Most makers price by looking at the next booth. The trouble is you don't know what their costs are, or whether they're making any money at all. Starting from your own costs is the only way to know a price actually pays you. This short video shows the free craft pricing calculator at margind.app, which needs no sign-up.
What Goes In
- Materials. Everything that goes into one item.
- Your time. How long it takes to make.
- What you pay yourself an hour. Your time is a real cost, so don't leave it at zero.
- Overhead. The costs of running the business that aren't in any one item.
- Markup. What you add on top.
Then pick where you sell, so the selling fees are covered. It gives you a suggested retail price with every cost listed.
Why Every Cost Is Listed
A single number is easy to second guess. Seeing every cost laid out shows you where the price comes from, and if it feels too high, which part is driving it. Sometimes the answer is that a product costs too much to make, not that the price is wrong.
Then Check It Against the Market
Once you have a price that covers your costs, it's still worth comparing it with what similar things sell for. My earlier post on how to price handmade products with MarginD goes into markup versus margin and that reality check. Once you know your price, the booth break-even calculator tells you how many you need to sell to cover a show.
Part of VendorTools
This is one of the VendorTools tools, a set of free calculators and checklists for craft fair and market vendors. You can see the rest in my VendorTools hub post. If you want to track every show, your sales and your costs in one place, that is what FairKeep is for, and my FairKeep overview covers what it does.
More short how-tos on the VARØ Industries YouTube channel.
More short how-tos on the VARØ Industries YouTube channel.