#jobs take variable amounts of time so I want to charge hourly

[haganenoyuki]

the below situation has me considering actually ironing out a system for commissions for that sort of thing. there's a lot of people who are way better and faster than me at character art but I think my workflow and intuition with flyers and posters and other graphic stuff is good enough that I can justify asking for rates that I would find worthwhile to work for

[wedding-videograpner]

Professional videographer rates you can afford. Check out our video production cost.

Professional videographer rates vary depending on the quality of content.

If you're a freelance videographer, you probably know that it's essential to charge enough for your work so that your business can be successful. But what exactly is the appropriate amount to charge? That's hard to say because every job is different, and many factors are at play when determining your freelance videographer rates. This article will help you determine how much money you should make for each project based on experience, type of business, and more.

What is a professional charge for videographer rates?

Professional videographer rates depend on many factors. The type of project, the number of years of experience, and the size/scope of the project are just some examples. You’ll also want to consider your event length and day rate, business type (corporate or commercial), travel distance for your videographer, and their cost-per-hour rate. Lastly, you should consider the quality of content you’re looking for to ensure that it fits your budget requirements.

How to determine your freelance videographer rates.

- Calculate what you need to earn. - Figure out how much you need to make per hour to live comfortably, pay your bills, and still have money left for savings or leisure activities. Your goal should be between $10-$20 per hour depending on where you live, where your clients are located, what type of work you do, and more. (For example: If a client is willing to pay me $8/hour for an event in San Francisco, but I live in Los Angeles, it makes no sense for me to take that job.) - Determine how many hours per week/month/year that translates into based on the types of jobs that you typically do. For example: if I'm only shooting events once every six months, then I can only charge so little because I won't have any steady income during those months when no events come my way. Therefore, my hourly rate would probably be lower than someone who shoots weddings every weekend throughout the year.* Add up all these numbers together! You now know what kind of salary range fits your life goals and expectations.* Make adjustments accordingly if necessary by changing either one or both of these variables: number of projects per year and video production packages.

Why you should charge more than your minimum rate (and then how).

You may find yourself wanting to charge more than what you currently do. Of course, it's always good to be on the lower end of the scale when starting. But once you've established a reputation and built up your portfolio, you may want to increase your rates to match your talent and experience. If that sounds like something that's appealing to you, read on! Here are some tips for how raising freelance videographer rates can help boost your business: - If you're planning on charging more than your current minimum rate but don't know where exactly is reasonable for higher-paying projects... - How do I increase my freelance videographer prices?

Discover how the number of years of experience affects the price.

As a videographer, it's essential to understand how experience affects the price of your work. The more knowledge you have as a videographer, the higher your rate can be. This is because you’re likely to be more skilled at your job and make fewer mistakes than someone who has just started. A client could also request that an experienced videographer come in for an interview before hiring them for their project. Clients may want someone who understands what they're looking for right away, so they don't have to spend time explaining it over again - which means less money spent on revisions and additional services!

Learn how the size and scope of a project affect the freelance videographer's cost.

The cost depends on the size and scope of your project. How much time it takes to shoot, who is involved in the project, and how many locations you need to shoot at are all factors that affect the price. We've seen projects requiring only an hour of shooting, but we've also seen shoots take days. While we can't say precisely how much time it will take for us to complete your project (unless you're booking us), there are some general guidelines we can provide: - The larger or more complex a shoot is, the longer it takes to shoot and edit video footage. - The less footage you have shot, the longer it will take us to produce video content for your business or organization.

Discover how event length and day rate affect your travel costs.

Your day rate is an essential component of your videographer's pricing. It's the amount you charge each day you work on a project. For example, if your day rate is $1,000 per day and the client asks for two days of filming, you'll charge $2,000 for the shoot—regardless of travel costs. However, travel can often be included in a videographer's base price. If it's not included in your base price and you're doing round-trip travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco (a 2-hour flight) and back again every weekend to shoot three weddings over six months at a venue that's 12 miles away from where you live at home—that could add up quickly!

Learn how to choose your freelance videographer rates based on experience, type of business, travel, and more.

Before you get to the nitty-gritty, you should know that there are several types of freelance videographers. Some charge a minimum rate and add extra charges for travel time and equipment costs; others charge per day or hour; others have different prices depending on the services they provide. So how do you determine your freelance videographer rates? It can be a little tricky at first, but here's where we'll come in handy: We've compiled a list of factors that affect how much you should charge your clients. We'll also walk through some examples so that by the end of this article, you'll know exactly where to start charging based on your experience level and type of business.

Budget-minded wedding videography

Wedding videography is an integral part of the wedding experience. It’s an opportunity to share your special day with your family and friends who couldn’t attend. And it gives you a chance to relive those moments repeatedly. But, as with most things, wedding videos come at a cost. With today’s technology, wedding videographers can produce high-quality films without breaking the bank. The average cost for a wedding video is between $1000-3000 dollars. The price can vary depending on how much coverage you want and whether or not you want additional features such as drone footage or aerial shots from a helicopter/plane. Some standard features offered by wedding videographers include: 1) Basic coverage will include all the important moments from start to finish, from getting ready before the ceremony to the first dances after the reception ends. You will also get some critical editing work done to create organization and flow to your video. You won’t get any frills, but this option is great for people on a budget but still want more than just simple photos taken by someone else while they are at their wedding! 2 ) Full coverage – this will include all of the same things as primary coverage, but you will also get some additional editing work done so that your video has a more polished look. This is great for people who need an affordable option that still looks professional and high-quality without breaking the bank! 3) Deluxe coverage will include everything in full coverage plus interviews with family members and friends of both spouses and some additional footage taken on location and at the wedding venue itself. Some people will choose an exclusive video in addition to their basic coverage to have footage of everything necessary at the wedding. In contrast, others will get one or the other.

What is the average hourly rate for a professional videographer?

