Where is the money in leatherwork?

[Peter Ellis]

This is usually an unpopular reply but your best way to answer your questions is to do a business plan. There are many local resources for developing a business plan and some online resources including software. If you can answer the quesitons in a business plan adequately you will have your answers as to whether you can make it in your business or not. For me leatherwork is a portion of a diversified income stream from different sources and now, after years of hard work, I have the time and the resources to do pretty much what I want.

The thing about doing a business plan is that it guides you in terms of the questions you need to answer, it doesn't have any of the answers for you.

Pat's questions are the kind that one finds in business plan models. The trick is where to find answers to these kinds of questions. One way is to do exactly what has been done here, ask others in the industry about their experience.

I'm way too much of a beginner myself to have any really useful insights, but part of what I'm doing is looking within a niche market for gaps that are not being adequately filled. If I can step into the gaps, I've got a chance to pull some money without having to compete as hard as if I step up with products that are already being commonly produced.

From that base, I hope to bootstrap into somewhat larger markets, while continuing to build my skills and watching for product opportunities.

[Don]

LA Pat,

I have been making and repairing leathergoods for people since I was in high school, but I have only owned a full retail, custom, and repair shop for four years. When I made the decision, after college, to go into the leather business full time I had no idea how challenging it would be.

Art mentioned "half your time to leatherwork, half to running the business, and half to promotion." This could not be any more true. I have a lot to learn yet at my stage of business ownership, but the one thing I do know it that you have to concentrate on all three of those aspects in order to be successfull. And in doing this you spend an unmeasurable amount of time trying to develope and grow every part of your business.

I came into this as an aspiring artist and craftsmen that wanted to make a living doing what I truely have a passion for. What I soon found out (and am still learning) is that you have to work on becoming good at all aspects of the business, not just the art side.

I have many friends that own other businesses (lawyers, veterinarians, farriers, horse trainers/clinicians, hunting/fishing guides, etc...) and their goals, successes, and struggles are not that different from this industry's. I think all industries have potential for success and/or failure. The only thing different between the other areas of the industry and the one that you decide to dive into, is YOU. If you are willing to devote the time, and you have the "want" to be the best in that market, then you should be able to make a living doing that.

As far as what a craftsmen can make money wise, I am still too young in the business to tell you that. I do know that the man I learned to build saddles from was full time in this industry(and still is) for 40 years...he seemed to be doing as well as any other. I think that you have total control over what your base salary is, and that is any time you own a business. If you do the kind of work people appreciate and you fill a need within your selected community, then you can name your price. I agree that many charge too little for their work, I do that on occasion. I believe that we all sometimes look at it in a way that "If I am too high then I won't get the job and I'll lose money." When really all we're doing at that point is adding expenses and not adding any income. I finally started looking at it like this "Wouldn't I rather not have any work and not make any money rather than having a pile of work that is costing me money?" Charge for your work and people will gladly pay you for it.

I am not sure if any of this helps you or not but those are my thoughts. Good luck in making this life changing decision...NO PRESSURE.

Don

[lowell]

I just want to say thanks to all that replied to this post. The information was thoughtfully presented and helpful.

Lowell

[budd4766]

In my very limited experience, the guy making all the money is the guy I'm buying my leather stuff from!

I would guess just have a good plan, and if possible, have a fall-back plan if things don't take off right away.

[CampbellRandall]

...Art mentioned "half your time to leatherwork, half to running the business, and half to promotion." This could not be any more true. I have a lot to learn yet at my stage of business ownership, but the one thing I do know it that you have to concentrate on all three of those aspects in order to be successfull. And in doing this you spend an unmeasurable amount of time trying to develope and grow every part of your business....

We are at a different end of the industry, but ours is a family business and we feel the pressures all small businesses do.

If you want to spend your time as a leatherworker, i.e. turn your hobby into a business, just so you can do leather work, go to work for someone else. You will spend a lot of your time as bookkeeper, marketing exec, purchasing agent, shipping clerk, customer service rep, psychologist, quality control supervisor, chief engineer.... I think you need to by slightly skitzophrenic to run a small business. If you can handle these additional pressures, and have the drive to be good at what you do, go for it.

