Saturday 8 December 2007

Spreadsheet for pricing your work.


I have decided to trial a FLEXIBLE-PRICING strategy for my spreadsheet - basically pay what you want. Read through to the end and then you decide how much to pay.

One of the hardest things for a crafter to do , is to get to grips with pricing their work.

No doubt you have been sent here for my pricing spreadsheet on the recommendation of others.

If you read the 90 plus comments below, you will see that just those who had the time to leave a message, have found my spreadsheet most useful.

The spreadsheet has now been downloaded over 30,000 times and I am so glad that it has helped so many improve their pricing strategy and they have actually started to earn more as a result.

The spreadsheet and the NEW e-book which explains my pricing concept are now available in my Etsy shop.


SO WHO IS IT FOR?

Crafters, artisans, artists, makers. Whatever you call yourself, if you sell your handmade pieces, then this spreadsheet and the accompanying e-book are just perfect for you. If you want to grow your business, to understand where you are going wrong (and right) with your current pricing, then you are about to make the right decision.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

How I moved from working at home in my basement with all the spiders, into a small residential shop and then just recenlty into a new larger shop in the middle of the town centre. This was all done on the back of my pricing strategy. I will talk you through the simple concept of pricing your goods in an e-book, along with the famous spreadsheet.

10 years ago, I listed my first item for sale on Ebay. I sold it. I worked from home, using Ebay, later my own personal website to build my business. Everything I have today, is from the efforts of my craft. In short my pricing strategy works.

You'll learn about which of your items makes you money and which doesn't

HOW WILL IT BENEFIT YOU?

Simple. You will be in a position to charge properly for your goods, to eliminatte the lines that don't make you money. You will be well placed to grow your business, as I did from working at home into a business that can support you and indeed, might require you to move into business premises.

SO WHY, THREE YEARS AFTER RELEASING THIS SPREADSHEET, AM I NOW CHARGING FOR IT?

I have created a very worthwhile product that has helped hundreds and hundreds of crafters. I have found other people ripping off my spreadsheet and passing it off as their own work (complete with my spelling mistakes !!!) I have spent a lot of time in the forums listening to feedback.

I have created a spreadsheet that will make you more confident in pricing your goods and should pay you back for your small investment quite easily.

In addition to the spreadsheet, I have also written an e-book that explains the concept thoroughly, which I hope you will find an illuminating read.

THE ONLY QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF

Do I want to learn Chris's pricing strategy and take my business seriously at a cost of only £15 or should I just continue doing what I have always done?

==============
As mentioned above you can now pay what you want for a trial period.




It's a trial, it's an honesty and generosity thing and it really is upto you.

Simply click on the donate buttonand select an amount in GBP. Currently the files have been selling on Etsy for £15.  Once paid via Paypal I will receive your order.

Please REMEMBER, that I work 9am-5pm GMT (London) time, so your files will be sent within those hours of work once I receive your payment.
So if you order in America and I am still in bed, I will send the files once I am at work. If you order after 5pm GMT on a Saturday, then I will not be in work until 9am GMT Monday. Please allow for this small timezone for your files to be sent.

THIS FLEXIBLE PRICING STRATEGY may be withdrawn without notice.

101 comments:

Unknown said...

This is an extremely helpful spreadsheet that I am totally excited about. I have a few questions - how can I contact you?

Chris Parry said...

hi. glad it might help. Please visit my etsy shop and contact via the shop

www.chrisparry.etsy.com

Maggie said...

Wow, thank you so much! I've only had a chance to glance at it, but I'm excited to work it all out tonight.

threemuses said...

Thank you so much for sharing this! I haven't put it into use yet, but am so excited about using it.

Ameleon said...

thanks for sharing an invaluable tool with the Etsy community. I was glad to see my prices weren't too far off from what I worked out with the spreadsheet.

Andrea Q said...

Thank you so much! It was a very positive exercise for me.

L. Carol Christopher said...

Thanks for your post on Etsy and for sharing your spreadsheet. I'm afraid to see what's going to come out of it!

AntiGenre said...

Hi - I'm so glad that I saw your Etsy forum thread about this today. Thanks for posting the spreadsheet - I can't wait to take a look at it and start plugging in numbers.

Lauren
http://antigenre.etsy.com
http://antigenre.wordpress.com

Sage and Daisy said...

Thank you for this wonderful tool! I just started my etsy shop, so this will prove very useful.

