Where is the money in leatherwork?

[LAPat]

Hello all

I have three wholesale customers for my sheepskin pet toys and leather leashes, but small ones. This is not my primary source of income. I am a dog trainer and work at a pet store (and at Starbucks part time for the insurance benefits...). Needless to say, I have a lot on my plate.

I am in the process of deciding where to put my time, business wise.

I have a lot of questions about the leatherworking business. I hope I am not being impolite, since I've been told that people don't always like talking about money... at least their own:>))

Here goes.

Where is the money in leatherwork? Who is making a very good living and why? My guess is that small goods made quickly and easily as well as high end artisan driven projects are the two areas of greatest success. And I am asking about the individual craftsperson, not the Weaver Leathers of the world.

How many people who are doing a decent business start to farm out work and what kind and why? When does it become a factory and not a hand made art?

What can a decent craftsman make in a year if he has a shop, or a website, or does fairs? Are there other venues for sales?

Where is the cost in leatherwork? What does it require as an investment for tools and materials? I'm interested in all fields, from bootmaking and saddlery to tooled items and of course dog and horse tack.

I know these are big questions and I'm trying to get a sense of the entire field, but this is a fairly occult field compared to say, accounting, and the information is mostly passed, like the craft, from master to apprentice. Or are there sources for business information out there that someone can point me towards.

Thanks in advance

LA Pat

[Art]

Hi Pat,

If you do make a living from leatherwork, you will be one of the three or less percent that do. Most of us that do leatherwork either hold a full or semi-full time job (day job) or are retired, or are both. Anything we make is gravy, or a way to justify the tools etc.

for someone near you who does it for a living try:

Phil LeDuc

Stonehedge Leather Co.

1967 Abbott Street

San Diego, CA 92107

1-888-805-9690

cowcutter@aol.com

His is a storefront business, not a home business.

To be sucessful, you will have to devote half of your time to leatherwork, half to promotion, and half to running the business; you do the math.

It is reasonable to expect that you would specialize in some discipline and I can name a few:

Saddlery and tack (to include canine and feline),

Handbags and Luggage,

Holsters and Cowboy gear (can combine with duty gear),

Duty Gear (police equipment)

BDSM and Fetish gear,

Upholstery (furniture, automobile, motorcycle, different disciplines really),

High Art,

Re-enactment gear.

Any one of the above can work out ok, but a good solid knowlege of the field is a must not only to produce high quality gear, but for promotion and rapport with customers. You also have to have the chops to make good quality gear or you will get wipped by someone importing Asian junk. The only real way to compete is with quality or novelty, and if you come-up with something novel, the Asians will knock it off in a heartbeat.

It will be much harder to promote and market whatever you do then it will be to make it. Don't even think of manufacturing in quantity until you can sell everything you can make. College courses in marketing at the local CC will help a lot as business is business.

Basic leatherworking skills and knowlege in your discipline are you most expensive assets, machines will make you faster, not better, but faster will be necessary if you are going to make life easier.

To answer all your questions would require a book which I am not up to right now. I'm in the 97%, I have a day job.

Art

[Studio-N]

I'm reminded of a club meeting years ago, where the presenter was asked if he made a living as a full time artist. His response was.....

"My definition of a full time artist is someone who's wife has a job".

All fun aside, what ever you decide to make which is your passion, make sure you make a lot of 'bread and butter' high volume items to pay the bills while you wait on that one customer to buy the big dollar items you have made. Unfortunately, that means a lot of dollar key fobs or a lot of crappy repair jobs. peace.

[K-Man]

Hmmm....well....uh....it's hard to say. Let me relate a little of what my experience has been.

We started out with the custom motorcycle stuff. Timing was good - was the only one within miles of here that did it - did quality stuff. Got beat to the ground by the mass production vendors.

Then got dragged into the holster business by a friend. I was the maker and he was the technical expert. We worked together in that role for a little over a year until I bought him out.

As stated above, you have to, have to, have to be knowledgeable about the product you're making. You have to be able to make a reasonably high quality product in order to be able to sell it. Do not, do not, do not compromise in that respect. Enthusiasm/genuine interest in what you're doing/making translates into additional sales. Marketing/advertising can be a real gamble. You ideally want to target the customers you're trying to sell to, but that doesn't alway guarantee success. For example, we advertise in a periodical that goes out to 15,000 law enforcement officers each month. How many orders have I gotten from that? 0. Don't know why, can't explain it, it's just what the facts are. So you live and learn.

Word of mouth by your customers is going to be your biggest avenue of advertising. It will make you or break you.

A little bit of diversity in what you make lends to the bottom line as well (helps break the monotony of it all, too). There's a realistic limit to that though. I'd like to be able to make other things - some of which has been portrayed by other members here on the forum - but I just do not have the time to do it. So it's a compromise of sorts. Once in a great while, I'll sit down and do something that I want to do for myself or do something for a customer way outside of what I normally do.

Do some research (as you're doing here) with respect to what part of the industry, i.e., horse tack, pet supplies, is going to bring you the greatest opportunity for success. You have to look around at what's available to you in your immediate geographical area, as well as beyond that. You have to be willing to do the "cold calling" type of sales in order to publicize your product. Attend any trade shows available to your specific facet.

The use of a website is essential to the advertising of your product. Keep it as simple and direct as you can. Don't make people click through umpteen pages to find the essentials of what you make/sell. Keep it as informative as you can without getting really verbose. Provide the best quality photos that you can. The pics of your products is the first look people have of you. If the pic is of poor quality, then the association is going to be that the product is of poor quality, too.

