Forget everything you think you know about pricing. All those comments on Facebook about “cost of materials x 3 plus half a bag of sugar” that type of thing. Just remove it form your mind. It has no place in a professional sewing business.
Right. Now we’ve chucked out the trash we can start getting real about what to charge and how to charge for your dance costumes.
It’s helpful to calculate an hourly rate regardless of whether you are going to charge by the hour, use base pricing* or some other way of calculating your final price. Without having a good understanding of your hourly rate, you won’t be able to work out a base price that will take your own wages into account when you do the maths.
“Without having a good understanding of your hourly rate, you won’t be able to work out a base price that will take your own wages into account when you do the maths.”
So you need to consider if there is a minimum wage where you live. Does your local authority or government set a minimum wage that employers have to pay their staff? If there is, it doesn’t mean you have to charge this as a minimum. As a self employed business owner you are free to charge as much or as little as you wish to.
It makes sense to check what your local minimum wage is, because you don’t want to charge less than what you could earn working as an unskilled checkout assistant at the local supermarket. Well, maybe you would, but if that’s the case, I don’t think you’re in the right place.
You’re here because you want to start charging what you are worth and creating a profitable and sustainable business that you can grow and develop for the future. You’ve recognised that your skills have taken you a long time to get and you should be rewarded for them by anyone who needs your services.
Oftentimes, anything within the creativity and arts sector has a weird attitude when it comes to charging your worth. I believe it’s because there are so many hobbiest sewers/photographers/knitters/creative types and some of these people have been happy to provide their services for very little and sometimes even for free!
I often hear things like “but I love doing it, so I don’t mind not charging much” and “I just charge cost of materials because I’m not a professional.”
I often hear things like “but I love doing it, so I don’t mind not charging much” and “I just charge cost of materials because I’m not a professional.”
Hello! Wake up call. If you are taking any form of payment you are a professional. By simple definition of the word ‘professional’ you are someone who gets paid for their services. Even if you have no intention of making your hobby become a business, you should still charge your worth and support the industry that you are a part of.
By charging just the cost of materials you are effectively telling all the people who need dance costumes that your services are not worth paying for. Why would you do this? Of course your services are worth paying for. How many years have you spent perfecting your art? You need to take this in to account when calculating how much your costumes cost.
Did you study art & design, dressmaking, pattern drafting or any other creative skill? This all contributes towards making you a better creative dance costume maker and so should be rewarded properly for your work.
You’ll soon be proud to tell people how much you charge and they will be happy to pay because they know you are worth it.
I know it’s hard when you first have to tell someone how much their costume is going to cost, but it’s so much easier once you are out there and doing it regularly. You’ll soon be proud to tell people how much you charge and they will be happy to pay because they know you are worth it.
*base pricing is where you have a set list of base costumes and they have a base price and then your customer can choose add ons in addition to the basic costume. A bit like a pick and mix. Customers often like this type of charging because they can easily see where they can save money, but it can have adverse effects because some people will negotiate a price with you for a base costume and then keep trying to add extras on at a later date. This means you then have to keep discussing price – and no one wants to do that everyday!
If you need a bit more confidence with your pricing or you want to go more in depth on how to calculate the true cost of a dance costume, you might want to check out my Pricing Toolkit.
The Dance Costume Pricing Toolkit
If you need a bit more confidence with your pricing or you want to go more in depth on how to calculate the true cost of a dance costume, you might want to check out my Pricing Toolkit.
Set of digital devices screen mockup
