Pricing for carvings

[twoclones]

Here is the same breakdown with $100/hr.

20 log pieces ($5.25)

1/2 hour carving and finishing ($50)

T ($50) + M ($6) X 3 = $168

Before, I missed that your equation is flawed. Material expense should be marked up but time should not.

T (0.5 x $100) + [M ($6) X 3] = $68

Even if you marked up material by 400% the retail price would be only $74

I still feel that calculating price according to time and expense should give us the absolute, rock bottom, I'm tired of hauling it around price.

 

[fluffysaw]

price

Hi everyone
I've been a full time carver for a little more than three years.
I used to think 25.00 an hour was good. Now I charge 65.00 an hour.
Plus material, simply because when you looked at advertising, trips to the saw mill, gas station, hardware store, customer quotes, saw maintenance, new tools....bottom line.
I wasn't making any money
Whats a mechanic make now days?
Sometimes the pricing is what the market will bear.
Sometimes your customer just wants to brag about what they paid...oblige them.

Pricing is a difficult thing to figure out.

 

[ErrolC]

I've been full time carving for 8 years...I use the term "full time" tung in cheek because the trick is to be able to equate a relative full time week...40 hours. On that basis to start you need to determine what you see as a "relative" income for you, for the year. loosely speaking $80k requires $40/hr as there's close to 2000hrs fulltime work in a year...40hrs/wk x 50 weeks near enough without time off.

BUT

You have to factor in your down time for retrieving materials etc and equipment failures & wear costs. I've found without building up the network I have over the years...I just couldn't make it work. I can't say I have all the answers by any means and still make slip ups myself, but found what generally works for me...the rest I mark as business experience and move on. I'm just moving into chainsaw carving to augment my other carvings and spread my risk in a way.

If "customers" don't want to pay "what its worth", then they didn't really want it...and you either should be making a different product or finding a different business...what its worth...is what it costs...if you're making something that no body is prepared to pay what it costs...then you're making something nobody really wants. Its about knowing your target market and hooking into it, simple!

One thing "I've" have found generally...Saturday Markets don't tend to attrach the people who will pay what its worth...they tend to be bargain hunters...you need to find where your target customers shop...and sell there.

If you think you need to work to small prices or margins...then you need to make volumes.

 

[carvinmark]

One thing "I've" have found generally...Saturday Markets don't tend to attrach the people who will pay what its worth...they tend to be bargain hunters...you need to find where your target customers shop...and sell there.
.

So very true

 

[happycamper]

boxes of misc sizes of scrap wood

boxes of misc sizes of scrap wood i think its hard woods
for sale cheep
pick up only no shiping

if your instrested please email me
[email protected]