[Jewelry making - Article 00029] - Re: [Orchid] Going rates for simple repairs

[David L. Huffman]

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Hello All;

    First of all, it's my opinion that anyone going out on their own as
    a subcontractor doing repairs had better have worked in other
    established shops for a few years or they are at considerable risk in
    2 critical areas. 

    1. Do you know enough about what you're doing not to put yourself
    forever in debt to replace some expensive stone you broke or piece of
    jewelry you destroyed? 

    2. Do you have enough insurance to repay all your accounts for the
    jewelry you'd lose if you had a fire or a robbery? 

    That being said, if you aren't going to use David Geller's well
    researched pricing system, you need to put in as much work into
    researching and developing your own. I may differ with David on some
    of his pricing strategies, but I know he's said it's a mistake to use
    someone else's price list and I agree entirely. 

    It takes at least a year or two to know what your actual overhead is
    and how much time you spend at your bench AND at your books. Your
    price list must come about as a ratio of cost of operation per hour
    and after that, include wear and tear on equipment and add a
    reasonable profit. No profit means no growth means you're left in the
    dust because you don't have money to buy the technology to compete
    cost effectively. Don't forget, your accounts have some room to shop
    for price. My advice, get the Geller system and save some time. Then,
    work real hard to convince your accounts to use it too or they won't
    be able to afford you. Not that David's prices are too high, it's
    that they'll charge too little. 

    Finally, I wouldn't go into running a trade shop unless I preferred
    the additional degree of self direction that it affords. You'll be a
    long time at it before you'll make what you will as an in-store bench
    jeweler in a good store. The job of solo trade shop owner/operator is
    the hardest in the entire industry. You have to be good, fast, and
    smart, and you have to have access to plenty of people that can do
    what you can't. If you don't intend to work in other people's shops,
    you'd better figure on opening a retail venture as soon as you can
    because you won't get far as a wholesaler without that education and
    practice. 

David L. Huffman
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