I hate this town. I hate this fucking town.
I just want to sew. I've been looking for local sewing jobs for fucking ages!!! Everyone in my area is looking for upholstery work. There's a fuckton of boats in my area that people want done. But every single upholstery shop has told me "no". Four local shops. Have a fuckton of work they want done, but they don't want to pay me the amount!!!!
A local shop finally called me back. Guy gave me 4 outdoor cushions to make and said he'd evaluate my work & pay me when it's done.
I worked on 4 cushions, 2 different sizes, complete with piping & zippers on all of them. Took me 3 days. Approximately 6 hours per day of work, a total of 18 hours, and that's the low estimate.
Got it done. Looks awesome.
He gave me 100$. Then he said I could compete with his current seamstress for jobs and he'd choose the cheaper of the two estimates we give.
I want to fucking cry. I have to take this job. Any job. I need the money.
I'M ONLY ASKING FOR LIKE 300$ PER WEEK IN ORDER TO SURVIVE???? Am I crazy????? Is that too much????
At least he gave me the job where I quoted 35$ each for 2 vinyl boat pieces.... that's 70$.. I think I can get it done in day.... wow.... 10$ an hour.... fucking wow......
I hate this. I fucking hate this so fucking much.
God, I want to cry......
EDIT: Start my own business?
During a looming economic crisis + ridiculous foreign tariffs + with real estate currently at an all-time high?
Don't think I can take the risk that right now, as much as I'd like to.
Your shop rate is what you charge the customer wanting the seat done right? So in our example here (allowing for speculation because we don't have specifics), the customer would be charged $100, and the internal labor costs would be $50 (because we were told there were 2 seats). So a 50% profit margin. However, that doesn't take into account any of the fixed costs of running the business or maintaining the machines. I also assume that this work has some amount of seasonality to it so having consistent work may be difficult, meaning larger fixed costs to cover time between paying jobs.
Does that sound right?
I bill time and materials. My hourly rate should cover all my overhead, taxes and my wage. I mark up my materials 100%. Some people will pay me for work as I complete it, but the vast majority want a quote. I have to guess how much material it costs and how long it will take me to complete. This is quite hard sometimes as weird shapes and matching patterns might cause a significant increase in yardage and time. Experience leads to accurate estimates of materials and labour. Newbies might order too little and need to order more for a long cut, or cut improperly and need more. All that wastes time and drops your billable hours. I'd say I'm pretty good at my job and that leads me to command a higher shop rate than others might.