Saturday, June 27, 2015

Transparency in Business Costs

One thing I really struggle with when running my business is what level of transparency to have when it comes to pricing.

I still really debate with myself over pricing items. Is it too much? But I still need to pay myself fairly for my time. Would someone else be willing to be paid that much per hour? What if no one will buy it because of the price?

I need some help here from you all. I have been very vigilant the past few months with accurately recording how long it takes for me to make an item, as well as the cost of the materials it takes to make the items. I realized that I often paid myself pennies per hour after everything was added up.

However, since raising my prices to reflect a fair wage for myself, I've been getting less traffic through my shop. IS it the prices?

Do I tell people that the shawl they like took me over 20 hours to complete? Or the toy took 15? That it takes 7 hours to make one sock, and I'm 18 hours into an adult size sweater and still have to do the sleeves?

If I do, that means letting people know how much I charge per hour for labor. No big deal, I do that on custom items. But still, I feel like that would open me up to a lot of 'trolling' and criticisms from other folks. In my head it comes from those "I don't do it for the money" folks and would sound like this: "You shouldn't charge that much since it's your hobby and you enjoy doing it." "Why not just give them away as presents?" etc.

What do you think? If it was you, what would you do?

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