What Should I Charge?

[Calvus]

I've been given my first commission! Well, not officially, since I haven't given my friend the price yet, which is why I've come to you experts.

You may have seen the belt I recently made for my wife.

Well, a friend of mine wants me to make her one as well, with some slight changes. I'm fine with that, seeing as how they are minor. My issue is what should I charge her. She's willing to pay, but I want to be fair about it. My problem is that I don't have most of the materials required. (I'm only a hobbyist.)

All materials combined comes to $77.30, which includes shipping. I really need a larger buttonhole punch to make this work better, but I'm not charging for that since she isn't receiving the tool. My time is worth something, at least to me, but I can't remember how long it took me to make the original belt. This commissioned belt will include sewing (by hand), which will increase time significantly.

I'm thinking of charging a flat $100. What do you think? What would you charge for something like this?

[leatherwytch]

I charge $25-30 per hour, then price of goods plus 40% markup. It is okay to make money off of family and friends. Remember this was custom and custom is 3-4 times higher than buying off the rack.

[Tramps Leatherworking]

I charge $25-30 per hour, then price of goods plus 40% markup. It is okay to make money off of family and friends. Remember this was custom and custom is 3-4 times higher than buying off the rack.

Yeah, what she said...

[NVLeatherWorx]

Did I read that correctly? Materials cost is $77.30? That seems a bit high for that one belt. If you need to order materials for this belt you should only charge your client/customer for the materials used and not everything you order. Any material left over now becomes your remaining inventory for other projects to make money with.

I too charge between $25 and $30 per hour and I have an entire formula setup to calculate the rest of the things that need to factored into the overall pricing process. As a hobbyist you still deserve to make something on everything that you make and sell to others, regardless of who they are. And you are correct that you shouldn't charge the client for a tool that you purchase for this specific item, but you should account for the overall cost of it and then spread the cost out over EVERYTHING that you make. Pricing can get quite detailed and very in depth but for your purpose at this point you don't need to go that far. If things get going and you start getting requests for more then you need to change it up and find a pricing model that is more along the lines of a full-scale business style.

How did you come to your materials cost? Just kind of curious because I don't see where that number came from based on the image of the belt. Which, by the way, is quite nicely done.

[Calvus]

I charge $25-30 per hour, then price of goods plus 40% markup. It is okay to make money off of family and friends. Remember this was custom and custom is 3-4 times higher than buying off the rack.

Yeah, what she said...

Thanks! My only problem is not knowing how many hours it will take. Guess I could always guesstimate.

[Calvus]

Did I read that correctly? Materials cost is $77.30? That seems a bit high for that one belt. If you need to order materials for this belt you should only charge your client/customer for the materials used and not everything you order. Any material left over now becomes your remaining inventory for other projects to make money with.

I too charge between $25 and $30 per hour and I have an entire formula setup to calculate the rest of the things that need to factored into the overall pricing process. As a hobbyist you still deserve to make something on everything that you make and sell to others, regardless of who they are. And you are correct that you shouldn't charge the client for a tool that you purchase for this specific item, but you should account for the overall cost of it and then spread the cost out over EVERYTHING that you make. Pricing can get quite detailed and very in depth but for your purpose at this point you don't need to go that far. If things get going and you start getting requests for more then you need to change it up and find a pricing model that is more along the lines of a full-scale business style.

How did you come to your materials cost? Just kind of curious because I don't see where that number came from based on the image of the belt. Which, by the way, is quite nicely done.

First paragraph - So are you saying that even though dye would run me $7 for the whole bottle, but I'll only use half of it, that I should only charge $3.50?

Last paragraph - Here is the break down on material.

Store 1:

Elastic - $5

$6 shipping

Store 2:

Button stud - $2

Dye - $7

Button stud punch (I'm not charging for this, but it is being shipping with the above two items. Shipping is flat rate.)

$13 shipping

Store 3:

Leather - $30

$6 shipping

Store 4:

Thread - $6

$2.30 shipping

Grand total: $77.30

Now I'll explain why 4 online stores are being used, because that's probably what you're thinking. Store 1 has the width and style of elastic that I need. Besides that, I've never seen a leather store carry elastic. Store 2 and 3 might be able to be combined, resulting in less shipping. I was having trouble finding the exact dye and button stud at store 3 though. I could buy my leather from store 2, but I would have to buy a side/shoulder/whatever. At this point I'm not able to afford such a large piece. Store 3 has a 12"x24" piece which is perfect, leaving very little waste. Store 4 has my thread, which I'm picky about.

Hopefully this isn't clear as mud!

Edited January 20, 2015 by Calvus

[NVLeatherWorx]

Well, a third of your total is shipping alone so that doesn't help. Not knowing what stores you have in close proximity, could you have found any of these items at a store that you could physically visit? That would cut out some of that shipping, and maybe even less for a specific item. If you do plan on making other projects then any dyes, materials, etc. that you have left over can actually go to that so, from a business perspective, you only charge for what you use on any specific project. If you don't plan on doing anything else for any period of time then I guess you can try and get your money back for what you have invested.

Now on your original post about your time being worth something. In your case, you will only be giving yourself about $23 for your time. I have seen similar belts (not that style but some unique designer styles) which are called handmade but we all know are really machine sewn within a couple of minutes, that sell for $400 and upwards. If you are willing to accept the $23 to compensate yourself then that is what you agree to do. Not knowing if you ever plan on taking this to the next level (i.e. a business concept), I would recommend that you at least keep track of your actual hands-on labor time and charge $10 per hour as a minimum. If you do decide to go to a business model then you will need to reevaluate that of course and charge appropriately. I would also recommend that if you do go more towards a business model that you look at establishing wholesale pricing with your suppliers so that you are saving some big time money. I say this because from what I can calculate from the picture of the first belt, my materials cost (for everything) would be right about $20 (give or take a buck or two).

I personally would charge no less than $200 for that belt shown just because it is unique, handmade, and custom and that all makes it worth much more than some off the rack version from any branded designer or other source. More realistically, that belt would most likely be listed in my shop around the $300 mark but the pricing game is one we all struggle with and constantly reevaluate when our costs change.

If you get anymore requests for these things (and I can see that you easily could) then you might find yourself looking at how you go forward with you supplies purchasing and costing of project materials.

Good luck with this, and I would love to see a picture of the next one.

[leatherwytch]

What I do when I start a job is when I start to do it I record the time. When I take a break, I record the time, When I start again and so on. Then when I am done I add it all up and you will have how long it took you. Say cutting out was an hour, putting it together and dying it another hour. You have two hours.

[Calvus]

What I do when I start a job is when I start to do it I record the time. When I take a break, I record the time, When I start again and so on. Then when I am done I add it all up and you will have how long it took you. Say cutting out was an hour, putting it together and dying it another hour. You have two hours.

I wish I had done that, leatherwytch, but I honestly didn't expect anyone to be interested enough in the belt to actually request one for themselves. I like it, my wife loves it, but I made it, ya know, so I don't see it as good enough. Make sense? I want to say that it took me an hour to cut out (8-9oz leather + several pieces), an hour to burnish, maybe 10-15 minutes to dye, 30 minutes to rivet, and at least 2-3 hours of layout testing/designing/patterning. So you're looking at 4 3/4 - 5 3/4 hrs total.

[snubbyfan]

Don't know if this'll help any but this just went out for $175.