There is no single answer to this question. The cost of hiring a videographer depends on the type of video you want to create, the size of your budget, and the experience level of the videographer. A professional videographer can charge as little as $100 per hour or upwards of $1,000 per hour, depending on how many hours they work and what they charge per hour. The average hourly rate for a freelancer is between $50 and $150 per hour. If you want to hire someone specializing in wedding videos, expect to pay between $200 and $500 per hour. When looking for a freelance videographer, ask about their rates so that you know what you’re getting yourself into before committing to anything. If you are looking for a videographer specializing in weddings, ask about their experience level and portfolio.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to become a freelance videographer, it’s essential to know what a professional charge should be and how much experience can affect the price. If you want to know more about freelancing or how much money should be made on a project, check out our other articles that cover these topics! Read the full article

[suraj-singh1]

Freelancing: Hourly Rate vs Flat Fee

Freelancing: Hourly Rate vs Flat Fee

Hourly rates are pretty. They look great on paper and can be multiplied by the amount of time worked. We love to look back and notice that our hourly rates have climbed, too. But as most freelancers would tell you, projects often work on a set fee, and you can find yourself racing the clock to complete all the work in the allotted time. The longer you take to get the work done, the lower your hourly rate turns out to be.

I find that there’s a fairly even mix of clients out there, with some wanting to know my hourly rate and others assuming I charge by the project. In my experience over the years, many industries are drifting toward the project fee model. There are a number of reasons why, and I think all of them are good principles for freelancers to remember.

What Are You Selling? Can you tell me what you’re selling? If you’re a photographer, maybe you would say that you’re selling photographs, right? On some level, I sell logos. My friend Dave sellswords, typed out professionally and ready for use by his clients. Consultants sell solutions to their clients’ problems, and personal chefs sell meal preparation.

What my clients aren’t buying is my time. Sure, the services they are hiring me to perform take up time on my schedule, but they don’t come knocking on my door asking for bundles of time. No one says, “Can I buy six hours of your time this month?”

No, clients come to us for solutions to their problems, and products that we can create. They aren’t buying our time in 60-minute chunks; clients are paying for our skills and experience and guidance. Those are intangible deliverables, but also central elements to what we provide.

Why, then, do we sell ourselves in time-based increments? Do two hours of my time to get a client less of my experience and expertise than five hours? No. Time seems to be more about complexity, really. More complex projects take longer. A client shouldn’t be paying me to complete the project in five hours because their budget doesn’t allow for six. Ideally, the client should pay for the solution to their problem, and my fixed rate should more than cover the amount of time it will take me to do the job.

This is all very philosophical, I know, and most likely not very practical. But I think it is very important to attribute value to our work. Some clients view freelancers as a lesser breed of service providers when the fact is that some of the most talented people in a variety of fields work as freelancers. The risk is falling into the trap of hourly pay and the never-ending chase for more hours or a higher rate, or both. The benefit of charging a service fee, rather than an hourly rate, is that our clients begin to value our services more. The more valuable we become to our clients, the happier they are. And happy clients are a good thing.

Raises Based on Merit One of the biggest benefits of charging a flat fee for a service rather than an hourly rate is that it’s a great way to earn a pay raise naturally. The better you get at performing a particular service, the less time it may take you. If your flat fee remains the same, but you complete it faster, you have more room in your schedule for other paid work.

As the time it takes you to complete a certain type of project drops, your hourly rate (should you desire to do the math and see what it is) will climb proportionally. Now, this is not a justification to get sloppy and rush your work. That’s a path that can only lead to upset or unsatisfied clients, or mistakes that ruin projects, or both. No, this is about getting faster at something purely because you’ve gotten better at doing it. It’s a mentality that rewards growth. In a traditional job, we would expect our boss to reward our performance with regular pay raises. The better we get that job, the more the boss should pay for us. And for many people working in the corporate world, that’s the case. Work hard, gain experience, and get paid more as a reward.

For freelancers, though, it doesn’t seem possible at first glance. We don’t have bosses to hand out pay raises. We are our own bosses. And while it might look good on paper to declare that we have a new, higher hourly rate, we still need to find clients willing to pay that rate before we can truly earn more. At least, that’s what we think.

Flat fees make it possible to earn that pay raise naturally. If the service that pays $500 used to take you five hours, and now it takes you four, then your hourly rate has climbed from $100 to $125 per hour. And you managed to do that while avoiding raising your prices. Not too shabby.

Simple Wins One of the most common questions I’ve been asked over the years that I’ve co-hosted the Home Work podcast (a podcast for people who work from home, on the 5by5 Network) is what method I use to track my time. This stems from freelancers being slaves to the hourly rate, and because of that, they need to monitor each and every logged minute so that they can bill their clients accurately.

This highlights one last benefit that freelancers get when they charge flat fees: less administrative headaches. I don’t have to push a button whenever I start a project and then push it again to stop the timer. I don’t have to log that time on a spreadsheet somewhere or spend an hour each day adding hourly design line items to on-going invoices. I don’t need to report to my clients about how many hours I’ve used, and how many are left.

Charging an hourly rate means that when you and the client agree to work together, you’ve also settled on a maximum amount of time you will spend on the project. If it takes you longer, you run the risk of billing your client more than they can afford. And that introduces stress and friction into that client relationship. Flat fees, though, are a known variable. You’re going to charge Mr. Smith $600 for a particular service. You’ll be invoicing him 50% at the beginning, and 50% at the end. Everyone knows when the money is due, and no one is left wondering what’s going on. There’s less chasing, less worry, and less frustration when someone fails to deliver what’s expected when it’s expected. Hourly rates might sound fancy, like some kind of financial bragging right, but they’re full of complexity. Flat fees are simple, and for a busy freelancer, simple is always better. Less time doing administrative things like logging hours means more time doing paid work.

I like paid work. Don’t you?

[solutionarygrowth-blog]

How Much Should Small Businesses Invest On Their Website and Digital Marketing?

