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what is your hourly rate for labour, mine up til now is £10 per hour, somethimes less. Now i'm self employed that has to go up to earn my crust. Just wondered what the average is
Jille
I think a lot of the time hourly rate is what you think is reasonable. Whilst an hourly rate must be taken into account when costing goods to sell, sometimes you have to adjust that final figure up or down to make the selling price more realistic. I have also found that the first time of making something new takes longer than the next, as you learn shortcuts etc and fine tune the working method, so normally do 2 or 3 before I decide on the final price.
I would suggest make something you are used to and time and cost materials etc, then try different hourly rates and decide what works best for the end product. There is no good making an item and it takes an hour at £20.00 plus materials of say £5.00 plus profit and markup it could out price that item on the market.
I charge out £5.00 to £10.00 per hour for sewing but £30.00 for accounts work, stupid really as I consider the sewing more skilled but could never get a good resale value if I charged the latter.
I've told this story before but - I used to pay myself £5 an hour. That is working out the price of things factoring in hours taken on that.
For the bit of my business (I don't put all my eggs in one basket) that does well (making historicalcostumes) the orders built up to having a two year waiting list, which was ridiculous. I talked this through with friends and they came up with us forming a guild. Customers find me (as I advertise) and I pass the making on to my guild members but they pay me a finders fee. To make this work they ordered me to work for £10 an hour. I redid all the prices in trepidation. I lost the first three orders, then we haven't looked back. Our waiting time is down to a month for them and two for me.
However another bit of what I do pays me what looks like £30 an hour but is more like £18 when you take into account travelling costs and preparation time and another thing I do I think I'm still working for £5 an hour but I sell LOADS of those things and wouldn't if they cost more.
Caroline said "I consider the sewing more skilled"
It made me laugh and remember asking whether I need permission from the Council to use my house to sew in for business.
The answer came - "Oh no. That's traditionally women's work. it doesn't count."
I don't even work out an hourly rate! There is only so much people will pay for a mug, so I don't even think about it. I just charge what I find to be a reasonable price for my items and it usually works out about right. I've been potting for about 28 years now so I have a good idea of the market price of pottery pieces. As I work alone it's not really an issue anyway as to what I pay myself.
Caroline said "I consider the sewing more skilled"
It made me laugh and remember asking whether I need permission from the Council to use my house to sew in for business.
The answer came - "Oh no. That's traditionally women's work. it doesn't count."
AnnieAnna
Last edited by monkeyloulou; 24-05-2010, 10:46 AM.
They were totally serious when they said it. Didn't even crack a smile.
I was gobsmacked.
I suppose if a man was doing it they'd say that was tailoring (that has a bit of status) but I'm still just a seamstress/a home sewer.
My costumes are actually tailored but I don't call myself a tailor - hmmmm, am I as bad as them? Being Tudoresque I call myself a seamstress. Funnily enough I was trying to find a Spanish word to decribe what I do to my newly acquired Chilean relatives and Chilean immigration and the police etc and I hit on modista - which translates as - seamstress. We are going round in circles here .
Oh I forgot. I sometimes do a Daesul.
I go into 'Oh for Heaven's sake, I haven't got a clue how to price this' mode and look at what other's are selling it for, thinking, "They must have done the maths, why reinvent the wheel?"
AnnieAnna
PS it would be really funny if everybody had been doing that for years and we were still selling at Roman prices.
i have been trying to set prices i think customers will pay but the gallery is actually taking more than i get after materials cost, I don't think that's right so I will have to put up prices by setting an hourly rate or cut out the gallery and sell directly
An interetsing thread. As an artist I am dictated by what what my paintings will sell for. As has already been said, after painting for many years I know what my work sells for. Using eBay as my main selling tool - works for me! - I have to also take into account listing fees etc. Although these are a lot less than gallery fees. On average I probably manage to earn £6-8 an hour although I spend many hours working on the PC when I am not painting, so if I really worked out my true earnings will be well below the national average. However, I am not stuck in an office and can work when I want, upsides and downsides to being self employed!
Remember a long road is best travelled with plenty of breaks.
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