Questions on Pricing

[Daggrim]

Thanks for the comments, people. Keep 'em coming, please. BTW I already changed the photo Windy mentioned. Guess it's time to upgrade more photos, as some of them represent work I did 3 years ago.

Bree, matbe you're right. I'm still considering what you've been saying about pricing. I know most of my patrons aren't hard core rennies. They're what we call playtrons, who love to come to the faires all dressed up to play, but don't drop big bucks. I need to start attending the really big faires, where there's a larger hard core clientele with the big budgets. That's my plan for 2010...Business Plan...written down, even. Aren't ya proud of me?

Dag

[Bree]

Thanks for the comments, people. Keep 'em coming, please. BTW I already changed the photo Windy mentioned. Guess it's time to upgrade more photos, as some of them represent work I did 3 years ago.

Bree, matbe you're right. I'm still considering what you've been saying about pricing. I know most of my patrons aren't hard core rennies. They're what we call playtrons, who love to come to the faires all dressed up to play, but don't drop big bucks. I need to start attending the really big faires, where there's a larger hard core clientele with the big budgets. That's my plan for 2010...Business Plan...written down, even. Aren't ya proud of me?

Dag

You betcha!! Always remember this... you can set your base price at an astronomical level and then discount the heck out of it. It is a time tested, proven technique... a fall back. What it actually turns out to be or how it gets there really doesn't matter as much as understanding that we are our worst enemies when it comes to getting what we are worth.

We see things from our own vantage point or perspective... from our own income level. Believe me that people of great wealth see things differently. Low prices bespeak mass production and not custom quality.

A good exercise is to create something, set the price extremely high, and try to sell it to someone. Don't give up!! Use every ounce of your brain to figure out who to go to and what to say to get the high price. Train yourself to think like wealthy people think. Talk to some Silver Spooners and probe their thought processes. See how their thinking differs from your own. So that you can avoid be trapped in a corral created by your own mind... the Nine Dot problem of pricing and value.

I remember a trainer I once had who said that you earn income in proportion to the level of income of your customers. That always impressed me as a good principle which embodied a lot of common sense. In later years I came to realize that having upscale customers helps us to escape from our own limitations. The problem is which comes first... the chicken or the egg. We have to somehow rise above our own self-imposed limitations relative to price and value.

Scientific experiment is a good way to start that rise. So experiment with pricing, value, and BOLDness!

[Daggrim]

So, in a nutshell, seek out upscale customers. I can work with that concept. What's the Nine Dot problem?

Dag

[tashabear]

I figure that the vikings did not

ordain their helmets very much. I will bet that at least one somewhere in time

has done some fancy work to one. There is always one creative guy in the

field who will go the extra step either out of boredom or just cause he has

the talent to do so. Once again this is just my most humble opinion.

WINDY.............Wondering why he has never made a helmet.

Why do you say that? The Norse were wonderful tailors, artists, and craftsmen, just look at all the decorative motifs Freki shared with us.

I think Daggrim's work is lovely. Were he to embellish the helmets with carving and/or painting, it would take that tiny step over the edge into spectacular.

[Daggrim]

Thanks Tashabear,

Carving is the next step for me, I think. Gonna start easy and work up to fancier stuff. Then I'll be able to do a Bree, and triple my prices!!! Hooyah!!! )C:)

Dag

[Bree]

Go here

http://www.ninedotsystems.com/exercise.php

When and only when you have tried to find the solution for a sufficient time then you can look at the solution at this URL

http://www.ninedotsystems.com/exercise2.php

The solution requires you to escape self imposed limitations.

Edited February 8, 2009 by Bree

[Suze]

Hi all

can I add to this thread from a little "different perspective"?

I am also a crafter (dollhouse minis - sewing - that sort of stuff) I sold dollhouse things for years

and I am a collector of same.

Pricing is so much easier if you are also a collector - the best way I found was to, after I had finshed a prototype and thought about the price. was to put it away and not look at it for two weeks. at the end of two weeks - I took that llittle whatsit and put it in my hand and asked myself if I would pay $$$ for this. If the answer was no - I had to rethink things. I listened to that voice - the few times I didn't the "thing" didn't sell cause it was overpriced. And the weird thing is some things wouldn't sell if you UNDERpriced them.

They mustn't be "good enough" or something - jack the price up and they sell - go figure.

the Middlebridge (another forum for SCA folks) had a lively discussion on this awhile back - I should have saved some of those posts, you all would find them intresting. One gentleman sells swords (damascus steel swords, drool) and they have a pretty hefty price - well worth the money for what they are, I just don't have that much. And he was telling us that he had one customer try to talk him out of a sword for peanuts because "all you have invested in it is your time" Yeah and you go tell YOUR boss you don't need a paycheck either cause all you have invested in work is your time.

I have noticed a trend with me anyway

and that is how a item can go from "You have got to be kidding" expensive - to - you know, for the work involved, it's not too bad a price - to - Here's my money, give it to me NOW!

in the space of 3 heartbeats.

I just last year paid $200 for a Japenese Braiding stand made of cherry wood that has not a speck of stain or sealer or polish on it. The last grit sandpaper the gentleman uses is something like 2400. It is satin. I also have bought things that no self respecting crafter would buy. Mainly to show people what not to buy. I have started teaching some fiber arts.

the main mantra I use for that is that you can only craft as good as the TOOLS you have. Crud tools do not give quality work.

Thank you for reading.

from the other side

Suze

[Windy]

the main mantra I use for that is that you can only craft as good as the TOOLS you have. Crud tools do not give quality work.

Thank you for reading.

from the other side

Suze

Surely you jest when you make such a statement.In the right hands

the crudest tool will give great results.A true master can work with

anything.

WINDY

[Suze]

the main mantra I use for that is that you can only craft as good as the TOOLS you have. Crud tools do not give quality work.

Thank you for reading.

from the other side

Suze

Surely you jest when you make such a statement.In the right hands

the crudest tool will give great results.A true master can work with

anything.

WINDY

not really - ever try cutting leather with a knife that won't hold an edge?

do you get a great cut?

or do you have to "saw" through it?

And even if you are a Master Craftsman a crud (bad) knife is a crud (bad) knife.

a tool that is CRUDE might be the best thing to use. A pin in a sucker stick is one of my fav crafting tools.

Ask Johanna sometime about all the crazy things I can do with a swiss army knife. but it is not a head knife or a carving tool. It could be used sort of like one - but will you get your best work out of it?

[Daggrim]

Hey Bree...got it!

Maybe not a fair test, as I remembered seeing this in the past, so I already knew the lines had to be extra long.

Reminds me of somthing that happened to me when I was about 5 yrs old. A bunch of us kids crawled into the storage shed of the town butcher. There were stacks of chicken cages in there, and a couple of the older boys tricked us into getting into them. Well, they slammed the doors shut, and told us that the butcher would find us in there in the morning and butcher us. We were screaming and crying after they left us, but one by one we all escaped. Some of the doors weren't even latched, mine included. When I finally just tried pushing it, the door opened right up.

So what did I do for my still trapped friends? Nothing. I ran like hell and never looked back. I just kept my mouth shut and didn't eat any sausage for the next couple weeks.

So, that's my experience about escaping from a self imposed limitation.

Doug

[

quote name=Bree' date='Feb 8 2009, 05:25 PM' post='87385]

Go here

http://www.ninedotsystems.com/exercise.php

When and only when you have tried to find the solution for a sufficient time then you can look at the solution at this URL

http://www.ninedotsystems.com/exercise2.php

The solution requires you to escape self imposed limitations.