If you want to drive a bunch of artists crazy, it's pretty easy to do: ask them about pricing their work.
Sure, there are formulas out there (A Simple Formula for Pricing Your Work, How to Price Your Handcrafted Goods), but sometimes artsy types struggle with those. Artists are artists precisely because they don't fit into a formula. Plus, it can be difficult to put a price on something that you enjoy doing or something that seems to come naturally to you. It's hard to remember that not everyone has your talent or skill. It's all too easy to dismiss the years of work it took for you to get where you are today.
I've found that when I'm working through a complex issue such as pricing, sometimes it takes a startling statement in an unexpected place to serve as a wake-up call. I just had one of those moments.
A couple of days ago, I was flipping through the July 2012 issue of Better Homes and Gardens and an article by Jody Garlock titled "Make It Look Like Your Splurged" caught my attention. Who doesn't want to know how to get something stylish without spending a fortune?
Sabrina Soto, the host of HGTV's Get It Sold, is one of the experts interviewed in this Q&A article. Here's the part that made me nearly fall off my chair:
Q: Where are you finding bargains?
A: I've been semi-obsessed with Etsy lately. I bought a hand-beaded pillow for about $30—and that included shipping. If it had been in a boutique, it would have been more than $100.
The Etsy forums and other craft blogs are filled with shop owners gnashing their teeth about pricing, usually worrying that their prices are too high. Frankly, they almost never are. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I read one discussion recently where someone admitted to running the numbers on her product and learning she was making eleven cents on something that took her several hours to make.
I don't believe the problem is unique to Etsy. It's an issue no matter where artisans sell their work. I wish I had a quick and easy solution to the problem of pricing, but I don't. I'm still figuring it out myself. But Sabrina's unexpected quote did help me articulate something I've always believed but never expressed:
Do you want people to buy your handmade product because it was the cheapest option? Or would you rather they choose your item because of your superior customer service, your high-quality workmanship, your choice of well-made materials, your spot-on eye for unique design, your thoughtful packaging, your obsessive attention to every detail?
Yeah. Me, too.