Beth Millner said...

Great Spreadsheet Chris!

Shauna said...

Wow! That is a lot of work. Thank you for sharing.

Shauna
http://smilesandsunshine.etsy.com

McArt said...

Thank you for providing this for us.

Rgds from Australia

www.mcart.etsy.com

LinderCroft said...

Hi Chris..

I found a really cool thing about your spreadsheet. It can be used to calculate your prices either by yearly profit or by hourly profit. I could not for the life of me understand how my sticks could cost $60 to make a 100% profit. So I fiddled and played with it. To use it for a yearly income, you HAVE to put 0 in the hourly wages line then put the yearly amount you want to make in the top ‘how much a year’ line. Then for hourly wages you HAVE to put 0 on the yearly profit line and add what you what your hourly wage to be… if you leave the yearly and hourly wage the way it is… you pay yourself TWICE… once by a wage and once by profit…

Of course you probaly have this somewhere and I just didn't see it...

Cheers

LinderCroft said...

Well it didn't work quit like I thought, but I think the spreadsheet does charge for an hour and a profit. Perhaps I just don't understand. But I KNOW my sticks even adding every thing up plus profit doesn't come up to $60 a pair. The spreadsheet seems to work if you make the wages 0 and put in how much you want to make a year.

Mufyn Love said...

anyway to get a mac version of this?

Nicole said...

saw your post in the etsy forums. thanks for sharing this. :)

Becca Alley said...

Thanks for the good download!

Cynthia said...

What an eye opener!

Thank you so much for sharing all your hard work with us.

Lauren said...

Great work, Chris, and thank you very much!

Lauren

mettle design studio said...

many thanks for sharing your hard work with all of us!

Barbra said...

Thanks for your efforts! Much better than the one I made myself.

juliegraf said...

kudos to you , chris, for talking about this subject - pricing - on etsy.

buying things that are build with craftsmanship is almost priceless, and people should realize it.

as a craftsman it is sometimes hard to get people to understand that - but there are plenty of clients/customers who do understand it.

Wendy said...

Chris, Thank you for being so generous with your talent. This spreadsheet is such a wonderful help to me. Thank you, Thank you!!

Wendy

yellowfish said...

thanks for posting this! it really changed the way I conceptualized "profit"... I was not thinking about it correctly, and was considering everything above supplies to be profit, which clearly isn't really right. This is very useful!

ginabee said...

I found this right when I needed it. Thanks for posting and sharing of the spreadsheet.

Elizabeth Aldinger said...

Thank you for sharing this with everyone! I really appreciate it and I think it will greatly help me with pricing my items.

Simply Wired Custom Jewelry said...

I really, really like what you've done with this sheet! And you've made it so easy for others to follow along. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I haven't used it yet, I just read the instruction that goes along with it, but I'm thinking this will be really helpful. You should sell this in your shop. :oD

Rabbit Dance said...

As so many have said before - Thank you so much for this! I've always battled with pricing, and it's hard to do when it's your sole source of income.
I look forward to working with it. ^_^

Anonymous said...

OMG...I've finally taken time to sit down and work with this a little, and I need to do some serious price adjustments! As bad as this pains me to say...my husband was right! Darn it!

Chocolate and Steel said...

Amazing! Thanks so much for sharing.

cflorestanis said...

Brilliant! Thank you so much for sharing!

LizzyT said...

Thank you so much for sharing this :)

Nikita said...

I heart spreadsheets!

http://BlueSkyDesign.etsy.com
http://RantindRaving.wordpress.com

Jessica Doyle said...

Thanks for this. I was able to open it up in Google Docs as I am on a mac and do not have microsoft on my computer.

Very enlightening.

I will work with it more.

cheers!

http://jessicadoyle.etsy.com

Judi FitzPatrick said...

Thanks, Chris, a great spreadsheet. You're so nice for working it out and sharing with us; I've most grateful.
Peace, Judi

the observer said...

Thank you... this really puts things into perspective! I'm going to heart you!

Karen P said...

thank you so much for being willing to share your spreadsheet. I'm sure this will be a lot of help in pricing my cards. :)

Jamaica said...

Thanks for posting this and letting people download it... this is a great tool! Just plugged in the numbers on one of my pieces and I am right on point with the price, now if I can get that close with all my stuff, that would be GREAT! Thanks so much for this!

Carrie said...

