Pricing question


Hello everyone!

A few months ago, I made this for a family member as a gift. They’re now asking me how much I sell these for because they’re interested in buying one. I originally was selling it for $25 but was told I’m selling it for way too cheap. I’m still learning how to price things with the glowforge and find a formula I can stick with that has a reasonable price. My question is, what price do you sell yours for? I now know that I’m supposed to charge $60 per hour or something like that for engraving.

I’ve got the pro and it only takes 30 minutes to get a photo like this engraved onto this circle acrylic. I’ve done my calculation and I’m obviously doing something wrong because the prices are ridiculously high. Am I supposed to break down that $60? If so, how do I do that? Any easy to follow formula that can be given to me? That’d be great, I’m terrible at math btw so I’m just looking for some guidance and an average price for something like this. Thanks!

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The short answer is “what amount is worth your time plus materials”? In addition to the actual laser time is YOUR labor time designing, setting up the job, buying materials and managing the sale including any mishaps/redos and marketing/Etsy/website costs.

A quick look online - I don’t see anyone charging less than $50, generally they’re around $75-150.

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One rule of thumb - if you’re not embarrassed to ask for that much, you are not charging enough. I’m amazed at the number of people on Etsy, etc. that are way underpricing to the point they cannot possibly be making a profit. Your time is valuable - you can buy more materials, you can buy more equipment, but you can never buy more time.

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I break it down by minute/second. So 60/hour is a dollar a minute. I multiply that by how long it takes me, plus the cost of materials (I broke that down by square inch a long time ago and got my cost per square inch). On top of any added time like file creation and set up, packaging, etc. I usually double or triple my materials cost to make up for what I used, and what I have to buy to replace it. This is just your cost. Make sure you charge more than your cost.

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