This is Pt 9 because I know more “things to be considered” will occur to me as time goes on and so I am leaving room for more things that come before.
As with any general business advice – if it offends you, then you are not serious about being professional.
You don’t have to agree with all I or anyonr says, you can choose to ignore or apply the hard learned lessons of others.
If you “don’t care about making a profit” – then you are not serious about doing retail business selling your craft work.
If you get upset when you add up the real costs – you may need to rethink your plans.
REMEMBER ONLY YOU can properly and completely perform the necessary due diligence to determine your costs – this article, like all on this blog, are a starting point, not the last word by any means. While I hope it is worth more, its value is exactly the same as what you paid for it – no dollars.
So let’s say, we have honestly included all the costs related to materials and supplies and that magic number unless it is a government subsidized, all function performed by 3rd world laborers is $15.
It takes one hour and we must earn minimum wage plus taxes paid by the self-employed for an approximate cost of $10.88 so we don’t need to get a job asking if you would like fries with that burger.
And, really no matter what the government thinks, it is okay to make a profit, because you would like your child to have the joy of a new book or fresh food on the table and that is what profit buys, the extras for yourself and your family… so let’s plug in a very modest 20% of the #25.88 COST
That brings us to $32.35 – You want to include postage, so call it $35 – and the order management service be it a combination of PayPal and Ebay or Esty or the even more costly services like Shopatron will be taking anywhere from 5% to 15% so it will be up to you to decide if you want to kick up the selling price.
Once you know the true cost, you can make a solid personal business decision about what is right for you. So for all the “3x the cost of materials” you now know that they are tyring to apply a mass merchadising formula to a “one off” hand crafted individually done produced products. And “what the market will bear” may well not be the same thing that you can or should consider appropriate – especially since you do not know what costs their pricing is based one.
More importantly it will be up to you to decide if you really can afford to be selling your work or may be better off finding another niche in the professional crafting universe for your time and talents.
Now is also a good time to go back and re read the note about Intangible costs. It is perhaps the hardest lesson I have ever learned in this life.
Whatever you decide, I sincerely hope it works for you.
Above all else,
Enjoy The Making
First – Last & Always
