Newbie vs experience charge out rates

[Ritathequilter]

Hi Everyone

I know, this topic has prolby been discussed many times over the years but I'm sure there's other newbies on here besides me so I'd like to discuss it once more.

My question is, as a newbie, what is a good rate to charge for my work....pantos and customs which at this point is freehand leaf borders, stippling, meandering and maybe some ill formed feathers.

You'll note in some of my posts earlier this week I finished 2 quilts, one a queen size Sun Bonnet Sue quilt which I stippled around the SBS and did free hand designs in the borders, tulips in the sashing. I didn't know what to charge the customer so I asked her to pay me what she thought would be a fair price. She paid me $100.00.

The second quilt was a lap size flannel which I did SITD on all the blocks (a ton of work!) and then freehand design in 3 borders. Again I didn't know what to charge...so she offered $80.00.

I really did what I thought was an awesome job on both quilts and in both cases I felt like I was grossly underpaid. I know, I should have had a rate chart set up and a fee agreed to before I quilted these two quilts. A lesson learned and I'll be making up a rate chart once I get some feed back from all of you.

Thanks!

Rita

[quiltingnanny]

Rita, sometimes the money doesn't equal the work ! I'm a newbie too, so still learning the tricks. I feel very lucky to get a penny a square inch. That's width x length. The other La's are backed up until March and April and I can get the quilts out quicker. My prices are higher than theirs. For a lap sized quilt they charge about 35 dollars with a 5 dollar border charge. So according to their list you made good. Just hang in there and it will even out for you. You will get faster and it won't seem like so much work. But on days you have to frog over and over it can seem like there isn't enough money to pay for your work. Been there, done that over and over !! LOL Just figure you a price list and stick to it. I also gave my first few customers a 'deal'. Told them if they just let me have freedom to 'do my thing' I'd give them a rock bottom price. Then I told them what I would've charged for that technique. They came back for more ! And that is what you want. Glenda

[GERRY]

Hi Rita:

How's the cold up the in the frozen north, have you seen any elves running around buying up all the toys:D or heard any Ho Ho Ho's coming from around the corner.

Are there any other LAer's in your area? What are they charging? It may help you to know so you can fix your pricing just under their's, until you feel you are up to snuff, & can compete at their level.

What I've been doing is charging 1cent a square inch accross the board, no matter what I do to the quilt, & I haven't got a min. charge as yet & yes lately I've been feeling very under paid......I just keep telling myself, that I'm in training, & if I learn just one thing on any given quilt top, then that's pretty good payment for me............For now that is, plus that's just what the other LAer in our Guild did for a year (she didn't have a SR so it took her longer). I just spent half a day on a small wall hanging, a singal star, with 2 borders, & got less than $20 for it, I did a separate design in each border & a large motif in center, all in gold matalic thread & WoW was it nice. Then I took it to the guild & showed everyone & their mother what I did to this tiny quilt, & there were lots of OOOOH' s & AHHHH's, that for me was payment, but not for much longer..................

As of Jan. 1st. my training days are done........I'm going to up my price to 1.5 cent per sq.in. for most of my panto's & some simple custom work, I hope to get up to 2 or 2.5 cents per for havey panto's, free hand & more complecated custom. Plus I'm going to have a mim charge, not sure what that will be as yet, maybe $30.-$35. some where in there.

There dosen't seem to be anyone around here doing any custom work at all, so I hope to corner the market on that, I've been PPPing like crazy trying to get good at that custom stuff, but I need to be real good at it & soon.

I've told every one that seems interested (at the guild) that my prices are going up in Jan. so there will be no surprizes. My only worry was, that I was under cutting the other LAer , so I had a chat with her, & she says she has many more quilt tops to do, than she has time for, & I was quite releeved, cause I'm not interested in getting into a turff war at the guild.

Over the Christmas holidays, I plan to get my business cards & some flyers ready so I can have them available to hand out, The guild has been my comfort zone so far, but I need to branch out & get the word out to the rest of the folks in this town.

Any way hang in there, put your prices up when you think you should, & be up front with everyone, so there arn't surprizes, If you tell people that the price is xxx then they will pay it if they want you to quilt their tops.

