Thursday 31 October 2013

How Much are You (and Your Work) Worth?

You know that uneasy feeling you get when you have to price your wonderful wares up for a craft show/fair/fete/online shop/ display/ etc. And you know the hours you've put in. You know the cost of the materials. And you vaguely know what the market is charging for these items because you've done your homework on sites like Etsy, Ravelry and similar places. And you get that sinking feeling in your stomach when you realise that you can't ever recoup the hours of investment into the piece and barely able to cover the cost of the materials. (Although, at this point, I do question the validity of whether you should be making and offering the item up for sale.) 
And worse still, after having costed up the item, you're brow-beaten by the first customer into offering a discount and/or nobody stops by your stall because the next person has the same items for sale at half the price (do they have access to a sweatshop somewhere?).

Naturally this opens up the debate about the value of the crafter/artisan and what the public/market expects them to offer at what price. But that's for another time.

Here is a nifty little Craft Calculator which gives some kind of indication of what your work is worth and where you should be pitching your prices.
This is, however, just a tool and not the definitive word on what items should cost. Use it with care and if you have some process that works for you, continue with what you have.

This is available as an app for both Android and iPhone mobile phones.