How to price handmade cards - working out what to charge for your beautiful work!


How much to charge for handmade cards

When you fall in love with cardmaking it's easy to make the leap into deciding to start selling your handmade cards and crafts. In this article we look at all of the different factors you should take into account when coming up with a price tag for your work. Whether you're specialising in extra special birthday cards, personalised cards or just wanting to sell Christmas cards you still need to work out the best formula to price your work.

What do you want to achieve from your cardmaking business?

Before you start making and selling handmade cards or looking around for craft markets it would be wise to set down some goals. You can do this by asking the following questions, the answers will help you work out where to start with your pricing strategy.

  1. Do I need to make a profit from selling handmade cards or am I happy to just cover the costs of my materials?
  2. Do I see this a serious long term business idea that could bring me a regular income.
  3. Am I doing this for myself or for a charity? How much of the cost should go to the charity, all of it or just the profit?
  4. How much time each week do I have to devote to cardmaking?
  5. How much time each week do I want to spend on marketing and admin?
  6. Do I need help with marketing or selling cards online?
Kim Dellow - Enjoy

The Cost of Materials used

If you want to start selling handmade cards it's important that you start to keep a record of what you have bought and ensure that you also add in the cost of delivery. This isn't only useful for deciding what to charge for your cards but if you ever need to do a self-assesment tax return you will have all of this important info on your expenses to hand.

Consumables: Don't just look at the main elements of the card, you need to account for all the little items used.  It may be a good idea to get your calculator out so you can do a little maths on how much glue, embellishments etc cost per dot or dab.

Packaging: You also need to consider the packaging, will you buy acetate bags for the cards to make them look more professional or do they need boxes to keep them in perfect condition. It all adds up.

Tools: Don't include tools as part of the cost of the card, they're more about investing in your business. Only include dies and stamps etc if you have had to purchase them for a specific commission.

Once you start looking at the costs of supplies in detail you will see how important it is to get bargains, bulk buying is usually the best way - but only if you have room to store it and you are serious about selling your cards in bigger quantities.

Are you going to pay yourself?

In the UK the lowest hourly rate a business is allowed to pay an employee is £8.21.  Now being realistic if a card makes an hour to make can you really charge that kind of price plus materials? Maybe you could if it's a one of a kind project - don't undersell your time.

Most card makers don't pay themselves they do it because they love making handmade cards, they just want to make sure thei