Craft Business
Pricing what you make by hand, craft by craft.
Most handmade pricing goes wrong in the same place: the materials are counted carefully and the hours are not. A candle's wax is cheap and its curing time is not. A crochet toy's yarn is a few dollars and its afternoon is most of the price.
These work each craft from its own costs, with worked examples in invented numbers, so the arithmetic is visible and the price is yours to set.
- Consignment and Wholesale Pricing Calculator for Makers
Enter one batch's materials, hours and overhead to get your cost per item and a direct price. It then shows what a shop's wholesale or consignment terms would leave you, with every step of the arithmetic shown.
- How to Price Handmade Soap by the Batch, Then by the Bar
Cost the whole batch, divide by the bars you can actually sell, add your time and overhead, then divide by what is left after fees and margin. In the worked example, $16.30 of materials over nine sellable bars and ten minutes a bar gives a floor of about $8.08 a bar at 8% fees and a 30% margin.
- How to Price Handmade Jewelry When Metal Prices Move
Price handmade jewelry from dated component costs plus a waste allowance, your full time and overhead, then divide by what is left after fees and margin. Re-cost every piece that uses a component when you reorder it at a new price; in the worked example a pair costing $11.35 needs about $18.31 for a 30% margin after 8% fees.
- How to Price Crochet Items When the Hours Are Most of the Cost
Price crochet from the yarn the piece uses and your timed hours at a rate you would accept, add overhead, then divide by what is left after fees and margin. If the number looks too high, the honest choices are to charge it and sell fewer, change the product so it takes fewer hours, or treat it as a hobby that pays for its yarn.
- How to Price Candles From the Jar Up
Price a container candle from the jar up: materials, a share for test burns and seconds, your batch time and overhead, then divide by what is left after fees and margin. In the worked example the jar costs more than the wax, and a candle costing $7.47 needs about $12.05 for a 30% margin after 8% fees.
- How to Price Baked Goods to Sell, With a Sourdough Loaf Worked Through
Cost the whole batch including your time, divide by the items you can actually sell rather than the number you baked, then price for a margin, not a markup. In the worked sourdough batch that makes the cost 9.43 a loaf and the price 13.10, which keeps 25% after a 3% card fee.