Is there anyone out there that is sucessfully self-employed could you give me some advice?

Question

The job market is very poor where I live and I need to be sucessful to take care of my two children I do illumanated srcipt on wood, but it's all hand mand how can I make my time and materials back on my work?

Answer 1

List the cost of materials. If you buy a piece of wood that makes more than one item, divide that cost by the number of items produced from one piece.
That's the cost of material for one item.

You can then mark-up a profit on the material.
Example:
Cost of material for one item=$5. You also must add any paint or stain cost, etc, to material cost.
If you want to earn 50% of the retail price, divide the cost, $5 by the complement of the % to 100 = 50%.
If 40% mark-up, divide by the complement=60%.

5$ divided by 60%, or .60= $8.33. Selling price

5$ divided by 50%, or .50 = $10.00 Selling price.

To that you have to add your labor charge. If one item takes one hour or more to make, you have to decide how much your time is worth, or, how much you need to make for a living. You'll have to estimate how many you can sell in a day, week or month.
By adding your labor to the selling price, is the profit and labor enough to live on? Is it too high in price to sell?
If you can create a demand and are selling bunches, maybe you can increase the price.

Hope this helps. You can contact me if you like.

Answer 2

From your other question and this one my advice is this:

* Decrease your expenses (find another supplier that has lower cost)
* Increase your prices
or...
* a combo of these two approaches.

You might be able to command a better price if you widen your marketing. Can you market it on the internet? Is there a saturday market nearby? Is there a craft seller, flea market, antique type thing nearby that you can market at? Put up flyers anywhere you think potential customers might be. Think big.