Starting a kiltmaking business

[Downix]

I feel like such the rebel, as I am paying my webmaster nothing...

I've been making websites professionally for 15 years.

[Beertigger]

GoDaddy's fine as a registrar, just don't use them as a host. There are a great many far better hosts that actually allow you to run real software, and aren't populated with vast swaths of linkbait that can indeed reflect badly on your site.

[seanachie]

GoDaddy's fine as a registrar, just don't use them as a host. There are a great many far better hosts that actually allow you to run real software, and aren't populated with vast swaths of linkbait that can indeed reflect badly on your site.

Yeah, thanks for the clarification, that is what I meant just the end of the day I did not articulate it well. The mail servers at GoDaddy linked to the domain.

[denmcdough]

Hi Barb! Not being a kilt maker, myself, I'd say you hit most of what I would probably say if I were one.

I've ordered four kilts from Wally Catanach, and he's and amazing guy...engineer by day, professor at Penn State by night, and Lord knows where he finds time to make kilts. Needless to say, Wally does this for the love of kilt making, and he's good at his craft. I doubt he's doing it for the money. Something to consider if one is trying to make a 'real' living at the kilt thing. Oh, and it helps to be really good (it's really a necessity) at one's craft!!!!

[Barb T]

And actually I had originally made my post thinking that I was mostly talking to people who would be thinking of doing it "part time", i.e., not trying to make a full-time living at it. That was the impression that I'd gotten from the XMarker who PMd me (although I might have misinterpreted).

And yes, being really good at your craft is critical, as is being professional, honest, fair (and legal). And better to start small and do it right than to over-reach and jack it up.

[Alan H]

A few of you will remember my EarthKilt project, where I was going to buy a hemp-recycled polyester fabric and have it make into kilts in El Salvador, then shipped back to the USA.

I gave up on the project because it became obvious that:

1. I wouldn't save a dime over having them produced locally until I was literally having thousands of kilts made and buying thousands of yards of fabric.

2. The details are killer. For example, hang tags. Hang tags are the little cardboard/paper tags with the company logo on them and some federally mandated information about what the garment is made out of, that hangs from each item of clothing. You HAVE to have a hang tag if you are going to sell clothes off of a rack in a store. do you have any idea how much those things cost? How about the little labels inside the garment that has the company logo and the size on it? Got any idea what those cost?

3. It became clear that there was no way in the world I could be a kilt importer without a.) visiting the maquila in El Salvador and b.) making it a full-time job c.) dropping about $7-10 thousand dollars up-front. I COULD start it with two or three thousand dollars, but that would produce maybe 120 kilts. There are no volume advantages at that point.

4.) When the day was done, the product that I would bring to market wouldn't really be any less expensive than a Utilikilt. It would be less expensive than a Freedom Kilt or an R Kilt, but not a Utilikilt or an Alphakilt. If I can't beat the competition, then what's the point?

Better think twice about going into this business.

[Barb T]

What Alan says is all true, but you don't have to intend to make a living at it to want to start to make kilts professionally. I don't make a living making kilts. I do it as a side, professional business; so does Wally, and so does Matt. There's nothing wrong with this.

But, even if you're not going to try to make a living at it, you should be professional. The post that started this thread is as true if you are making ten kilts a year or 100. You should charge a professional fee, do professional work, meet your legal and tax obligations, and run an honest and professional enterprise, even if it is part time.

For many people, starting small is really critical. Do you really like making kilts enough that you want to make a lot of them, or do you really only want to make a few a year for people you know? It's commonly hard to know the answer to this until you've made a bunch of kilts. It's also really easy to get over your head in all kinds of ways ranging from time to money. Starting small and local is one way to avoid having this happen to you at the outset. And Alan is absolutely correct - it's really really hard to make a good living as a full time kiltmaker. Starting small while keeping your "day" job lets you enjoy the kiltmaking part without having the stress of drumming up enough business to support yourself and your family. But it should still be a professional enterprise.

[Downix]

I suppose in my case it's easy, I'm a stay-at-home dad in a three income household. (two families sharing a household, to reduce our costs) So for me, it's supplimental/retirement money. I love making the kilts, made them for my former co-workers if they brought me fabric. (I should post pictures of some of the things I made somtime)

[Alan H]

Crunch the numbers before you even think about this. I've done it, and I know for a certain fact that I could not make kilts and afford to live where I do, in California.