You want to obtain the best possible equipment that you can afford. As Art pointed out, in essence, it's really how the user makes the equipment perform that gives you the quality product. A good case in point for us happened a couple of years ago. We were asked to make some stuff for a young girl who was into the Star Wars reenactment stuff, and her and her family were going to the Star Wars convention in Indianapolis. At the time, we had some machines that some would consider lesser quality in comparison to others out there. Long story, short here is that we made the best possible items we could and the young girl ended up winning first place in the children's division of the costume contest and beat out a number of others.

I'd recommend getting involved with any type of business training classes you can (if you don't have that experience). This was all pretty much new to me when we started 4.5 years ago, so nearly all of it I've learned along the way. The more information/resources you have to draw from, the better off you'll be. A lot of cities/counties have basic business courses you can sign up for.

I think some people in this industry aspire to have their own business, but have no real plan or goals on where to go, and how to get there, once they take that step. If you want to garner success, you've got to have some type of plan on how and where you want to go next, both short term and long term. It can, and most likely will, be slow going at first. But if you pay attention to what's going on around you with respect to the particular facet of the industry you go into, it will pay off.

I started out working out of a converted closet in our home. We moved into a 1,000 sq foot shop a year ago. I'm busting at the seams now. We have been very fortunate at what our success has been over these few years. I personally do not want to go much larger than what we are currently, because I want to keep it small.

Best of luck to you, and I suspect you're in for a wild ride!

[Admin]

Great topic.

[Micah]

Very good topic and answers!!! thanks everyone :biggrin:

[LAPat]

When I see some of the work on this site, I have to wonder what artisans are charging for their pieces. The collars set with stones, the incredible saddles, the braided work. How many hours goes into a piece and how does that translate to dollars? I know that I make a good profit on my dogs toys because I can make them fast and they are often made from scraps. But I don't know what I would charge if something took me sixty hours...

I think anyone who works hard on a business should be making good money from it. Why not? But I also believe in general people undersell their work when it's a labor of love and a craft. I also think when you take the leap and charge well, the buyers come. I mean I make little tiny fur mice and sell them for thirteen dollars a piece. Not three. And I can make a dozen in an hour from scrap. Even at six fifty wholesale I can make twelve an hour. And I don't think it's great money, but it's enough to keep building the business and experimenting until I come up with that product that I can do exceptionally well with. And because I am innovative by nature, and a trend watcher, I have faith that day will come.

My experience has also been that the biggest profit is in the use of small pieces of fur and leather. I use all my scrap for something, including wool for stuffing toys. I have a hard time with precise accounting for projects because so much of what I do is from "leftovers". But I know that I am doing alright.

Like I said, I don't have a lot of experience and I still don't know what someone can make for a beautiful custom saddle or bridle or collar. I see lots of leather tack for dogs on the internet so cheap that I know I can only find a niche if I find a way to make the product uniquely mine. And don't laugh, I think Martha Stewart is a great role model except for the prison bit. She knew how to go from a service business to product to licensing her name.

As I go from dog training, to dog product, to... who knows? It's fun to dream big. And I even think leathercraft is a great field because there is so much room for innovation. For instance, why isn't anyone pitching Martha Stewart on a leathercraft project? It doesn't have to be carving. It could be braiding or something very simple like a key ring. Seriously. I don't have the rep to do it yet. But someone on this list probably does...

On the other hand, Art is right. It's easy to get ripped off if you have a new idea. You have to get it out fast and big if it's really original and can be mass produced... But you can't force originality. The muse has to give you the gift and you (I) have to be patient until it comes...

Just wanted to keep contributing to the thread. Hope I don't sound too pie in the sky.

L.A. Pat

[Studio-N]

Oh but here is the other shoe.....

We are living in what I like to call the "Walmart Generation". Most people don't know the value of what they are buying. Be prepared to hear "That's too much. I can get the same thing at ......". A bonded leather belt at Walmart may be ten bucks and that is all they will see. Don't give in though, charge what you need to charge. Just be prepared to wait on the right customer. peace.

[Suze]

Chiming in here with an observation on pricing...

If you have that quality product (and the audience for it) the price can go from

O.M.G You want HOW MUCH for THAT!!

to

You know for the work involved, that isn't too bad a price.

to

Here's the money --- GIMMEE

and that little bit can play out inside of 3 heartbeats.

But yes it IS the Wal-Mart Generation, and the only way to combat it is with educating your customers as to the effort it takes to make something. If you work at it a little you can surprise yourself with how many ways to tell a person HOW LONG it took you to make something.

Without flat out saying "look - It took me 20 hours to make, I am not going to sell it to you for 5 dollars"

Mom used to crochet doilies for the dollhouse and we used to tease her about how many ball games it took to make something. Well if a custumer "overheard" You could see the wheels spinning and turning "dollars to hours" and forked over the money and called the product cheap.

Or if they start the "I can make THAT" speach. HELP them understand the outlay just to start - play dumb - tell them where to find the best price on tools. (Telling them the price of course) I must have bought 3 hundred dollars worth of colored pencils for my projects. I had the best colors (Prismacolors rock! ) Pretty soon they relize that they are in over their head and fork over the money and call it cheap.

You really have to practice though to get the right amount of "dumb" in those speeches though.

In the SCA there was a merchant who used to sell leather ring belts

-- By The INCH --

What he didn't say at first was that he measured them width wise not lengh wise.

The look on the face of most people when they had this zillion inch belt in their hands was pricless.

Well gee 20 dollars for a 2 inch belt doesn't seem so bad after that now does it? (this was 15 years ago BTW)

[Seasoned Warrior]

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.