Pricing

Had a question on professionally pricing your work….

It takes a long time to get practiced enough to charge for time…. That is really hard to figure out. It really depends on your skill level.

I look at my piece when it’s done and think of the cost of materials: I double that cost upfront. Sometimes I can’t include the cost of a really expensive stone – that cost I don’t double I just want what I paid for out of the stone. I usually then look at that price – how much is it $$$$ this is my wholesale price or do I need to triple the cost of materials because of its complexity? Look at that price, $$$$. Then I ask myself should I make more of this? Is it profitable? Did I enjoy it or was it a pain. Can I do it in a reasonable amount of time? After I answer those questions I look at a retail price: a great profitable retail price is doubling your wholesale price. You can’t always do this in our current economy. A retail gallery/store gets 50%. As you grow your business stores will want you. You cannot undersell them. They will drop you. It’s a very small world so they find out if you are underselling them. You will eventually go out if business if you don’t sell at a retail price. The buffer in the mark up is for wear and tear on tools, new cameras, new computers, insurance, travel, customer service, returns, and everything else that goes with any business….. This formula is fair. I don’t know too many jewelry artists making too much profit. We usually give the shirts off our backs.

Whenever possible take a workshop. It revitalizes you. You learn more in a day with others than a month on your own.

Some pieces are a work of love. These pieces have no reasonable price. I have a few pieces that took hours and hours and hours. I do it for the love of doing it. I have put my heart and soul into it. How do you sell these pieces? You put some price on them that if they have to leave you are ok with it and the person buying it obviously will give it a good home because they are willing to buy it for a cost that is abstract.

I sold one of my favorite pieces to the wrong person one time. I still think about it. I still regret selling it. He was a super rich guy (or was posing as one) and could have cared less. The piece is probably laying in his 22nd mistress’s jewelry box unworn and unappreciated. I’ll never do that again. Wish I had it back.

Class Saturday! and Taxes, Yuck

 

Teaching this class on Saturday in Fish Creek Door Co. at Peninsula School of Art. The class is from 9-1 and you will learn to make a rivet and then rivet something together. You can bring your own findings and we will drill them…. like beach stones or glass. I love this class at this time of year because it’s usually local people I know and have taught before – a winter reunion. Can’t wait! If you want to come there is a link to the school on the side of my blog. I am sure there is space.

 

Taxes…. Yuck. I did my taxes the first week of the new year. I usually do that because I have to pay sales tax anyway and I want to get it out-of-the-way. Besides, I have new sales coming in daily and new bills coming in daily and I don’t need it to all overlap. If you sell online and use Etsy or Paypal please look into OUTRIGHT.COM. I did my year-end in less than 40 minutes because of this program. Go to http://www.outright.com. It is 9$ a month. It automatically puts in your paypal transactions and etsy transactions taking in account for shipping, fees, percentages, etc…. It does it daily. I just enter in manually an art show and my receipts from vendors that are not paid by paypal.

EXAMPLE: Etsy changed the way you can ship. You can purchase the label right with the sale and it’s less than at the post office. In my supply shop shipping is $2.50. Well, many items the shipping was actually $1.68. So….. I have a shipping profit. Can you imagine keeping track of that for your taxes on every single order?(plus listing fees, percent commission when sold fees, credit card fee, etc..) It would take forever. OUTRIGHT.COM takes care of all of it ~ categorizes it instantly. You can edit the categories anyway you want. Absolutely love it. Charts, graphs, daily profit report, tax sheets, quarterly estimates all comes with it.

 

This is a great book on making a living as a jewelry artist. It covers everything. I kinda know all of this all ready but it’s a good reality check. I wish I would have read it when I first started but I really did not know what my business would become at that time. I purchased it on Amazon. It’s around $35. It is a book you will want to keep and refer back to occasionally.

Well, I have more great news but I will wait for another post! (Going to get published – can’t believe it. Tell ya more later.) Winter is getting long here and I have a ton of work to do so I better get off this screen and get to it. First show is March 9th and have a zillion stones half in the process of being something. See ya in class! and stay warm.