Prop and costume fabricator (and regular Tested contributor) Bill Doran joins us for this week’s podcast! Bill’s in town filming some videos with us, and we chat about his origin story, today’s cosplay culture, valuing your work, and his plans for Dragoncon!
One Day Builds
Adam embarks on one of his most ambitious builds yet: fulfil…
Show And Tell
Adam recently completed a build of the royal St. Edwards cro…
Making
Viewers often ask to see Adam working in real-time, so this …
One Day Builds
Adam and Norm assemble a beautifully machined replica prop k…
One Day Builds
One of the ways Adam has been getting through lockdown has b…
Making
Adam unboxes and performs a quick test of this novel new hel…
Making
When Adam visited Weta Workshop early last year, he stopped …
One Day Builds
Adam tackles a shop shelf build that he's been putting off f…
Show And Tell
Time for a model kit build! This steampunk-inspired mechanic…
One Day Builds
Adam reveals his surprise Christmas present for his wife--a …
Shit just got diarrheal 🙂
Just wanted to say thank you, and that I really appreciated this episode. I’m in the midst of figuring out freelancing as a product designer and you all offered a helpful perspective for me to consider when pricing my services. I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how to move away from an hours-based approach that doesn’t scare off my clients with big numbers. The limitations of the hourly method really irk me, but I haven’t yet found a good way (or maybe the confidence) to communicate my value to make a large, say, a 5-figure project proposal seem worth it to the client.
I appreciated this episode too. In January I went full time running my own shop, and finding my value was a tough one. I have to fight with customers wanting something as cheap as possible, and my fear is that I won’t have enough work if I just stick to my estimate, so I usually fold and let them have it cheaper than I quoted. I do ok, but I know I could do a lot better if I could stick with my guide for pricing, my business is very parts based, and no one really pays much attention to the labor, but I don’t make enough money on selling the materials and all my income is from the labor.
I also seem to fight with the hourly method just not working sometimes. I have tried to price based on how much I need to make a day, but sometimes that just doesn’t work for me when it comes to small jobs.
I have also found no matter what I do, I will spend a business day working on any one job no matter the size. So I try and focus on efficiency as much as possible.
I guess for me, it’s time for a big boy shop too, I know that will help my efficiency a lot, and allow me to take on jobs I normally would not in my home garage.
Instead of Pepakura, have you looked at the Slicer add on for Fusion 360? I think it can do the same thing but allows you to put in a material thickness. I use if for the slicing abilities and multidirection rib models but know a fold version exists.