Monday, March 8, 2010

Can we talk about something that isn't that fun?

You know what it is? It's pricing, and it's not that fun to do or think about. I was doing some reading on the etsy forums and came across this thread about how much people pay themselves per hour. I don't necessarily have a set price per hour. In fact, I don't really know how long it takes me to make anything because I don't ever sit down and create items from start to finish in one sitting.

A reply by etsy user cabinhollow said this:

Supplies + Labor + Profit = Wholesale
Wholesale + Labor to sell + Profit = Retail

This concept makes sense to me, but I'm a little concerned that if I was accurately pricing my items following this model my items wouldn't be affordable to me. I'm not really interested in making things that I couldn't personally afford. I think handmade should be available to everyone.

Another thing I have difficulty with is cost of supplies. A lot of my supplies are from the thrift store. I also have a lot of new fabric and plenty of cast off clothing from my family members that I got for free. I have tried figuring out how to calculate fabric costs, but I ended up with such a small decimal point that I had to round it up to 1 cent. Does anyone have any tips with this? How do you calculate this cost?

See? This isn't that much fun. I think the point for now (for me!) is to time myself on a few projects, like pouch and wallet making. I just want a general idea to help me price things a bit better and make more accurate creative goals. Maybe we'll cover this in Indie Business?

And for something fun, here's a choice new mug I got at an estate sale last weekend.

Photo on 2010-03-06 at 16.38

It was pretty much free as everything was half off and this mug was originally priced a whopping 25 cents. This is my new second favorite mug, preceded by "Make Love Not Midnight Snacks" and followed by "Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society," which I do not believe I've shared here yet!

I have some fun new wallets to share tomorrow. I'll try not to be so late!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice mug! I completely understand about pricing. I read the same thread and got a little stuck. I don't take my time into account very well. What does help me a bit at least is asking third parties to give me honest opinions about 'what would you pay for this?' I haven't set up an Etsy store yet so I am not sure how my prices will actually pan out. Good luck!

LeeAnn said...

If you had to recreate the item and buy the fabric new, what would it cost you? Sure you bought a 100% irish linen skirt for $4 but what if you had to buy yardage at the store? That's how I try to calculate costs. Don't sell yourself short because you are so thrifty!