HIGH END STUFF.

"pros" make a tank in 20-25 hours according to several professional kiltmakers on this board. That means if you do *nothing* but sew, for a 40-50 hour work week, you can make two kilts a week. That means you can make eight kilts a month. We're talking TANKS, here, OK?

The labor charge for a custom kilt according to several kiltmakers on this board, is between $200 and $250 per kilt.

eight kilts a month at $250 per kilt = $2,000 a month income or $24,000 a year.

This does not include ANYTHING ELSE that occupies your time besides sewing, and that includes everything about your fancy-pants website, shipping, ordering, going to the post office, fixing the sewing machine, and so on.

MACHINE SEWN

Rocky and Bear have both said that they can crank out a kilt in 8 - 10 hours, machine sewn. I'm not sure if Rocky's is a USA Casual or a Semi-Traditional. Let's pretend that it's a Casual model.

OK, so if you can crank out a kilt in ten hours, then in a forty hour work week you can make four kilts. That means sixteen kilts in a month. Let's pretend that these kilts are made out of Marton Mills polyester-viscose. PV costs about $15 a meter, if you buy if from Marton Mills. You'll need 2.5 meters for a casual kilt. So that's $37.50 just for the fabric, for each kilt. Call it $38.

Now lets crunch the numbers....sixteen kilts a month, remember... let's say that you charge $150 for these kilts. That's in the ballpark. Go look up what USA Kilts charges for it's Casual model. Remember that $38 of that is what you pay for the fabric, though. So that means you are actually making $112 for each kilt that you make. Sort of.

16 kilts a month X $112 per kilt = $1792

Call it $1800 a month that you make by working 40 hours a week, cranking out machine-made kilts. Of course, it will be less than that because you have to muck around with the website, answer the phone, take orders, pack orders, ship orders, fix the sewing machine, buy your fabric and so on and so forth. Oh and don't forget the velcro, or the buckles or the leather or whatever else you put into this kilt. OK, so call it a 60 hour week.

For working a 60 hours week you make $1800 a month, or $21,600 a year.

Better think twice about going into this business.

[ForresterModern]

There is more allergen categories to think of than just smoke and cats---dogs or other animals (I know someone who lets ferrets run loose in the house) that shed either hair/fur or significant dander (skin cells), flowers and certain plants, and other fabric materials (wool can be bad enough, but cashmere, angora, etc... can be even worse), even eating a peanut butter sandwich while you are working on a kilt for someone who might be peanut sensitive could cause allergic consequences to the subsequent kiltwearer. You might want to ask if your customer has any specific allergies that your environment might expose them to, so you can know to modify your workshop to accommodate, if possible.

I would also suggest offering your "whole build" prices, where you order and obtain the tartan, build the kilt, and ship it to the buyer, along with maybe a "contact me" number or email if the consumer might wish to provide their own tartan material, where you could in direct communication with them offer a "labor only plus shop materials (buckles, etc...)" charge on a one by one basis, and even discuss with them whether it is worth the consumer's effort to obtain the tartan themselves, considering a kiltmaker's "corporate" discount with the tartan vendors. There will always be a small percentage of the population that wants something modified or different in some way, so be prepared to be accommodating as possible.

One other thing I would suggest is to keep in contact with your customers before and after the sale, before by keeping them aware of their position in your waiting queue, photos of hteir kilt in progress sent by email, notification of completion and tracking info for shipment with expected dates of arrival, following up on reciept of the goods, their level of satisfaction with the goods, and possible need for alterations either in this particular sale to achieve optimum satisfaction, or future possible sales for this particular customer to be kept on file, ask for written feedback and/or reviews on the various kilt forums, maybe even for pictures of the customer wearing the kilt in action that you could include on your website with their permission (a rogue's gallery of satisfied customers), you could even link their comments to their pictures so it puts a more personal touch to the relationship. Also keep a list of all customers, regardless of their degree of satisfaction, and offer up the last ten as references if asked for them, and if those ten customers agree to act as referecnes for you. Anybody can find a couple satisfied customers, even if your work is not that great, but you take out the bias of selecting only satisfied customers and instead use the last ten to give a more accurate assessment of the current level of your most recent work.

just a few thoughts.

jeff