I just downloaded your spreadsheet.
Thanks a bunch!
Etsy Name: Cerr

S. Bordeaux said...

I am so shocked, I plugged my info for several pieces into the spreadsheet and I am dead on with my pricing, that makes me happy!

Bette said...

hello, chris,

crinolinestash provided the link to your spreadsheet on an etsy forum.

i have downloaded it and plan to play over the weekend.

what a generous person you are. being a user of excel, i know how much work you put into it. know it is really appreciated.

thank you very much,

crazybliss

Kristin said...

Thank you so much. You saved me a ton of time and effort. Cheers!

Heike said...

wow!
According to this, I should sell each piece for $195....I sell each piece for approx. $38-$42!! What an eye opener!

Thank you Chris, for posting this. It will definitely help me recalculate my pricing.

And, I love your pieces, exquisite!

Chains of Love said...

Thank you for the table! It helped me a lot.

Tay MacIntyre said...

Brilliant piece of work, thank-you so much! Just what I needed right now, as I start to wholesale and get seriously serious about making a living. Is there a way to calculate how many pieces I need to sell of a particular item to make my yearly income goal? I'd like to visualize monthly sales goals, so I guess I need to figure out how to do this sheet "backwards" but I have such a mental block with the numbers.

Feel free to contact me through my blog...thanks!

http://www.foundobject.squarespace.com

Hayley J said...

Thanks so much for this!
I can see that it's going to be really useful...all I have to do now is work out how to use it! :D
Etsy name is felicitasdesigns btw.

Grace Garton said...

Great! Thanks for posting this spreadsheet.
So much more to think about now when you want to turn your hobby into a business.

FusedJewels said...

Your spreadsheet will be invaluable to me as I begin pricing my work using other than the "that sounds good" method. Thanks!!

creationsbyeve said...

Wow, I just downloaded the spreadsheet and am very excited to start using it!Great tool!! Thanks very much for sharing!

SewDelish said...

Thanks for this. Will help tremendously when I set up my shop.

ErinT Fashion Accessories said...

I started reworking some of my pricing using your spreadsheet and am so happy to say that it has been an extreme help. Thank you!

Payson said...

Wow, Chris, this spreadsheet is absolutely amazing. I just tried it out with a few of my items, and it surprised me to see how much I undervalued my work. Thanks so much for enlightening me!

I'll have to keep better track of all of my costs and everything now, so I can properly price my work.

This spreadsheet is truly amazing, thank you SO much!

Pal Gooz said...

Hi, I can only reiterate that your spreadsheet spells out so clearly: We HAVE TO account for costs, labor and PROFIT and WHOLESALE and RETAIL pricing. If we don't (like I believe too many) than it is not called competition but pricing the whole craft business out of existence. I can only hope that we crafters can work together like the diamond cartel does to keep prices AND appreciation for our work at sustainable levels.

KayzKreationz said...

Thanks I will probably download both, since I'm not sure which one would be better for my glass. I always struggle with pricing. (And whether my glass is really good enough) :)

Anonymous said...

The logic to the spread sheet is good, but I am concerned that MANY EXPENSES were left out.
Where is time for posting the items and administration, inventory etc?

To say that you should spend more time making and less time administration is not realistic. At least half my time is spent on administration which includes inventory, promotion, Photoshop images, and image organization.

Where is your photography expense or hourly rate for the artist or the photographer taking the pictures of your work? Plus the expense of the camera? Plus the expenses for Photoshop, computer and software?

Where is rent, and utilities?
Where is the other equipment and art supplies besides beads? And the time to buy them? How about the pliers, wire cutters, snips, work bench, just to name a few items needed.

In addition, the hourly wage is unrealistically low. This puts the artist below the poverty level!

Etsy should not endorse this as a pricing model. No wonder the prices on Etsy are so low!

Anonymous said...

Very useful! thank you

Bonzie Designs said...

Awesome resource, thanks Chris!

Mo Pho said...

This is really helpful. I'm just starting my business so expect that I will be in the red for a little while, but hope to make my business into a profitable one within the next year. I never plan to quit my day job, but don't want to sacrifice time with family to make soap on my free time as a business rather than a hobby for no financial gain! If I'm not making money selling it I would rather go back to making it as a hobby and give it to charity! Thank you for this helpful tool.

Chris Parry said...

Harriete Estel Berman said...

Where is time for posting the items and administration, inventory etc?

++++++++++

Hi Harriete

It is intended that YOU input all your own costs and set your own wage with tht e spreadsheet.

