hey everyone its Melanie and welcome
back to my channel today I am going to
be talking about pricing products for
either online sales or craft fairs or
things like that I'm just going to be
talking about the pricing I get this
question all the time and so as we're
going into the holiday season where you
might have a local craft fair at your
kids school or if you wanted to open up
an Etsy shop or one of the other online
retail craft kind of shops that this
will give you a good idea to figure out
how to price your products now I'm going
to break down kind of the formula that I
used when I had an Etsy shop
I don't currently keep it stocked
anymore because YouTube is more my thing
now and I'm not able to keep it stocked
but my stepmom Belinda Dale Pasco she
has a shop open right now she's had it
for a long long time and she's a fine
artist she does printmaking and
watercolor and so I asked her some of
her tips for you know like fine artists
from a different perspective than from
me like zip pouches and things like that
so I'm going to be sure to include some
of her tips along the way so hopefully
this is helpful be sure to give me a
thumbs up subscribe and share this video
if you find it helpful
this video is assuming you know what
you're making right so you've done your
research you've decided what you're
gonna make you have that thing that your
friends and family are all telling you
this is awesome you need to make these
and sell them ok there's things you're
already an expert in making things like
that so I'm not going to cover any of
that I mean just sort of assuming that
you already have that product or line of
products in mind that you would like to
sell and you've made a few of them so
you understand how long it takes you and
how much materials it is so we're going
to talk about that the first thing you
need to do is calculate how much it cost
you to make your product the materials
so let's take a dipper pouch for example
we have our outside fabric we have our
lining fabric you know sometimes the
lining fabric is a solid fabric versus a
print there's a little bit difference in
price we have a zipper
we have interfacing if you've used any
so every little bit whether there's a
is there an additional pocket your
thread okay all of those kind of things
all need to be included even if it's
only a few cents you've got to make sure
you're including that into your price so
for example if you buy a bunch of
zippers and this is from zip it zippers
on Etsy I buy 30 of them at a time
it makes the zippers less than a dollar
piece so there are some ways that you
can do some research and help to try to
reduce that materials cost so that you
can either have a lower price point so
that your hourly rate is still saying
staying the same right so let's move
forward then you know how much it cost
to make it like exactly to the penny how
much it cost to make it and then you
would need to know what your hourly rate
is how long does it take for you to make
your project calculating your time is
tricky I think you want to give yourself
an hourly rate um this is going to be
different I think based on your craft
there are some elements of a fine art
and things you've taken a lot of
training to do and so your hourly rate
might be a little bit higher so when I
was doing Etsy and I was calculating all
of these things I paid myself $15 an
hour and I was doing kind of like basic
sewing type of things so that was
several years ago um you need to decide
this for yourself but also along with
kind of the market what what a good
hourly rate would be so then once you
figured out what your hourly rate is you
need to know how many of your how many
of these can you make in an hour
basically okay so if you can make three
of these in one hour and you're paying
yourself let's say $15 an hour then you
need to add $5 per one of these to add
into your kind of like your wholesale
price which is your materials cost the
cost that it actually is to make it that
you're putting it up front with your
materials and your time to make it so
let's say it cost $5 and materials and
then let's say it cost $5 in our time
that would be $10 now that is more more
like your wholesale price because then
if you're going to go to a craft fair
you're going to sell it on Etsy you have
to then calculate what are the listing
fees how much
time did it take for you to take photos
of your of your project make write the
listing out sit at the craft fair all
day pay your booth fees so typically you
take that wholesale price and you double
it okay so you will let's say sell this
for about $20 because that would then
cover your Etsy fees the time to put it
all together the time to correspond with
customers who are asking you questions
things like that so also the thing to
keep in mind is if you have your
wholesale price and at any point down
the line if there's a boutique a local
boutique that wants to carry your items
in their store they are going to double
your price in order for them to make a
profit for their employees there you
know electricity their time to sell your
products so you would have your $10 a
pouch they are going to sell it for $20
and so you need to make sure that in
that wholesale price you are making your
money back for how much time it took you
and how much it cost to make your
materials
now there's ways to maybe make it go
faster if you make an assembly line
fashion and you can maybe figure out
ways to streamline your process you can
also buy materials in bulk or at
wholesale prices to try to bring that
cost down so sometimes the tricky thing
is you know a simple zippered pouch on
Etsy you're gonna find a lot of them
that are less than $20 right so there's
going to be a little bit of if you're
just getting started you might be able
to lower your prices a little bit
there's going to be different varying
factors in your you know in your in your
pricing and so this is sort of giving
you a general idea on how you would
figure that out but you're going to need
to do a lot of research and that was one
of my stepmoms big tips was do your
research look around and find out what
are similar items selling for and you're
going to need to price your items
accordingly but don't price your items
too low because even if you're just
getting started you're trying to get
