Putting A Price Tag On Your Work

Okay today I want to talk about something I normally have trouble with… Putting a price tag on my work. Now it’s a bit of a balancing act you don’t want to over charge the customer, but you also not want to short yourself for the work you have done. When it comes to woodworking projects take time, some take more than others. So the first thing is figuring out is, what your time is worth to you, but something that also needs to be factored in is skill. A master woodworker that’s been doing this all his life is probably going to be charging more than someone who has just started this hobby.

Another thing that you need to factor into your price is material cost. Most people only think about the cost of the wood, but this doesn't cover the cost of consumables. Like your sandpaper, nails, paints, sealers, ect. Over time these items get eaten up by projects, and need to be replaced. There are many different ways you can factor this in. You can do a percentage markup for the whole project ( Ex: you do the math, and your time and cost of wood and other material is $35. You tack a 15% markup for consumables), or you can just markup the cost of material ( Ex: Your wood cost $15 and you do the markup on only that, this would not include your time), or you can take the time to figure out what each consumable used on the project cost and tacked that on. There are many other ways you could do this.

I charge $20/hour for cnc time, and the cnc I use is pretty fast (It takes about 20-30 min to do the stitch, and I charge a minimum of 30min or $10),and I charge $10/hour on the finishing work (Sanding, spraying and staining and painting). Then I charge for my material costs (wood, glass, metal) with a minimum cost of $10. I factor costs of consumables as a 10-15% markup on cost of material. Example you have $20 worth of material, I'm normally going to charge an extra $2 (10%). The higher 15% is for projects that have more detail, more colors, just more finishing work.

This is how I personally price my work, and I’m not saying my work sells better than someone else’s work would with a different pay model. This is just an idea for those who might be starting out and trying to get a gauge of how to price their work. Also these are my rates. You might say that $10 is to low for, well then charge more. I set these rates based on my skills and capabilities, so what you can differs from me. Over the next few years as I learn more these rates will go up.

That’s all I have for you today. If you enjoyed this most please upvote and resteem. If you have another business model please share in the comments below, or come join me and others on our woodworking discord https://discord.gg/azrCDrH. We have discussions on woodworking almost daily.