Pricing crafts

Pricing crafts is an art.It is one of the hardest and most important thing in the jewelry business.

On one hand your creation is very dear to you and it is difficult to put a price tag on them. On the other hand you are your worst critique.

You always think – is it worth it? Especially during these days when the economy is down, we feel may be lowering down our hand made jewelry will generate a quick sale. Something is better than nothing. Right?

Well, unfortunately lowering down seldom solves the problem- cautions the gurus and experienced entrepreneurs of this industry. My own experience also agrees with them. I found when a customer likes a piece, it sells. Lowering prices did not make any difference. In jewelry parties my high- end jewelry sold better than cheaper ones.

There are three very important points to remember especially when you think of lowering your prices of your jewelry

Pricing crafts and the first thing to remember:

1.Visualize your potential customer There is a psychological aspect in buying jewelry. Sometimes people may feel low and cheap buying at a cheaper price.

As an artist it is important to visualize your ideal customer. This person will look great and proud showing off wearing your jewelry – this is what you dream. What kind of outfit, accessories does she choose? What is her liking? How is her taste? Which age group and affluence level does she come from? Do not underestimate her. Respect her, value her and don't go cheap.

Pricing crafts and the second thing to remember:

Rena Klingenberg in her awesome book will walk you through different aspects of selling profitably.

Click Here!

2. Keep some items that are more affordable to general public and younger population.

She and many other successful jewelry business owners advise that while it is smart to keep a collection of jewelry under $10 or $20, that does not mean to lower the price structure of your whole inventory.

Pricing craft and the third thing to remember:

3.Artisan jewelry is different from mass produced whole sale things and we need to keep that in mind.

Think about educating your customers in subtle ways, with stories about the process of creating the piece, the nuances of the different gemstones used or your technique- without being too pushy or loud.

We hurt our fellow artistswhen we drastically come down with our prices, because that mandates them go down too, for the sake of competition- and that is not fair.

Most of all we hurt our selves, our spirits as artists lowering our wages. We must pay ourselves fair wages as an artist, not the minimum wage.

Let's take an arbitrary case of making a pair of earrings. Say, the material cost is $4 and it takes half an hour to make it. So, the price of the earrings may be $4+$10=$14.

But wait, you did not count your over head costs- the cost of your tutorials, books, class fees, marketing time, advertising cost, not counting the practice time and wasted material to learn and sharpen this skill.

So, may be $16 is what it should be. I found just to keep things simple, three and a half to four times the material cost works for me at this point.

There is an excellent resource that I'll give you. The Jewelry Master Pro really taught me a lot in this area.

The ways it helps me are:

1.It gives an organized way to see my inventory- what I have bought, from where I had bought it everything.

2. It was easy to have it during tax time

3. It gives a quick, estimate how much I should charge for individual piece.

4.The invoice and everything.

This company is very generous and helpful. I am quite happy with them.

Check it out for your self and see if it helps in your case.

Click Here!

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