sometimes do bindings so need this info too). Then there is an area for quilting design, thread choice, batting, bindings, postage (I get alot of my stuff mailed to me), tax etc. I total up all the info if I need to from the start or with some people the get this later. I can then give my customer an estimated total which is not written in stone but they and I both have an idea of the cost. Their quilt then goes into a holding pattern..................first in first out. I do occasionaly work in rush jobs. I do not schedule dates of completion but do try to give them some idea of how long it will be.

I am a partime longarmer as I have two girls that require lots of time. I try quilt about 3 days a week for other people. Sometimes I will quilt in the evening to catch up or get ahead. Sometimes I work on weekends to take time off during the week etc.

As for doing my own stuff...........................I got zippered leaders. When I finish a customer quilt I can put my quilt on there and if I do not finish I just zip it off and put on the next customer quilt. When that one is done my quilt gets zipped back on and I work on it more. Now the last quilt I finished for me required 37 hours of longarm time.................I put it on in October and worked in a few hours here and there. It got completed last month. If I were doing something more simple I could just finish if it were just one or two day but that is how I get mine done.........................zip in on and off.

[mrsbishwit]

I like to think that my system is pretty good, at least it works for me.

First of all after a while you will know how long it will take to do a panto/ete quilt & how long it will take you to do a custom (if you tend to do the same sort of techiques). Then you you need to figure out realistically how many quilts that you can get done in a week (I use a queen size as standard when figuring in my time etc..). I am most comfortable with doing 3 queen-king size quilts in a week but can squeeze in up to a total of 5 in need be with my schedule of busy mom and raising 5 kids ages from 16 down to age 7. With 3 quits I am able to still have my evenings and weekends free and still maintain a clean house and hot meals on the table. With 5 quilts in a week my house is not the cleanest, a few take out dinners in the week and evenings and weekends are packed trying to catch up on chores or finishing a quilt.

I have a detailed order form on my web site that I have my customers print and fill out as much as possible before their drop off appointment. Plus I have a pretty detailed website with what I offer so it is pretty quick when they drop off their quilts to me. I schedule my drop off appointments in 1 hour time slots (allows for late customers, measuring quilt tops, measuring backings, chit chat etc...)I give the customer an estamate turn around time (I always give the longest time but usually can get them done a week ahead of shcedule this helps if the unexpected happens such as sick kids or due to machine maitenance problems). I also give the customer a $ estamate pretty accurate except no tax added until the I call them back for the pick up.

After the customer leaves I log in the quilt assign a # to it and create an invoice for it in my quicken program, make a list of any supplies that may need to ordered to complete the quilt then order them along with any others that I might need from other quilts that I have gotten in during the week and place the orders at the end of the week so the supplies are in house and ready to go. I also log in the quilts into my "date book" so I have an at a glance schedule of my time/quilts for any given week and I can give my customers a more accurate turn around time.

I schedule time off just like you would any other job (usually in 2 week intervals every quarter but I have been swamped since October with business I have scheduled 3 weeks off starting at the end of April. This will give me time to work on my own projects, and relax a bit before my kids are off on summer break which starts the end of May. I will still take appointments for quilt drop offs during that time, I am just not working on any customer quilts during the time off.

You need to schedule time for you or you will get burned out with this job really quick.

Joann