Pricing Your Crafts

If you ask 10 different crafters how you should go about pricing your crafts, you'll probably get at least 10 different answers.

There are all sorts of formulae out there to help you work out what to charge for your creations (see the bottom of this page for recommended resources) - but which one do you choose? You're the only one who can decide that, but it's important to make sure that whatever formula you use at the very least accounts for the following:

• The cost of your supplies
• Your time (hourly rate – and this shouldn’t be minimum wage!)
• Your overheads (other expenses for running your business, like travel, electricity, gas, etc)
• Your profit

These should lead you towards your wholesale price - retail should be about double that.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is not to under price yourself.

So many crafters devalue what they make by charging silly prices for them. They blame it on the bargain hunting mindset of some consumers at craft fairs, but quite often it’s just lack of confidence on the part of the crafter.

The great thing about selling crafts at parties is that you can generally get really good prices for them. Look at the prices of big party plan companies like Pampered Chef and Partylite - they're not cheap! They sell quality products and charge accordingly, and so should you.

When you sell at a party, you have a captive audience of interested customers, so make sure when you're pricing your crafts that you get what you and your creations are worth.

Because there are so many different crafts, I can’t tell you exactly what to charge for yours, but do aim high. In addition to covering your supplies, time and overheads, you need to remember that your hostess incentives and any discount vouchers you give out will also come out of these prices. And you definitely want to make a profit too, otherwise what’s the point?

One good bit of advice I can give you is that you’ll find you sell a lot more if you have a good range of prices. Try to come up with some inexpensive trinkets that you can sell cheaply but still make a profit on, as these small amounts can add up when every guests buys one.

But equally, you should always have a few of your more expensive crafts available. Sometimes a guest is looking for a very special gift for someone and wants to spend a bit on it. And some people won’t buy certain items if they think they are cheap, as they equate price with quality. Even if you just sell one or two high price items every now and then they’ll still give a big boost to your bottom line!

People sometimes ask whether they should display their prices on all their crafts or whether they should leave it to the customer to ask, so they can 'sell' the item. Read what others say and then tell me what you think by voting in my pricing poll.

Recommended resources for pricing your crafts:

The Basic Guide to Pricing Your Craftwork by James Dillehay
I love this book and highly recommend it. It's so obvious that he's speaking from practical experience, as there are loads of little anecdotes from his own life.

Apart from pricing formulas he also gives great advice on how to increase the perceived value of your crafts in order to charge higher prices. There are also good examples of logs to use for record keeping.

My favourite books are ones that I can come back to again and again, no matter what direction my crafts take me in - this is one of those books.

Make Your Price Sell! The Masters Course
A free download that gives great advice on how to price with complete confidence.