Crafty Tuesday (The Tricky Realm of Pricing)
Posted By Kathleen David on April 5, 2011
Or don’t under sell yourself. Your time and talent is worth something.
Something to think about, minimum wage in the United States ranges from $5.25 in Minnesota to $8.67 in Washington with most states around $7.25 per hour. Not a whole lot of money but if it takes you 4 hours to make something and you price it at $20.00 then you aren’t even making the minimum in Minnesota and you aren’t even taking materials costs into account.
Pricing should be a simple formula time + materials cost = price. But there are so many factors that are in there. Can you figure out how long it takes you to make one of something or do you do things in sets? If you do things in sets then divide the total amount of time to make the objects by the number of objects to get the amount of time you should charge for one. Is there drying time before you can do the next step in the project?
Trying to break down exactly how long it takes you to make something is not an exact science so we tend to ballpark how long it takes to make something. I know it takes me 4 hours to make a basic puppet from cutting fabric to final product with eyes and hair.
I know that my materials cost is approximately $10 to 14 per puppet including hair and eyeballs. The fabric is ½ a yard of fleece and ½ a yard of fuzzy fleece which is about 8 dollars not on sale and about 6 on sale. Half a long feather boa is 2 dollars when on sale and about 3 when not. Ping pong balls run about 25 cents a piece. Velcro is about 20 cents a patch. Rhinestones are about 5 cents a stone when not on sale but a bag can last you a while.
So we have (4 hours X $7.25 (since I live in New York)) + $10= $39 per puppet for a basic puppet which I should round up to $40.
(For the VI: This is a picture of two puppets I call Phluzzies. The one on the left has a blue head and arms with a lighter fuzzy blue tube shaped body. The hair on top is a blue fuzzy boa. On top of the head are two ping pong balls with black Velcro circles in the middle of the ball and a single blue rhinestone in the middle of the Velcro. The puppet on the right has a yellow head and arms with a shaggy red body. The hair on top is a red fuzzy boa. On top of the head are two ping pong balls with black Velcro circles in the middle of the ball and a single red rhinestone in the middle of the Velcro.)
However I tend to sell these puppets for between 20 to 30 dollars per puppet at conventions because that is what the market will bear. So I am selling them at a bit of a loss for my time. I will not sell for less than materials.
Don’t undervalue what you do because once the price is set then trying to raise the price can be very hard to do. I found that out with the phluzzies. I didn’t take my time into account before pricing them and now people expect them to be 20 to 30 dollars depending on materials.
I am grateful for being paid a living wage for a puppet along with materials.
Do you really only sell them for $20-30 at conventions? Wow! I thought $40 was quite a fair price actually…