Pricing Survey and Talking Business

A few days ago, I posted four photos of quilts and asked questions about how YOU would price the quilting on these quilts. If you have responded, thank you so much for doing so.

So far there have been only a few responses. Two of the quilts had 6 responses and the other two quilts have had only 2 and 4 responses. I know that world events have been in the forefront of everyone’s thinking. As we settle into the “new normal” of our lives, please take a few minutes to respond to the survey. I will leave the survey open for a few more days.

To view the survey, Click Here

On a more serious note – we are all struggling with our “new normal” of living under pandemic conditions which can / do include mandated self-isolation, social distancing, and other restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus. At this moment, there is talk of extending these restrictions for another four weeks!

I KNOW this will not last forever and, deep in my gut, I KNOW we will all come out of this stronger and busier than ever before. But, until that happens, what do we do??? How will our businesses survive? I have to honestly say, I don’t know for sure. I have some ideas, and I’m pretty sure you have some ideas too. Maybe you don’t have any ideas – and that’s OK – but you are open to any ideas or suggestions.

Let’s work together and see if we can find some ideas, suggestions, thoughts and strategies on how to keep our quilting businesses going, and possibly thriving, during the next few months.

I am going to host a Zoom meeting on Thursday, April 2, 2020 at 1 pm Pacific Time. There we can talk to each other and share our ideas and thoughts on how to keep our business going during this time. This is a FREE meeting, but you do have to register. To register, send me an email at LongarmU@aol.com and let me know you are interested in attending. I will then send you an email with all the details for the meeting on Thursday afternoon.

In your email, if you would like, let me know what your biggest business problem / issue / situation is during these uncertain times. It may be something we can talk about during the meeting. And of course, no names would be associated with any problems / issues / or situations.

I don’t know if we will solve any problems / issues/ or situations, but talking about them will help us all!

I know that as women (I know there are a few guys here) we are VERY resilient and many times we do our best work when we put our heads together and work on our problems together.

Again, send me an email letting me know you are interested in attending this meeting on Thursday, April 2, 2020 at 1 pm Pacific Time.

If you have any questions about this or need more information, please contact me at LongarmU@aol.com

I am looking forward to talking and problem solving with you on this Thursday, April 2, 2020 at 1 pm Pacific Time.

A Pricing Survey

A few days ago, I posted about an upcoming class. Pricing Cost Analysis on March 23, 2020. (For information on this class, Click Here) As part of this class, we do a little exercise on what YOU would charge to quilt some quilt tops. I thought it would be interesting to do the same pricing exercise on this blog.

Here is how it works – this is totally voluntary and it is completely anonymous. I do NOT know who you are and I cannot “track” your answers. I am using Survey Monkey www.surveymonkey.com for the questions and answers. I do have a question at the end about your location. You can enter your State / Province or region (Midwest, Northwest, Deep South, New England, etc.)

Below are photos of four different quilts with all the information about them. The link to the pricing survey is included (and highlighted) in the quilt information. Each quilt / photo has a different survey. If you would like to answer the survey on all the quilts, you will have to answer four sets of questions. If you would like to do only one quilt survey,  you can do that. YOU choose how many surveys you would like to answer.

I will leave the links to the surveys “active” for a week or so and then I will close them.  I will compile the data and post the results here on the blog.

It will be interesting to see the range of the prices and if there are some other interesting data that is collected.

If you have any questions about any of this, contact me at longarmu@aol.com. Or, if you would like to send a private comment to me about this, send it to the same email. Feel free to leave a comment below in the comments box.

Please note – if you are attending the Pricing Cost Analysis class, the same quilts and photos will be posted, but it is a totally SEPARATE survey and will be open to only those who are attending the class.

About the quilts – I pieced each of these quilts about 15 or more years ago. I like using these quilt tops in this class because there is a wide range of piecing styles which will allow for many different quilting styles and quilting options.

Click on any photo for a larger view

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Quilt #1 – Scraps & Chevrons, 55 x 55 inches
3,025 square inches, 21.0 square feet, 2.35 square yards
To take the pricing survey for the Scraps & Chevron Quilt
This survey is now closed

Quilt details –
9 inch blocks with 1-1/2 inch sashings, 6-1/2 inch outer borders. The edges of the outer border are bias edges.

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Quilt #2 – Winter Night, 61 x 76 inches
4,636 square inches, 32.20 square feet, 3.60 square yards
To take the pricing survey for the Winter Night quilt
This survey is now closed

Quilt details –
Outer border is a total of 9-1/2 inches – inner purple printed border is 1-1/2 inches, the pieced border area is 6 inches and the outer solid purple border is 2 inches. The snowflakes are 12 inches, the roofs are 6 inches deep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Quilt #3 – Christmas Diamonds, 56 x 64 inches 
3,584 square inches, 24.9 square feet, 2.77 square yards
To take the pricing survey for the Christmas Diamonds quilt
This survey is now closed

Quit Details – 
Outer printed border is 6 inches, inner border is 2 inches, blocks are 8 inches

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Quilt #4 – Double 9 Patch, 60 x 78 inches
4,680 square inches, 32.5 square feet, 3.61 square yards
To take the pricing survey for the Double 9 Patch quilt
This survey is now closed.

Quilt details –
The small red squares are 1-1/2 inches, the 9 Patches are 4-1/2 inches, the large “solid” square is 13-1/2 inches. The outside edges of the diagonal setting blocks are on the straight of grain

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If you have any questions about the quilts, need more information or have any comments, please contact me at longarmu@aol.com

I look forward to seeing and compiling the data for each quilt!

A Pricing Cost Analysis

A LOT has been happening over the last few weeks and at this time we are all in a state of social distancing and (possible) self-isolation! As quilters, as business people, and as women (as most of us are) we always seem to have a LOT to do and we will keep busy, no matter what.

This can be the time where not only are we catching up on backlogged customer quilts or working on our own quilts, we can be working on our quilting business!

Join me on Monday, March 23, 2020 at 1 pm Pacific Time, for a LIVE, in person, online class about a Price Cost Analysis and how to apply this to your business. I know that this sounds dull, boring and scary, but this is information you NEED to know! You NEED to know how your business costs affect your pricing structure.

For more details on this class Click Here

If you have been in business for a while – you need this class!!
If you are starting your machine quilting business – you need this class!!

Note: This is a great time to start a machine quilting business! If I am a piecer and I have to stay home, I am going to be piecing a quilt top or two. They will need to be quilted – and YOU can do it!

If you have been quilting for others for a while, this is the time to communicate with your customers and tell them you are ready to quilt their quilts! I will talk about this in a future blog post.

This LIVE, online class will be about 2-1/2 hours in length, possibly a little bit longer, and there will be time for questions, answers and discussions.

This is the time to take what you have learned in this class, apply it to your business and make your business more profitable – and the word “profit” is NOT a bad word!

For details and to register for the Pricing Cost Analysis Online Class Click Here

If you have any questions about this class, please contact Cindy Roth at longarmu@aol.com 

Stay safe, stay well and keep on quilting!!!