OH, & Do up a "price-list" & post it where everyone can see it, also have a flyer in your purse, so if someone asks, you have it ready to hand over, that way you won't look, or sound like you're uncomfortable with your priceing.

I'm not sure how big your area is, but you could put up some flyers in the places that quilters go, & have the price list on it, so when they call, they already know the cost.

I try to use the words "estimate" when ever someone gives me a new quilt, & so when I get it home, I measure it, do the number's & call if the price is very differant than what ever we talked about earlier.

One thing I've figured out, I'm not a very good business women, I keep forgetting to collect the money, & I feel a little odd talking it too, I'm sure I'll get over it, but I'm very so glad my Guild mates are honest.

GEE I'm long-winded, sorry....

Good luck Rita,

Oh, BTW where are the pic's of those last 2 quilts eh!!!!

[MarieBrewer]

I started quilting in Jan 06 and did my first customer quilt in about June or so. I charge .01 per sq inch but I am going up to 1.5 in January. The people who had me do quilts for them in my first year will get a break to 1.25 for this year. That's my way of showing my appreciation to them for giving me a try. I think I will go to a $20 minimum because the table runners and sm wall hangings just aren't worth it. I'm not much of a $ collector either, lost a check two weeks ago. Oh well, she gave me another.

[ffq-lar]

Hi Rita--

One way to handle start-up pricing is to establish a market-driven price list and if you feel uncomfortable charging that much as a newbie, offer a great percentage discount. Limit the discount to a first top or have it expire at a certain date. This way, you establish yourself as a "professional" from the first and there are no surprises for your customers. Don't stress yourself by offering things you aren't comfortable doing yet--it's great to have friends with UFOs for you to practice on at no charge.

If you have business cards, hand them out with a 10 or 15% discount teaser written on the back. Tell people they can use it or pass it to a friend. Put an expiration date on it, but tell potential customers they can make arrangements to extend the date if they need to.

On a different topic, it surprises me sometimes how we struggle to please everyone--I do it and most women seem to have it in their hearts--must be that nurturing/motherly thing. I have found that if I keep a professional attitude, I can pick my own times to be a "giver" to my customers. I may do extras, such as special quilting or trimming a top for no extra. These little gifts make me feel great and allow me a little more control. I put those "no charge" extras on the invoice and sometimes the customer doesn't even notice---but I have a warm feeling that lasts a while.

Establishing your business is all about you and your comfort zone. Try things and see what works. We all decide our own way and this forum is full of good advice and lots of wonderful people. Off my soapbox now!

Linda Rech

Olympia, Wa

[annlittle1]

Hi Rita,

Wow, when I read that you were offered $100.00 for a queen size quilt and $80.00 for a lap size quilt my first thought was how generous they were. No they weren't! You are right, a lot of work went into both of those quilts.

I must explain my first reaction to you. I have been doing this for eighteen months. I'm no Sherry Rogers or Jamie Wallen, but I did take a first and second place in Masters Divisions in the Oklahoma State Fair this September. I went from May to August with no customer quilts. I advertise in our local guild newsletter and in a local electrical coop's newsletter. I had good response from the coop's newsletter; at least I received several phone calls because of it. But when I would tell them the average cost for a simple edge to edge I would get a "Thank you" and a hang up. One woman finally said to me "You're a lot higher than the quilter I go to in Purcell. I was hoping to find someone closer to me." She told me that the other quilter charges a flat $40.00 for a queen size quilt. My estimated charge for a queen size was $120.00. (By the way, my Queen Size estimate was based on a rather generous size for a queen size I have realized, lately.) I thanked her and hung up. Instant depression! Purcell is a small town about an hour from me. Another inquirer had said she usually took her quilts to a quilter in another small town an hour away. I am aware that the quilters in small towns in this state tend to charge much less.

