How Much Do Your Products Cost?

[StraightTimeStirrups]

I am curious to know how much you guys charge for your products that you make when you sell them pre-made or have someone commission your work on a custom basis. I make stirrups and have my "in stock" hand tooled tooled stirrups made for me here in the USA on a limited basis but would like to venture into the more Custom Made instead of a production sort of deal we do now.

You can post photos and prices if you like and/or PM me if you prefer.

Take Care,

Joe

www.StraightTimeStirrups.com

[TwinOaks]

As a general rule, material costs x2 (minimum) + labor (at $X per hour). Other times, if there is a similar item already on the market and that exceeds T&M, then I'll use the existing product's pricing schedule as a basis for mine. Still other times, I let my business partner price things out (staying above my minimum) since he has a better feel for the customers.

That last part is a critical step to pricing your merchandise - a customer that needs utility won't want to pay premium prices. And the 'prestige' customers will just as readily turn away from merchandise that doesn't cost enough. Those are my favorite customers to have.

[Tinneal]

Right now I'm buying materials at cost, and charging retail for them... sometimes I round it to the nearest quarter (up or down) just for the sake of easy mental math. As for my time, I only charge $10 CAN/hr, as I'm not a speedy worker, and finding customers willing to pay can be tricky... The biggest problem I have, is that people would rather buy cheap bridles from the tack shop, and replace them every year, than pay me a decent dollar and have something that will last.

Sometimes I make things for people, and as long as I cover my costs, I'm happy. I don't charge them much on the agreement that if anyone asks, I charged them $X for it. It has worked really well in the past for getting my name out there, and often the initial people become repeat customers, at a regular charge.

Also, the reason I got into this, was the pride I feel when someone goes on and on about how much they love what I've made... Those are the times I can feel content with not making a huge profit.

[DoubleC]

As a general rule, material costs x2 (minimum) + labor (at $X per hour). Other times, if there is a similar item already on the market and that exceeds T&M, then I'll use the existing product's pricing schedule as a basis for mine. Still other times, I let my business partner price things out (staying above my minimum) since he has a better feel for the customers.

That last part is a critical step to pricing your merchandise - a customer that needs utility won't want to pay premium prices. And the 'prestige' customers will just as readily turn away from merchandise that doesn't cost enough. Those are my favorite customers to have.

Thanks Twin, this is something I need to know too. I just took pics today of a set of rythym beads I decided to make on an old rein I have (II have a lot of an old something because I never throw anything away). I worked on the set off and on with other projects for two weeks. I took it lout to the barn today to get a pic of them on my horse, and the barn owner loved them. I told her they weren't for sale because the time it took to hand lace everything priced them way out of the market. I'm going to use them as an example on our website as a category of things we make. We want to eventually customize everything for people, but I don't think even a prestige customer would pay $150.00 for these, and I sure ain't selling them for $15.00 like I've seen other places

[DoubleC]

Right now I'm buying materials at cost, and charging retail for them... sometimes I round it to the nearest quarter (up or down) just for the sake of easy mental math. As for my time, I only charge $10 CAN/hr, as I'm not a speedy worker, and finding customers willing to pay can be tricky... The biggest problem I have, is that people would rather buy cheap bridles from the tack shop, and replace them every year, than pay me a decent dollar and have something that will last.

Sometimes I make things for people, and as long as I cover my costs, I'm happy. I don't charge them much on the agreement that if anyone asks, I charged them $X for it. It has worked really well in the past for getting my name out there, and often the initial people become repeat customers, at a regular charge.

Also, the reason I got into this, was the pride I feel when someone goes on and on about how much they love what I've made... Those are the times I can feel content with not making a huge profit.

I think you're right Tinneal. I am opening a business with a friend of mine and hope to eventually have everything on it custom made but people get bored so easily, I think they'd rather buy a new bridle every year than pay for something that's quality handmade. I love what I'm doing just so far and I haven't even gotten around yet to making my first tack set, but I WON'T give it away. I mean to a website customer, etc. I'll give it to someone I know before I try and make sure everything is perfect on something I made and then have someone try and talk the price down. But I'm slow too so I will probably have to set a price I'm comfortable with rather than do it by the hour.