Time allotted for different tasks

[Wichman]

For those of you who do this as a business.

How do you divvy your time between tasks?

Cutting

Finishing

research for new/different/making new patterns

Selling

I'm just looking for some rough numbers for things like scanning patterns and other tasks that are not just cutting on the scrollsaw.

I have 36 years worth of patterns, I would like to get them all scanned into the computer (flash drives). But I would also like to have a life and actually get something done once an awhile.

[kmmcrafts]

Well, I guess I don't know how to answer the question.. other than to say.. I stay focused on "production and things that go along with being productive"  so first and for most.. I don't do patterns from books.. I quit subscribing to the magazine because it's not practical to access the patterns and takes ages to get them out in one piece and fold them to a teeny tiny square that'll fit on my scanner.. 

When I make / buy patterns I have folders saved on my computer and on my backup drives for different categories.. so finding patterns is pretty painless.. Being organized helps a ton... LOL That said it did take me a long to to get the folders set up and things sorted through.. which I did on my own time a little here and there.. That said.. I probably should have calculated the time? maybe maybe not.. I guess I started out following what the groups and forums do... with sorting patterns etc.. They are categorized here on the village so why wouldn't I do that too.. I started that before going into business anyway.. Though you have 36 years into it so you started before the computers and electronic files.. might be a much bigger task for you, LOL

I guess I look at things from a different perspective as in time spent.. If I worked a day job.. I live in the boonies so I'd have to drive at least 30 minutes to get to most places to work.. an hour of drive for both to and from work.. not to mention the cost of the car, fuel, etc. etc. sometimes in a foot of snow and an added 20 minutes to clean the car off..   That should be included in my work time from my employer? Working for myself doing these crafts.. no car expense needed or at least very little.. I can give some time to the business without income being tracked recorded just as I would for any other job.. you don't realize how much time you "really" give to go to work..

The thing is with being self employed is.. there is always work to do and many times not calculated into actual cost of business and no body to blame but the person in the mirror for failure or achievements.. It's not a 9-5 job it's a 24-7 career.. not for everyone but works for me.. at the end of the day do you make enough to live on.. I work a ton of overtime during the holidays.. but still only pay myself a regular hour wage.. The benefit for me not having to have a set schedule or to take a day off outweighs the 9-5 for me.. If my kids have a event or ? I am not on someone else's time other than my own.. I make the rules.. have an appointment in the morning fine take the morning off and then work late.. or work a little on the weekend etc.. But also know that no work means no money.. so I work instead of TV some days.. somedays TV and no work, LOL  Take a farmer as an example.. he might be working at midnight to repair a piece of machinery to have it ready to harvest the next day.. is he being paid a hourly wage for that? I don't look at my daily, weekly, and sometimes not even my monthly income.. barely make anything throughout the year until the holidays come around..  It's very stressful during the holidays but being slow and mostly relaxed for 7-9 months a year is nice also.. especially during the nice warm months.. in the summer if I want to take a day off and go to the beach I can.. just pick up a few hours here and there on rainy days etc. to get inventory made.. I myself strive to make a minimum of $200 per weekday of inventory to sell over the holidays.. most times I do more than $200 per day.. but there are a few days I may not do anything.. also during the holidays I do very little cutting / making.. because I'm packaging orders and mailing.. so there is a good 8-10 weeks I don't get much of any making time..    

I guess what I'm saying is.. I don't tally up every minute.. I just look at my yearly income and adjust things to make a better profit year after year.. for me I enjoy most all aspects of doing this.. and it doesn't seem like work or a job.. it seems like.. going out and puttering around in the shop everyday and being paid to do it.. Do I pay attention to sawing time and finishing time etc. etc. of coarse.. but I don't sweat the small stuff either.. 

[Puzzleguy]

On 10/25/2021 at 12:20 AM, Wichman said:

For those of you who do this as a business.

How do you divvy your time between tasks?

Cutting

Finishing

research for new/different/making new patterns

Selling

I'm just looking for some rough numbers for things like scanning patterns and other tasks that are not just cutting on the scrollsaw.

I have 36 years worth of patterns, I would like to get them all scanned into the computer (flash drives). But I would also like to have a life and actually get something done once an awhile.

I would say just keep your patterns in a notebook rather than your computer -hard copies are more dependable-

 

 

[kmmcrafts]

46 minutes ago, Puzzleguy said:

I would say just keep your patterns in a notebook rather than your computer -hard copies are more dependable-

 

 

I personally think that having multiple copies of patterns is a good thing for someone in the business.. You could have paper filed in a cabinet but if your shop / house burn down you lost everything.. Hard drives fail too so it's also not perfect.. However small thumb drives are cheap these days and I keep several back-up copies.. Also I have a google account which offers a fair amount of cloud storage so that is quite handy because I can be out and about and log into my google drive to access patterns from my phone to show potential in person customers.. There is good and bad with either.. why not do both, LOL

I'd say since I have patterns on my PC, backed up to a back-up drive that is also backed up to 3 different thumb drives ( one stays at a friends house in case something was to happen here LOL ) AND Google cloud storage.. I'm hopeful I'll never loose a pattern again, LOL.. 

I had a back-up drive fail and I lost all patterns from about 2005 - 2014.. probably 20,000 patterns as I used to save any and all free patterns I came across.. Luckily I had burned cd disc of the main ones I used.. so I didn't loose everything but did loose a great deal of good patterns.. Ever since then I keep multipal back-ups, LOL 

 

[BadBob]

I did disaster recovery as a part of my job for 30 years. It was my primary function for much of that time.

Hardrives, Thumb drives, CDs, DVDs, and paper all fail. Paper copies burn, rot, fade, and otherwise fall apart. Anything important should be digitized (scanned or photographed with a digital camera) and stored in multiple locations.

If there are not multiple copies, it's not backed up.

If you don't have copies offsite, it's not backed up.

If you haven't tested restoring your data, it is not backed up.  Testing by restoring to a different computer is best.

External harddrives and cloud storage are the best backups available.

I only buy eterprise grade hard drives.

I love USB thumb(flash) drives but not for backups. It's to easy to loose them.

CDs and DVDs  are slow and only hold a small amount of data. Unless you are are buying archival quality blanks (expensive) they die on the shelf. Delamination is a fairly common failure.

This is the trimmed down version. I stared writing this reply and went down a rabbit hole and didn't look up until I realized that I had written more than 2000 words and still had lots to say on the subject.

Edited October 30, 2021 by BadBob