Pricing your work
A lot of people will always try to get you to lower the cost of your work. They will tell you they can find it cheaper or do it cheaper. Let us be frank to them. If they could find it and do it better, then they would not need to ask you to lower your price. They don't want to admit; they can't afford your time and effort you put into your work. I have recently seen a video about “pricing your work” and I can and will agree with everything this video says. Over the years, I have come to price my work in the same way after I have created the work and over time the prices get higher depending on my time and expenses.
Now his price range used is a bit high for me. I am a painter and some people have skills that take a lot more work to create, such as craftsmen of furniture. The dangers behind that exceeds my own. So when making your artwork, make sure you understand the difference before coming up with a price. I am posting a video on this page. If it ever gets lost on the web, please take the time to tell me, but for now it should be good.
I am going to go over a few things more geared toward paintings, so forgive me if this doesn't apply to you. Please keep in mind you can work it out so that it can apply to whatever craft you are doing, painting, sculpting, hair-styling, etc.
*Determining price based on size.
--Stick with a set price from small to big size paintings. Let me give you an example. If you charge by the square foot, then stick to that and only come up or down on the price after you have determined if the painting took a lot of time or if it's had more inner value to you and others. Maybe the painting is to old and hard to sell, etc. This could also depend on how well-known you are in the art world.
--Never base your set price on hourly time "only". You can set a time, such as; you want to make $50 a square foot and will only spend one hour on each square foot. Never say you are going to spend one hour on a painting at $50 an hour because the painting might be 5'x5' it only took 5 hours to finish. I know I wouldn't sell a painting that size for $250. That's way too low for any artist. At $50 a square foot however, $1,250 for a starting artist is better than $250. I charge starting at $150/sq ft.+supplies, spending no more than 4 hours on a square or a day. So 25 days at $150 a day for only 4 hours a day is my starting number. I also make sure to calculate days that I will not work on it too. Sometimes you need a break or you have more than one project going.
--When coming up with a price, be sure you count the cost of supplies and delivery. Maker sure you have a price set for different types of supplies. For example, I charge more for paintings that have canvas made with Belgium linen or thicker frames. These items cost more to obtain.
--Finally watch this video. It will discuss some of the things that apply to everyone, such as how to price a fast producing product.