It is nothing more than a blank canvas, which every crafter can change to suit their own purposes.

Please read the instructions within the spreadsheet as I thought this was clear. If you think I need to change the wording within, please let me know and I will change it to make it more clear that the USER changes the values.

I could never create a spreadsheet that took into account every craft and ALL of their expenses

Thanks

Chris

mrs moon said...

great spreadsheet, chris. thanks!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the spreadsheet - this is really helpful. :)

Anonymous said...

Chris, I really like this spreadsheet and will have to really look at it this weekend. Hopefully it will help us all be more objective in pricing our creations. I recently wrote a blog article title: "Are You Really Including ALL Your Costs?" If you'd like to see the list of things that may be overlooked you might want to check it out at: http://www.sandtcreations.com/wordpress I know it's a difficult topic for all of us and all the information we can get helps! Teri
S & T Creations Twitter: Teri_B
http://sandtcreations.etsy.com

Unknown said...

This is great! Thank you for sharing! I will have to sit down and figure this all out now!

Sunnisan said...

Thank you for all the hard work and thought put into the pricing spreadsheets. The formula has been mind-boggling for me over the years so I always charged my best guess. This database is all I could ever have asked for and more. Did I say Thank you?!!!!

Justine @ redflax said...

hey there Chris
a big thanks from way down under in nz - i have been taking wild guesses at my pricing and i am sure i am well under what i should be - this will give me the confidence to price my craft for what it is worth...thanks again for your hard work!
justine
redflax.felt.co.nz

Justine @ redflax said...

hi there chris thanks so much for that i was taking wild stabs in the dark on pricing - now i feel i have the confidence to price my clothing for what it is worth!
thanks again!

Unknown said...

thanks for this, downloaded but not explored yet.

PretaPawte said...

Fantastic spreadsheet. I am really intersted in the wholesale vs reatil pricing. now i just need to sit down and work it all out;)

Thanks so much this is very useful

Jennifer Williams said...

This will bve tremendously helpful! Thank you for posting it.

Unknown said...

I ADORE this spreadsheet. You are amazing for posting this for all of us! Thanks so much!! I have been struggling with my pricing since opening my shop and found your spreadsheet to be incredibly helpful - most places on the internet just have vague guides that don't mean much to the individual crafter.

Rachel M Cotton said...

Fabulous tool! Thank you sooo much for offering this to others. You are a rock star!

Unknown said...

Mahalo so much, just what I was looking for.

Vanessa Mae said...

Thank you for the detailed spreadsheet! A wonderful tool to have!

Vanessa Mae said...

Thank for this well thought out tool! I am happy to have found it!

Katie of brandedbutterfly said...

Thank you for this!

Katie

TheBoutiqueMommy said...

This was very helpful. I thought my prices could be too high, but after doing this I see I was right on. This gives me the confidence to charge the prices I need to. Thanks.

Rebecka Jeffs said...

Thank you so much!

Sandra said...

Thanks for this, very helpful!

mini said...

Chris, thank you so much for this spreadsheet. I did understand that I have to put in all my own expenses & costs etc. The directions for that were clear.
I have a different question. Having put in the salary that I want per year, how do I figure out how many items I need to sell at the output price to achieve that salary per year? Ie. how many at x price will give me the salary in Q1/page1?
thanks in advance.

Cloud said...

Thanks for posting this up.

I've just started up an etsy supplies store ( http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7825752 ) and pricing is REALLY hard. I'm finding the conversion to USD difficult to factor in. I did a spreadsheet of my own to try to calculate it all - it seems to be a one page version of yours (without any 'wages' component). I'm going to have a play with your version now to do some comparisons.

I love your jewellery too - very yummy.

Boutique Lucky Stars said...

This is fabulous! Thank you so much for sharing this great pricing tool!

Cavebaby Designs said...

Excellent spreadsheet, thank you!!

Becky Lange said...

Thanks so much for posting this! I'm getting ready to launch on Etsy and have been stewing a bit on how to price my jewelry. This looks like it will be quite helpful and take the guesswork out of the process.

Ceri said...

Hi Chris!

I totally agree with everything your spreadsheet stands for; we must account of all direct & indirect costs and account for profit, wholesale and retail pricing. If an Artisan sells in a retail environment ie. online shop etc. and is not accounting for all of the above they are doing both themselves and the handmade marketplace a serious injustice and that can't be good for sustainability of the handmade marketplace or the Artisan lifestyle.

