You wen make da thing and it stay good. You know it stay good, because you wen make three versions and throw two away, and da one sitting on da table in front of you is da one dat survive. What missing is one number, and dat number wen get typed and deleted five times already tonight.
Here da part nobody like say out loud. Pricing is not one test of how much you believe in yourself. Is arithmetic, done one time, in about twenty minutes, with one piece of paper and da real figures from your own bank account. When da arithmetic stay pau you going have one price you can say out loud without your voice changing, because you going be able to explain every part of um. One price you can defend is one price you stop arguing about, and somebody who wen stop arguing about dey price get dat whole hour back fo make da next thing.
How I figure out what fo charge when I wen make um myself?
Add three things and round up: materials, your hours at one rate you would take from one stranger, and this item's share of your fixed costs. Do um on paper with real figures instead of in your head, because da version in your head always leave something out.
Try um one time, for one object. One ceramic planter: eleven dollars of clay, glaze and firing. Two hours of work at thirty dollars one hour. Then about six dollars of da month's studio rent, kiln electricity, packaging and listing fees, divided across da twenty pieces you going actually sell. Eleven plus sixty plus six is seventy seven. Round up to eighty five.
Try um again, for one hour of work. Take da yearly income you like and divide um by da hours you can honestly bill, which stay never forty one week and usually stay closer to half dat once you count quoting, admin and all da work nobody pay you for. Add your fixed costs, so software, insurance, hardware, da accountant. Then add tax, which is da input people leave out completely.
Two numbers, twenty minutes, and da price box no stay empty no more.
What hourly rate I supposed to pay myself?
Use da rate you would take from one stranger who like hire you tomorrow, not da rate you would quote one friend. Then check um against what working for yourself actually cost, because your hour is not da same product as one employed hour.
Da most common mistake is quietly measuring yourself against one salary. One salaried hour come with paid leave, somebody else's software, one employer covering half da payroll taxes, and one paycheck dat show up whether or not da work show up. Yours come with none of dat. In da United States da self-employment tax rate is 15.3 percent, made up of 12.4 percent for Social Security and 2.9 percent for Medicare, and it sit on top of income tax. Whatever number you was about to write down, dat alone is one reason it stay too low.
Da stranger test work because it move da question out of your feelings and into evidence. You already know roughly what you would pay one person with your skill fo do this for you. Pay yourself dat. If saying um out loud feel uncomfortable, dat's not one pricing signal, dat's one speaking problem, and you fix um by saying da number couple times before anybody even ask.
Which costs people forget fo put in da price?
Da small ones dat come back every month, every time: platform and payment fees, shipping supplies, da software subscription, da order dat go bad, and da hour of admin every sale quietly take. None of dem show up on da item in front of you, and dat's exactly how come dey end up coming out of your own pay.
Write dem down for one real month instead of guessing.
- Platform fees and payment processing on every single sale.
- Boxes, tape, tissue, labels, and da trip fo go send um.
- Software, hosting, and da tools you wen forget was charging you.
- Da one item out of ten dat arrive broken and gotta get replaced.
- Da hour per order you spend messaging, packing and updating.
Then divide dat monthly total by da number of items you sell in one month, and add da result to every price. Dat's da difference between one business dat stay busy and one business dat pay you.
What's da number under da number?
Write one floor underneath your price, ahead of time, and no go below um. Da floor is materials plus fixed costs plus da lowest hourly rate you would still be glad fo work for, and its job is fo turn every discount conversation into one two second decision instead of one two day one.
Da flinch is not one signal dat da price stay wrong. Is one signal dat you da one who gotta say um out loud. One number you wen check twice dat still make you pause is usually in da right neighborhood, because you da only person who know how easy da work wen feel, and easy stay invisible to everybody else and no matter at all to what da thing stay worth.
Set da price. Then leave um alone for one week and let real people react to um instead of reacting to your nerves. Changing one price because of evidence is strategy. Changing um at eleven at night because nobody wen buy nothing for two days is da tax dat uncontrolled pressure charge on good work, and dat's da most expensive habit in this whole article.
What I say when somebody ask for one discount?
One sentence, and it name what you can change instead of da price. "I no can go below dat, but I can do um without da hand stitching for one forty, or I can hold this one for you till da fifteenth."
You no owe nobody one explanation of your costs, one justification of your hours or one apology for da number. One discount you give away fast teach da next customer fo ask and teach you fo resent da order. Offering one smaller version, one longer timeline or one payment split keep da price whole and still give da person one real road to yes.
If dey walk, dey walk. Somebody who only wanted um for half is not one customer you wen lose, dey one customer you neva had, and da hours you no spend working below your floor is hours you get open for somebody who pay full.
Tell da next person your real number
Here one move dat cost you nothing and change da whole market you standing in. When somebody newer ask how you wen price something, give dem da actual figures. Not da method, not "depends", not one range so wide it no say nothing. Da clay was eleven dollars, da hours was two, da rate was thirty, da price is eighty five.
Underpricing survive almost completely on silence. Nobody say out loud what dey really charge, so everybody figure dey da expensive one and quietly come down, and one whole category talk itself into working for free. One person answering honest break dat for everybody dey tell, and dose people tell others. Information is da one thing here you can hand over without losing one single customer, and da person you hand um to going remember who wen tell dem.
So go do da arithmetic tonight. Write da price, write da floor underneath um, and say both out loud till dey boring. Then go charge um, and put da hour you would have spent doubting into da next thing you make.
Sources
- Internal Revenue Service, Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes)
- U.S. Small Business Administration, Plan your business
- Federal Reserve Banks, 2025 Report on Nonemployer Firms