I decided to have a "Holiday Special" for the month of November. A simple E2E queen size quilt would now be $65.00. Other quilt sizes were also lowered for that month. I passed out flyers at all the quilt stores. I also took the two award winning pieces with me and showed them. One of the stores sent me a new customer. On the phone she told me that it was a queen size and she wanted a small amount of SID and the rest was free hand. I told her I would honor the special pricing even though there was some SID since I was trying to bring in new customers. When I met with her it turned out that she wanted ten large squares SID; Ruler work in the center of the squares, 20 stenciled butterflies, and crosshatching in the 10 inch border. The butterflies were stitched in burgundy on peach and yellow. Any backtracking stood out like a sore thumb. The SID was the easiest part of it. But since I told her that I would honor the special price I felt as if I was stuck with it. Then I measured it and found that it was falling under my pricing for a twin size instead of a queen size. I spent about 40 hours on the quilt and made all of $40.00 for it! It should have been $130.00 for light custom and I don't really consider this light custom. So compared to mine, your customers were very generous! She uses a machine quilter all the time so she knows that she got a real bargain. I did state the correct pricing and noted that it was her pricing was a holiday special.

Oh well, live and learn. I'm considered offering another special in January, but believe me I will re-size my quilt sizes to match batting sizes and I will NOT (Iwill not! I will not! I will not!) offer anything but a simple E2E for the special price.

On the other hand it did bring in five new customers and six quilts. One of them is the local sewing machine store where I purchased my sewing machine and serger. They want to hang one of my pieces in the store when they move to their new location in February. Hopefully, that will also bring in more business as they have a club similar to a guild and a lot of ladies make quilts in that club.

The best way to determine your pricing is to check with other LA quilters in your area and decide where you want to fit in with them.

Phyllis Hughes

Oklahoma City

www.myheartlandquilts.com

[juliagraves]

If you do a search on websites for long-arm quilting, the price ranges fall mainly into these categories:

meander - $0.01 - $0.015 per sq inch

panto - $0.02 - $0.03 per sq inch

custom - $0.03 - $0.04 per sq inch

with various extra charges for special thread, hanging sleeve, binding, piecing the back, etc.

You really have to consider what your time is worth in addition to paying off the machine. If your market area won't bear what you think you need, consider putting up a professional looking website and advertising in quilting magazines to get outside your geopgraphic area. Of course, these are outlays of money in addition to what you've already spent on the machine, and they might not pay off, but it's something to consider.

The other thing is to not compete on price. Work on your skills and focus on custom work and great customer service. Look for niche opportunities - working with a quilt store or quilting instructors to quilt class samples, doing t-shirt quilts, etc. Look at others' websites to see what kinds of services they offer.

Good luck!

[MooreQuiltsMN]

Istarted with a price list that was based on the regional average pricing. I wasn't the least expensive, but not the most. And I feel my quality is that as well.

From there I passed out my price lists at the guild meeting and at retreats, with a business card attached. I jotted a 15% discount for their first quilt, for the first several months. This got them in the door, and it has worked very well for me. I feel very fortunate, as there are an abundance of long arm quilters in the area, a town 20 miles SE of St. Paul, MN.

So I confer with the others...Your area will dictate the pricing, especially at first, and as you get your product out there, your quality will allow the price changes!

Good luck!

Joan Moore

Moore Quilts

Hastings, MN

Every stitch in a quilt is a hug!

[busybee]

Hi from down below. I have been quilting for customers since the spring of this year. I charge a rate of .01 per sq inch for simple pantographs and Advanced at .012 , combo at .015 (any 2 panto)and custom at .025. I did community quilts for over a year before I started customers. This gives customers a choice of pricing. I have done 3 custom -customers this fall. Which I think is great because it will advertise for me. Now I am busy for X-Mas. Hope this helps. It depends on your area and how many customers needs are and how many longarmers there are there. Nita

[Pam.Nagle]

Hi--

What do you charge if you use your CQ?

[FowlManorQuilting]

Yes what is the going rate for CQ custom designs and can you put more than one machine to your CQ program? Gloria

[Sandra Darlington]

Hi Joan (Moore),

I sent you a U2U.

[Ritathequilter]

Thanks so much for all your input. I'd say I put in about 10 hours on tht quees size top that I was paid $100. for so I got paid about $10.per hour...just above minimum wage here.

There are no other longarmers up here but that doesn't mean that I want to overcharge the ladies that quilt. We're very isolated here in the arctic so everyone that quilts either does so on their own DSM or sends them out to be done with a postage cost of about $60.00 (everything is more expensive when you live way up north) Most of the quilters send their quilts to the same lady in Saskatchewan who charges a flat rate of $50.00...so add that to their postage and they are over $100.00 no matter the size of the top. That lady doesn't charge extra for thread or trimming either. I think it's ridiculous to charge such a cheap rate and I'm not going to do that. I want to be paid decently for my time as I think most of us do.

