When I first laid out my plan for creating a culture of profit, I said it was based on two principles:
1. Be confident in the value your products provide.
2. Embrace the idea that it is ok to make a profit.
The more I’ve worked with designers and makers, the more I realize that many of us have difficulty articulating the value our products provide.
I have a number of theories on why this is the case, and I’ve been researching one of those quite extensively. (More on that soon.)
But now I want to hear from you.
Can you tell me the value that your product provides? Or is this something that you struggle with?
I’d love it if you would leave a comment sharing either your value proposition (the value you think your products provide) or your struggles in articulating this value.
Our jewelry line either really appeals to people or really doesn’t. Our material costs are low, and we figure about $20 an hour for our time in making the pieces. When someone is drawn to our pieces, I think the jewelry speaks for itself. It is hard to articulate the value of our work, but to us, we value our lives so much more now that we see ourselves as artists.
The problem I have about communicating part of my value is that my value is usually only evident in hindsight … like had you hired me on earlier in the project, or had you hired me before you hired that other guy, you would have saved thousands. (I’m a web developer.)
I vasilate between not wanting to know how many hours I’ve spent writing and charting and calculating, and wanting to give the patterns away for free. I think the value of my patterns is that when someone wants to make something pretty out of yarn, they can look at my instructions and watch TV, not sit up an hour or so before TV time and calculate the numbers themselves.
Hey Megan, I agree. Lots of my clients have a hard time saying their value-why or how they change their clients world for the better.
Like you, I got theories. I think the trouble stems from one place- FEAR! All humans fear not belonging and being rejected, but women are experts! 🙂
Fear that the client won’t like them or think badly of them and walk away
Fear that they aren’t really worth anything so why look
At one time or another every entrepreneur has feared the worst- a lost sale.
Knowledge is the antidote to fear. Don’t guess about your value or pricing. Know! Because once you do it’s hard to go back to underpricing or discounting.
I’m finishing a mini-product now on surveying, one of my favorite ways to find the ‘right’ price that’s perfect for a microbusiness.
Thanks for speaking up about this topic that needlessly haunts so many entrepreneurs.
Dina
I struggle with this topic because I make jewelry. What value does jewelry provide?
I have been selling my pieces for years but only began to be passionate about it as a business after my daughter was born in 2009. I have heard -your pieces speak to me, your pieces come from the heart, you put your soul into each piece. How does this translate into value? Could jewelry’s value be to make the wearer feel good about herself? Confidence?
I am struggling getting my business to the next level. I am really struggling with procing because so many charge so little i have huge fears about pricing. It has literally kept me standing still for months now. I haven’t listed anything new in weeks because I have no clue what to price my pieces at. Ugh
Maybe looking at it from the perspective of the jewelry owner will help you….
I treasure each piece of my jewelry because it has sentimental value to me – regardless of the cost. It represents a milestone, an event or a symbol of some part of my life. The value of a handcrafted piece of jewelry is that its as special as the occasion for which it was purchased. I would guess your customers feel that way too….otherwise they’d be shopping at the mall for jewelry.
Thank you Rosa, I got chills reading your response. YES! That’s it. Their pieces are tied to a memory or a feeling. A milestone, an even or a symbol.
I am trying to brand my business so tying everything together to create that feeling, or memory is an important part of it.
From my hang tags, business cards to my packaging it is all to create this feeling or internal response to my pieces.
Oh thank you for opening my eyes to that value.
I know when people open my boxes they always gasp so that is the feeling I want them to always have when they open my boxes and when they wear my pieces!
Thanks, this was priceless and to think I was scared to write anything.
Shannon
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I’m getting better at this but it’s still not natural 🙂
I’ve been struggling a lot with this issue. I think the reasons I have to make my pottery may vary from the reasons my customers may have to buy it and none of those reasons are easily expressed in one word. However, the only best value I can come up with is the fact it is unique and different from mass produced pottery.
Now, when it comes to pricing I still struggle BIG TIME!
So when raising prices, what is the best way to do it? Just raise them? Send out a public note to customers? Explain? What about when dealing with retailers who already have products based on old prices? I’m not sure the best and most professional way.
Consider the stuggle a male jewelry artisan has in determining value when he has no wife or girlfriend to try things out on, no close women friends really, but who loves working with the colors and textures of the gemstones and beads he uses to wire wrap and crochet to make jewelry. Figuring out what value doing what I enjoy doing brings to someone who buys my jewelry is very hard for me. What rosa said really rings true for me, and I’d not seen it that way; but she opened my eyes to something I do myself with items I buy. Each piece I display in my home, paintings, nick-nacks, etc. has a story behind how or why or where I got it, each one has meaning for me, and I would hope that each piece I make and purchased will mean something to the wearer, bringing them a sense of joy, making them feel pretty, etc. Still you have got me thinking about this value thing, what value does what I enjoy doing bring to the people who buy my pieces.