CRAFT YOU.

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been extremely busy getting ready for my first official craft fair.  So, in addition to my full-time job and being a full-time mom, I’ve turned my hobby into a full part-time job. 

I didn’t really have a game plan in mind, you see.  As a matter of fact, I didn’t even “price” my wares until I began setting up.  That part I had planned to do beforehand; however, I ran out of time and was much more concerned with having enough product and a variety of product to sell.  If I didn’t have anything good to sell, who would care about the price anyway, right?

I’ve done a few quick online searches to see how people determine their price points.  I even looked at tips people have posted about selling at flea markets and the like.  Needless to say, I’ve didn’t come across any really useful information.  So what does a crafty person do when something doesn’t exist?  They make it up!  And that is exactly what I did.  As I began laying items out, I took into consideration the approximate cost it took to make, multiplied by my time and effort, minus what it took to secure the table (a 20% total donation), adding my “profit” and you get….a very confusing process.

My original plan was to treat each item as one large summation of a lot of small costs.  I was going to rely on what I had learned as a budding chef (oh yeah, I did that too once) and break each item down by the pound and ounce.  Or in this case, that would be foot and inch.  For example, a 12×12 inch sheet of paper that costs me $1.44 equals 1 cent per  inch.  If I create a card that is 6×6 inches, then I have spent 72 cents because the card is actually 12 x 6 inches in size. 

While this is a very elementary example, you get the point.  The same would go for inches of ribbon and embellishments.  If a have spent $3 on 30 eyelets, I know that I have spent 10 cents per eyelet.  And so, I would transfer the costs into the price of the card.  That’s the easy part.  The hard part is accounting for my time and effort.  What is my time worth?  Only you can decipher that one.  However, when it all comes down to it, your customers want a good price.  And based on how much I sold and the fact that no one raised their eyebrows at me, I think I estimated well, especially for the first try. I was very humbled and very encouraged.

Take a look and be sure to tell me what you think.  I’ve signed myself up for another fair in a couple of weeks.  Wish me luck!