Monday, July 27, 2015

Price Homemade Jewelry

Price Homemade Jewelry


The process of designing and building your own creations may be the most intensive part of homemade jewelry selling; but once the items are finished, it's time to devote some care and attention to the important task of figuring out price your jewelry for sale. Determining prices for homemade jewelry requires assessment of materials, labor, overhead and market value.


Instructions


1. Determine the costs of your materials. Keep track of receipts when you shop for craft supplies and make it a habit to finish each shopping trip by calculating a price-per-piece for packages and quantities of items and materials. Keep a log of the prices of all supplies you are currently using. With items such as clay, glue or fabric, do the best you can to estimate the amounts you're using per project and the costs they represent. Tally the amount of raw materials and supplies you use for each finished creation.


2. Come up with a cost value for your investment of time on each project. Determine a minimum hourly rate for yourself based on what you feel you need to earn and keep track of how long it takes you to make each project from start to finish.


3. Assess overhead costs and divide them up per piece of jewelry. Figure out how much you spend in an average period of time (say, a week) on things such as equipment maintenance costs or other materials and tools associated with your work. Divide this number by the average number of finished pieces you make in that time. Add to this the costs required to package or label any of your jewelry (depending on how you're selling it). Also add any costs associated with selling in the marketplace you've chosen, such as website listing fees or a retailer's cut if you're selling on consignment.


4. Add up all costs from Steps 1 through 3. Use this figure as your base selling price. If this number seems too high, look for ways to reduce your costs and make your labor more efficient.


5. Figure out a good profit margin based on the market for items similar to yours by comparison shopping in stores or craft fairs if possible. Check out listings of jewelry on sites such as etsy.com and ebay.com. Pay attention to what items are actually selling for and not just what they're listed for. Find a price for your items that's within a similar range.

Tags: associated with, each project, Homemade Jewelry, homemade jewelry, materials Keep, Price Homemade