There are a number of variables to consider before a business can determine what they should invest (not spend) in a website and digital marketing. There’s also the question of whether you should hire an in-house person, a freelancer, a design shop, a marketing agency or a combination of all these. Owning a business and making these types of major decisions can be one of the most exhilarating things in life. On the other hard it can be challenging at times. This is especially true for Small Businesses where the owner/operator is wearing multiple hats as they should. The small business owner starts their day thinking about their Customers, from there they move on to Finances, Sales, Marketing, Employees (HR), Product, Logistics, Technology, Contracts (Legal), Purchasing and the list goes on and on. Love it or hate it that’s the reality for most small business owners. The good news for small businesses is that if they’re paying attention and implementing procedures and strategies within each department the job will get easier over time. I think owning a small business means different things to different people. Some enter the world of entrepreneurship as a means of an investment, others are looking for freedom, some just want the opportunity to be the driver, but whatever the reason I applaud the millions of small business owners who wake up every day, actually sometimes they don’t get much sleep at all- and give it their all to make their business succeed. In this blog I’ll briefly covers the following areas to help you navigate through the difficult world of web design and digital marketing.

Questions you should ask yourself

Chart to show you what you should budget for a good website

Features To Include In Your Website Design

Trends To Consider

Questions To Ask a Web Designer or Web Design Shop

Questions To Ask a Digital Marketer or Marketing Agency

Technologies To Consider

There are tons of technologies available for small business owners to make their business run more efficient. The one technology that is often overlooked or just seen as a Marketing and Sales tool is their Website. So the question is, how much should a small business invest on their website and digital marketing? First and foremost, the majority of businesses need to view their website as the most important tool to communicate with their customers, vendors, employees and the community.

Side note:  if you have a brick and mortar operation fewer and fewer people are coming into to buy products. Now if you’re a business like a Dry Cleaner, Restaurant, Gym, Medical Practice, Salon and Auto Repair Shop to name a few then people have to come in to consume your product and service. But it doesn’t mean they have to come to your business. It use to be that if you had great customer service, a decent product, a convenient location and fair prices it was enough to build a lifelong relationship with the customer. That is definitely not the case anymore and nowhere is that more evident than metro markets. It’s not just the Millennial generation.

Ok, back to websites and digital marketing. So let’s start with the most important factor for small businesses. Price/Cost! Then I’ll move on to features that may help you run your business more efficiently and help you increase awareness of your brand. How much does it cost to build a great website and maintain it? Well that depends on a number of variables and what direction you want to go into with doing it in-house or hiring a company to design your website.

Questions you should ask yourself

Will I be selling products on my website?

Do I want to generate leads on my website?

Is being an expert in my field a priority?

Are my competitor’s ahead of the curve?

How many pages do I need?

Who will create the content?

What is my time frame to complete the project?

Once you answer some of these questions you’ll be ready to determine whether you should have the project completed in house or outsourced. In the case of companies who already have an up-to-date website it’s a matter of who will maintain it. By up-to-date I mean your website is responsive or mobile optimized. After all the majority of searches are coming from mobile devices. You can easily spend $10k,20k,50k on a website if you don’t really know what you want and what your objective is for your business as it pertains to the internet. It pays to consult with a Marketer or Digital Marketing agency who understands how to pull all the pieces together. While a Web Design shop may be a good choice for designing the website they may not understand your business model or your goals from a Marketing perspective. My advice for small businesses in pricing the design of websites is to look at their overall expense budget and create a line item called Digital Marketing. Once you’ve done your research and consulted with a Marketer to determine how much more business you’re expected to earn through your new or improved website then you can determine your budget. The truth is it will take time to get a return on investment.

Below I’ve created a simple chart to give you an idea for how much you should invest in your website. The investment is based on company revenue. There’s a good reason I did it this way. That reason is based on a growth strategy and 15+ years of experience budgeting for marketing campaigns that would generate leads and satisfy a company’s objective and help their sales team acquire more clients. Ultimately, I know that some small businesses will only invest what they can, but my advice is to seek experienced designers and marketers who understand your business goals. I can’t count the number of times that my team and I had to tell a business interested in our services that we would not be able to accomplish their goals based on their budget.

Chart to show you what you should budget for a good website

Revenue up to $250k per year – Budget for $7500

Revenue up to $500k per year – Budget for $10k

Revenue up to $1 million per year – Budget for $25k

Revenue up to $2 million per year – Budget for $50k

Revenue up to $5 million per year – Budget for $100k

As for the ongoing Digital Marketing budget you should budget the same amount you invested to build the website for your digital marketing spend. It truly depends on your goals and how aggressive you want to be in building a lead generation campaign. You have to consider other factors that will impact the cost in a big way. Content creation, SEO, PPC, Social Media and Email Marketing should definitely be included in the Digital Marketing plan and strategy.

7 Features To Include In Your Website Design

The features of any website truly depend on your business model and on the needs of your clients. In this section I listed 7, but there are hundreds of features depending on what your clients desire and what your competitors are offering them. For example your target audience may expect to have a member portal to login to a dashboard.

Smart forms integrated into your CRM

Marketing automation to set up email drip campaigns

Appointment setting

Payment processing

FAQ page or Knowledgebase page

Install an SSL Certificate

Automatic Backups

10 Trends To Consider In Web Design

When it comes to web design trends you’ll find that you’re limited in what you can implement. As new features pop up it does not mean you should try to incorporate them into your website just so you can look like you embrace the trends. When it comes to trends I’m mostly referring to redesign or new design. However, in the case of video and storytelling this is a trend you can incorporate into your current website by adding a new page. Maybe you can add a plugin that will display your videos in a creative layout and give you the opportunity to tell your story in an interesting way.

Color with Vintage Quality

Menu Buttons that standout

Custom Scrolling

Blending Tactile with Digital

Subtle animation and micro-interaction

Cinematic experiences

Immersive Storytelling

Grid Layouts

AI chatbots like Messenger

Less Stock photos and more Authentic photos

12 Questions To Ask a Web Designer or Web Design Shop

If you don’t already know there’s a difference between web design and web development. I don’t believe in unicorns or jack of all trades, but I do believe that you can find a good designer and a good developer who may or may not be on the same team and work well together on your project. It’s important to understand what the designer and developer which may be working in 1 agency will be charging you for discovery and revisions. If your budget is set than you’ll want to start by creating a map of your website and the designer will be able to build a wireframe. Every agency, design shop and design approaches this from a different angle. They may use mockup tools like Balsamiq, Invisionapp, Mockingbird, UXPin, Visio and others to get you a prototype. You should expect to pay for this service. Think of it like building a house. You pay the architect to create the basic design. If you choose to hire them to create the blueprint then you’ll have to pay for the plans too. If the architect happens to work with the builder, you may or may not choose that builder to build the house. I would say that the biggest complaint I hear from businesses is that the web designer or agency hired to design/develop their website took twice as long as what they agreed to complete the website. Make sure that the designer or agency you hire can give you clear timelines.

