The Basic Guide to Pricing Your Craftwork: With Profitable Strategies for Recordkeeping, Cutting Material Costs, Time & Workplace Management, Plus Tax (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: cash flow projection, small business profiles, many crafters, The Basic Guide, Pricing Your Craft, The Minimum Price (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

One of the most often asked questions from craftpersons selling their work is "How much should I charge?" Whether you have been in business or just starting, this step-by-step guidebook will help you answer that question. You'll get:

Ways to raise the perceived value of your work and charge more

Basic formulas for pricing craftwork, retail or wholesale

How to use pricing strategies to increase sales

How to price one-of-a-kind pieces

How to know if you are really making a profit

How to keep records, with sample forms you can copy

How to get the most profit out of every hour

Legal ways to cut your tax bills and boost your net income

More ways to boost your cash income than you ever imagined

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Warm Snow Publishers; 1 edition (July 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962992321
• ISBN-13: 978-0962992322
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #89,242 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #9 in	Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Pricing
  #87 in	Books > Home & Garden > Crafts & Hobbies > Reference

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid, wonderful, and slightly incomplete, September 15, 2008

By	H. Grove "owling6683" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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Mr. Dillehay's advice is aimed squarely at handcrafters, which means he's able to recommend courses of action that might be contrary to more general advice. For example, while it's common in many stores to price just under a dollar amount ($.99 or $.95 amounts), you don't want to do that with most handcrafted items. That sort of price can actually leave people thinking your goods are cheap and low-quality. Similarly, talking up the uniqueness of your methods or materials and raising your prices might increase your sales, even though common wisdom says that if sales are slow you should lower your prices.

Many beginning crafters are reluctant to put a decent price on their goods. They feel that they or their products aren't good enough, or that people won't be willing to pay that kind of price. They look at the price tag on the materials they used and think they shouldn't mark things up much beyond that. The problem is, there are many costs associated with crafting work that aren't taken into account by that, and you could find yourself losing money without even realizing it. Dillehay makes certain that you know how to take all of those invisible expenses into account when pricing your goods.

He goes on to talk about pricing for different markets. You might be able to price higher at a craft fair than through a store, for example. He even discusses wholesale pricing that allows you to sell to stores, catalogs, and other outlets while still making a profit. In fact, pretty much the only subject that seems conspicuously absent is any talk of selling online whatsoever.

Because so many factors affect the price of your goods, this book ends up doubling as a mini-guide on running a craft business (although you'll still want to delve more thoroughly into that as its own topic). It includes a variety of forms for inventories and so on.

Despite the absence of information regarding online pricing, methods and sales---which these days seems like a bit of a large oversight---there's so much valuable information in here that I highly recommend it to any crafter who'd like to make a profit on her wares.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book, November 2, 2008

By	C. Anderson (Harpswell, ME United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It brings up some interesting points, but it's more of a one-time read. I wish I had just picked it up at the library.

18 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars from The Crafts Report, December 12, 2004

By	James Dillehay "guerilla marketing" (Torreon, NM USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"An excellent resource . . . a well organized book is nothing without solid information and the book delivers here." -- The Crafts Report