I've had my machine since Jan/06 and have done 5 quilts for free for my friends and have asked all the others to pay me what they think is fair. So, like Gerry, I'm going to have a rate chart for Jan 1st and will hand it out. I'm by no means a professional yet, but I'm doing lots of practicing and my work is good...at least I think it's not bad. <lol>

Most of you that are charging around .01 to ,02, do you plan on increasing your price when you get more experience or is this your firm price because of competition?

Thx

Rita

[lizziesgirl]

I started out with my prices low and now I have learned so much more and my prices have gone up. I charge .0125 for pantos and .02 for custom, I provide the batting and thread. For some people in my area it is a really good deal for some they complain but when they see how picky I am with my quilting they come back.

I had the wonderful opportunity to take a class with Marilyn Badger and I have taken classes with DeLoa Jones. I advertise this and when I get comments on my prices being to high, I remind them that they wouldn't go to a doctor that didn't go to college, well my classes are college in quilting and by doing that I can make their tops outstanding. I currently have 34 customers quilts to do and I got my machine in August 06.

Sheryl

[Gail]

Hi,

I just wanted to add my 2 cents. Last summer I machine quilted a top for my sister. No charge. She had a second one and the estimate she got for the quilting is shocking! $0.19 to $0.33 per square inch. The lady gave her the estimate of $325 for her quilt. I told her I was trying to drum up a business. So, she sent me her quilt top with a check for $250. I was only going to ask her for $125. I guess she was afraid I might back out and the check would secure me doing it. I called and told her that I didn't think the quilting would be worth the $250. She didn't care and said to cash the check. $0.2 to even $0.10 doesn't sound like a lot of money for all the work involved. Especially if you are providing the batting and the thread.

Gail

[GERRY]

WoW Sheryl:

Very good for you, I think I would find all those quilts a little intimadateing, hanging there calling me, to get them done, my kids would starve......WONDERFUL, could I ask what your turn around time is ?, can you get a quilt done everyday?

Rita:

I see how not having other LAer's in the area could be a problem, (It's a porb. I'd like to have ), So why not figure how much the quilters have been paying, includeing postage, charge them like 10% more, (for now), after all they don't have the worry that their quilt might get lost in the mail, or take the time to box it & run to the post office.

Then you could figure out how 1 or 1.5 cents per inch compares to the prices they have been paying, & stay in the ball park, you won't get them to come to you, if you charge to much more than the lady in Sask. does, untill you have them sold on what you can do, but after a little time you'll have them eating out of your hands then you can slowly up the prices to where you feel they should be.

I know you can get this just right, take some time over Christmas & do up a price list that you find fair, get it printed up, & hand it out, to any & all interested persons, that way when they come to you, they will allready know the price, you can always give them a deal on the spot, if the spirit moves you.

p.s. I would charge them for batting, & I have a thread charge of $5-8.00 depending on witch thread I use & how much. I do not charge for trimming, or squaring up the back.

PP.SS. If I were you, I would get a large stock of batting, & maybe backing fabric in, so they will come to you for it, you can make a small profit on it to help offset your quilting prices.

[lizziesgirl]

Thanks Gerry, It started to get intimidating but I decided that to take each quilt as that was the only one I had to do. Sometimes I get one done a day, depending on the amount of work in it, sometimes its on there for 3 days. I tell my customers that I won't rush a quilt because I want to give it the best that I can.

Sheryl

[countrystitcher]

I started customer quilting in May 2006. I immediately had a brochure and price list so there was no surprises. I do .0125/sq inch for meandering/pantos; .0150 for anything else and custom is on a to-be-decided basis discussing with the customer. They know up front what I charge, BUT I do give a 20% first-time customer discount and after 5 quilts, the 6th is 1/2 off (excluding custom). I keep a large index card with their information and photos of their quilts attached so I have a complete record of what I have done for them. If I feel I have done a lousy job with the quilt, I will give a discount. But I always show the actual price and then discount it. People do like a bargain!