Susan Bickford Singing Walls - Faux Finishes for Nashville, Tennessee

"The Client Workbook" - Taking the Guesswork Out of Pricing

With an education in Finance and Economics as well as Fine Arts, it was only natural for Bickford to first look to an efficient job costing and record keeping system when she started her finishing business. She took her background in finance and experience in developing automated spreadsheets and databases and developed an automated estimating system that would make pricing easier and more efficient for her. Through the years, she has refined her estimating techniques to a fine art and along the way grown her estimator from a simple spreadsheet to the automated "Client Workbook" that it is today.

Susan says, "In talking to friends in the business, I realized that this was an area in which a lot of artists struggle, even after years in business. The issue of how to price and whether one was actually making a profit was a big question for a lot of artisans. In helping other artists, I began to realize another area of difficulty was in figuring square footage and how to read blueprints - both skills that are necessary in refining the art of pricing and estimating. That's when the idea for a business class focusing on pricing and estimating began to grow. I felt compelled to share my knowledge and teach other professional artisans the true cost and value of the talent and craftsmanship they provide their clients."

"The first step in elevating the perceived value of an artisan's craft is for the artist to value themselves." -Susan Bickford

Whether you are just starting your faux painting business or have an established business - this class will enable you to refine your pricing and estimating skills and be able to do it quickly with confidence. With this class you will receive a CD with The Client Workbook which includes invaluable automated job costing, estimating, and invoice/proposal forms, as well as other valuable tools that help you calculate your overhead, figure square footage, and do break even analysis. You will be introduced to the different accounting concepts - and why job costing is more important for profit, than financial and tax accounting. If you don't know what your true cost and profit is on individual jobs, you can never know where to cut costs, where to improve production, or what you need to do to make a profit.

What Students Say About the Class

This class and the Client Workbook was developed for artists and finishers by an artist and finisher. For that reason, students find it easy to work with this program and are excited about using the program:

"Great explanation for the computer challenged like me. Most important and useful class I have had!"

"Susan is an excellent instructor with so much patience!"

"This was the most valuable business class I've ever taken - it will definitely increase my income."

"I'm excited about this program!"

"Much easier than I thought, although I was uncomfortable when I arrived - this is unbelievable! All artists need this!"

"I feel more confident and more assured of covering my costs - Details, details, details - my time is important! Actually going through it and then doing a real life application brought about questions that I may have been stumped on without 'working' through the process in class."

"I feel better prepared even before I start the job. I know where my money is going or could go then make adjustments. My difficulty is I don't know anything about computers and I'm very very bad with numbers. But I picked this up quickly and I feel it will improve my business."

"Very simple to understand and explained in layman's terms which helped me."

"The first day was a little overwhelming, but it just took a little to sink in and by the end it made total sense. Susan was extremely thorough."

"While most of the information as a whole is overwhelming, after playing with the program, most of the guesswork is taken out of the estimate process."

"Having the handbook written in such detail will make it easy to do at home. The class was even more than I had hoped for."