One happy Chap!

[Dodge]

Yep - thats me - sorry but I have had a great weekend.

Not only did I secure a large contract with a customer yesterday morning for a complete suite of oak bedroom furniture, including wardrobe, tallboy, chest of drawers and dressing table but I have just received a phone call from another client confirming they wish to proceed with a commission we have had in the melting pot for a number of weeks - An 8' long 7' tall dresser in European Cherry with inlay detailing in the panels etc.

That will start next year off very nicely - sorry to sound smug but I have worked damn hard to secure these commissions and it is really satisfying when all the hard work pays off.

I often feel that the making of the furniture is the easy bit - getting to the stage where a customer says "Yes" thats the hardest part in getting the designs right.

 

[9fingers]

Well Done Roger!

How may weeks work would that be for you?

When I was working (in a totally different field) the hardest things for me was to know when to ease off the gas in bidding for more work when we were busy and then to know when to re-start trying to acquire more work.

Bob

 

[Dodge]

Well the Oak furniture is what I call bread and butter work - very straightforward - the dresser is far more involved and detailed.

With these commissions and the existing work I already had lined up I will probably be changing the clocks again before its all completed!

 

[9fingers]

Excellent - that should give you a good sense of security then.

So when will you start pricing new yobs to sell then? - Just curious really

Bob

 

[Karl]

Nice one Roger - great feeling when you have a nice order book.

My work's pretty thin on the ground at the moment, but you find that sometimes.

Cheers

Karl

 

[Dodge]

Karl, its a funny old game, I can go for weeks without any new contacts then suddenly clients appear from everywhere - a bit like buses. I normally run about 6 month lead on new commission work but this year it has dropped a bit but luckily I have never been without work.

Hope things pick up for you soon

Bob, I will keep liaising with clients and pricing work, I usually find customers are happy to wait up to 6 months for delivery. A couple of years ago I was running over a year on lead times and found that started putting clients off but will be happy to keep it at the current level.

 

[tomatwark]

Well done Rog

I have never known the market to be so uncertain as it is at the moment.

The days when you knew when it was going to be busy and quite are gone, I am getting commisions at times of the year when I would not normally expect to get many and when I would expect to get more it has been slower.

That said I have always had work and I am still getting it in. ( got an order for an Oak fitted bookcase this morning)

The is still money around and I am finding that people will still buy furniture, but there is alot involved to get the job than there used to be.

Tom