Can you send me a list of sites you designed?

Do you charge hourly or by project?

Do you have a project manager or 1 contact for the entire project?

How many revisions am I allowed?

What are the payment terms?

What CMS will you build it in?

What support do you offer once the site is live?

Do you work using templates/themes or build custom sites?

Will the website be responsive?

Who will write the content?

What services do you provide?

What kind of results can I expect?

8 Questions To Ask a Digital Marketer or Marketing Agency

I could add 100 questions to this section, but I chose to go small and really focus on giving solid advice. I’ve been a Digital Marketer for over 10 years. In that time I’ve attended hundreds of conferences, taken dozens of classes, tested thousands of campaigns

Have you created a campaign in my vertical?

How will you measure your efforts?

How do you stay up-to-date with the latest techniques?

What kind of tools do you use?

What kind of reporting will you deliver?

How long will it take to see results?

How much will it cost?

Who will be working with you on my campaign?

Technology Tools To Consider Using

When it comes to software and technology tools it can be overwhelming to find the right one for your company. Below is a short list of the companies, ideas and tools you can use for designing your website and managing your digital marketing presence.

Simple Web Design: Wix, Squarred Space

Semi-Custom Web Design: Creative Market, ThemeForest

Advanced Web Design: Hire Agency, Web Developer, Marketing Consultant

Freelance: Thumbtack, Associations, Colleges, LinkedIn, Upwork, Fiverr

Marketing Automation: Hubspot, Marketo, Pardot

Social Media Management: Buffer, Hootesuite, Sprout, Klout

Email: Constant Contact, MailChimp, Emma, AWeber

CMS: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Sitecore

Develop: Code.org, Gitbub, Bluemix

Data: Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Google My Business, Google Search Console , Lucky Orange

 PPC: Google Adwords, Bing, Wordstream

SEO: Moz, Ahrefs, SEMRush, Spyfu

 Social Media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Pinterest,Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Vimeo

 CRM: Salesforce, InfusionSoft, Insightly, Zoho

 Communication: Basecamp, DaPulse, Percolate, WP Plugins, Slack

 Design: Canva, Stencil, PicMonkey, Pablo

 Content: Buzzsumo, Mention, Epicbeat, Right Relevance

[phillymakerfaire]

https://ift.tt/2KOMUDy

Do you feel like you’re shooting in the dark when it comes to pricing your custom artwork? 

You’re certainly not alone.  

With something as personal and unique as art, many artisan entrepreneurs struggle to develop a pricing model that generates consistent sales, reflects the time and effort invested, and turns a healthy profit. 

The truth is, there’s no magic formula. 

So, rather than offering a standard solution, we’ll explain the key factors you should consider – and how to keep your emotions out of the equation. Then, we’ll look at some pricing methods for inspiration. Taken together, you can create a customized pricing system that works for you.

Remove Your Emotions from the Pricing Process

Jill Tarabar of JIST Designs has been designing and creating stained glass gift items, Judaica, and artwork for close to 40 years. She’s sold her pieces at respected, juried events like Sugarloaf Craft Festival and the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen in Rittenhouse Square. 

Despite these accomplishments, she notes, “The biggest challenge I’ve faced has been maintaining a level of confidence in my work and abilities, a level of self-worth. It’s taken me years to build confidence in the value of what I create. Self-confidence is vital but challenging to maintain.”

She attributes this partly to the fact that she’s self-taught. However, it’s a struggle that many artists face regardless of their formal training or experience. 

For emerging artists, that’s an important takeaway. The critical voice in your head probably won’t go away with time. But you don’t have to listen to it – and you shouldn’t let it direct your pricing decisions.

To make sure a lack of confidence isn’t affecting your prices, ask yourself these questions:

Am I frequently changing the price of a piece depending on the buyer?

Am I comparing my art or craft medium to others, assuming mine has less value?

Am I setting the price of each piece based on my own perception of its quality?

Am I properly accounting for the value of my time?

Am I offering drastic discounts that imply the art isn’t as valuable?

It’s not easy to stop doubting yourself, but having a set pricing method will go a long way in helping you avoid these pitfalls. Let’s talk next about the variables that go into a pricing model.

6 Questions to Ask Before Pricing Your Artwork 

By working through these six questions, you’ll have more clarity on the true cost of each custom piece, be able to factor in profit margins, and gauge what the market will bear.

How much time does each item take to produce?

Getting specific about how much time you spend on an item is the first step. Break down each part of the process, so you can identify opportunities to simplify and speed up your work.

For example, if you create custom woodcrafts like jewelry boxes, you might build templates for a particular cut or feature, making multiple components to assemble later. Alternatively, you may discover it’s better to outsource parts of the process that you find time-consuming or difficult.

What is an hour of your time worth?

Once you know how long it takes to produce a single piece, multiply that by your hourly rate to arrive at your labor costs. 

Naturally, there’s no clear standard for an artisan’s hourly rate, so you’ll need to come up with a figure based on supply and demand. Consider these questions:

Are there few artisans who can produce what you do? The more original you are, the less competition you have.

Are you exceptionally skilled at your craft? The more skill you have, the higher your rate should be. 

Do you have a following (online or otherwise)? This increases your perceived value.

Look for actual jobs that match what you’re doing (or somewhat closely) and check the pay. For example, The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that Craft and Fine Artists earned a median hourly rate of $23.54. This is a good starting point.

What are your material costs?

Next, you’ll need to assess the cost of materials per piece. If you’re buying supplies in bulk, figure out how much you use for each item. 

Don’t forget to include expenses like renting studio space, outsourcing any production, gas or electricity to operate machinery, and maintenance costs for equipment. This should all be tallied up and divided by the total number of pieces you create.

How are you selling your pieces?

If all you had to do was set up a table in front of your house to sell your artwork, you’d have a great profit margin. But unfortunately, that’s not the case. There are costs associated with how you sell your pieces, and you’ll need to factor this into your pricing.

