Price fixing

 

 

I'm finding myself facing an issue that I just can't ignore, try as I might. Me and money don't really get along. I'm am probably a lifetime member of team grasshopper and I have a bad habit of hardly knowing how much I'm being paid when I do hold a 'real' job. But with my newfound sense of earnestness regarding making yarn for a living comes the need to get on better terms with dollars and cents...and to acknowledge the reality of having my very own bottom line. Honestly it makes me cringe a little still, just typing that out...but I'm going to chalk it up to my former lack of maturity and get to the point. The horrible, horrible point. Being, if I'm going to go around writing 'yarn artisan' in forms that ask for my occupation, I'm also going to have to start charging what my work is worth.

There's this formula that crafty folk use to calculate prices for what they make. It goes something like {labor + materials + expenses + profit x 2 = retail price} and I reliably cheat when I use it. I hate having to charge more than I'd be willing/able to pay and in terms of having cash on hand, I'd much rather sell something soon and have money to pay for food/more fiber/bills/etc. than wait and wait for that one person who's willing to pay $64 for a handspun, hand dyed, handknit hat. But in the long run I'm cheating myself and in the even longer run I'm cheating folks who love my yarn, too. Because I'm denying growth to my business and ultimately I'm keeping the business from leveling up past it's current scale of economy. (I may have just unvented that phrase) What I mean by that is without generating what the work is worth I'm keeping Eat Agar artificially small. Small in this case equals expensive because what it takes to keep my kids in clemetines and salami divided by not much inventory comes to a much higher price tag than if I could divide it by more inventory made in the same span of time. In order to get that I'm going to adjust my prices, I'm going to start sticking to that formula and I'm going to. Really. So heads up?

In other, less guilt inducing news I'm offering an unofficial Black Cyber Maundy Friday gift. If the spirit moves you to order some yarn between now and my birthday (December 2nd, remember?) I'll not only waive shipping but I'll bump it up to domestic priority rate, too. Should you be elsewhere in the great, wide world I'll just call $4.00 good. The only catch is I'm asking you to sign up for my newsletter. A sweet, well mannered affair, which I promise will always contain a balance of me blathering on about beautiful new yarns and freebies for you guys. Like patterns and other promos or more coupony goodness.