People who are friends with handicrafts will never be left without work. Nowadays, things made with one's own hands are very valuable, especially clothes. Many people do not want to buy clothes in regular stores, where everyone dresses. They want to stand out from the crowd. In this case, they will be helped by experienced seamstresses who will happily create a unique look for every taste.
Today Reconomica introduces you to two sisters Elsa and Elvira from Saratov. These women, through backbreaking labor, managed to open their own atelier for sewing a variety of clothes. They receive orders even from abroad and are ready to share their experience and ideas with you.
How we started our business
Hello everybody. My name is Elsa. I am 38 years old. I live in the city of Saratov. My sister and I have our own small business. My sister's name is Elvira, she is 34 years old. We sew clothes to order. Our business opened in 2014 and is still operating today.
We sew completely different clothes, from children's clothes to wedding dresses and suits. We have sewing education. My sister Elvira came up with this idea to sew clothes to order. I really liked this idea, and we decided to start a business. Of course, first we got a job so that we could have at least some money to start. So I decided to write this article and tell you how you can make money using your knowledge and skills in sewing good clothes.
We sew completely different clothes, from children's clothes to wedding dresses and suits.
The source of inspiration for starting a business project was my sister Elvira. Her friend Marina also used to do custom tailoring, but then she had to close down the business because she married a Frenchman and moved to live in France.
My sister picked up this idea and suggested that I start a business, sewing original clothes for people. Many people do not like to dress in clothes that someone else already has, but like original and beautiful ones. Here we are happy to help everyone.
Business plan
First, we calculated our business plan. First, it was necessary to purchase all the necessary tools: sewing machines and materials. We purchased everything we needed. At first, we had to work from home, since there was not enough money to rent, and even more so to buy a room. And so that people knew about us, we placed advertisements on the Internet and printed leaflets where we wrote about our services. Leaflets were posted around the city. And within a week orders began to arrive.
How much can you earn from sewing?
Classic version, friends, I have two news for you - which one should we start with? The bad thing is that they won’t pay you much. When novice seamstresses find out what prices they will have to work at, their jaws drop in surprise.
How so?! Only 1000 rubles for a dress? Yes, this is titanic work - to sit and understand patterns, cut, sew, study sewing technology. Who came up with the idea of paying seamstresses for pennies?
The money of a freelance seamstress is different money. You actually earn them.
In fact, not just any studio will offer you 1000 rubles. Some will pay even less. In addition, the studio justifies the “heaviness” of labor by the fact that the seamstress simply does not yet know how to work. Once you learn how to sew, you’ll develop speed and you’ll be able to sew a dress in half an hour)
How much time do you think a factory should spend on sewing one thing? There is a standard according to which a dress cut at the waist with sleeves and a hidden zipper can and should be sewn in two hours. If a worker does not meet this time, it means she is a bad seamstress and may be fired. That's it!
And if this is your first dress in your life, it will seem like it’s just titanic work. A novice seamstress will cut out several pieces in a day and faint from fatigue. But with experience, the picture is completely different. An experienced seamstress can easily sew five dresses a day (especially if they all belong to the same niche, such as boudoir or bridesmaids).
Ultimately, the profit for such a seamstress will be very high. In addition, she will work from home, in comfortable conditions, without managers and a schedule from 7 a.m. - which is a big plus.
Yes, I still have good news for you! If the studio likes you, they will agree to raise your earnings, higher than other employees. In some cases even much higher. But how to become the atelier's favorite?
First order. Work in full swing
I remember our first order very well, it was a wedding dress. This dress was not easy. We ordered the material for it from France, and my sister’s friend helped us with this. She sent us very high-quality material for 50,000 rubles. We were given 3 weeks to work, that is, in three weeks we had to sew a dress. The bride found a sketch of this dress on the Internet. The dress was very beautiful in shape, and we were very attracted to it, since we had never sewed such dresses before.
Read: How to find your perfect dress? It should be sewn! Designer's story.
First, the bride came to our home and we took her measurements, and we also showed her the material from which her dress would be made. She liked the material, and we began to sew the dress. After 3 weeks the product was ready.
Buyers came to our home, tried on the dress and paid us 120,000 rubles for it. This was our first income. We spent about 60,000 on the dress, since, in addition to the material, we bought rhinestones, thread and beads. And we received 120,000 rubles for it. It turns out that our profit amounted to 60,000 thousand rubles. This is how we made our money.
Orders even come from abroad
One day we received a very good order from abroad. We had to sew three identical costumes for the dancers to perform. Costumes must be in the shape of nesting dolls. Of course, they sent us the sketches.
