Yippie, more income...and question??

[crdurham]

As luck would have it, I asked to make up some samples of invitiation and birth announcments and price lists for custom made invites...etc... one of my friends was showing ds's birthday invite around and work and they all wanted to know where I had them done...when I told her, I did them and was thinking of trying to do that for extra money...they were all like...yes, yes, get us a price list...soooooooo

I am excited but I don't know where to begin...lol... I can get the samples ready but I wouldn't even know how to make a price list. How do you or did you decide what to charge for your stuff that you handmade?? I wanta be fair but I wanta make money to...lol... any advice would be appreciated!!

[homesteadmamma]

Cornelia, its a tough question because we found doing crafts you never make $$ on the time you put into the craft.

When we started, we went to craft sales and priced items. We then kept our crafts close to those prices.

For invitations, I would check out card stores, etc and see what they are priced at. You want to price them a bit lower than what they sell them for and to begin with, we found pricing a bit lower brought us back repeat customers. Thats what you want is repeat business and customers who tell others about your work, kwim.

Here are a couple books you might also find interesting:

[ame="http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558704477/fibreartsonli-20/702-1893598-5405669"]How to Show and Sell Your Crafts: Amazon.ca: Kathryn Caputo: Books[/ame]

http://www.cyberus.ca/~mcross/Selling_crafts.htm

http://www.dotcom.ca/infomart/business/b236.htm (website)

http://www.learnhowtoo.com/crafts.htm

HTH

[Darlene]

I don't have any advice but want to say and good luck with your new venture.

[Katybird]

Originally posted by Darlene
I don't have any advice but want to say and good luck with your new venture.

Me too.

[guest2]

Good luck!!! I'm sure you will gets lots of business!

[SewCrafty]

Originally posted by Darlene
I don't have any advice but want to say and good luck with your new venture.

Me three!

[daisycrazyme]

let me add my good wishes and i also have a comment because this is something i am also planning to do for extra cash.

i always make my own original invitations and thank you cards for my personal events. when it's a completely new design they really take a lot of time to perfect. i make mine from scratch using combinations of graphics and ms word - NOT using pre-fab software like hallmark or american greetings cards.

that being said, if i were to sell cards using one of the designs that i have already created with very minimal changes, i could and would sell them at a lower price. if the customer wanted a very custom job and wanted to see several intermediate proofs for approval (with hours of my work in between each proof) i would have to charge much more, and probably even take a loss on that order just to satisfy the customer. their final design would then go in my book for future customers to choose from.

you can order great cards using your own photos from ofoto.com for just $1 each and they often offer discounts on that. I use that fact plus my expenses in mind when i calculate my price.

also, my mother has a small bookstore so i am able to sell some cards in her shop. so far i have only put my thank you cards there, but i am working on a line of birthday cards.

i just gave up my fulltime job to stay home with my newborn, so i'll have a little more time and a lot less money.

[AmyBoz]

Originally posted by Darlene
I don't have any advice but want to say and good luck with your new venture.

[crdurham]

Thanks everyone for the tips and the well wishes....I have been working on gettting things ready and hope this turns out to be a pretty good venture!!

[dolphin]

Best of luck on your new venture Cornelia.

[Goodwin17]

Good luck to you. I've never tried to make any invitations, but I'm thinking of making my own programs for my wedding next year. I was not ambitious enough to do my own invitations. Hope it goes well for you.