What is the best way to determine how much you should price your pieces?

this is usually how I price pieces:

Cost of materials x 3

1 multiple for cost of materials

1 multiple  for cost of labor

1 multiple just because

so if I made a necklace and the cost of my materials was $25, I would muliply 25 x 3 which would give me $75 and that would be around the price I would sell for

 

That's a good way to do it :)

 Thanks :)

 

I also multiply by 3. Seems to work and I have never really had any problems selling my stuff that way.

thankyou too,

that is really useful way of pricing jewellery!!!!!!

gabriel

p.s no, Iam not an angel!!!! i just like to be inspired and have beading dreams!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I usually multiply by 4 or 5 because most of my sets cost me less than $15 to make. I also put the price up because I've noticed my market is more willing to buy something for a higher price because they think it's "better quality" if it's more expensive (it also gives me more wiggle room to negotiate if I'm having a bad show! LOL) I've been told by several "old-hat" vendors that I should increase my prices every 3rd show (ie if it doesn't sell in 3 shows, up the price) until it does sell. I'm not sure if it works, but I have noticed that my pricey-er things are almost always the ones that sell first, regardless of how cool (or UGLY) I think they are. The stuff I think is the ugliest is always what goes first! Just goes to show what I like and what my customers like is often 2 different things! LOL Angela

I also multiply cost of materials x 3. It works very well for me. Good luck.

 So for you costs list do you include every little crimp and all? How do you keep track of all that?

 If you are going to price correctly, you need to include every thing, including something that may only cost you $0.01ea like a crimp.  You may be surprised how much the little things add up to if the pricing is done correctly.

How do you keep track of individual supplies prices when I am assuming you have many that you purchased from many suppliers? I am new and even looking for ways to get organized and who to buy from!!

 I am in the process of doing that now...I have to admit I procrastinate a lot and hate doing all the administrative stuff but if I am going to be serious about it (which I am - I mean, right now this is pretty much my sole source of income, besides Avon...lol), that stuff has to be done. It's very important to know exactly how much each piece of your jewelry costs you to make.

I'm setting up a spreadsheet in Excel that is going to list all the individual prices of each bead, earring wire, eye pin and crimp that I have.  I am also going to attempt to figure out how much my beading wire costs me per inch.  But since I buy from a few different sources and their prices vary, should I have more than one line for an item?  For example, I might have crimp tubes from two different suppliers at two different prices - I might have bought a larger quantity at one supplier and got a bigger discount.  Should I list "2x2 sterling crimp tubes, .05 each, ABC Jewelry Supply" on one line and "2x2 sterling crimp tubes, .03 each, XYZ Jewelry Company" on another or should I just average the price of the crimp tubes and list "2x2 sterling crimp tubes, .04 each"?  Because really, there would be no way to know which ones I paid five cents for and which ones I paid 3 cents for.

I will probably do another spreadsheet that keeps track of the prices I've paid to the various suppliers, more as a reference than anything else.  I am thinking this will help me avoid flipping through several catalogues at once or surfing multiple suppliers web sites when I want to compare prices between basics, like eye pins or something I buy a lot of.   

If anyone has better suggestions, I am open to them!  :) 

How you price your items is going to depend a lot on what kind of items you make.... The "3 x materials" works great for gemstone/precious metal items that take a minimum amount of time.

However... if you are doing seedbead work... your materials may cost you less than $10, but you "invest" a LOT of time, so you need to charge an hourly rate for labor as well as for your supplies. For example, one of the bracelet styles I make often usually costs $6-7 for the supplies, but takes me about 3-4 hours to make... I'm not about to sell one for $20!

Me: (materials + labor + overhead) x commission   I usually don't mark up materials, because of the way I inventory and do tax calculations (taxes I pay on my earnings); also, I don't buy all my materials wholesale-- some are bought retail, or in amounts too small to get a wholesale price. If I do a show with no actual commission, I use 10% to cover the table fees. The tagged prices I use are those which match my highest commission venue-- 45%; most of the shows I do are silent auction style, and I make my starting bid as if 10% commission, and a "quick sale" at the 45% commission price.

If I am using seed beads to make tube type necklaces, spirals, etc. I might spend $4-$6 on beads. I would not charge 3x my costs for the pieces I make. My time and experience is worth so much more than that.  Stringing beads is another story.  But I don't think any of us should undervalue our time and talent.  I also believe that people think they are getting better quality when they have to pay more!

 Desert Bunny

Boy is this ever a good topic.......my husband gets on my case about pricing.....he says,"you keep underpricing yourself!".  I purposely don't use the higher end of supplies to keep the cost down.  I have also went into my spreadsheet program of my computer to manually jot down all my expenses and the breakdown of it all too......Well, I came across a program which most of ya's may or may not have heard of yet......I took a chance in purchasing this program and my god; has it been such a life saver......you can get up to 3 different design programs that best suits your needs....I got the standerd one......It's called the "Jewelry Designer Manager-pricing jewelry made easy!.....If you have already invested time in a spreadsheet of all your items, with sizes, colors, etc., pat yourself on the back!...cause your going to want to use it as you input that into this program....it will save you more time than you'll know!......Here is a link to this site to were you can purchase it or where you can purchase it.......

http://www.jewelrydesignermanager.com

Check it out, click on the links to see how it works.....I was so impressed with what I saw and patiental of this and how much time it could really save.  

 

Here's a tip:

If you decide to give this a try, a few things you should keep in mind.....if you order your supplies online, go to that supplier, right mouse click on the photo of the item( for example a headpin) and save as a picture and find a file or a temperary place to put it that you will find it.....this will come in very handy.....when you list all your items that you use to make your jewelry, you will be able to upload a picture with that item.....as you will see in the demo.  I have a file folder that has only pictures of all the items I use....It's a lot of work to put in all this info, but then so is the spreadsheet method.....

A must for all us serious jewelry designing people.....good luck and have fun!....

 

After years of struggling to keep track of my inventory and pricing my jewelry, I finally invested in Jewelry Designer Manager, jewelrydesignermanager.com. I saw the ad in Bead Style Magazine for a year before I finally bought it. It's the best investment I've ever made for my business and I can' believe that I waited this long. Do yourself a favor, you will forever be thankful that you did.

Andree@andreealexander.com

I do it a little lower tech. When I check in new materials I simply put the cost per piece on a sticky label or with marker on the poly bag I keep them in. Then just plug the number of items used times the cost per peice into the calculator and determine the cost of the finished product. This way if I have older stock at a lower cost the price is accurate to the cost of the materials used. For items I buy in large quantities, I keep a list of the going price per size such as crystals, crimps, headpins etc.

Since I live in Michigan with the worst economy in the country, sometimes my mark up is times 2.5 not 3. But you need to evaluate each item separately. Earrings are great for a 4 to 5X markup. A good way to recoup if you can't get a full 3X markup on larger pieces.

Nancy,

Good idea with the spreadsheet!  I think I'll give that a try!  Thanks!

 Monica

Thanks for asking this question. I found the responses very helpful also!

Red Sonja

Everyone seems to be getting the basic idea of 3-5 x your expenses (including materials and labor which I'm happy to see people are finally considering), but don't forget to consider the price of gas for purchasing materials, your time while "buying" materials, and your time and gasoline for "selling" the items.

Last, but not least, don't forget to study what price your competition is selling similar products -- ie:  what the market will support.  Pricing is very elastic and there is no magic number for an item.  If you are selling in an area that is very very wealthy, price your items up; very very poor, price your items down.  Logical, but not everyone thinks about it.

 I can't tell you how many artists/jewelers I have this discussion with because they're "hobbyists" and don't really care whether they make a profit or not, so they don't have all of these things as considerations.  For those of us who earn our living this way, the "hobbyists" do the market no favors because they teach the market/shoppers to expect to pay very little for what they purchase.  As a business owner, I have all kinds of expenses (ie: insurance, licenses, etc.) that I have to pay that many of the "hobbyists" don't have or avoid. 

Finally, there is a big difference between a cost and price -- do you know what it is?

 

Instead of keeping track of historical prices, I think pricing of materials at replacement cost, i.e., what it would cost me to replace my supplies if I ordered today, is easier (just go to suppliers' website for up to date information)  and also a more accurate reflection of costs going forward. I haven't  put it to the test  as I'm not yet selling my jewelry, but it seems daunting to track costs if ordering from more than one source.  I'm not that organized!