Ask a maker what their product costs and they'll add up materials to the penny, and leave out the hours of their own work. It's the most expensive ingredient in anything handmade, and the one almost everyone forgets. Leave your time out and you're not running a business; you're subsidizing a hobby.
Your time is a real cost
Whether or not you write yourself a paycheck, the hours you spend making, finishing, and packing have a value. If you didn't spend them on this product, you'd spend them earning elsewhere, or resting. Pricing that ignores your labor only "works" because you're absorbing the cost personally.
Pick an hourly rate you'd actually accept
Decide what your time is worth per hour: a rate you'd be willing to pay someone to do the same work, or to be paid yourself. It doesn't have to be perfect; it has to exist. Most makers, the first time they do this, realize they've been earning far below minimum wage once materials are covered.
If you don't put your time in your costs, the only person paying for it is you.
Build it into every product
- Estimate the minutes one unit takes: making, finishing, packing.
- Multiply by your hourly rate to get the labor cost per unit.
- Add that to materials and overhead. That's your true cost.
- Price above it, with margin, so your time is paid and the business still profits.
Watch your real hourly wage
Once your time is in the numbers, you can see your true earnings per hour on each product, and it's the most honest gut-check there is. Some products will pay you well; others will reveal that, after materials and hours, you're barely clearing minimum wage. That's your cue to raise the price, speed up the process, or retire the product.
From the Maker plan, Keepsel lets you add your time to each product and counts it in the product's true cost, so paying yourself stops being an afterthought and becomes part of every price. To try the numbers first, use the free pricing calculator, which shows your real hourly earnings.