Let’s look at a few examples:

Consignment – Every consignment shop is different, but most will fall somewhere close to a 60/40 split. This means for each item sold, the consignment seller keeps 40% and the maker receives 60%. 

Wholesale – Almost all wholesale contracts work on a 50/50 split agreement. Keep in mind that retailers purchase wholesale orders upfront, whereas consignment shops pay after items sell.

Gallery – Galleries also vary quite a bit, but a 50/50 split is common.

Online to Consumer – While there are great benefits to developing a direct relationship with your art buyers, don’t overlook the costs of building an online marketplace. You’ll need to pay hosting and transaction fees, handle shipping, and drive traffic to your site through social media and paid ads.

Art/Craft Fairs – Consider the cost of getting a table, the materials to make your booth appealing, transportation to/from the event, and your time invested in getting ready and attending.

What’s the average price for pieces similar to yours?

Now that you have a better sense of your cost per item, it’s time to do some market research. Look for artwork that’s similar in:

Style or medium

Targeted audience/buyer

Quality

Next, examine the artist’s background.

How many years of experience do they have?

Do they have an online following?

Are they well-known in their community or for the type of art they create?

Lastly, see if you can figure out how well their pieces are selling. For example, Etsy shows customer reviews, which will give you a sense of their volume. Many sites also show when the artist posted an item. If you find similar art but it’s not selling, you may want to exclude it from your research. Or at least keep it in mind as a caution for what’s “too high.”

Once you’ve narrowed your research down to a representative sampling of work that’s similar to yours, average the cost to smooth out any outliers. Since every artist has different ways of pricing their work, this helps to get a more accurate picture of what the “going price” is for work like yours.

What would your ideal buyer be willing to pay?

Jane Yorty is the owner of Carriage House Style, a handmade goods boutique in Lancaster. As both an artist and retailer, she stressed the importance of setting a price that implies value. “The most important thing when pricing your work is knowing your market. Price creates a value…value creates demand…demand creates sales.”

Let’s say you’ve estimated your cost per piece, accounted for sales and marketing expenses, and added a healthy profit margin. But when you compare it to similar art in the marketplace, the price you came up with is much higher. You might start asking yourself, “Wow, is my work really worth that?”

Yes! Your art is worth what someone is willing to spend. If you’ve done thorough research and marketed your art to the right audience, a higher price creates more value, as Yorty pointed out.

3 Methods for Pricing Your Artwork

Let’s take a look at the three popular methods for pricing artwork. These should be more helpful now that you have an understanding of the variables that support these formulas. 

Cost Plus Pricing Model

In this product pricing model, you’ll calculate the total cost of producing one item (materials, labor, and marketing), then add profit to arrive at the sales price.

For example, let’s say you create handmade metal signs. The cost per item is $100.

Materials and machinery costs – $50

Labor ($35/hour x 1 hour) – $35

Marketing (Website and Etsy) – $15

Next, you’d add profit. You’d base this amount on what similar items are selling for in the marketplace and what you think your ideal buyers would pay.

What happens if you see similar items for $100? That’s your base price. How can you make a profit?

You’d have to look for ways to cut material costs, speed up the process, or explore more effective marketing strategies. For example, NextFab member Lauren Stamegna of The Fox & Sun  increased production of her home decor signs by utilizing the laser cutting and engraver equipment at our Wilmington location. A much less expensive and time consuming option than cutting everything by hand. 

The Fox & Sun

Value Pricing Model

In the value pricing model, you base your price on what you believe buyers would be willing to pay. In a way, it’s simply removing the costs from the equation. You skip directly to market and buyer research.

This approach works best for artisans who sell highly sought after items or something that’s completely unique. When your artwork or craft pieces are fairly similar to others in the market, profit margins can be lower. That’s why it’s important to understand your costs. 

Variable Based Model

With variable based pricing, you price based on a certain variable, such as size, weight, or dimensions. You’ll see this frequently with paintings or custom furniture. 

For example, let’s say you charge $2 per square inch. A painting of 12×16 inches would be $384 (12x16x$2). 

To arrive at the amount per variable, you may need to work backward. That is, select the price you think is in line with similar pieces and figure out what number would get you to that price point. 

Keep Your Prices Consistent

Regardless of how you structure your pricing model, Genevieve Coutroubis of The Center for Emerging Visual Artists cautions, “The most important thing for artists to remember is that their price should remain fixed.” 

In other words, your prices should be the same on your website, in a gallery, at art fairs, and anywhere else buyers might encounter your work. Coutroubis adds, “An artist can always extend discounts but it’s important for the work to maintain a set value.” 

If you’re selling items to wholesalers, keep a primary price and then determine a scale for reductions based on volume. If you use a variable pricing model, stick with one amount (ex: $2 per square inch) for calculating prices.

This consistency shows professionalism and confidence.

Need Help with your Crafts?

It may feel impossible to reconcile your creative process with scalable business growth, but it can be done. As successful artisans can attest, when you get your pricing right, maintaining this delicate balance becomes much easier. 

At NextFab, we help artisan entrepreneurs achieve their dreams. We’re a network of membership-based makerspaces that provide access to tools, technology, education, events, and services for makers of Philadelphia and surrounding regions. Contact us to reach an even broader audience with your handmade art or custom crafts.

The post How to Price Your Custom Work appeared first on NextFab.

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Have you ever evaluated in which just about every dollar of one's price range goes? It’s fairly enlightening.

Make a Company Budget in five Easy Ways

While functioning as being a freelance blogger, I decided to lastly make the time to consider a near appear at my expenses.

To my terrific horror, I identified that most of your earnings left more than just after paying out my primary individual and business enterprise costs were getting foolishly spent. Additionally to that, my monthly income was under no circumstances rising, although the do the job on my plate definitely was.

Immediately after some study, I made the decision the solution was a enterprise budget.

I found loads of on the net sources but being a freelancer, even though nothing appeared to match completely. So, I borrowed from several tips and came up with a prepare that turned my small business all-around.

My new price range gave me to room to afford the issues I required to increase, whereas concurrently earning alot more revenue and operating fewer hours each month.

A organization price range will make area so you can afford the details you might want to develop.