The cost of one suit is 150,000 rubles. This time we ordered material from Turkey. Three such cuts cost 170,000 rubles. It was designer material (I will not advertise the brand).
Very little time was allotted for the work, only two weeks. But we made it, although we had to stay awake for several nights. But we like our work, because we dreamed about it. So, we made these costumes. Yes, by the way, the measurements were sent to us by email.
We received 450,000 rubles for this order, and the revenue amounted to 270,000 rubles. And this is in just 2 weeks.
In general, when making orders, we only spent money on purchasing fabric, threads and decorations. But the manufactured goods were almost always twice as expensive. But there are also goods that are very expensive. It all depends on what material we use, what price we set by agreement with the client.
Popular costumes in the shape of nesting dolls.
Let’s say we won’t order material for tens of thousands if the client wants to receive the goods for only a couple of thousand rubles. Therefore, we always keep the proceeds, and our client receives his product and wears it with pleasure.
Purchase of a studio and expansion of staff
My sister and I first worked from home, and then bought a building. Now we have a full-fledged atelier, where we work with my sister and two more of our employees. Ksyusha and Nastya (that’s their name) also sew clothes with us, but they carry out smaller orders. They sew sweaters, T-shirts, pants, jeans and children's clothing.
Also read: How seamstressing at home helped me raise an infant. Real story.
And we are suits, wedding dresses, tuxedos and outerwear. We also carry out brand and designer orders from expensive fabrics and materials, as this is hard and painstaking work that we trust only to ourselves.
Our employees receive from 30,000 rubles and above, depending on completed orders.
Work plan for a seamstress based on the example of one niche
Let's take as an example one business idea to start - tailoring clothes for Muslim women. This type of activity has a number of advantages:
- A clear target audience, which means you can intelligently think through advertising and marketing, that is, everything without unnecessary gestures
- Accordingly, you can think of a good product line with goods
- You can prepare in advance good basic patterns for “your” clients, that is, make a list of all the women who go to the mosque and who simply need appropriate clothing for prayers and walks
- In addition to clothing for Muslim women, nikah dresses, Muslim swimsuits, prayer mats, scarves, shoes, etc. will be an excellent addition to your business.
- Clothes for Muslim women require large expenditures on fabrics, because all dresses must cover the legs and arms completely, but they can be sewn from inexpensive fabrics such as knitwear and staples. Also, the cut is the same, does not require a fit to the figure, you can sew quickly and without darts. The emphasis in such clothes can be on decor. But in terms of cost, such things are expensive.
What you need to get started:
- Basic patterns. There are plenty of them on the Internet, the main thing is to check the fit
- Sewing machine, overlock
Marketing and advertising
- website and advertising in search engines. One-page landing page made for key queries
- High-quality and interesting content on social media. networks
- Active advertising at handicraft fairs. Prepare in advance, take business cards, think about gifts.
- Affiliate. Make a list of partners, draw up a competent conversation script and go ahead. Offer good mutually beneficial conditions: barter advertising, joint events and master classes, exchange of client base. Who are your partners - mosques and events related to Muslim themes, thematic groups in social media. networks
- Make cold calls throughout the database. Come up with your own bonus, for example, a free visit and fitting, a gift of prayer mats, rosary beads, etc.
I hope my article has brought some clarity to the question of how to become a freelance seamstress at home, and how to develop the right approach to business in order to become a highly paid specialist.
Business today
Business is booming today. We have a lot of orders and we don't have enough hands. We don’t hire anyone from the street; we only employ people with seamstress degrees. We take them on a probationary period and see how the person copes with the task. If it doesn’t work out for him, we are forced to refuse him.
For 4 years, we were able to find only two suitable employees who coped with the task we set. We are looking only for talented people, so we always deliver quality work.
We are going to expand our atelier next year and recruit more workers to meet deadlines. We receive a lot of orders from different cities and even from abroad. We try our best not to offend anyone and fulfill the order within the allotted time, but it is not always possible to do this.
They order a lot of different clothes, mostly fashionable suits for girls and boys. There were also interesting orders. For example, a girl and a guy in love come to us and order T-shirts with their names, and the man’s should have the girl’s name written on it, and the woman’s the guy’s name. They also order fashionable original skirts and jeans. These are all small orders, but they require a lot of effort. In addition to sewing clothes, they bring us things that need to be fixed: hemmed or sewn somewhere. But these are small things compared to large orders from abroad and beyond.
