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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Instant Gratification

Remember this? I put this photo up in yesterday's post. Oh, btw, here's the link for the contest.

Anyway, I posted this scarf yesterday and put the scarf and the hat in the shop for sale. Last night, right before dinner, I thought I'd check to shop views to see if anyone was looking around.

The scarf had sold.
This brings two conflicting thoughts to mind.
The first: YIPPEE!!!
The second: I sold it for too little.

The first thought tells the second thought to shut up. Pricing has been a big issue in both the freelance and handmade fields. We've had this discussion before: some folks are very quick to point out how pricing too low kills the rest of the industry. I still hear it from people who tell me I price my stuff too low.

Too low for what?

See. This is why the first thought tells the second thought to stuff it. For those of you who are thinking of selling your items, you will have to figure out what works best for you and let everyone else's opinion roll off your back.

Sometimes you have let it roll off your own back. I worked out a formula and I plug it in and a price comes up. Sometimes it seems reasonable; sometimes not, but some things about the business remains the same: materials cost what they cost, postage and fees are usually consistent. Time it take to create an article usually changes so I put in an average value for that which can increase over time like a raise or salary increase. And then I live with the numbers.

I do something similar when figuring out prices for the in person sales. There are some different considerations (like no shipping or handling fees) but the formula remains pretty much the same. Sometimes it means some really good prices - steals almost. Sometimes it means something will be pretty high end. Most of the time it hits it just right. And that might be the best you can hope for.

So I will probably get over the price thing - in truth, the price is probably about right to slightly too low - but the gratification of the sale remains with me. To know folks will buy your stuff. It's better than when I sell something I've written - and that's a pretty good high!

I'll worry about pricing another day - when I schedule time to worry about things. But for the moment, I'm going to rejoice that I have made my 18th sale since being in business for almost a year.

YIPPEE!
050404

2 comments:

cici said...

congratulations... Don't second guess yourself. I think you did the right thing and learned a lesson♥

Beverly said...

Hello, my darling! Lovely to hear from you. Yes, it was probably right and now there's nothing to do but learn - just like you said. Mr. Honey asked me if I was going to make another one. I really should.

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