Tuesday 20 October 2009

Prices

Going out on a limb here.........

How do you price your items in your shop? Do you have a method, eg. time + materials = £. I've always wondered about the value of handmade items, me personally I would pay more for something that's handmade and that little bit different. But I some times worry that people think because its handmade it should be cheap???? Surely not???

I've spent many an hour pondering how much to price an item in my shop....resulting in total confusion, then panic, then doubt and finally changing my mind about 50 times!! I'm still doing it now!! Then there is the topic of wholesale......*big gasp* this really does mash my brain cells.

Any words of wisdom out there???

6 comments:

  1. You're right - some people who have never made something to sell do seem to expect handmade things to be cheaper, when surely the reverse is true - at the school summer fair this year, one lady picked up one of my little coin purses, asked "how much?" and when I told her £4 she said "ooh, that's a bit dear!". I was speechless! There are a couple of great posts on pricing by Kathy at Pink Chalk Studio - here are the links:
    http://pinkchalkstudio.com/blog/2008/10/02/the-business-of-craft-pricing-part-i/ and
    http://pinkchalkstudio.com/blog/2008/10/02/the-business-of-craft-pricing-cost-of-materials/
    I think the bottom line is, if it's just a little hobby then it maybe doesn't matter so much, but if you are trying to build a business then you have to make it worth your while.
    Hope that's useful!
    Rxx

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  2. I am always confused on pricing. And sometimes I don't understand how someone can sell something so cheap thats handmade! But for me, I'm trying to make a business from it, so I can't undersell my work. If I don't make a profit, it's not worth it! I always start out with the rule of thumb of charging 3x's the amount you paid in making it. But that doesn't always work because of how much work and time is involved! It varies depending on each different type of item which can get totally confusing. My crochet is priced with one method, my photography with another and my cards at another one lol. So obviously i'm no help! I'm gonna go check out that link shared by Rachel - thanks for the post though - it's kinda nice to know not everyone is confident on what they should be pricing their work at!

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  3. have you read Craft Inc.?
    She covers this, it is such a toughie though.
    costs + time = basic cost
    basic cost x 100% = wholesale price
    basic cost x200% = retail

    was her basic explanation but then she goes onto say that it depends what you sell, if you don't intend to wholesale you can re-jiggle the formula.
    Like Kathryn, I have different methods depending on the items. The patterns and kits have a lot of initial work to make them but once they are done it there is very little work involved and the PDF files I sell have no man hours from me once I have uploaded the files so for those it depends on how much I think people are willing to pay.

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  4. ooo - thats a difficult one, I agree with Rachel, people want handmade things for car boot prices!

    Josie x

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  5. It is difficult, and it is one of the things that people constantly ponder about on the blogs I read.

    I don't have the answer, sorry.

    But, the other night watching (probably a repeated) Dragon's Den James Kahn (sp?) said to someone something along the lines of....'it's all very well putting all of your time into something but it's got to be worth it for you in the long run...' i.e. put a lot of time and effort into something ONLY if you're in it to make a vast amount of money. Otherwise don't bother.

    Actually, oops Emma, I don't think that'll help you at all! But it is worth remembering. I think so anyway.

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  6. I ponder those same questions everytime I list a new creation in my Etsy shop. Believe or not, I have sold more items after reassessing and raising my prices on certain items. Sometimes people see low prices and equate that to low quality. Look at Yokoo's Etsy shop..she charges much more than I do and we use the very same yarn...look at her sales. I can learn from her ;-) It is hard to shake that 'who would want something I made' attitude. I'm trying!

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Hi, thanks for taking the time to read my blog and leave me a comment. I love hearing your thoughts and comments.... Emma xx