I realize that lots of individuals expertise precisely the same difficulties. In an work to aid many others, I’m sharing my 5-step strategy to producing a balanced business enterprise spending budget:

Step one: Tally Your Earnings Sources The initial element of the beneficial small business price range is figuring out simply how much dollars you deliver in on a month to month basis.

Start with your revenue figures initial (which you'll be able to easily get by using the Revenue & Loss report in FreshBooks), and then go further by adding other income sources you use to run your organization.

Step 2: Determine Fixed Costs Fixed costs are bills that are charged exactly the same price each month. As you can actually imagine, incorporating these is by far the easiest part of producing your enterprise budget.

Review your past bank statements or FreshBooks reports. You’ll readily be able to spot your fixed bills and the total amount they cost you each month.

FreshBooks turns invoice lemons into lemonade - get started for free Step 3: Include Variable Costs Items that don’t have a fixed price tag every month are called variable costs.

Numerous of these purchases can actually be scaled up or down depending on the state of one's business, utilising your month to month revenue. Your revenue each month will be determined by the earnings you’re left with just after paying out all your costs.

So, if your enterprise does better than you forecasted, you can actually use the extra funds to increase variable spending enabling you to develop faster.

Phase 4: Predict One-Time Spends A amazing perk of making a spending budget is now you will be able to factor in one-time purchases better than ever before. Although some of these items may come up unexpectedly, like the purchase of the laptop to replace the one that crashed, other folks can be budgeted for months in advance, like that company retreat you’ve been eyeing, to protect your small business from financial burden.

Phase 5: Pull It All Together The 1st four methods of this post detail the elements of a good home business spending budget, so the last phase is simply pulling it all together. Take action by making use of this handy checklist with specific examples so that you can build your spending budget without any hassle:

Income SOURCES: Hourly Earnings Product Income Investment Earnings Loans Savings Other FIXED COSTS: Rent/Mortgage Utilities Salaries Internet Government and bank fees Cell phone Website hosting Accounting Services Legal Services Insurance VARIABLE Expenditures: Raw Materials Contractor Wages Commissions Advertising Other Marketing Costs Transportation Travel & events Printing Services ONE-TIME SPENDS: Computer Furniture Software Office Supplies Gifts

Developing a month to month organization price range may seem like a hassle, but I bet it’s something you’ve been thinking about for a long time. Consider the leap! It is an essential infrastructure project that gives you the ability to make conscientious financial decisions so your online business can stay on track and increase.

What else stands in your way of the balanced internet business spending budget? Are there any hurdles we’ve missed that currently have you paralyzed in the process? If so, comment below along with your questions, problems or concerns.

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Have you ever evaluated in which each dollar of your budget goes? It’s pretty enlightening.

Make a Enterprise Price range in 5 Very simple Methods

When functioning being a freelance blogger, I chose to finally make the time for you to consider a shut search at my bills.

To my superb horror, I found that almost all within the earnings left over after paying my essential private and home business bills have been getting foolishly invested. Moreover to that, my monthly cash flow was under no circumstances growing, although the job on my plate clearly was.

Right after some research, I determined the response was a home business price range.

I noticed loads of on line sources but as being a freelancer, even though nothing at all appeared to fit completely. So, I borrowed from distinctive suggestions and came up that has a plan that turned my internet business all around.

My new spending budget gave me to space to afford the points I necessary to develop, whereas concurrently earning more profit and doing work fewer hrs each month.

A business enterprise budget will make space so that you can afford the items you'll want to increase.

I realize that a large number of people today go through the same challenges. In an effort to assist some others, I’m sharing my 5-step approach to making a balanced home business price range:

Stage 1: Tally Your Cash flow Sources The initial element of a superior business price range is figuring out simply how much capital you bring in on the month-to-month basis.

Start off along with your sales figures very first (which you possibly can very easily get using the Revenue & Loss report in FreshBooks), and then go further by adding other cash flow sources you use to run your online business.

Step 2: Determine Fixed Costs Fixed costs are expenses that are charged the exact same price each month. As you could imagine, incorporating these is by far the easiest part of producing your enterprise spending budget.

Review your past bank statements or FreshBooks reports. You’ll very easily be able to spot your fixed bills and the total amount they cost you each month.

FreshBooks turns invoice lemons into lemonade - get started for free Stage 3: Include Variable Expenditures Items that don’t have a fixed price tag every month are called variable costs.

Several of these purchases can actually be scaled up or down depending on the state of the small business, utilizing your month to month revenue. Your profit every month will be determined by the earnings you’re left with soon after paying out all your costs.

So, if your internet business does better than you forecasted, you are able to use the extra funds to increase variable spending enabling you to grow faster.

Phase 4: Predict One-Time Spends A amazing perk of producing a budget is now you will be able to factor in one-time purchases better than ever before. Despite the fact that some of these items may come up unexpectedly, like the purchase of a laptop to replace the one that crashed, other people can be budgeted for months in advance, like that small business retreat you’ve been eyeing, to protect your enterprise from financial burden.

Phase 5: Pull It All Together The primary four techniques of this post detail the elements of a really good company price range, so the last stage is simply pulling it all together. Consider action by by using this handy checklist with specific examples so you can develop your spending budget without any hassle:

Earnings SOURCES: Hourly Earnings Product Product sales Investment Earnings Loans Savings Other FIXED COSTS: Rent/Mortgage Utilities Salaries Internet Government and bank fees Cell phone Website hosting Accounting Services Legal Services Insurance VARIABLE Expenses: Raw Materials Contractor Wages Commissions Advertising Other Marketing Costs Transportation Travel & events Printing Services ONE-TIME SPENDS: Computer Furniture Software Office Supplies Gifts

Producing a month-to-month internet business spending budget may seem like a hassle, but I bet it is something you’ve been thinking about for a long time. Take the leap! It is an essential infrastructure project that gives you the ability to make conscientious financial decisions so your home business can stay on track and develop.

What else stands in your way of the balanced internet business budget? Are there any hurdles we’ve missed that currently have you paralyzed in the process? If so, comment below with your questions, challenges or concerns.

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Have you ever evaluated in which every dollar of one's budget goes?

