Crafter's You're NOT Charging Enough!!

As a crafter, sewer, quilter I am AMAZED as I pull up auction after auction and see realhome handcrafted, (not made in a foreign country handcrafted), items being sold for almost zero dollars.You've all seen them. Handmade quilts for $4.99. Sure, we as buyer's love to see bargains like this, however, as a crafter you are shooting yourself in the foot!!I'm assuming because you're selling on eBay you are operating a "business". The object of a business is to make money. A PROFIT if you will. How many of you crafter's can HONESTLY say you are making a profit? Come on now!!Are you one of these crafter's that says "Oh, well, I'd be making them anyway so I don't have to charge much. If I just get the money back that I put in materials I'll be happy." In order for you to get the MONEY BACK that you have in the product you have to charge for more than just the material!You must charge for your LABOR, you must charge for your OVERHEAD (yes! even if you work at home, you have overhead), and you must figure in a PROFIT.Isn't your time worth something?As a crafter charging an hourly wage would be ridiculous. The way to figure a fair labor charge when crafting is to determine a percentage, be it 5%, 10%, whatever, but charge something for your labor.What you spend on OTHER stuff is your overhead. These are your eBay fees, phone (you have internet if you're selling on ebay), electricity, supplies, etc. This can also be figured as a percentage. Again, 5%, 10%, it is for you to determine. The Material, Labor and your Overhead are what equals COST TO MAKE. After you have the Cost to Make you must figure in a PROFIT. The big "P" word. It's not that scary. Pick, again, a percentage, this time a bit higher. 25%, 40% or even 100%. An at home crafter would be doing good to pick at the lower end of the percentage scale to begin with. ARTISTS aren't afraid to put their profit margin at the high end of the scale, WHY are you?So hypothetically here is a formula.MaterialCostsare always the base for your formula and you build from there.Material Costs= $10.00Charge50% for Laboror Half the cost of MaterialLabor =$ 5.00Now Charge 50% for Overhead or Half the cost of the LaborOverhead= $ 2.50 Cost to Make= $17.50Does this surprise you? If it does YOU ARE NOT CHARGING ENOUGH. And, we haven't even added in the PROFIT margin.Once you have theCostto Make total you add inthe PROFIT. I've beendoing good with 50% so we'll stick with that. My math skills are SO....challenged. You will add your own percentage 5%, 10% or whatever the market will bear. Meaning a little bazaar at the local grange hall isn't going to bear a 100% mark-up, but a Craft Booth in big Xmas Show might. Know your market. Cost to Make$17.50 50% =Profit$8.75ADD Together Cost to Make AND Profit $17.50 $8.75 =Retail Selling Price $26.25 NOW YOU NEED A WHOLESALE PRICE.Do you sell directly out of your home. This is what to charge when you don't have eBay fees, craft booth fees, etc. This is what to charge when someone comes knocking on the door, and says, "I hear you sell crafts, I'd like to buy something."Take away acertain percentagefrom the Retail Price.Retail Price $26.25 -25% = Wholesale Selling Price $19.69You'll hear a lot of crafter's doing the 2 Times the amount formula and that works too. BUT you have to do it.From what I am seeing snooping around eBay - most of the crafter's aren't even doing that. If you spend $5.00 on material and sell on eBay for $5.00, you would be PAYING somebody to buy your product. You have eBay fees, you have gas, you have electricity and you have your time. GET IT??? Crafter's you have to start charging more. Charge as much as the market will bear. Oh, Yes! I can hear you. "But nobody will buy if I charge more." Yes, they will. Stop putting your product down. If you're selling on eBay you must think your product is worth something. RIGHT? Then get a fair price for it and selling for what you have in materials IS NOT A FAIR PRICE!Make a spreadsheet. Fill in the formulas and you will know right away what to charge after you put in the Material Cost, because the formula is driven by the Material Cost. AND don't second guess the spreadsheet. It's correct. You might have to play with the formulas for a bit to determine what the market will bear, but you'll eventually come up with a spreadsheet that works well for you and you will be MAKING A PROFIT.Get started TODAY. Charge more for your home crafted product. It's worth it. You deserve to be making more MONEY!Decorator Pillowcase Pattern

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