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So what do you do when folk says your handcraft is too expensive? For starters don’t go and slash the price of everything you sell, pick a fight, or throw your hands in the air and give everything up. Take heart there are things that we can do…

How to react emotionally:

People will ALWAYS say ‘ohh that’s too expensive, I could make that myself for less… etc etc.” I used to constantly get this on my market stall. Of course they are entitled to their own opinion (it’s just not very nice when they say it loud enough for your to hear…). It used to hurt a bit at first, but after some months trading I came to the conclusion that a majority of these folks were never likely to sew a stitch and as bargain hunters they were more likely to be driven by cheap prices. And that’s fine, but as you and I already know you cannot begin to compare an item which has been made in a sweat shop (by an exploited worker) with an item that has been painstakingly and lovingly made by hand at home.

When I used to catch a passer-by muttering “too expensive” I used to think “well, it’s not my place to educate you about cut-throat capitalism; if you knew what work was involved in hand making my products perhaps you would think my prices were actually quite reasonable….” So in short, it’s not nice when people grumble about our prices being too expensive, but let them do it; we are not going to market our products them anyway otherwise we woud end up under selling ourselves and going out of business. Instead we should aim to market our products to folks who have an appreciation of items which are unique, high quality, handmade, and therefore a bit more special…

It looks like the price is right for this lady…

How to react practically

• Are your prices (reasonably) in line with other traders? - I’ve always believed that it’s very important to keep an eye on what your counterparts (or in other words, your competition) are doing NOT so you can copy them, but so you can do things differently. However, if for instance you discover your competitors are selling similar sized tote bags (as an example) to you and their bags are markedly cheaper than yours it is important to ensure that your tote bags have that extra something to justify the extra cost. If they don’t then it’s worth considering finding ways to bring your prices in line.
• Find ways to lower the cost of producing your items - buy your materials in bulk wherever you can, get more efficient with your time by producing your items in batches e.g have fabric cutting days, inserting zipper days, bracelet days etc., see if you can source materials for free, you’ll be surprised what you can obtain if you just ask for it - I used to get some of my silk offcuts free from a local curtain maker.
• Be selective with your product range - it’s widely believed (see Further Reading below for studies) that too much choice is not a good thing for sales. I know that we all have a natural tendency to want to please everyone so we try to provide lots of choice, but you can’t please everyone and selling lots of different unrelated items will make your shop look untidy and confused. Par your range down and concentrate on becoming expert at making the items you sell. This will result in you making items faster and better and therefore saving you money in the long run. This is exactly what Carrie has done with great success. Her range is not huge; the shapes stay the same, but the fabrics change and they do all of the talking - and it works a treat!
• Get strategic with your pricing formula - when pricing a craft item it is normal to take both the cost of the materials and your time into consideration, but if you price everything this way and do both commission work as well as a stock standard range you’ll find your commission items will cost loads and this will obviously put your commission customers off (unless you are famous and you can charge accordingly!). It’s worth being prepared to take a smaller profit on more intricate or commission items to stimulate sales. Consider slightly increasing the price on items which sell well to make up for the short fall. In this way you attract more custom and you do not loose out financially. This is what supermarkets do; for instance they will take a smaller profit (or even a loss) on some items to entice customers to the store, but the supermarket will make up for loss elsewhere on another product so everything evens itself out profit-wise.
• Get strategic with what you sell - I think that custom work/and or more intricate work is worth selling in your craft business because this kind of work can really show off your talents to your customers and this shows customers that you are capable of making items to a high standard. However, the bummer of more intricate or custom work is that it is more time consuming and therefore (arguably) less profitable. To make up for this I think it’s a wise idea to sell a number of stock standard items that you are expert at making. I know it can be dull making the same/similar things over and over again, but if you can make them well, make them quickly, and they are popular with customers these standard items can form an important part of your craft business (and your earnings!).

Further Reading

• Too many choices?
• Why too much choice is bad for us.
  
• Pricing you bags or other crafts to sell.

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