I still struggle with pricing my work, something that I think many designers, particularly new ones, have a tendency to do. Until we gain confidence and truly appreciate the value of our work, we can miss some things in our calculations. So, I tried to write a list. Wow, was I surprised. Here are some things you may not consider when you are putting a price tag on a piece of jewelry:
Time (not the time it took you to actually design, layout, make, and finish the piece but the following):
- Time in research, writing and entering your blog articles
- Time preparing your set, taking, editing and uploading pictures of your item
- Time writing your listing, the description, creating tags, shipping plan
- Time prepping an item to ship: gather package, wrapping, thank you note, any gift or coupon, postage and return address/mailing address
- Driving to-and-from post office to drop off and pick up packages
- Time maintaining your inventory, e.g., entering it in a software program, imputing manually in a ledger, creating labels, etc.
- Time searching, buying, and paying online for your components and supplies
- Time driving to-and-from and time spent at bead stores and shows
- Time filing sales tax, keeping receipts, and preparing for taxes each year
- Time preparing and submitting booth entry or jury entry for a show
Expenses:
- Domain costs for your Web site, possibly a web hosting cost, maybe you use a web developer, too
- Camera for photos, lights, and possibly a light box
- Storage of your components: cases, files, shelving, boxes, binders, plastic tubs
- Books, DVDs, tutorials, subscriptions to magazines, any Web sites you subscribe to
- Equipment and tools you’ve purchased (and what you store them in), your bead boards, props for your photos
- Your calendar and scheduler
- Cost of the designs you made for you—you are an advertising billboard of your own work
- Cost of items you do make for gifts
- Broken beads
- Your computer, printer, paper, ink, and software
- Cost of internet connectivity
- In home office cost: space, utilities, filing cabinets, closets, telephone
- Business cards, signs, posters
- Booth costs: table clothes, skirts, displays, price tags, bags—your costs for the show: food, drinks, lodging, travel, booth and jury fees
- Mileage to everywhere mentioned above
- Booth and show entry fees, jury fees, fees to enter bead shows
- Cost of all classes you’ve taken
- Any consignment costs or hostess arrangements you may also have for shows
- PayPal, prepay fees, listing fees on Web site stores, possibly fees when you sell, plus any fees from credit card processing
Other Miscellaneous Things:
- Those “orphan” beads left over from a design but not enough to make another
- Beads you purchased, then later realized you didn’t like them and don’t use
- The small “leftovers” from your supplies—that extra six inches of cord, wire, Beadalon, Tigertail, etc., that you can’t do anything with except throw away
- The items already in your home and garage that also support your business, maybe you use your microwave, or your stove, or tools from the toolbox, toothpicks, clothespins, needles or pins, scissors, twist ties, sealable bags, notepads, fingernail polish, sandpaper, or emery boards
- Cost of any repairs you were asked to make or adjustments to length, such as changing out clasp or switch from pierced to clip-ons, etc.
- Any thefts you might have had at a show (hopefully not, but things do happen)
- Any items that become broken when packing and setting up/tearing down from a show
- Any insufficient funds returned checks or loss due to misuse of credit cards by a customer
Even with this list, I didn’t count for personal “costs” such as time away from home because you have a show to do, or just how tiring packing, setting up, tearing down and putting away everything can be from doing a show, and those very intangible items that we all make choices about when we book an event.