My only thought is find a niche and be good at it. Try to be the best at what you do, and adapt with the times. To be profitable in custom leather, you can't make a living selling the same product everyone else dose, and you'll go broke trying to undercut the generic retail chains. Find something people want, make it good, and charge what it is worth.

[Johanna]

My only thought is find a niche and be good at it. Try to be the best at what you do, and adapt with the times. To be profitable in custom leather, you can't make a living selling the same product everyone else dose, and you'll go broke trying to undercut the generic retail chains. Find something people want, make it good, and charge what it is worth.

Well expressed.

~J

[rdb]

I struggle everyday with the niche/generalist problem.Some may agree with my observations, others may not, but here's a few of my thoughts.

There are a zillion factors in establishing leatherworking as a business. There are people who have been working full time at it for decades, That's the true path. Time.

The western style of leatherworking is the Traditional jump off point, here in the US. Whether it's boots and saddles, rope cans, or Motorcycle seats, the carvings become all important. Then break that down into styles, like Sheridan or Floral. Break it down further to the personal touches of individual makers, and you have a robust, but very competitive market.

Every niche, be it holsters, sheathes, biker, or BDSM has a price to pay. You have to be, or become immersed in that particular field you choose. Live in the city, never owned a horse...good luck establishing a tack repair business. Never rode a motorcycle, or don't own one...same problem.

Start with the familiar. Whose in your circle? Is it the WOW folks? Or how about Office workers? You know better who it is exactly in your world. To me, that's where you begin. Whatever comes your way, you'll have to make it. From Portfolios to dog harness, there is a deep breadth of products, but each one takes some experience to make it quality. It's one thing to be a biker, jump into motorcycle leather, and make a living. It's another to have only a year or two under your belt, and try to become an expert in a particular field/niche. At first, being a generalist will make you a better craftsman. Each niche, each product has a particular skill or knack to it. The more general work you do, the more skills you develop and master. That's just common sense. Should you choose a niche from all that work, you'll only be a better Maker after the experiences.

The career path is another way. Attend boot and saddle school or hook up with a saddlemaker. Work your tail off for some years, then branch out on your own.

Should you hope to take a hobby and build it into a full time business, a lot depends on your local area, and it's potential. Some bypass that, and go primarily on the Web. Either way is a tough row at first.

But the first thing I would suggest is to figure what hourly rate you need, be it $12 an hour or $30. All your product pricing is based on that, NOT the competition. For a very long time you will base things on that, but probably only make a tenth of what you hoped for. When you are in business, it's the PRODUCTION level that decides your success. If you make $200 belts, you have to have the market, and the ability to make them often enough, and good quality enough to succeed. Only being able to do make one and sell it every three weeks will not pay the grocery bill. Sell belts at $24 and you may be able to make that type of belt quicker, but you have to build a bigger market for all those $24s to add up.

There's plenty of business advice on this forum, and the web to help establish a pricing/production/marketing schedule, but be careful, there is nobody that has the perfect answer to your particular situation. It might be rock solid business advice, but if it always worked, there would would never be business failures.

[Ian]

Every niche, be it holsters, sheathes, biker, or BDSM has a price to pay. You have to be, or become immersed in that particular field you choose. Live in the city, never owned a horse...good luck establishing a tack repair business. Never rode a motorcycle, or don't own one...same problem.

Dave, you forgot to say if you've never been hung from the rafters, or hung someone else......LOL

[8thsinner]

Excellent replies to this.

I am trying to start my business too, and after a year I am not much further into it, certainly not enough to live from it.

I don't have a day job so time is on my side, I can sit around all day drawing out new designs and plans of promotion etc.

After a recent recap of my methods this was my new plan.

Find all the expensive selling places in the area, be it pet store, sex store, tack shop novelty items or what. Find out what they sell in detail, take pictures, make notes and think about it all.

I was in a novelty shop selling all sorts of high quality irish gimmicked goods. Celtic knot work tables and chairs, sterling silver, paintings etc.

They also sell beads, beads which I can use to enhance my own range of bracelets, Using those beads I struck a deal, he will basically buy outright my stuff using his own bead selection, which I will be buying from the manufacturer directly. I am hoping to pump the range in that by displaying plain versions beside his beaded versions.