It’s rather enlightening. Whilst working like a freelance blogger, I decided to finally make the time to get a close seem at my expenses.

To my fantastic horror, I identified that almost all within the earnings left in excess of soon after paying out my simple individual and business enterprise expenses were becoming foolishly spent. Additionally to that, my month to month earnings was hardly ever raising, even though the do the job on my plate definitely was.

Right after some investigation, I made the decision the response was a online business price range.

I noticed lots of on the net sources but being a freelancer, though almost nothing appeared to match completely. So, I borrowed from various ideas and came up using a program that turned my enterprise all over.

My new price range gave me to area to afford the points I wanted to increase, whilst concurrently earning far more revenue and operating fewer hrs each month.

A organization spending budget will make room so you can afford the elements you have to develop.

I understand that lots of consumers experience exactly the same problems. In an work to aid other individuals, I’m sharing my 5-step approach to making a balanced small business budget:

Step 1: Tally Your Cash flow Sources The initial element of a good home business spending budget is determining just how much hard earned cash you bring in on the monthly basis.

Get started along with your income figures primary (which you can simply get using the Profit & Loss report in FreshBooks), and then go further by adding other cash flow sources you use to run your company.

Phase 2: Determine Fixed Costs Fixed costs are costs that are charged the same price every month. As it is possible to imagine, incorporating these is by far the easiest part of producing your internet business spending budget.

Review your past bank statements or FreshBooks reports. You’ll easily be able to spot your fixed bills and the total amount they cost you every month.

FreshBooks turns invoice lemons into lemonade - get started for free Stage 3: Include Variable Expenditures Items that don’t have a fixed price tag each month are called variable costs.

Lots of of these purchases can actually be scaled up or down depending on the state of the organization, applying your month to month revenue. Your revenue every month will be determined by the earnings you’re left with just after having to pay all your costs.

So, if your home business does better than you forecasted, you can use the extra funds to increase variable spending enabling you to grow faster.

Step 4: Predict One-Time Spends A excellent perk of making a budget is now you will be able to factor in one-time purchases better than ever before. Despite the fact that some of these items may come up unexpectedly, like the purchase of a laptop to replace the one that crashed, other folks can be budgeted for months in advance, like that online business retreat you’ve been eyeing, to protect your business from financial burden.

Step 5: Pull It All Together The initial four measures of this post detail the elements of a good organization spending budget, so the last phase is simply pulling it all together. Get action by applying this handy checklist with specific examples so you're able to make your price range without any hassle:

Cash flow SOURCES: Hourly Earnings Product Sales Investment Revenue Loans Savings Other FIXED COSTS: Rent/Mortgage Utilities Salaries Internet Government and bank fees Cell phone Website hosting Accounting Services Legal Services Insurance VARIABLE Expenses: Raw Materials Contractor Wages Commissions Advertising Other Marketing Costs Transportation Travel & events Printing Services ONE-TIME SPENDS: Computer Furniture Software Office Supplies Gifts

Building a month to month organization spending budget may seem like a hassle, but I bet it’s something you’ve been thinking about for a long time. Take the leap! It is an essential infrastructure project that gives you the ability to make conscientious financial decisions so your small business can stay on track and grow.

What else stands in your way of a balanced home business price range? Are there any hurdles we’ve missed that currently have you paralyzed in the process? If so, comment below together with your questions, difficulties or concerns.

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Pricing Snow Services for Profit

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it. This old expression is meant to be funny, but for those working in snow management, it undoubtedly rings true. The fact is: Mother Nature is unpredictable and uncontrollable. The challenge in this industry is to come up with a business plan that offers some certainty and consistency, regardless of what the weather does.

That means that guess-work doesn’t cut it when coming up with a plan for pricing services. And to take things another step back, it means that costs have to be carefully calculated to be sure that whatever pricing plan is utilized will result in a positive bottom line. John Allin, an industry consultant and former president of the Snow Management Group, boils it down this way: “The idea behind pricing out services is that you, obviously, want to make a profit.”

Having a mix of seasonal, per-push, per-inch and per-hour accounts is common in the snow industry.

While there is a lot of variance in the way snow management services are priced in different parts of the country, Allin says the most common approach used by contractors is to have some mix of seasonal, per-push, per-inch or per-hour accounts. This pricing strategy offers contractors some protection. “If you price everything out on a per-push basis or an hourly basis, you tend to suffer if it doesn’t snow. So you add in some seasonals in order to generate cash flow in times when it’s not snowing and you’re not working and generating revenue,” Allin says.

For many years, snow- removal contractors have attempted to cover their expenses – equipment payments, insurance, electricity and all the overhead – using seasonal accounts, says Allin. “Then you’d make your money on everything else (per-push basis or per-inch accounts). So if you were losing money on seasonals because of a monster winter, you were making it up on the per-push or per-inch accounts.” The rule of thumb under this system was to never have more than 30 percent of your revenue as seasonal accounts. “If you have half of your revenue as seasonal, you can end up in trouble, because if there’s a really snowy winter, you can run out of money,” he says.

Over the past couple of years, though, Allin says there has been a trend toward utilizing seasonal pricing with a “cap” and “floor.” Under this approach, a snow removal company comes up with a seasonal cost to do the work based on an average winter, and then starts to charge using a different methodology if the cap (a predetermined maximum amount of snow) is exceeded. “Say you’re in a market where you average 40 inches of snow, and you set the cap at 45 inches. So anything over 45 inches you’re going to charge more, whether that’s per-inch or per-visit, whatever you decide is best for you,” he explains. “That way, if there’s a monster winter, you’re mitigating the downside of that monster winter.”

Not surprisingly, customers being charged this way have quickly begun asking for some similar protection for themselves in the event of a relatively low-snow winter. So some companies have instituted a floor so if snowfall ends up below a set amount, then money is refunded. Allin recommends that caps be set at 10 percent over the average snowfall and floors be set 20 percent under, and the amount to be charged over a cap be the same amount to be refunded below the floor. What if it doesn’t snow at all? “If you set the floor right, the maximum you’d be giving back is about half of the contract; but if it doesn’t snow at all, you don’t have many expenses,” he says.

