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How many quilts per month?


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I did a business plan, too. I made a little chart that started very slowly. Think about how many days a week you want to work, how many hours in the days. How long do you think it will take you to quilt a queen, etc. And what is your stamina like. That should lead you to your max number of quilts per week.  How many years do you want to give yourself to get to that level? Then take a stab at your chart. Start low, and increase every year until you get to your max. Mostly, keep in mind that a business plan is just a plan. Adjust it as you go along and as your business and preferences evolve. It is only designed to get your head around your business, establish a fairly reasonable set of expectations, and convince a bank that you have thought this thing through. I spent some time with the head of our local SBA (free of course). And he helped me make sure I had thought of everything. If I can find the file, I'll send it to you if you want. Just message me.

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All good advice...I find that I keep getting custom quilts but am trying to limit those to one per month as they usually take me a week and then I am trying to fill up the rest of my month with e2e's, problem is when I keep getting customs then I find I am back to doing 3-4 per month and not making that much as they are so time consuming.  I have raised my prices and anytime I do get in an e2e I am bumping them in between customs so that I can earn more and try to stick to my business plan.... all this to show that a plan is a plan but being flexible also has its place....

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Vicki M.

I say this as a non-business quilter.  If you are getting more custom quilt requests and you are not making as much monthly income, then you need to charge more for your custom work.  Your quality of art has definitely increased to a level that more people want your custom work.  Your artwork is now more valuable, so charge accordingly.  You may get a few customers that may leave the custom requests purely because of cost, but I would expect that to be minimal.  I for one believe that if you can make $X doing 15 E2E quilt jobs a month, but can make the same $X monthly income or more by only doing 6 custom jobs, I would say go with what you like more and makes more income for you.  Call me stupid, but lets be honest, if you are quilting for an income then it is pretty much about the income and what grows your income/business.

Cagey

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KP.   That was in the late 90's and into most of the 2000's.  We also did craft shows and sold many quilts and that was in California.  We're now in North Carolina and I'm thinking of picking up where we left off in California.  I was what you would call a quilting mule.  Sometimes I would do 7 quilts ina day.  They weren't big, but they had to be done for a craft show.  Zeke.  

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On 3/3/2017 at 1:58 PM, Cagey said:

Vicki M.

I say this as a non-business quilter.  If you are getting more custom quilt requests and you are not making as much monthly income, then you need to charge more for your custom work.  Your quality of art has definitely increased to a level that more people want your custom work.  Your artwork is now more valuable, so charge accordingly.  You may get a few customers that may leave the custom requests purely because of cost, but I would expect that to be minimal.  I for one believe that if you can make $X doing 15 E2E quilt jobs a month, but can make the same $X monthly income or more by only doing 6 custom jobs, I would say go with what you like more and makes more income for you.  Call me stupid, but lets be honest, if you are quilting for an income then it is pretty much about the income and what grows your income/business.

Cagey

Thanks Cagey, good advice.....I did raise my prices when I moved to TX to be competitive with the local LA's there and kept them the same when I moved back to VA, I think I am already considered a little high here but remember taking class from Dawn Cavanaugh on business that said people pay for what they think they are getting (quality wise)  if you charge more, people who want quality quilting will pay more for it.  I remember raising my prices several years ago before the move and did not loose any customers.

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I was doing ALOT per month (both overall and custom) for many years  until cancer entered my life. I spent most of 2016 not working (yes I pretty much depleted my business account) Now I'm back to quilting but nowhere what I did before. First of all I don't have the stamina because of Tamoxifen and cumulative effects even a year out and second sometimes I just don't want to. It's hard now as we will have 2 in college for almost the next 10 years, but at least I'm here for my family. Just think of what your priorities are at the present time and adjust them accordingly because life can change in an instant.

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Hang in there, Roseann! I went down the same path but luckily I have no trouble with the tamoxifen anymore, it takes some time for the body to adjust. I had my treatments in 2015, and it takes a long time to get back to something that resembles normal. I have leftover side effects from chemo that I am doing my best to ignore. For me the cancer part was actually the reason to buy my Millie and start my business. I have a pharmacy degree and always talked about doing something quilty as a business but never actually did it. It made me realize that life is short and you better do what makes you happy before it is too late. I am quite happy about how things are going, I love quilting all day long, and I am so glad that I decided to do it. I always schedule plenty of time, so if I need a break, I can just go and rest.

All the best to you!

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Roseann, glad to hear you're on the road to recovery. Cancer has taken the lives of both my grandfather and my father so I know how important it is to take life one day at a time. Quilting is my outlet from the day to day stress of life, and it helps me appreciate the beauty of life when the ugly starts to interfere. I wish you all the best with your recovery as well as rebuilding your quilting to the point that makes you happy. Prayers and best wishes to you.

Happy Quilting,

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