Crafty Tuesday (The Tricky Realm of Pricing)

[puppetmaker]

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.

Comments

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

When I was making dolls for the craft show, I discovered that people were willing to pay more for the "larger" ones, even though the amount of time and the cost of materials were pretty much the same either way. I finally stopped making the small ones, because it was a money-losing deal.

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

Wanted to congratulate Peter on his Grandmaster award. When good things happen to good people, it's a cause to celebrate!

[stormkitty.livejournal.com]

This has been a huge discussion in the designing world, too. Many designer friends of mine have discovered over the past few months that by offering their patterns for sale at a higher price than what is considered "norm" (usually only by a couple of dollars), their sales are actually higher. I raised my pattern prices a bit a couple of years ago and I'm thinking of raising them again. I tell my mentees that what they are telling their customers/clients what they feel their work is worth by the price they set it at. Granted, wee fight the deluge of free patterns that are being released daily.

[creature-girl08.livejournal.com]

Why you price things as you do is very reasonible thinking. In so many ways to me I don't think enough people take into account the costs and time to do things for projects when wanting to sell things.

The puppets are cute.