Book Review: How to Price Crafts and Things You Make to Sell by James Dillehay

This book How to Price Crafts and Things You Make to Sell covers both pricing online and offline. As a crafter myself I know what it means to want answers to these questions. We are always thinking “How to do I price it while making money, BUT not going too much beyond what people will pay for what I have.”

You may begin to ask yourself “WHY would I need a BOOK to tell me how to do this”? There isn’t really a set formula on craft items because they are handmade by YOU. You want to feel like you’re getting paid for not only your product, but your TIME as well. Time IS money, so you can’t just price a crocheted blanket that took you a month to make at $10.

This book not only gives formulas as to how to make money time and time again, but it gives examples. The examples and instructions are what come in handy to a crafter thinking about selling their items. This book gives both pricing for retail AND wholesale—so you’ll be making money on both ends.

If you can learn to price your items better, it can only mean more profit. More profit means more money IN your pocket to expand your business in whatever way you like. BUT even better is that it shows how to tell IF your making a profit, how to keep records of everything, cutting material cost, and how to reevaluate your time and workspace.

When you take a step back and reevaluate all these things, it gives room to better your business. If you can organize your workspace so that everything you need is right THERE, you aren’t going to spend time looking for what you need. WHICH means more time to actually work, make products, and get them out in the world!

Taxes! Yes, I just said TAXES. This book also shows you some advantages of owning a home based craft business. Those advantages will get you some tax write-offs and save you even more money that you can just turn around and put back in your pocket for inventory, fabric, or whatever you need.

You may have not realized this before, but most crafters really don’t charge what they should for their work. They aren’t making enough to actually say that they OWN a business. This book will help you learn the insides of business and how customers are WILLING to support local crafters and pay what you want to be paid.

Have you ever heard of strategic pricing? It is when you learn which market attracts the highest paying customers and how to get your products in there for those customers to see.

If you’re a crafter then you should know that you can’t just take things that you’ve thrown together and expect to be paid the highest payout for that product. When you CRAFT you have to make exceptional quality work to be able to charge those prices. If you aren’t taking pride in your work, and are just thinking about the benefits of being able to work from home- you may want to reevaluate your priorities before starting a craft business.

I love that this book also gives you an idea as a crafter WHERE your items are most likely to sell. If you are new at this kind of thing, you may not know or understand where the handmade market is- with this book you WILL.

BUY IT: You can buy the How to Price Crafts and Things You Make to Sell book for Kindle for only $4.99 or $12.95 for paperback. IF I were you, I’d go ahead and get the paperback—this is like a craft selling bible and there are things that you are going to want to return to. NOT only return to but write side-notes, highlight, and even share with your crafty friends!

 

About the Author

James Dillehay, is a professional craft artist, fine crafts gallery owner, and author of nine books and has been interviewed in The Wall Street Journal Online, The Chicago Tribune, Bottom Line Personal, Family Circle, The Crafts Report, Better Homes & Gardens, Working Mothers, Country Almanac, HGTV, and many more. James produced a series of webinars for the state of Alaska to help local artists and craft makers learn more ways to market their creative products. He has presented workshops around the US including events for the National Association of Independent Artists in Atlanta, GA and the Bootcamp Marketing for Artists and Craftspeople in Santa Fe, NM. He operates and provides content for Craftmarketer.com He is the founder of Craftsu.com, the social network for craft artists and he runs the Treasure Box Gallery in Madrid, New Mexico where he weaves and sells his work.

Disclosure: This isn’t a sponsored post, products were sent for review purposes only. The opinions in this post are completely and 100% my own!

 

Jessica Renee