[TheForge] how to price product

[Grover Richardson]

I hammer and sell at "events."  As a usual case, I make something and take
it to 3 events before it sells.  

There is the cost of getting into the event, 
getting to the event,
setting up the booth,
manning the booth,
sometimes hotel,
always food and drink and ice,
tearing down the booth,
going home,
unloading,
taking time to make new product.

I try to price my product at $50 per hour.  Even that may not be enough.  If
you charge too little for your product, then you are doing it for charity or
as a hobby.  While that is good for itself, it will not bring food to the
table or make the kitty cats happy with your face when you come home smelly
after a long day at the forge<G>.

I have found that there are some items that I can make and the market price
will pay for me to do it.  And there are always things that I can make but
no one in their right mind would ever pay me to make it.  However, I do make
things that are "artsy" that no one would ever pay me to make.  One that I
did recently, I scanned a picture of a unicorn head.  Blew the picture up
until it was about 22" in size.  Then made it out of metal.  It will become
a gate for one of the inlaws for Christmas (read that as gift).  While I
never will get an order for one, I have taken it to all the events this year
and shown it around.  It gets attention and shows what I can do.  I have had
people tarry at my space long enough to buy something else while looking at
it.

Like someone else said, figure up your rigid costs (building and utilities).
Divide by a 40 hour work week and however many weeks of the year that you
are working.  Do this even if you are not a professional Smith.  This is
your rigid costs per hour of operation.

Add in the costs of operating the forge for an hour.  
Add in the costs of metal (guess how much you will bang in an hour, whether
it is productive work or not).

Add in off time.  The phone will ring, you will cut your finger, the kids
will need something.  Add 20% as a start.

That is a rough cut at your basic operating costs.

As far as estimating how long it will take to do a piece?  Experience is the
only answer.  As Dan Tull said," if you want to know how to make something,
get an order for 100 of them.  By the time you have made 98, you will know
how to make them, and how long it will take."

Quoting Dan Tull again, "never go to something called a show."  People go
there to look, not to buy.

One thing about taking the forge to do demonstrations is that you can make
new product while doing a demo.  This saves time at the home forge.  Just
don't never ever never complete an object while someone is watching.  They
will say "it only took you 20 minutes to make that, so why are you charging
$88 for it?"  It is useless to argue about needing 46 years of hammering
education to get here, or the overhead charges of running a business.  And
arguing with the buying public (or around them) is never productive.


Good luck.