I also showed my full portfolio of work, whips, necklaces, torch handles, bracelets, books... 55 pictures in all. Got an fairly interesting discussion out of it, which I hope he will remember next time he has people ask relevent questions...and then point my way.

A travelling continental market is another way I hope to branch out my name. I made a friend on one of them who sells reindeer hides with his wife. We got talking about fire steels, bushcraft, knives and all sorts. The last time they were here, I was randomly looking around the market, and he popped in between me and someone else shouting great things about my leather work. I am hoping this year he can put some of my stuff in his truck and see if sells back home.

My partner's sister is a vetenery nurse, for the spring, we intend to put a small catalogue of sample dog leads in there to advertise goods. With any luck that might also pay off.

My partner works in an office for the govt, so we sent in a sample braided book and an order page for christmas sales, with a 50% deposit it's guaranteed by christmas. We also offered free name carving. In one day I got enough orders to buy all the materials for the goods wanted. I am looking to find other friends in similar working enviroments.

A DJ friend of mine is regularily across the water in the gothdam of england, nottingham as a DJ. I am arranging with her to have flyers dropped of and maybe run a stall too.

I have had very long discussions with my friends on making budget stuff, and for months I was going to, but I am a braider, I have pride in my work, work which took me a long time to make and a long time to learn, three years professionally in leather work included with 12 years practice and experimentation.

I have compromised by offering cheaper materials in some cases. the new leather knot bracelet range is prime example. from top quality hand cut braided cords used to make continuos knots right down to 1mm round lace versions.

If we get the market stall up and running I had another idea...Leave out the belly of a whip secured to a frame of some variety if possible with 16 strands of lace ready to go. and let customers try it themselves. With any luck they will see straight away how difficult and time consuming it is there by justifying expenses.

My expertise is most definately in braided goods, my carving is a lot on the needing work stage, so in order to improve this, I am trying to sell products which can incorporate this eventually ie notebooks, This way I should always have scraps to practice on which i have been. Like wise with all materials. I am trying to maximise the possibilites of product outcomes using the same materials in different ways. I can reduce the need to get supplies from 20 different sources saving me money on postal costs. and time on sourcing cheaper.

No one in my area offers carved leather goods of the quality on this forum, whether or not theres a market for it I don't know but I hope to find out in a few years. In the mean time I will continue to search for cheaper better raw materials, making my own tools when possible and when needed. and save all the scraps I can because one day they will all have a use. I even save the hair of the back of my laces when it's been cut.

Oh one more thing, jewelry has one of the largest mark ups in price in the market, BDSM goods probably get shoved in in a close second. If this is acceptable behaviour for everyone else and you can do it and get away with it, go for it. Thing is, braided whips are far more often worth exactly what their worth and not marked up much at all...go figure.

Anyway, theres a few of my plans, and I hope it helps.

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

All the replys above are spot on. They attest to the diverse scope of what you can do and where you can make some dinero. I will add one thing that I recently got into, and while it is not what I really like to do, it sure helps pay the bills while I putz at what I really like (making saddles). That is the tack repair business at the local race track. I had the luck to be where they opened up a new race track, and by chance I got a call to do some repairs on an excersize saddle for one of the trainers there. What I found out was that there was no one there and they really needed someone. During the racing season, there are anywhere from 600 to 1200 horses housed and trained there. That many horses tear up a lot of stuff. The trick for me was that I realized that the trainers and workman there are too busy to stop and bring you tack everytime they break something. They will find some way to tie it together, or throw it in a tack box and it will stay there till they throw it out, however; if you go to them, which I did ( I actually take a wheel barrel and go through all the barns. They load me up when they find out they don't have to do anything other than reach in the box and give it to you), they will clean out that tack box and pay fair prices to get it fixed and returned to them . That way they don't have to take the time to go to the tack store to get stuff replaced. The key is to remember, these are people that need their stuff to make their living, and it is a service that you provide that helps them do that. This has really worked for me, they keep me busy full time from May to October, and now I am getting work from them that spills past the racing season. A word of caution, make sure all your customers know that it is a cash on the barrelhead business. "No tickey no washy". If your work is good quality, you will also find yourself making a lot of belts, chaps and leggins for the excersize riders. This worked for me.

Good Luck,

Bondo Bobs Custom Saddles