He has worn full-custom boots since saving for his first pair as a teenager. When preparing a custom order, Viers spends up to half an hour measuring the various parts of a person's feet and taking imprints. Just this past year his boot business took the next step in growth, by purchasing a boot repair shop and making the recent move to the retail location. That step was a big one for a man who doesn't like paperwork but envisions a day when he will have a team of six or seven bootmakers working in his shop. His plan is taking shape, in part because of Viers increased awareness of what is known as product costing.
Product costing illustrates the real cost of making a product or providing a service.
It can be performed by hand or by computer using a spreadsheet program. It allows the business person to make sound decisions and appropriate adjustments to pricing and production levels to ensure that products are making money. Viers looked at his costs in this more detailed way several months ago when he contacted the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center in Bozeman to look over his boot making operation because it wasn't making the money he thought it should. Al Deibert, MMEC field engineer, developed a shop rate costing model for the bootmaker, so he could see the actual costs of doing business and how changes in his operation should impact pricing. Viers admits he was prone to giving a full-custom price quote off the top of his head.