Are you excited about selling your artwork? Are you having a difficult time deciding what you should charge? If you are having a difficult time deciding what you should charge for your artwork, you’re not alone. Pricing artwork is a challenge for even the veteran artists. In this article, you will discover some best practices for pricing artwork.
Being able to make some money off of something that you have created is exciting. You spent many hours working your craft, and now it is time to let people enjoy your work in their home.
But where do you start?
The first step you will need to take is deciding what you will charge for your art. This seems simple, but it is challenging. If you price your work too high, people might not be interested in purchasing it because of the high cost. If you price it too low, you might lose sales because people might question the quality of your work.
Pricing artwork for the first time is a tough decision. If you are planning on selling art, you are starting a business. You will want to think like a business person. I know that you are an artist, but if you want to sell your artwork you will also need to be a business person.
Pricing Artwork – Best Practices
You Are Running A Business
The primary goal for any business is to make a profit. You are no different. If you are selling your artwork, you will want to make a profit. You will want to consider the cost of your materials, marketing costs, office costs, and your time.
Start by writing down the cost of the materials that you use for creating one piece of art.
The next step is to calculate any marketing fees if any. Are you paying for advertisements with Google’s AdSense or paying for ads on social media sites?
After you have finished coming up with the costs of materials and marketing, you will want to add in any office costs. You will need to know how long it takes you to complete a project and calculate how much it costs for electricity, heat, water, and any office supplies that you use.
A simple way to calculate how much the electricity, water, and heat costs is to figure how much you pay per hour for each, then multiply that number by how many hours it took you to complete the project.
The last thing you will want to calculate is your hourly rate. If you would like to charge $20.00 an hour and it took you ten hours to complete the project, you would add $200.00 plus the price of materials, heat, electricity, water, and any marketing costs.
You now have a price that would make you a profit. But it is not that easy; there are other factors that you will need to consider.
Market Value
To be able to decide on a price that will work for you and your customers you will need to spend some time researching the market. Research what other artists are selling similar art for. You will need to research how long they have been selling for and how large their following is.
You can get a good idea by the following they have on social media sites and when what year they started their website. Most sites will display the starting date on the bottom of the websites home page. If there is no date, then research the About Me page.
You will also want to be aware of the economy. Is the economy up or down? Is unemployment high or low? The economy will have a large impact on your sales and should be considered when deciding on a pricing strategy.
Value
The value of your art is only worth how much a buyer will pay. If your audience will pay $100.00 for your artwork, that is the value of your artwork.
As you start to build your brand, and your artwork starts to sell consistently, a price increase should be considered.
A smaller increase has always worked better for me. For example, if my goal is to increase my price by $50.00 in a year, I might raise the price in two intervals. In July, I will increase the price by $25.00 and in December I will increase the price by $25.00.
If sales are down, and the economy is depressed, a price increase might not be in your best interest. If people are struggling financially, they will focus on necessities.
Conclusion
Selling art is exciting for every artist. The business side is often something that is less desired. However, if you are interested in the sale of your art, you will want to start thinking like a business person when you are not in the studio.
Pricing artwork steps:
Know the costs of doing business.
Have a goal of how much you would like to be paid per hour.
Know how much people are willing to spend on your artwork.
Start prices lower and gradually increase them until they reach your goal.
Are you thinking about starting an art blog? Visit Artist Blog Resource for free articles to help you start and build your artist blog.
If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to my free weekly newsletter. I will send you valuable tips that will help build your artist blog and art business.
Join me on:
Leave a Reply