scottk1967 Report post Posted March 13, 2013 Here's what I'm wondering, for all off you guys that do this for a living and all of you that do this for extra income, everything said and done what do you make an hour? I just got done reading one of the threads where they talked about how long it took to make a certain item and some guys talked about what they got for the item. Is it just me or a lot of very talented skilled people under paid. I imagine the guys doing it for extra cash it's a cash business and they're not being taxed on it like you would a regular pay check. My dads like seventy something and until recently ran an upholstery business for extra income. A very talented and skilled man. I asked him what he thought a person should get for his leathercraft and he said $20. I asked my friend who sells his work how long it took to do a certain item and what he ended up getting an hour as extra income and he told me $10. This is in eastern North Dakota, I imagine the Wyoming and states with more cows and horses may make more an hour. Any words of wisdom out there. I'm in it for fun and don't always have time to do much work and will probally just keep it fun. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
benlilly1 Report post Posted March 13, 2013 I don't really charge by the hour. I charge by the job and how much work is involved. If you're self employed like me, I don't ever put all my eggs in one basket. You'll be best to do it for fun and see where it takes you from there. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cyberthrasher Report post Posted March 13, 2013 For now, I charge $20 per hour, which usually adds up to the "market value" of the item. As I increase my speed, I increase my hourly rate, but charge the same so it balances out but leaves me with a higher "wage". I haven't done the math because I'm still in the startup cost phase of business (need this supply and that supply). I'd say I pay myself on average about $10 p/h right now because I usually transfer half of my payment to a personal account and leave the rest in a "business" account. Honestly though, lately I've been trying to get out of that habit and just leave it all in the business account until I need a little extra that they day job isn't covering. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cowboy bowhunter Report post Posted March 13, 2013 scott sent you a message. I may be able to help you with prices in your area being we are close. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billymac814 Report post Posted March 14, 2013 I shoot for 60-80/hr for my work. In not working out of my house though so I have more overhead so the first 2500-4000 that comes in each month goes towards operating costs and materials. I think the one thing that I've learned doing this professionally is what jobs make money and what jobs don't. I used to do a lot more tooled jobs like motorcycle seats and things like that but I can't get what I need to out of them. If it takes me 25-30 hours to do an entire seat I would need to get in excess of 1500 at minimum, I doubt that's going to happen but I can make 50-60 holsters in about 50-60 hours and make the hourly rate I need to. There's also quite a bit of money in repairs which I started doing too. Some jobs may take just a couple minutes and I can charge 10-15 bucks which makes for a decent take. I look at things much different now than I did before I depended on this to eat. I still take on the occasional job that I know I won't make much on but those are ones that interest me and I do it for more fun than money and I think that is what a lot of people in this craft do. I seem a figure that said less than 4% of leatherworkers make a living from this, of course who knows where that figure comes from, it could be made up for all I know. There's another thread somewhere that's called something like "where's the money at" or something like that, its probably a good read for anyone interested in trying to make a go at this. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cyberthrasher Report post Posted March 14, 2013 I shoot for 60-80/hr for my work. That's what I'm shooting for when streamlining things. I'm actually thinking that soon I may be able to bump up to the $40 mark without skyrocketing my total prices. But, tooling is tooling and when it comes down to it, there's not a lot of streamlining you can do there after a certain point. So, I just have to keep working on streamlining the other steps. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
harryhbaudinet Report post Posted March 17, 2013 If you charge by the hour, it will be unfair if you work fast. Weigh things out. Which will make you more money in lesser time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
