OK, here's one of the stories from my East Coast trip.
The person I was staying with, John, a good friend since the 7th grade, specializes in jewelry repair. He does work for a number of jewelry stores in the Raleigh N.C. area.
I spent a coulple of days hanging out with John at his shop and tagged along on his pickup/delivery run.
We dropped off a few jobs at one jewelry store, which is part of a chain. We were about to leave, when the sales clerk called us back and informed John that they had to adjust one of his previous invoices (downward).
The items in question were rings which John had engraved (inside the band) with a New Hermes ring engraving machine. John's charge was extremely nominal (my opinion) at $15.00. One ring had 24 engraved characters.
Here's the deal. This chain of stores has a fee schedule in which they list numerous repair procedures, including engraving, and dictate what they will pay for the contracted work. Their listed price for inside-ring engraving is $5.00, no matter the difficulty or number of characters.
When I heard that, I REALLY had to contain myself! I realize "what the market will bear" varies, depending on region, but this was ridiculous!
When we left the store, I asked John what the deal was with the $5.00 ring engraving. He said the store offers free ring engraving to their customers.
That was it! Friend or not, I had to lower the boom. I tried hard not to scold.
I said that no matter what the industry, a self-employed person with a marketable skill is worth $60 per hour. Bare bones minimum. No exceptions. I don't care what part of the country.
The next day, as John worked, I timed some of the procedures, such as ring sizing and setting stones. Some procedures fell into the $1.00 per minute range ($60.00 per hour) others hit snags and fell woefully short of that mark.
My suggestion was to go down the list of pre-set pricing and highlight those procedures which regularly fell short of the $60.00 per hour mark. Hand the list to the jewelry store manager and tell them you can't offer the highlighted services (at their price).
John said, "Yeah, but then they'll give the work to someone else."
I said, "No they won't. You've got them where you want them. You're offering free pickup and delivery, with no minimums, turning the work around in incredibly short order and the quality of your work is great! If they send the work elsewhere, PERFECT! You can't afford to work at their prices. Bottom line!"
It's difficult to say if my rant will have an overall impact, but according to John, the $5.00 ring engraving is dead and gone.
What can I say? You gotta start somewhere :-)
Moral of the story? Friends don't let friends shortchange themselves.
David "The Stunt Engraver" Lavaneri
DGL Engraving
Port Hueneme, CA |