some sales it's not going to help you in
the long run the whole point of this is
to make money and to establish yourself
as a business you you kind of have to
get started from that the beginning and
then if people see that those are your
prices and then you have to
raise them sharply at some point down
the line that's not going to be a good
kind of business plan you also want to
keep in mind there are people doing this
as a business right so if you're just
doing this as a hobby and you don't care
if you just make $5 to buy Starbucks
then you have to kind of be careful to
help nurture the entire community as a
whole and I'm trying to say this as
nicely as possible because you don't
undercut the price to make a few sales
when it's worth more okay because the
entire community as a whole will suffer
but the thing is though when you are
getting started you might be able to
lower your prices or if you have some
creative way of doing things where you
can get those prices lower so that
you're still making your income you're
still covering all of your costs and you
are able to figure that out
then that's great and the other thing is
you have to figure out how to make it
work for what the marketplace is selling
it for right so it's tricky and it
really does depend a lot on what you're
making
you know zip pouches a lot of these are
selling for I mean you could sell these
for probably twelve to fifteen dollars
probably not twenty okay something very
simple like this I think I sold these
for maybe fourteen is what I I remember
right when I was selling on Etsy it
wasn't quite double my wholesale price
but I also didn't want to price myself
out of the marketplace so there are a
lot of variables there
so speaking of variables I kind of
wanted to talk about some of the tips
that my stepmom shared with me her name
is Belinda del Pascal you can find her
on Etsy Bedell pesco I think is her Etsy
name um let me double check that okay
yeah B Dell pesco
I will have it linked below so you can
see her work and get an idea of what her
prices are for what she did because she
does a lot of different things so she
has like this original an original
watercolor for $275 or prints for you
know less or little tiny a CEO the
artist cards for much less so there's a
wide range of original art and prints
and that's something that's very
different about fine artists who are
you know making paintings or print
prints or even some digital products one
of the other things that she mentioned
to me besides doing your research I was
a very first thing that she said there's
a lot of different ways that you can
adjust your price based on is it matted
is it framed are there different types
of mattes and frames that you can choose
to lower your costs what are the sizes
are the originals or are they prints and
that also when you're doing your
research you kind of have to get an idea
of how long that artisan has been
selling because they might have a big
following they're able to raise their
prices they've got a big network
somewhere and they've been doing this a
very very long time and they've built up
a following of repeat customers so that
will change a little bit what they are
pricing things for and so that's
something to consider so also if you're
a fine artist some artists do charge by
the square inch if you're not even sure
where to start you can charge by the
square inch but she was saying that if
you have something very detailed
uncomplicated versus something very wide
and broad the work is significantly
different for both of those pieces but
the price would be the same so that's a
little bit tricky but that might give
you something to start with you know a
place to kind of start and sort of a
baseline she was saying that another
thing to keep in mind that if you're
selling at art shows or online that is a
gallery that maybe wanted to represent
you looks at your work and your prices
are too low they are going to be
hesitant to represent you because when
they take their 50% cut from having it
in their gallery they're not going to
make very much money off of it right and
so that's where that doubled whole sale
price comes into play
because that way if a brick and mortar
store is you know helping to sell your
work
then you know they have to be able to
make enough money to make it worth it
while for them and you still have to
make your money back in terms of your
costs and your time and the last thing
that she sort of mentioned in terms of
pricing from her perspective as an
artist and as a longtime Etsy seller how
to know whether you should raise your
prices or not and one way to know that
you could raise them is if you cannot
keep up with demand right your
everything is selling so quickly that
you can't keep up and you can slowly
raise them but don't raise them too
sharply
because then you don't want people to
sort of like drop off or or
get annoyed with you your sales could
really take a hit that way but you can
slowly increase your prices and then
your as your audience is growing with
you they'll learn to adapt to those
changes okay so that's all I have today
for pricing your products to sell online
or craft beers let me know in the
comments below if this was helpful for
you and if you have any additional
questions I will be looking through
those and answering questions as best
that I can and if you have any questions
as a fine artist
I will ask my step-mom for you and she
can give you some ideas if you would
like to see some more of these types of
videos on selling online or craft fairs
like photographing your work or writing
a listing or things like that please let
me know down below this is just the
question that I get asked the most and
so that's why I wanted to make a video
on it I feel like if people email me and
find me on Facebook to ask me this
question or grab me more people out
there that have this question if this is
something you're interested though
please leave requests down below for
things kind of like in this realm and I
will see if I can get those done for you
before the holiday season gets too much
into full swing and of course if I don't
know the answer I will ask my industry
friends and see if I can get you guys
some good answers okay guys that's all
for today thank you so much for watching
I will see you in the next video bye