Do you charge too little?
This is a note I at first made up to a Facebook friend of mine who makes valuable fashion jewelry and reposted due to the truth that I thought it would work for a lot of people.
So you are charging a per hour rate (while you are handling a piece) that you feel would be an affordable wage if you had a “common” job?
If you want to make an authentic living at valuable fashion jewelry (or any other independent endeavor) you need to consider that there are lots of other things that participate in your craft too.
Are you billing for time purchased Facebook? (Advertising) Billing for time invested talking to the client and producing the piece? (A genuine part of the time invested to “make” it!)
Do you cost for time invested doing accounting? (You require to do accounting if you are going to be legal and pay taxes and similarly have some concept if you are actually generating income or not.)
Are you charging for the time it needs to talk to all people who do not acquire anything? For attending to all those emails? Charging for time bought getting strategies, getting an item, sending paperwork, going to the post office, and shipping it?
Certainly, you can’t charge directly for most of these things, nevertheless, the reality is you need to charge AT LEAST 3 times what you need to be making per hour when you remain in truth doing something you can charge for.
If you do refrain from doing this, in the long run, you will not have the capability to withstand it. In reality, you should probably charge anywhere from 4-5 times an “affordable wage” due to the truth that a great deal of 1/3rd of your time is going to be billable. It will more than likely be far less than that.
If you did have a “normal” job your business would require to pay you for each hour invested at work no matter what you were doing. (Even going to the washroom!) Due to the fact that your business is now your customers what you charge them needs to reveal all that you do, not merely the little part that is handling their piece of valuable fashion jewelry. No one else is going to pay you for doing the other things …
A range of years ago I heard that an independent professional (in any trade) needed to charge a minimum of $35/hour to make it through (due to the truth that of all of the expenditures and nonbillable hours that they buy occupational things). This was so long ago that no doubt inflation has this at around $50-$45/hour now.
Sure your overhead might be low, nevertheless, you require to make money or you aren’t doing anyone any excellent in the long run due to the reality that you will not have the capability to keep doing what you delight in and using people with the style precious jewelry they want.
A concept that you either do not manage loan well or that you do not charge adequately is if you never ever have a loan to buy any stock for stock or the new tools you need.
Charge an affordable expense and accept that numerous people will continuously think things need to be more cost-effective. They just do not have a concept of all the work, sweat, and tears that participate in it.
