Thursday, December 27, 2007

What Are You Worth?

There is much debate in the Etsy forums (as there usually is) about pricing and whether or not you should raise prices as one person puts it "for ego reasons". Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking about pricing and have actually had several people tell me that my beadwoven pieces are priced too low and that I don't value my time or talent. At this point, I have only been "paying myself" less than minimum wage for my time. Beadweaving is time intensive and since my pieces are original, there is also the time it takes to create the pattern. There is a fine line. I don't want to raise my prices to the point that people will pass them by as too expensive, but what is too much and what is it worth? The pat answer is that you should price to what the market will bear. Since beadweaving is a small segment of jewelry making, who's to know what the market will bear? This is my debate at the moment. What is your time and talent worth? Will someone be willing to pay it or are you pricing yourself out of sales? What are you worth? What are you willing to pay?

No comments: