How much would I charge for this?

[Britt Snow]

I've been working on making candles and getting them to where they are acceptable and look nice. Had a friend over the other day and asked about purchasing three candles from me.

She wants three 12 ounce red cinammon candles. How do I go about figuring out what to charge?

How do you do price candles this size?

[ladysj]

The consensus seems to be figure your cost and times it by 3 or 4 HTH

[wvcandleguy]

yep... what she said. To figure out your costs, you have to factor in the cost of the wax per pound, cost of your FO per oz, cost of your wicks, coloring, containers each, labeling, and labor... then multiply by 3 or 4... that should give you a rough estimate.... then you may have to adjust from there depending on your area. What sells for 10 bucks here may not sell where you are..... just check around your local area and just be comparable without going broke.... GOOD LUCK !

[BrandNewToCandles]

Good advice about pricing depending on your area. I don't sell (just started), may never sell, but I know for sure that I could not get more than 2X my cost, if that. It's a shame, because I really enjoy making candles, even all the testing I'm doing (even if I don't sell, I want to make for myself the best possible candle) and I'd love to share it, just not something I could make any real money at around here.

[AngelaVA]

I add up all my costs (including shipping) and then multiply that by 4. If that figure comes out to more than you think you can charge, then take a look at competitor candle prices (from Yankee all the way down to local chandlers - whatever your customers would buy in place of your product) and look for a way to decrease your costs - like buying in bulk. Buying in bulk is tough when you are first starting out. I still don't really buy in bulk, but I have found other ways to cut my costs. Also, my area is fairly affluent and so I can get a higher price for my candles. If you're in a more rural area, you may need to charge less. You just have to find out what the market will bear in your area.

Also, if this is a friend, tell her what your price would be, but maybe give her a 10% "new customer" discount or something like that. If you aren't going to charge her your full retail price, at least make sure that she knows what the full retail price is. You don't want a friend of hers coming to you and wanting to buy that candle for the cheaper price. Hope that makes sense

[Britt Snow]

Thanks for the advice. It cost me about $3.00 dollars to make it, but I spent today asking other friends how much they would be willing to pay for a good homemade candle of that size, and they all pretty much agree on $8.00. Which I think is reasonable for this area. Other candlemakers that I have seen charge about that.

Thanks again.

[AngelaVA]

Personally, I think that $8.00 for a 12 ounce candle is low. A general guidleline to charge is roughly $1 per ounce, so something more like $12 would be fair. Think about this too. If you ever decide to wholesale, you would not make much money at this price because you aren't even getting 3x your cost. I know this may be far in the future, but it's hard to raise prices after you start selling. Don't start off too low. You could always try selling them for $10-12 and give a new customer discount or something like that.