Rogue1 Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 Well Ive kinda been lurking around here for awhile and have decided to show myself finally... From what Ive read thus far, yall are an amazing and talented group of people. Im so glad I found this forum! Having said that, Im not sure if Im posting this question in the right area, if so, please accept my apologies in advance. Ive been making bb items for some time however never had the courage to actually sell them. Recently I made some stuff for friends at work and they have assured me that I could easily sell my stuff. My question is, how do I go about setting prices? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!:smiley2: Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!Gina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapaddict Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 Hi, Gina. I have only sold one lotion myself, but I followed other peoples priceing. I went with the one dollar per ounce. It really can depend on what you have into the product. You can get really detailed and figure out your price per ounce for each and every thing that is in your prod. and figure your base of what it cost to make the items, BUT that gives me a headach, as it can change EVERY time you buy your supplies, with price going up and down. So, my prefered method is a yahoo search for similer hand made b&b and go with that! BTW I'm in MN, how much snow do ya' got? We got around 35 in. with both storms.Joyce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogue1 Posted March 8, 2007 Author Share Posted March 8, 2007 Hiya Joyce :smiley2: Thanks for the tips! I have surfed a few other sites to see what people are charging...it seems to vary quite a bit. My husband keeps telling me something similar to what you were saying. Break down the contents of each product, figure out what all goes into it, the amounts used, what I paid for it....blahblahblah....First of all, Im pretty math illiterate unless Im calculating a IV flow rate or something , and second of all, crafting is a love, something that comes from my soul and brings me happiness so I guess when it comes to putting a price on that its kinda hard. I would love to just be able to give the stuff away, and I have...tons of it, however the demand is just getting too big and its really starting to get expensive for me. I guess at this point Ill just do the best I can and learn from trial and error?:undecided As for the snow..35 inches?! Yikes, I can believe it though, they were nasty storms. I live in southern Wisconsin..think we got about 10-15 inches between both storms. The first one was all snow..second was all rain and ice. We just had a young boy (my sons best friend) die in a fatal car crash. He was returning from National Guard duty last Sunday night and lost control when his car hit some black ice. Very very sad. Anyways...hope youre staying warm over there in Minn. So nice to meet you Joyce! Gina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapaddict Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 Gina,I know what you mean, I give most of my stuff away also! If I was not addicted to making new recipes all the time, I would never put as much money into my soaps! Sorry to hear about your sons friend, black ice has had me turning where I have NOT wanted to go plenty of times! It is going to be in the 40's by this week-end, whoo-hoo!Joyce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michi Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Just wanted to say hello :wave: to you.The best way to figure pricing is just what your husband told you-figure out what $$ you have in the product, including packaging, labels etc. and then most people triple that for retail.Sorry to hear about your friend's son, being a CA girl, I'm petrified of black ice, snow etc. My daughter lives in OR and gets quite a bit of snow and I freak out if I have to drive with it just on the sides of the road. I don't even like to drive in the rain!LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogue1 Posted March 9, 2007 Author Share Posted March 9, 2007 Hi Michi! Thanks for taking the time to say hello!Yeah I totally understand your fear of driving in the ice and snow...it can be pretty tricky sometimes. Fortunately Ive lived here much of my life so I have a little experience under my belt. One thing that I find particularly amazing is the amount of Wisconsinites who have lived here their entire lives and yet when the snow hits they forget how to drive in it. I cant tell you how many accidents Ive witnessed in the last couple weeks! As for pricing...*sighs* I broke everything down for the layered bath salts I make. It came out to be about $7 to make them. I have a picture of them however I dont know how to post it here...at any rate, I dont think anyones gonna pay $20-$30 for them so alas, Im gonna sell them for $10 I think. I make my salts with fancier glass jars and then layer the best salts I can find along with the herb or flower that matches the particular scent, goats milk, FO, etc...Wish I could show it to you and see what you think!Gina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLSoaps Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Ooh Ooh! Pricing is one of the things I'm incredibly "anal" about. I hate that word, but it fits my attitude about it perfectly. I really need to just put this formula on my supply site, as I seem to hand it out several times a week (this is actually the 3rd time just today! LOL!). Anyway, another time...If you want to be successful, then you have to price your products properly. Scoping out the competition's prices is important, but you should not automatically base your