How do you keep track of customer info & orders?

Although I'm employed by a law firm, I have a small personal practice and I use an Excel spread sheet that I've rigged up. If you want a non-computer set up, large stationery stores sell account organizers in book form for different small businesses, and I know there are ones for tailors.

Or I should say "were", since I haven't looked at them in years, and don't know if computers have rendered them obsolete...

Pretty much just that. I use Outlook to keep my schedule of appointments (family and work!) and sewing time - which days for which customer, etc. I keep a folder for each customer and organize those by date. In each folder goes any research I do for patterns, era (I make historical stuff as well), fabrics, sources, etc. Each customer gets a contract with pix of what we have decided, and an estimate of cost with all fabrics I am providing. I do each an account with all fabrics and costs listed, deposit paid, etc. I keep separate tallies of what I spend on their behalf (they pay me at the time of ordering) and my earnings. Everything is dated. Then each year I can easily see when I got paid for which jobs and therefore which sum goes into which tax year. I also keep a record of my advertizing and other overheads (like getting the machines serviced, new machines, etc.) that are deductable. It's quite easy.

Remember to allow for heating and lighting, set up costs (capital costs of machinery etc.), and charge the customer TODAY's PRICES for anything from your personal stock that you use on their projects (such as interfacing, zips, thread, buttons... ), as this is what you will have to pay for their replacement.

If you can, get folk to come to you BEFORE they buy patterns and fabric! That way you can measure them. If they don't be sure to add time needed to vastly alter the complex pattern that is 3 sizes too small, and to work with inappropriate fabric!

Take a look at my contract: never start a job before the contract is signed and the deposite banked!

read the essay on How To Get The Best From Your Dressmaker:>

Have you taken a look at open source software? It's free and if you use a respected provider, you will get top notch software, all at no cost.

just one listing. There's a list of commercial software with open sourceequivalents. For a small business, a Quicken equivalent would suffice,rather than go for the full blown Quickbooks.

Hello Michelle,

I agree completely with what Kate D wrote, however I will add one thing to her list. If you are accepting fabric from a customer measure it WHILE THE CUSTOMER IS PRESENT and then have them sign. Also document anything else they give you. I just had a near miss with a customer who gave me fabric and then just before the job started changed her mind. I was worried she would claim I did not return all the fabric since I didn't measure it in front of her. Everything worked out OK, but I made a note not to take any more chances.

I too charge full & current retail price for any supplies I use from my sewing room. It's easier for me to take a mileage tax deduction at tax time then to add that to my prices, but if I buy online and pay shipping I add that cost onto the items I recieved and that becomes my selling price. So far I have not added anything for profit on the items and that's because I generally buy supplies locally and on sale. Selling back to the customer at retail price is enough of a profit for me.

Paper files work just fine too. I have developed a habit of taping my store receipts onto a sheet of 3-hole notebook paper. I keep it in date order and in a 3 ring notebook. If my accountant needs to see a receipt for anything I can put my hands on it in seconds. All utility bills are filed the same way, taped or stapled to notebook paper and in date order. At the end of the tax year I can put my notebooks on a shelf and forget about it. Customer files always remain in a small file cabinet that is under one of my sewing tables.

One other thing, "word of mouth" is everything in this business so write down what you charge and reference that list for each and every similar job. The last thing you want is for one customer to compare notes with another customer and find out they were charged more without understanding why. For example, I charge one fee to do a pant hem. It's my base fee and it assumes the customer has told me to "take it up an __" or has the hemline marked. It assumes I will be cutting off the excess fabric, clean finishing the edge on my serger, and then machine stitching the hem. If I have to use hem tape instead of the serger, the cost is noted on the invoice. If the customer needs me to pin up the hem, then a fitting fee is charged. If I have to do the hem by hand, it's charged. I always keep a copy of the invoice too. If customer "A" were to call asking why she was charged more then customer "B" I can pull out the invoices and state why without delay.

On the subject of labor charges, be sure to keep your fees on par with everyone else in your area. Even if you are working from home and don't have a lot of overhead expenses, still charge the average rates. If your charges are too low you will never know if customers are coming to you because you are good or if it's because you are cheap. The economy is tough right now. You don't want to undercut someone else's business by charging too low. When you win a customer it should be because you provide the best service & work skills in the area. Good luck!

Liz

This IS a good point. Likewise, if the customer has a pattern and it turns out to be their RTW wear size and too small, I ask them if they would prefer I buy the correct size range to alter for them (ALL patterns need SOME adjustment), or spend extra expensive hours for me to alter one 3 sizes too small... If they choose one that doesn't come in their size range, then I do warn them that altering it is a skilled job and will cost them the hours I spend altering it.

As I pay VAT on everything and am not tax registered (too small a business to act as tax man as well for free!), I simply buy what I need for the customer and add that and any P&P directly to their bill.

Hm... I avoid that by never discussing one person's fee with another. I'll show them how I arrived at THEIR fee (itemized on their bill), but not someone elses.

I work on a sliding scale: it goes from 'about' £12 an hour for simple stuff like seams on cotton frocks to £25 an hour for complex couture techniques and hand beading, worked out on a good fibro day. I work out how long each job is likely to take with each type of sewing and charge that. If I've under calculated, I make a note for next time. I don't charge just by the hour as it's sometimes not possible for me to work as fast as I'd like. The customer should not be paying for me to have a slow day because of the fibro or because I made an error, after all.

Ooops, I should have been clearer. If a customer asks why their charges are higher, I explain in detail without talking about anyone else even if they start out by saying, "Susie told me ....". I stay focused on their fee only. Only once has the price been questioned and that was by a customer who wanted her pants hemmed up "just a bit" so her pants would stop catching under her heel when she wore clogs. It required me to rip out the old hem and for that I charged a ripping fee. She was aware of the price before I start, but forgot. Once I reminded her everything was OK and she continues to be a good customer.

I'm not sure what the dollar to pound ratio is given our ever changing economy in the US, but my prices sound on par with yours. Hems are my favorite alteration to do since it's the easiest to price.

Liz

Today:

1 USD = 0.639060 GBP or 1 GBP = 1.56480 USD

Wow! That's quite an improvement!

$19-$40 approx...

I don't do alterations. I'd be inundated with horrid little jobs that I hate! Like trouser hems... ;)

Oh no it isn't! ;P

It all depends on your point of view -- or your side of the Pond. ;-)