One of the biggest reasons that snow removal companies have begun adopting this pricing strategy is that it allows them to project revenue and profit, “which is a much more business-like way of handling things,” says Allin. “I don’t know of anyone who has switched to this model who has found it detrimental to their business. Now they know when they’re going to have money.”

Following a system

Before you can figure out a pricing strategy for a given site, you have to find a way to know how much it’s going to cost you to plow it. “In any business, you need to know what your costs are,” says Allin. “The biggest challenge that any contractor has is figuring out how much it costs them to do business.” If you don’t know how much it’s going to cost you to plow a certain site, he states, “it’s time to get educated … you’re not a business person, you’re a plow jockey.”

All State Landscape Services in Connecticut uses a management system to track not only employees’ time on each site, but how much material was put down, and more. That’s the only way to become profitable, says owner Peter Niro. “Track your costs, and know what you’re spending at each site, regardless of the way you bill (seasonal versus per-push versus cap/floor),” he advises. “We had one seasonal account where we didn’t do a good job at tracking the costs. Once we buckled down and did it, we realized that it wasn’t as profitable as we thought.”

All State Landscape Services in Connecticut uses its own formula and spreadsheet program to run calculations for pricing that auto-fills documents. This approach minimizes double-entry and improves efficiency.

One way to help predict time and costs when bidding on new jobs is the use of industry production tables, which incorporate different values for different types of equipment and combinations of equipment. That’s exactly the approach being taken by Sneller Snow Systems in Michigan. “As a business, we’re becoming more systematized with better processes,” explains Dan Sneller, vice president of sales and marketing. “The way we used to do it, and the way a lot of companies probably still do it, is to just look at a parking lot, say it’s about a one-hour job, and assign a price to it. But the problem with that strategy is that you have to have a lot of plowing experience to have any amount of accuracy.”

Instead, Sneller Snow Systems has introduced a more consistent pricing strategy that does not depend simply on one person’s experience. That starts by measuring the property to be plowed using one of the many online tools available for that purpose and then determining what type of equipment is best suited for the job. “We assign a certain type of equipment and then we assign a production rate,” he explains. “We’ve done a lot of time studies, so we have a good, accurate understanding of how many hours a certain parking lot would take based on hundreds of other parking lots that we do.” Basically, it means the price quoted for a job is based on hard information and historical data rather than someone’s guess.

It’s best not to rely on one person’s knowledge to price services. Instead, use historical data to determine production rates to price jobs appropriately.

“We have what’s a called a price-equation sheet where we plug all the numbers into the equation, and it automatically outputs a labor budget, material budget, gross profit margins, price to charge the customer, etc.,” says Sneller. The company uses its own formula and a spreadsheet program is used to run the calculations, with that information then auto-filling other documents such as proposals and invoices, minimizing double-entry and improving efficiency as much as possible.

Pricing snow management services is generally more complicated than, say, pricing lawn maintenance services, so a more complex system is required. For instance, “square footages, in our opinion, are not really relevant,” emphasizes Robert Kozol, owner of Robert’s Nursery, which provides snow removal services in Omaha, Nebraska. He says the square-footage of a property accounts for only 10 to 15 percent of the equation he uses when arriving at a price to charge. That’s because there are so many other variables to consider.

“If we have a lot that’s, say, 1 acre, and it’s wide open, we could knock that lot out with just a truck and a standard 9-foot, 2-inch V-blade in probably half an hour or 45 minutes. Now, if you take the same square footage and there are a lot of obstacles, like islands and shopping carts and curb stops, it could take two or three hours to plow, and you might have to use some different equipment, maybe even some hand equipment,” says Kozol. “So when we go to give a price, we look at every aspect of that lot.” From there, his company can determine the amount of time it will take and the best equipment to utilize on the job; it then assigns a value to each type of equipment being used to arrive at a final price.

“The way we used to do it, and the way a lot of companies probably still do it, is to just look at a parking lot, say it’s about a one-hour job, and assign a price to it. But the problem with that strategy is that you have to have a lot of plowing experience to have any amount of accuracy,” says Dan Sneller.

Don’t fear change

One of the biggest constraints companies in this industry face is a fear of changing their pricing models. But that’s exactly the sort of shift that’s underway at Robert’s Nursery.

“Traditionally, we have always priced by the inch, and a fee for our time, depending on the type of equipment we’re using,” explains Kozol. That remains the way his company charges for 95 percent of its accounts, but beginning this past winter he introduced the concept of seasonal contracts (payable monthly over five months). “The reason we have decided to do season is that it creates a better contract for us,” he says.

Seasonal pricing is also something that many of his bigger customers are looking for: “A price per-inch is very hard for a large organization, whether it’s an outlet mall or hospital, to budget for … What we’ve recognized with some of our commercial clients is that they would much rather be able to budget; even if they might save a little in light snow years using a per-inch contract, they don’t look at it that way – it’s a lot easier for them to have a set dollar figure in their budget on a monthly basis.”

All State Landscape Services has also recently changed its pricing models for snow removal, including a cap and floor on its seasonal accounts. “We have done per-inch and seasonal with no cap before and we have gotten killed by it,” says Niro. “When it was a light year on the per-inch side, then we didn’t make up for the money we spent in equipment, training, etc., and when we have gotten buried with snow, we would end up in the red on our seasonal accounts.”

Now the company offers a combination of pricing models. “We use a cap and floor mechanism, which caps us at a certain amount of inches on a seasonal contract, and the floor is a set amount where, if we get an extremely light year, we give some sort of credit back,” says Niro. Currently, that credit is applied toward the following year’s service, or in some cases can be put toward landscape improvements.

Changing to a new pricing model, especially a seasonal contract with cap and/or floor, does require more time for communication with customers to explain how it will all work. Rather than just sending out a contract with a per-push price, etc., “now you have to sit down and talk to them,” says Allin. “Many customers just want you to email them a bid, so you can’t change your model unless you get in front of them and talk to them. … A true salesperson gets in the door and talks to people.” You can still give customers the straight seasonal or per-push/per-inch price they’re asking for, but also mention that you have another alternative they might want to consider, advises Allin. Any good property manager will be interested in at least exploring other alternatives.

The post Pricing Snow Services for Profit appeared first on Turf.

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