Making a living as a jewellery designer is pretty sweet. It’s wonderful to be able to spend your time making something unique and beautiful with your own creativity and then sell it to others who will wear it with pride. Jewellery design is an exciting way to express yourself while earning a living.
However, a jewellery design must not only focus on the creative side of things but also on the cold hard business side as well. In order to successfully make a living as a jewellery maker, he or she must be able to understand the concepts of marketing, pricing, budgeting and sales. No matter how beautiful and creative the jewellery designs are, they will not be sold if they are not priced and marketed effectively.
One of the most difficult aspects of this is determining how to price your jewellery creations. Many jewellers struggle with this, because to them their unique works of art are priceless. However, when it comes down to marketing and sales the jewellery is only worth what the customer will pay for it. The jewellery designer needs to come up with a price that strikes a perfect balance between being profitable enough for them while also being affordable enough for the customer.
Unfortunately, many jewellery designers make mistakes when they first try to figure out the pricing of their creations. Here are some of the common mistakes that many designers make so that you can avoid making the same errors yourself.
Making Prices Emotional Rather Than Mathematical
Jewellery can have a lot of sentimental meaning and sometimes jewellers will get so attached to their creations that they will value them a lot higher than what a customer would pay. Perhaps you absolutely love your one-of-a-kind creations, but it’s important to remember that pricing them is a mathematical calculation. Take a step back from things and look at them rationally. If you really love a particular piece that you don’t want to sell it at any price you can always keep it for yourself.
Also, sometimes jewellery sellers will price too low as well for emotional reasons. Perhaps they are afraid that their work won’t sell or nervous about the reactions of customers. However, undervaluing your work will not help you at all. Approach pricing in a logical way so that you can get paid fairly for the designs you make.
Not Keeping Track of Materials and Labour
When you started out creating jewellery, you probably didn’t keep track of the beads, string, metal, wire, glass and other materials that you were buying on a regular basis. However, understanding how much you spend on materials is very important when determining the price of the jewellery. This is why you should create a “recipe book” for each one of your jewellery designs.
The book will include a list of all materials that go into the making of a specific piece of jewellery. For example, you might make a series of beaded bracelets that contain 28
small beads and 12 medium sized ones. Write this down, as well as the prices of the beads. If you know that a small bead is worth 3p each and a large bead is worth 5p, you will be able to calculate your material cost for the bracelet. Don’t forget to add in things such as the clasp, wire and any other parts.
Not Tracking Your Time Spent on Designing Jewellery
Your price is also based on the time you spend making the jewellery, so spending hours working on putting together a necklace without keeping track of your time is a mistake. You might price the necklace too low, then make your calculations later and then realise you are getting paid less than minimum wage.
Keep track of the time you spend designing and remember that increasing your speed will increase your profitability, so see if you can perform the process more efficiently.
Not Being Clear About Your Prices
It is odd when you see jewellery for sale but the price is not shown, whether online or in a shop and the prices are not apparent. If I have to ask the seller what the price of a piece of jewellery is, I probably will be less likely to buy it.
You might be thinking that putting your prices on your products will “scare away” customers, but the truth is that being honest about the price will only deter people who would not have made a purchase anyway. If someone is interested in your jewellery and will buy it at the price you offer them, they shouldn’t have to be a detective to figure out what that price is.
These are just a few of the major pricing mistakes that many
jewellery designers make and how you can avoid them yourself.
About the Guest Blogger:
'Gerorge Torres is a freelance writer and part time jewellery designers. He has his own Etsy store and his designs were recently featured in his local community arts and culture magazine.'
