How to make money from seashells
I've been in the retail and wholesale world of floral design for many years (shells included!) and I want to pass along the tips I've learned for making money with your designs. I'll focus on using shells here but really you could apply this to any floral endeavor.
The first question I usually get is how to price. Pricing needs to be based on several factors. The formula a retail shop owner uses to price their items will be different from what a designer working out of their home might use.
Factors to consider are: cost of the items, labor fees, overhead and profit
.
Costs -The cost of items is pretty straight forward but there are a few questions you need to ask yourself : Did you scavenge the items? How much time did it take you? Did you have to clean them? If you bought the items did you pay tax or was it wholesale? Shops usually buy items at wholesale and then mark them up by 50%. Home crafters and designers rarely do this. They usually just consider their labor as their profit. However, if you have costs like shop overhead or show fees, you may want to consider marking up the cost of your materials.
Labor Fees. In the world of art, crafting and design work I rarely see a person that gets paid what they should. Honestly, we all know it's just very hard to compete with "China" right now (although I believe the tides are starting to change). Cheap imports and people that work for a dime an hour have made it very difficult to know how to charge for ones labor. Most retail shops charge an hourly fee for design work. You need to set your hourly fee to what the market can bear and then stick with it. If you are serious about making money then you can't give your stuff away. When some people set their prices so ridiculously low it actually does harm to the whole artistic community. How? Handmade items become undervalued in the customers mind, no better than Walmart. If you are making something special then people expect to pay for it. If you want to give stuff away..then give it away! (write about a contests) but don't bring the whole community down by undervaluing your work and dragging the customers expectations for the group as a whole with it.
Overhead - what is your overhead? Most low volume artists work out of their home, but that doesn't mean they should charge a % or a fee for their overhead costs.
Profit - The formula for pricing is to take your costs, overhead, labor and then add profit. Profit is the part that most home crafters/designers rarely think about. But some percentage for profit needs to be added or you are basically just working for your wage. Perhaps you are happy with that now but if you ever decide to become serious about your business and making a decent income you will need to add it on at some point. This goes for both wholesale and retail selling.
There are 3 main ways of marketing your design work to the public:
Online stores - (like Etsy)
Craft Shows
Specialty shops
The first question I usually get is how to price. Pricing needs to be based on several factors. The formula a retail shop owner uses to price their items will be different from what a designer working out of their home might use.
Factors to consider are: cost of the items, labor fees, overhead and profit
.
Costs -The cost of items is pretty straight forward but there are a few questions you need to ask yourself : Did you scavenge the items? How much time did it take you? Did you have to clean them? If you bought the items did you pay tax or was it wholesale? Shops usually buy items at wholesale and then mark them up by 50%. Home crafters and designers rarely do this. They usually just consider their labor as their profit. However, if you have costs like shop overhead or show fees, you may want to consider marking up the cost of your materials.
Labor Fees. In the world of art, crafting and design work I rarely see a person that gets paid what they should. Honestly, we all know it's just very hard to compete with "China" right now (although I believe the tides are starting to change). Cheap imports and people that work for a dime an hour have made it very difficult to know how to charge for ones labor. Most retail shops charge an hourly fee for design work. You need to set your hourly fee to what the market can bear and then stick with it. If you are serious about making money then you can't give your stuff away. When some people set their prices so ridiculously low it actually does harm to the whole artistic community. How? Handmade items become undervalued in the customers mind, no better than Walmart. If you are making something special then people expect to pay for it. If you want to give stuff away..then give it away! (write about a contests) but don't bring the whole community down by undervaluing your work and dragging the customers expectations for the group as a whole with it.
Overhead - what is your overhead? Most low volume artists work out of their home, but that doesn't mean they should charge a % or a fee for their overhead costs.
Profit - The formula for pricing is to take your costs, overhead, labor and then add profit. Profit is the part that most home crafters/designers rarely think about. But some percentage for profit needs to be added or you are basically just working for your wage. Perhaps you are happy with that now but if you ever decide to become serious about your business and making a decent income you will need to add it on at some point. This goes for both wholesale and retail selling.
There are 3 main ways of marketing your design work to the public:
Online stores - (like Etsy)
Craft Shows
Specialty shops