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Why charging too little makes your items seem cheap.

A common refrain I see across the Etsy forums is, "Why am I not selling? Are my prices too high?" Did you know that a man would never ask that? I have no idea why this is, but women tend to undervalue their work, and the more I learn about this phenomenon, the more it baffles me.


The truth is... pricing low gives off the vibe that your items are cheap, made of cheap materials, possibly knock-offs. Does that sound like the vibe that you want to give off? No, probably not.

But I just do it for fun!

When I hear people say this is, what I really hear them say is... "You should, by necessity, hate your job. And if you love it, you most certainly shouldn't be paid for it." Which is utter rubbish.
What you love to do and being paid for a living don't have to be mutually exclusive things. And why should they be? Life's too short to hate what you do every day.

But no one else is charging very much either!

That's probably true. They also aren't making a profit. Are you sure you want to put yourself in the same boat as them? There is a market out there for what you sell. Trust me on this. And someone who values hand-made, quality, one-of-a-kind items is most likely also going to be someone who is put off by a low-end price-tag (there's a reason why everything's more expensive in Beverly Hills... and it isn't because their clothes are spun from gold).

But I feel bad charging more than what I'm charging!

Um... really? Why? Would you feel bad being paid a living wage to answer phones or flip burgers (okay, you probably couldn't make a living wage doing that... but you know what I mean.)
You are providing the world with a valuable skill! Please don't undervalue that!

But isn't loving what I do payment enough?

If you are independently wealthy... maybe. But also consider that for every low-priced item you sell... you're also devaluing the entire hand-made community by teaching consumers that such things should cost very little. So really... it's not just about you. You're also hurting me and every other hand-made business when you charge too low.

*****

And because I can't seem to stop watching this video, if you didn't watch it last time I shared it, I really encourage you to watch it this time. It completely blew my mind with how to go about pricing so you can actually make a living. For women, it's a much more psychological thing than anything, which I find utterly fascinating.


Watch live streaming video from etsy at livestream.com

Comments

  1. Hola Jennifer!
    What an awesome post! The video was inspiring and confidence building! Thank you so very much for this post and for sharing the awesomeness! Tootles!

    ~SimplyyMayra :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. This was the line of what you said that really stood out to me.... also consider that for every low-priced item you sell... you're also devaluing the entire hand-made community by teaching consumers that such things should cost very little. I agree wholeheartedly with that.

    ReplyDelete

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