Should you hire a consultant, or do it yourself?
Pick what you need done and how much you’ve done before. See roughly how long and how much it costs to learn it and do it yourself, against hiring someone who does it every week. And if you’ve been quoted $5,000, see where that number comes from.
Consultants on Runsheet list hourly rates from about $45 to $100. Your hour: what you’d earn, or what it’s worth to you, doing something else.
Hiring costs about $4,125 more in cash and saves you about 402 hrs of your own time, plus 2 sample rounds that a first try usually needs.
Where a consultant’s quote comes from
Each step, the hours someone who does it every week usually spends, and what it takes a first-timer, learning included.
| Step | Consultant | Fee | You (incl. learning) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tech pack | 24 hrs | $1,800 | 97 hrs (25 learning) |
| First pattern | 24 hrs | $1,800 | 152 hrs (80 learning) |
| Sample rounds and fittings | 18 hrs | $1,350 | 118 hrs (10 learning) |
| Grading to your size range | 9 hrs | $675 | 47 hrs (20 learning) |
| Total | 75 hrs | $5,625 | 414 hrs |
Samples are on top of the fee and should be billed at what they actually cost. A good agreement says how many rounds are included and what an extra one costs.
For you, that’s the first pattern: about 152 hrs on your own against 24 hrs for a pattern maker. You don’t have to hire for everything.
How we worked this out
These are estimates to help you think it through, not quotes. Change any number on the left and everything updates.
- Consultant hours per style are our working assumptions for someone who does this every week (tech pack 8 hrs, first pattern 8 hrs for this complexity).
- Doing it yourself takes about 3× as long at your experience level, plus time to learn each skill the first time.
- A professional usually gets a sample approved in 2 rounds; a first try typically needs 2 more at your level.
- Each sample round waits about 2 weeks on the factory. A consultant gives your project about 15 hours a week.
- The default sample cost and the $75 pattern rate come from a real 2026 US factory development quote; the default consultant rate sits in the range consultants on Runsheet list.
- Hiring still takes some of your time: about 2 hours a style to brief and review, and an hour per fitting round.