prices on their prices. If you add a few more luxury ingredients that cost more, you could easily end up losing a little bit of money with each bottle sold (we're gonna assume lotions with this scenario). If you underprice and lose 50 cents a bottle, that's really bad. And if it takes off, and you sell 100 bottles, then you've actually lost $50. So if you're underpriced, then the more you sell, the more you're losing. Now my pricing process is a time consuming PITA, but it's very accurate, and it's worth the time.To start, you need to figure out how much each ingredient costs you (including shipping to you), then break it down by whatever you measure in, such as ounces. Keep track of these costs in a nice organized file, and it will save you a lot of time.Then take your batch recipe, and calculate exactly how much it costs to make it based on the ingredients.Then add your packaging costs. The containers, the labels, the ink, shrink wrapping, everything. Trust me, it adds up.To this total I then add 20-30%. This covers inflation costs, such as shipping that seems to be going up at least once a year, and minimal increases your supplier may instate. By adding this in, it means you don't have to recalculate and change your prices everytime your supplier raises their prices. You're covered for a time. It also covers a decent amount of your overhead costs, such as a percentage of your rent, electricity, water bills, etc. Now we add Labor Costs. I'm always amazed at how many times this is left out. You need to pay yourself and pay yourself well. I never went to college to learn any of the stuff that I'm doing, but I figure I've put in the equivalent time in research to basically be equivalent to at least a bachelors if not a masters. I pay myself $15/hour minimum. And I won't ever dip below that.This also covers me for when I get to the point that I need to hire help. It means I can pay help a very competitive wage, which I believe is important to being able to hire quality help as well.So we've got a subtotal here. Divide that by the quantity the batch makes. This number is your unit cost. Each bottle costs you this amount to make. To make things a little clearer from here on out, I'm going to say it costs $2.00 to make a bottle of lotion.You now need to factor in profit. Depending on the product, and the pricing and profit margin the market will allow, I add anywhere between 20% and 200% to this total for my wholesale markup. Basically, I price as high as the market will allow me. It may take some testing to learn what those levels are in your area. But we'll go with a 50% markup, which is what I usually aim for. (the 200% doesn't happen very often. In fact, I only have one product that I have it on, but it's very much a specialty item that marketing wise, I can do it)So $2.00 + 50% markup = $3.00 - Wholesale PriceI then always DOUBLE my wholesale price to get my retail price. So I'd retail the bottle of lotion for $6.00. I also then know I have a good profit margin, and I can offer sales knowing that I'm still making a profit. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I hope all this makes sense. I've been running errands all day, and it's given me a bit of a headache. If you've got questions, I'll try to remember to pop in and check for them. Unfortunately, the subject title doesn't reflect the contents at all, so I hope I don't totally forget. I need a personal assistant or something! LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLSoaps Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Sorry, thought of one last thing. Don't be tempted to cut the wholesale pricing out. You may not think you'll ever want to offer it, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen people who thought the same thing when they started, then they were approached by a store, and they suddenly found themselves underpriced, and having to totally recalculate to include a wholesale cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel91805 Posted March 10, 2007 Share Posted March 10, 2007 Thanks, Lindsay! I copied your post over to Word so I can save it. I'm fairly "anal" too. :embarasse In fact, I'm taking a Business Math class and this week we learned about markup percentages based either on cost (to make) or selling price (if you got it wholesale and don't know the cost to make). Really interesting. Lots of wicked formulas too . I should preface that by stating that I am one of "those" math type people. Drives DH bonkers. Now...ask me how many times I failed chemistry in school...ROFL! That's probably why my salt bars won't comeout right.... HAHAHAHAHAHugs,Donna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLSoaps Posted March 10, 2007 Share Posted March 10, 2007 Lots of wicked formulas too . I should preface that by stating that I am one of "those" math type people. DHugs,DonnaOoooh! Now I wanna come pick your brain on all these formulas. In starting our supply business, and in developing both our websites over the last year, I've discovered I really LOVE the business side of all of this. I originally got into it because of allergies, then a love of lotion and soap making. Trust me, I still love all of that, but I am still amazed at how much I love all the business and marketing parts of it. So when you metioned your wicked formulas... Well, I wanna know what they are!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel91805 Posted March 10, 2007 Share Posted March 10, 2007 PMing ya, Lindsay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmsojka Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Sorry, posted on wrong thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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