It my opinion, it is up to each of us as individual Artisan's to collectively understand and value our work appropriately from a practical business perspective [even selling your hobby is a business] and I believe your spreadsheet is the perfect resource for doing so and maintaining the priceless nature of buying handmade. We also need to disseminate this information so it reaches as many sellers and buyers as possible in hopes of creating a mind set shift and sustainability within the handmade marketplace at the same time – I will do my best in this area!

Many many thanks for generously sharing your knowledge and spreadsheets. You can be proud in knowing you are opening the minds of other to new ways of thinking and pricing…!

Ceri

www.CERIosities.etsy.com
www.CERIosities.com.au

Kazumi said...

Hello,
Thank you for sharing this!
It's very helpful!

Kazumi
http://knkchalkartdesigns.etsy.com

Bijoux Confections said...

Thanks for making such a useful resource available!

bijouxconfections.etsy.com

Sandra said...

Thank you Chris for this resource. It's definitely hard to find the balance with pricing. When starting out I gave away and showed off some samples to friends then asked them what they thought they were worth. The answers were astounding. Many who are used to buying mass produced goods came back with a very low price indeed. It is a balance to find the price that will earn you the profit but also the price that buyers are willing to pay.

Anonymous said...

Hi Thanks for such a technical pricing worksheet. I do have an excel formulae that my husband built for me, but all the elements are hidden, I just put figures for componements and time in box A and B and the answer came out at box TT. It will be interesting to see how they compare.

I think yours is better because I can change things myself such as increase in electricity, new equipment etc.


Can't wait to try it out and realise the true costings of my products. Occasionally though,I am sure some prices do have to be reduced once they have gone through the spreadsheet as they will be impossibly high, but that would just mean a smaller profit margin on some things, or a task to find a quicker way to produce.

Lorena // gemagenta said...

This is very helpful! THANK YOU!!!!

I haven't sell anything yet (I'm very new at Etsy) but I'm concerned that I feel that my products are highly priced, but according to this they are 30% low!!! :S

Anyway, THANK YOU for sharing... I made this with paper, pencil and calculator, this will be faster and more accurate :D

Jennifer Vance said...

Downloading to read over later.I saw the forum thread on etsy,and had to read.It is so true!People will say that some of my jewelry is priced too high when I would be barely making anything!I feel like ranting sometimes,too!Because I don't even follow the pricing formula from a business book that I have that's very much like some other spreadsheets.I don't want to price too much because my jewelry gets better with practice,and I'm just starting out online,but I will have to raise my prices as I get better,and once I have to pay taxes.It would be wonderful if other people would raise their prices to what it's worth, so other people could have a chance.It dos'nt help since it makes it so they don't have enough money,neither do we,and it goes around in a circle.I do understand that some people are just doing it to supplement their income,but I would love to see the value of handmade items raised.Thanks Chris!By the way,I really love your crown ring.Jenny:www.JennysTreasuresForU.etsy.com www.jennystreasures.webs.com

Moo Something said...

Thank you so very much for this. My prices were way off and I didn't realize how much time, effort and money I spend on each item I make. This was extremely easy to use and made complete sense.
I'm referring your blog to everyone I know!
Thanks again!

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home said...

Hi. I found you on the etsy forums. You have some great looking pieces for sale!

Thanks for this great spreadsheet!

michelle said...

I got your site off of etsy and I just wanted to thank you! I didn't realize how much i was missing in my prices! Thank you so much for putting this together and sharing it!

Radiant Skin said...

Thank you for the spreadsheet. I have been wanting to ensure that I price my products fairly because while I feel they are worth more than I sell them for, I want to have the balance.

Simone said...

I saw you post on etsy. Great post! I'm off to look at the excel sheet now :)

MCatherine said...

Just purchased the Spread Sheet and totally excited to get started! Thank you for making it available to help us out!
www.hideaheart.etsy.com

Anne Shane said...

Thank you so much for sharing that beautiful ring.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing the spreadsheet. It can help me alot.

Anne Shane said...

This spreadsheet is very useful in a business. It will help us in tracking our sales and profit.

Lauren said...

Dangit... someone just directed me here to find a "very useful free spreadsheet", and now it's not free and I literally only have $8 until payday (haven't even paid my Etsy fees yet). I'll be back if I remember.

Anonymous said...

Anyone one if this spreed works for them for etsy use?