Showing posts with label pricing for makers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pricing for makers. Show all posts

Pricing for our Skillset - Part II - why we had better be doing whatever it is we are doing very, very well

Skillset is the tricky part of a maker's pricing formula.

This is probably why no one talks about it very much.

(skillset can sometimes be offset with the uniqueness of the maker's makings and their presentation and, yes, I know that kind of offset can annoy makers with practiced skillsets over thousands of hours, but it is just the nature of business right now - unique trumps better but unique lasts about 5 seconds and then you had better get yourself some more unique - or some better skills)

If we are not continually improving our craft, even the best marketing and sales skills won't save us in today's competitive environment over the long haul.

Wait- what the hell are we hauling? Forget I said it. Let's just call it building a sustainable business - no long hauling here - I am way too lazy for that.


We need to stay on top of our craft and be learning new things - this means taking courses, reading books, experimenting, exchanging ideas and best practices with trusted peeps.

Skillset matters. Producing something of quality matters. Producing something that matters matters.

And lots of other stuff that goes into crafting a successful product and creating a successful business matter, too, but we need some maker chops for people to take us seriously.

We need to know what you are talking about. We need to know what we are doing. We need to be doing good work - no, we need to be going great work (not flawless work - because where's the soul in that) - and we need the skills to do it.

(And yes, we also need to pay attention to developing trends - where is the market heading? Are customers' budgets shifting? What are we being asked about the most? What's being talked about? This is not always something we need to take action on, but we do need to be aware of it and a huge plus to being a small business is that it allows us to be fast on our feet and pivot and change direction and even move backwards if we do want to take action)

Now at a certain point our skillset will start to matter less than our reputation and the uniqueness of our offerings because life is a giant circle after all or a spiral really, bringing us back again and again to the same place at a different level - a place where we bring our experiences to bear on a similar situation allowing us to choose differently. It is no different for our businesses.

With a maker business our most important asset is us. So making a commitment to invest a reasonable percentage of our energy (time and money) into improving our skillset will sustain us over the long haul (I can't seem to escape the pack mule verbage - ugh).

Back to tie this in with our pricing models in Part III - for the maker who needs (ie heartful yearning) to make stuff and Part IV - for the maker who needs (ie heartful yearning) to use certain skills

* surrender print by the talented jessica grundy of solocosmo

Pricing for Our Skillset - the piece of the pricing puzzle that doesn't get talked about enough Part 1

When I was a bank manager

(yes, I was a bank manager, please don't judge me)

there were salary ranges for different positions within the bank.

So, if a bank teller's hourly salary range was $10-$15 an hour, a total newbie would get $10 and a teller with say 5 years experience would get $15 and a teller with 20 years experience would get .. well, $15.

There was a certain dollar value attached to specific work and at some point more experience just didn't translate to better, more valuable work - to make more money the teller would have to develop new skillsets and transition into a different position; one with a higher (perceived) value.

As makers things are different, but the final say in our perceived value is determined by our customers (some would say "the market" but I do not believe so much in large homogenized things like "market" right now, so we will just say customers).

And the skillset we bring to the table greatly factors in too, until it doesn't anymore.

Let's say you are a person making necklaces who buys a charm and a chain and strings them together and if you are working with certain materials - either one of a kind findings or precious metals or stones or if you package or market your necklace in some very clever way you can charge more than someone who goes to Michael's and buys a charm and a chain and puts them together, but ....

this is because you have expended more energy (in the form of time or money) into your makings to increase their perceived value

you have taken the time to either search out those one of a kind findings, or make that special packaging or do that branding and marketing establishing yourself as an expert or you have put additional money into the metals and stones you are working with

this is not because you have a greater skillset and often when you factor in the additional energy expended - you are not really making more than our Michael's shopper because for makers in a crowded marketplace - skillset matters.

Many online shops were likely started with a 'what the hell' - let's throw it up there and see if anyone buys it

(and I know this pisses off a lot of skillset focused makers and the only reason it doesn't piss me off is because it is pretty much exactly what I did with my shop Uncorked in the beginning)

and I don't think this is something to be totally discounted as a jumping off point

sometimes the best way to start something new is by making the earliest conditions for success very, very easy - of course if this "easy" isn't followed by "more challenging and skill growing" we are in for a whole heck of a lot of well ... nuthin much.

There are also makers that start a business with a skill set that has been developed over time (which is how I started Polarity) and sometimes many, many years of time and this has to be factored in - until it can't be anymore because this increased skillset cannot be recognized by the customer as increasing the item's perceived value (and then lots of things other than skillset come into play).

There has been so much great info out lately about pricing for makers and hopefully talking about skillset (and raising of standards and challenging ourselves) will contribute to a fuller conversation.

As makers wanting to be paid what we are worth - which for many people means enough to quit our day job or pay our bills without actually factoring in whether we are doing the kind of work and have the kind of skillset to justify that yet -

well, if we want to earn what we are worth and if we are working from our hearts we are worth a hell of a lot - well to pay us for that we need to be thinking about just what we are doing to produce well, magnificence

yes, magnificence let's go there - even when there requires us to stand on our toes and stretch out our arms and fingers all the way - and to be attuned that when our skillset reaches a certain point (maybe someone who has been knitting for 2 years has the same skillset as someone who has been knitting for 10 - or maybe she doesn't) we probably need to be adding value in other ways.

So, anyhoo - will continue this series next week and if you want to know what the hell I am getting at here (which is multiple things actually because life is messy) you will have to stop back (please don't hate me, but I miss you when you're not here).

NOTE - the new moon on Tuesday in Gemini was exactly conjunct Polaris the pole star - Polaris is on the tail of the great she-bear constellation, Ursa Major.

It's known as having great spiritual power, since all the stars appear to revolve around it. Many legends associated with the star Polaris and the she-bear Ursa Minor are about women and spirituality and I have been obsessing about Polaris for a long time (I even named my locket for her)

and since all signs above are pointing to a new empowerment of the feminine down here it is worth reading about. There is a little essay here that supports all my feelings about this new moon.

* may the odds be ever in your favor print by cloud and clover