When “Competitive Pricing” Depends on the Market

How do you account for the value of your experience and problem-solving beyond simply adding up materials and hours, while still keeping your work competitively priced?

For me, “competitive” changes depending on the event or market I am selling in.

I have a bad habit of underpricing both my work and my labor just to make the sale and keep the boat floating. My smaller pieces usually do well at public-facing events, but at many of those shows I am also directly competing with Mee-maw selling $4 dog scarves made from copyrighted character fabric.

There is nothing wrong with selling an inexpensive product, but it creates a market where customers are often comparing everything by price instead of considering the skill, equipment, originality, time, and experience that went into making it.

This is not limited to custom work. It affects everything I make. I can calculate the materials, consumables, equipment costs, and hours, but that still does not fully account for the years spent developing the skills or the problem-solving required to turn an idea into a finished piece.

Sometimes the hardest part is not figuring out what the work is worth. It is finding the market where people understand why it is worth it.

I do not like turning away work or walking away from a possible sale, especially when every sale helps keep the business moving. At the same time, constantly lowering prices to fit the wrong market can leave you working nonstop without actually getting ahead.

I typically bring a variety of my work to each event, hoping to make enough sales to cover the cost of the day while also connecting with people who may become future commission clients.

How do you decide whether to adjust your pricing, change the mix of products you bring based on the event or demographic, or accept that a particular market simply is not the right fit for your work?