February 16, 2012

Sometimes I hate that I have the kind of mind that can calculate how much profit I make on an item and how many I have to sell to make X amount of dollars. But in so many ways it's better, because this way I can see which of my items are best to offer wholesale.

I first have to calculate the cost of materials for each item. Then I have to calculate the time to make each to figure out what my dollar per hour rate is.

So I took my profit and divided by how much time to make the (necklace, brooch, etc) then multiply by 60 (minutes in an hour) that way I can see how much profit per hour.

In order to make 30,000 a year off broaches, I would have to sell nearly 7000 of them a year and work 65 hours a week crafting and packaging. That is at a 50% off wholesale. My profit and $ per hour on my venue are great if I could sell anything. Wholesale could be a viable option if I can sell at a bit higher price and pick up speed on my production. Nice to know there are variables.

Let see, if I made 10 pieces a day at an average of $8 profit each wholesale. That's $80 a day or for 5 days $400 a week, or $20,800. That's manageable, but not a lot of money. OK, I just figured that I can live on that. And it would be about 3000 pieces a year or 50 a week. Working only 5 days a week too. The publicity might even increase shop sales at which I make a much larger profit.

If I could place 20 pieces in 150 stores across the country that's manageable. I think I could make more than that and find more stores. It's a big country.

I suppose I'm not factoring everything. I did round up cost a lot, and I didn't include time for promotion and customer contact. But I also think that wholesale sales of less expensive items can lead to sales of more expensive items.

I can also sell at craft shows, but I need low cost items that I can sell pretty reasonably. I think a simple tie headband with single flower would sell well. They can also be worn on neck.

One of the things I found interesting, and I only did the calculation for 4 different items, was that although some had a much higher profit, $ per hour was less on them. I'm going to go over a few more items tomorrow and make some decisions. With the spread sheet I'm making, I can actually see if new items will be worth offering at all.

I'll post how I came to my results on Cinders Says so others can see how they're doing if they want to. Sometimes though, if you have another income, and you're doing this for fun, I think it's best not to go into it this deep and be blissfully unaware.