They order a lot of different clothes, mostly fashionable suits for girls and boys.
Method 3. Clothes rental
Have you ever thought that you can not only sew to order, but also make your own collection of dresses to rent? Not every girl can afford to buy herself an outfit for just one day. For example, for a photo shoot. Especially if it’s some kind of themed shoot, like a pirate party. Or suddenly a wedding is planned and the bride tells her bridesmaids that everyone should wear the same outfit - tulle skirts and corsets.
Just for such special occasions, you can sew clothes that can then be rented. After all, what is rental, essentially? This is when we sell the same thing several times. Of course, you will need to constantly monitor the appearance of the clothes, clean them and maybe change some details. But it’s quite possible to make good money from this. And if you start sewing carnival costumes for children, you will also be in great demand. Especially with good advertising in groups for mothers or kindergartens.
Difficulties of this work
What problems and difficulties may arise in this business? For example, your customer may not like the product and you won't receive any revenue for it , but this problem can be solved by selling this product to someone else at a price lower than what your customer stated.
Read: Making interior dolls. Author's master classes from Anastasia Kovina.
There may also be difficulties such as long delivery of material or breakdown of sewing machines during the execution of the order. We have to fix problems, as they say, on the fly. Also, problems can arise with low-quality material , so you need to order it from trusted suppliers.
You should always check the work of your employees, as they may make mistakes or do something wrong. It is imperative to correct mistakes together in order to teach a person who has recently worked in this profession to avoid these difficulties in the future. Don't be afraid of problems, and they won't interfere with your work.
Method 12. Affiliate programs
This method follows from the previous one, and if you adopt it, you can earn good money without doing anything. What kind of magical method is this, you can’t wait to find out? To be honest, it was always right in front of my nose, but I only thought of using it to make money not so long ago.
The fact is that I teach cutting and sewing courses, where I introduce the equipment to girl students. They especially like the activity when we start using tailor's lasts. And they immediately ask where they can buy such a thing, because it makes the seamstress’s work much easier! And I have trusted partners who sell such pads via the Internet. I give my students a link to their store, they buy from it, and I get a percentage of the sale. In some cases it reaches 20%, and I’ll tell you that’s good money.
What will you need to earn the same amount of money? Just find a suitable store for sewing equipment, sewing tools, etc. on the Internet, and ask if they have an affiliate program. They give you an affiliate link, and you give it to potential buyers and earn income for it.
Tips for beginners
First, earn your start-up capital to start a business in order to purchase the necessary equipment and all the necessary supplies. You can take out a loan from a bank, but you need to know for sure that you will be able to repay it, regardless of whether your business takes off or not. That is, you need to keep in mind that the business may not take off, but you must have the means to repay the loan, which means, in addition to your business, you must have a constant income, a permanent job.
Also read: One eco-fur coat saves 200 chinchillas. How to make clothes from faux fur.
To hire workers, you must have a good income in order to pay them wages and have good income for yourself. These are the tricks and tips I have given you, I hope they will help you. Making money from your own labor is always interesting and profitable. Well, I wish you success in your endeavors and prosperity to your business.
Another idea - sewing bags
At home, it is not at all difficult to make money by making fashion or shopping bags. It’s worth saying right away that in the first case you will have to deal with the skin, and this task is quite labor-intensive. Exclusive items are in trend now - create unique accessories and sell them online.
Study the main types of bags and their characteristic features. Next, develop your own options, or even better, take care of creating a personal, recognizable style. It is not advisable to start trading until you have at least a dozen completely finished models.
One handbag sells on average for 2,500 rubles, while its cost is five times lower. That is, you will earn 2,000 from sewing each without leaving your home.
To gain recognition, you should first of all pay attention to the decoration of products. Decorate them with embroidery and rhinestone appliqués - this design dramatically increases the cost.
Optimize production - no matter how small a piece of leather or material remains, store it, because things made from scraps look very stylish.
If you intend to make money, do not try to take your handbags to stores, as they simply will not accept them. To begin, look for clients among your friends, through social networks or forums.
If you don’t want to bother, then start making shopping bags at home - they are back in fashion and are very popular among people who are tired of throwing away plastic bags brought from supermarkets. Of course, you won’t be able to earn as much on them as on model ones, but you won’t waste much time. It’s not difficult to sew 20-30 pieces a day. Use strong material and carefully attach the handles - then the item will serve for a long time. Very good ideas:
- make sets that include bags of different sizes;
- create transforming models (turning, for example, into a backpack);
- equip products with zippered pockets for wallets and thermal compartments for frozen foods.
