One of the most uncomfortable moments in handmade pricing is finishing the math and discovering that the number your product needs to carry looks higher than what similar products seem to sell for.
That does not automatically mean “raise the price” and it does not automatically mean “give up.” It means you have found something worth investigating.
Competitor prices are market evidence, not your cost sheet
Looking at comparable products can help you understand the market's low, common and high price points. But a competitor's price cannot tell you what your materials cost, how long your process takes, what events you attend, or what your business spends to operate.
Do not make your own costs disappear on paper simply because somebody else charges less.
First, make sure the comparison is actually useful
A mass-produced import and a handmade product may serve a similar purpose without having the same process, quality, complexity, positioning or customer. When an identical comparison does not exist, compare the closest reasonable products based on purpose, customer, quality and perceived value.
If the market and your costs do not line up, investigate the business
The mismatch gives you a list of questions to test:
- Sourcing: Can you obtain the same quality at a better delivered material cost?
- Product design: Can the product be simplified without damaging its value?
- Production time: Can batching, practice, tools or workflow reduce active labor?
- Equipment and process: Would a better process improve cost or capacity?
- Packaging: Is the packaging doing useful work or merely adding expense?
- Event choice: Are you selling where the customer for this product actually shops?
- Positioning: Does your booth and presentation support the price?
- Volume and product mix: Are you expecting one product to carry too much of the business?
Do not solve the problem by pretending a real cost is zero
If the worksheet says your process is expensive, erasing labor, booth fees, failed production, or business costs does not make the process cheaper. It only hides the problem.
Good pricing information gives you choices. You may test a different price, improve the process, change the product, change the market, change the presentation, or decide the product does not belong in the current mix.
The worksheet informs the decision; it does not make it for you
Festival Geeks does not tell vendors what they must charge. The purpose of Know Your Number is to show everything a price may have to carry so you can make the decision with your eyes open.
Start with How to Price Handmade Products for Festivals: What Your Price Has to Carry, then use the free Know Your Number™ Pricing Workshop to work through your own product.
The market reality check is part of Episode 6 of Festival Geeks.