How do I stop pricing mistakes on Roman blinds?

How do I stop pricing mistakes on Roman blinds?

Most pricing mistakes on Roman blinds come from the fabric sums, not from the blind itself. A Roman blind is priced on how much fabric it really uses, and that changes with the fabric width, the pattern repeat and the lining. To stop the mistakes, write your rules down once: side turnings, the allowance for the hem and the headrail, how you round for a pattern repeat, and when a blind needs a second width of fabric. Then price every blind from those rules, never from a square metre guess.

Where the mistakes happen

Look back at the last Roman blind you lost money on. It is usually one of these:

• The second width of fabric. Once the blind plus its side turnings is wider than the fabric, you need a join. That can double the fabric on a blind that is only a little wider.
• The pattern repeat. The cut drop has to be rounded up to whole repeats so the pattern sits right. Leave it out and every patterned blind is short on fabric.
• Lining and interlining. They are charged by the metre too, but without the pattern repeat, so they need their own sum.
• The headrail and how it works. The headrail is cut to width and priced by width. A large or heavy blind may need a stronger system or a motor, which costs more than a standard chain.
• The small extras. Fitting, the child safety fitting on the chain, and your minimum charge. These are the ones that get forgotten late at night.

A worked example

Here are two blinds with the same drop, 150 cm, in the same fabric. All the figures are example figures to show the sums, so use your own. The fabric is 137 cm wide with a 32 cm pattern repeat. We allow 10 cm for side turnings and 25 cm for the hem and the headrail.

The second blind is 20 cm wider. Priced by the square metre it would cost about 17% more. In fabric it costs twice as much. That gap is where the money goes, and it is not something you would see on the quote unless you did the sum.

Write your rules down once

1. Your allowances. Side turnings, hem and headrail allowance, and the width you lose on a join. Use the numbers your workroom actually cuts to.
2. Your rounding. Round the cut drop up to whole repeats, and round the fabric up to the amount your supplier will cut.
3. Your making price. Decide whether you charge making by size band or by width, and set a minimum charge for small blinds.
4. Your limits. Write down the widest and heaviest blind you will make on a chain, and what you offer above that.

Everyone in the shop then prices from the same page, and a new member of staff quotes the same way you do.

Check it before it goes out

Before you send a quote with Roman blinds on it, ask three questions about each blind. Does it need a second width of fabric? Has the drop been rounded up for the repeat? Is the lining charged? If you can answer yes to all three, most of the mistakes are gone.

Quoting software made for curtains and blinds does these sums for you. In InterioApp you set your prices and rules once, by the metre, by the drop or by fabric width, with linings, fitting and minimum charges, and every quote follows them. It costs £99 a user a month, with setup from £1,800, in which we load your products and prices for you.

See your own Roman blinds priced

If you want to see one of your Roman blinds priced from your own rules, book a 30-minute demo and bring a recent job with a patterned fabric.

First published on the InterioApp blog.