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Let's talk money. There are lots of reasons to be in business and making an honest buck had better be one of them. This month we feature two articles aimed at helping workrooms maintain a healthy bottom line by analyzing what they need to charge customers and by comparing what they really are making with other workrooms. Although written for a particular segment of our readers, there are important lessons in these articles for manufacturers, fabricators and retailers as well.
Cheryl Strickland starts it off (in "Big Picture" ) with the first of three articles on pricing. "I don't think there is a more important—or more frustrating and difficult—topic," Strickland says, "than pricing." Her method for determining how much to charge is based on what she calls the Manufacturer's Pricing Technique. It is a simple formula, but no matter what your business it's one that's guaranteed to get you thinking about productivity, overhead and profit—and is likely to get you to grab a pencil and start figuring.
Kitty Stein follows up with the first in a series of articles reviewing and analyzing the results of our first-ever "Workroom Survey". The survey, which appeared in our January 2000 issue, was a valiant attempt to learn if owning a workroom is a good, profitable business to be in. Words such as "eye-opener, " "surprised" and even "sad" can be found in her report when it comes to discussing gross sales, hours worked and net profit. "What's really saddening," Stein writes, "is that 21 percent of respondents have been in business 10 to 34 years and still are not happy with their incomes."
Young people searching out careers often are told to do what they love doing because then they will be willing to expend their time, energy and passion on their work. The window coverings industry is full creative and hard-working people doing what they love doing. But without obtaining fundamental, reality-based business knowledge, no avocation can survive to become a health, profitable business.
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