Giftedhands Posted October 26, 2005 Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 I don't carry fabric. The reason being that I cannot dispose of it that quickly and the exposed parts of the fabric do have a tendency to fade. I found this out when I unrolled part of a bolt to use for backing. Not usable. Cynthia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teresa1957 Posted October 26, 2005 Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 Angela, We rent our Millie also. How much do you charge per hour for yours? We kind of took a stab in the dark regarding the hourly price. It does help to rent it for income but I like your idea of having a second machine to rent, then you can still work on customer quilts. Where are your machines located? Ours is in my garage (I say ours because I have a friend who is my quilting partner-we bought the machine together) Since you are in a smaller town, are you really busy there? Being in the SF Bay area is interesting...lots of communities here but still kind of small town feeling in your own location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetjob Posted October 27, 2005 Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 Hey Teresa, Everyone has to take a full day class from me first. a class has 4 students and is $100 per person. Then they pay $17.50 hour for rental. I schedule 1-2 classes a month and they are always full. I have ladies selling their handi- quilters and whatever they use. They just love using my machine. I have the zippers which is great for renters and i also have the hydraulic lift on my liberty. ( which is the rental machine) Some people quilt all of theirs now ( instead of having me quilt them, I'm generally 9-12 months booked out so that's fine with me) and some quilt their own but save their "special " ones for me and some take the class and never rent and appreciate what I do even more!!! I also find I get a lot of new customers that i never quilted for. So it has worked out great. Definately recommend doing it. For me my machine is not rented everyday but several times a week which pays for the machine and more. I also have a refresher class for people who have taken the class but havn't rented in a while. I have my 4 new students and they listen in for $25. works great and i love it!! angie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ammueller7 Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 Hi Katie, I have a few observations and comments about starting a long-arm business. My sister, Yvonne and I have been "Millying" since April 2003. We quilt two days a week and have done over 480 quilts. The first thing we did when we started our business was to get the yellow pages from our respective areas. Her, Western Wisconsin and me, Eastern Minnesota. We fabricated a letter and addressed it to "quilt or craft group leader" and sent our letter to over 300 of the closest churches in the area. We offered our services with a discount coupon that had to be used within the next 6 months. We also attended a Christian camp that held 5 weeks of "quilt camp" twice a year. The first time, we attended and met the camp staff. The next time we went, we offered made a deal with the camp that they would mail out our letter with their camp confirmations and we offered a $10 discount (one per quilter) and said we would donate 50% of the balance of the quilting service back to the camp - we took in over 40 quilts - many quilters bringing multiple quilts, but we only offered the discount and "back to camp" offer on the first quilt from each quilter. We have been doing that ever since. Every March and November. Those two things propelled us quickly into the referral business. We have kept track and have received 43% of the quilts we have quilted as a result of the camp, 9% of the quilts that we have completed were from the original church mailing but a whopping 27% of our quilts have come from referrals - and that number continues to grow as the other numbers dwindle. It's amazing how rapidly your business can grow. The other observation we have had is that we don't get a lot of support from the quilt shops or "guilds" I have grown to hate that word - guilds!! I hear so many bad things about snootiness and 5:00 - bring our machines, sew, order food in, fellowship, have devotion, pray and quilt some more. Absolutely wonderful time and we get cranky if we have to miss too many weeks in a row. Faithful group that values our Mondays very highly. When we first started quilting we quilted our "Stitch 'n Rip" group members quilts at a greatly reduced price - that way we could use them to practice on and they got their quilts done cheaply. They now just hand us a quilt and it's entirely up to us what we do with it - they love it - we love it. Those are some random rambling thoughts - the most important business to try to cultivate is the referral business - it spreads like wildfire. Everytime we send a quilt out that is done, we send a "We love referrals" coupon with it = ask the customer to give it to a quilting friend and if it comes back - we take $5 off their next quilt as a thank you for referring someone new to us. Good luck - on your venture. Our best time of the week is when we quilt together. Angie and Yvonne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ammueller7 Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 sorry - I'm missing part of my response - don't know what happened. but what I was saying is that I hear so many bad things about snootiness.....and not receiving new members well - especially long-armers. We belong to a group at our church that meets every Monday evening at 5:00...... That's the missing part - sorry for the confusion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susanri Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 I always thought backings would be great to offer! also watch out for copyright some pattern makers request that your customer buys the pattern/book to use on their quilts, and you can never use them for producing several of the same quilts. so, you might have to sell them the pattern/book and that might be some added income. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyL Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 also watch out for copyright some pattern makers request that your customer buys the pattern/book to use on their quilts, There are plenty of pantos and designs that do not have this stipulation and I never purchase the ones that require you use their designs only once or only five times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susanri Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 I am trying to avoid those too, I don't like to violate peoples copy right rules, thats why I mentioned to watch out for them, I just read an article that I believe( I could be wrong) its the quiltmakers pattern book series that are requesting your customers buy the book. But designers can each have their own rules which can be very confusing. Susan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerri Posted October 29, 2005 Report Share Posted October 29, 2005 I NEVER buy books or patterns with "special rules" regarding the use of their patterns. There are too many wonderful designers out there that allow us to use their patterns on customers and our own quilts. To further line a authors "pocket book" by requiring a customer to "purchase" a book that they they may not have any interest in with the exception of 1 pattern they may want on a quilt is DISGUSTING. There were a couple of book reviews in the latest edition of Unlimited Possibilities, that state clearly that this is the intent of the authors. Glad to see that this information in being openly published. Some books are "sealed" and once you open them you find the "statement" informing you of this fact. This information should be on the front and/or back of the book - another reason why I don't buy sealed books - if I can't thumb through the pages I won't buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathyjean Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 Thank you everyone for all your very candid answers, I am in the process of gathering information to start my own quilting buisness and this has been most helpful. Right now I am filled with wonder and confusion. Kathy/ND Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ammueller7 Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 Hi Mamasita - as Judy mentioned you might want to talk to someone who switched brands. I know of one- Sue Schmeiden in Elkhorn, WI is a dealer and has been a dealer for two different brands - she's a "switcher" from Gammill to APQS. Everyone is right - we're incredibly faithful to our particular brand - we bought our Milly because of the incredible quick response when we had questions. I even had one of the APQS guys (sorry I can't remember his name) from Des Moines call me on Sunday afternoon on the road with his family - doesn't get any better than that. Whatever you buy - you'll be incredibly pleased Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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