Re: Pricing

[wmharps@xxxxxxxxx]

Arthur Pellerin wrote:
> I don't want to undercut a service that is in demand. 
> Is there a per job rate that I can go by?

I think I'm making about $1/hour right now...

Seriously, though, it's whatever the market will bear, and setting prices 
determines how much business you'll get at what profit (if any) for your time.  
I initially started out by looking at how much time I was putting into a harp, 
choosing an acceptable price per hour, then adding that to the cost of 
materials to determine the end price of the harp.  A few problems with this 
method are that 1) it doesn't take into account the cost of time and materials 
for communicating with customers, order processing (invoicing, shipping labels, 
etc.), and packing and shipping; 2) doesn't allow much flexibility in pricing 
for special requests (after all, these are *customized* harps); 3) doesn't 
address the competitive aspect of pricing.  

Since I started out using this method I have adjusted prices only once to cover 
increased cost of materials and an increase in the amount of time spent as the 
work demands increased (read: quality of the product improved).  Conversely, I 
now spend roughly 2-3 times as much time building a harp as I used to, 
meanwhile the number of providers in the market has increased sharply.  

I used to operate on the capitalistic notion that I wanted as much business as 
I could get, now I'm happy to have the amount of time I spend working on harps 
limited to allow me time for the rest of my life.  If I start to get too busy, 
I'll raise my prices.  Since I'm not really doing this for the money I have a 
lot of flexibility in how I price my products.  Now it's mostly a vehicle for 
financing my harp habit!  Ironically, the more customer work I have the less 
time I have to work on -- and PLAY -- my own harps.

- -tim