How to price your work

01 — Start with what it costs to make

Before you can set a price, you need to know what a project actually costs you to make. Not what you guess. What it actually costs.

• Materials — clay, glazes, fabric, glass, hardware, thread, packaging. Every consumable that goes into this specific project.
• Your time — every hour: designing, making, firing, finishing, communicating with the client, packaging, shipping. All of it.
• Overhead — your share of studio rent, equipment wear, utilities, shipping supplies, and anything else that keeps the lights on.

02 — Your hourly is a cost, not a profit

This is the most common mistake makers make: treating their own time as the thing that's left over after materials. It isn't. Your hourly rate is a cost of production — just like clay or packaging.

Two traps to watch for:

• Charging only for "making" hours. If you spent two hours going back and forth with a client on the design before a single thing got made, those are billable hours.
• Using your hourly as the profit line. Profit is what's left after costs — including your labor cost. If your rate is $40/hr, that $40 is a cost, not what you're earning above cost.

A useful test: if you got hit by a bus and had to hire someone to do what you do, what would that cost per hour? That number — not what feels "fair" to charge — is closer to your real labor cost.

03 — If you're just starting out

Start with what the market actually pays. Look at what other makers at your stage are charging for similar work. Not the top of the market — people who are where you are, making what you make. That's your anchor.

From there, two rules that don't bend:

• Always cover your material costs. Selling below materials cost is not a business — it's paying someone to take your work.
• Always pay yourself something. Even $15/hr to start. You need a number to track against, and $0/hr is a habit that's hard to break.

04 — What margin means

Margin is the percentage of your invoice price that is profit — money left over after your costs are covered. It is not a bonus. It's how you replace a broken kiln, survive a slow month, and stay in business.

Example: if a piece costs $120 to make and you charge $200, your gross margin is 40%. That means 40 cents of every dollar you bring in stays in the business.

| Range | What it means | |-------|---------------| | Under 30% | Likely undercharging | | 40–60% | Common benchmark for independent makers | | 60%+ | Strong — if the market supports it |

05 — The Generate Quote tool

Once you've entered your costs in Eccolo's cost breakdown, the Generate Quote section calculates a suggested invoice price for any target margin you set.

Example: total cost is $120, target margin is 40%. Suggested price: $120 / 0.6 = $200.

This is a starting point, not a ceiling. If your work commands more, charge more.

06 — Cost is the floor. Value sets the ceiling.

Cost-plus pricing tells you the minimum. It doesn't tell you the maximum. What your work is worth depends on more than what it cost to make.

• Skill and experience. A decade of practice has value. A maker who has been at it for ten years and a maker who has been at it for ten months are not the same hourly rate.
• Scarcity and uniqueness. A one-of-a-kind commission is not a production piece. Price it accordingly.
• Market comparables. What do other makers at your level charge? You don't need to undercut them to win clients. The right clients will pay a fair price.
• Client relationship. A long-term wholesale client and a one-off custom commission may be priced differently. Neither is wrong — just be intentional.

07 — Valuing your time

Your hourly rate should reflect a living, not just what feels "okay" to charge. A simple exercise:

1. Decide what annual income you need from your craft.
2. Estimate how many billable hours per week you can realistically work — account for admin, setup, cleanup, client back-and-forth, and everything that isn't "making."
3. Divide your annual income target by your total annual billable hours. That's your floor rate.

08 — Common mistakes

Not tracking your time at all. "I just charged for materials" is not a pricing strategy. It's how you end up working for $4/hr.

Forgetting non-making hours. Design time, revision rounds, client emails, and shipping coordination are labor. If you're not charging for them, you're doing them for free.

Undercharging for custom work. Custom requests carry more back-and-forth, more risk, and more design time than production pieces. They should cost more — not less.

Not building in revisions. If you include unlimited revisions, you've capped your margin. Scope what's included, and price additional rounds separately.

Pricing based on what you'd pay. Price based on what the work costs to make and what the market will bear, not on your personal budget or what feels like "a lot."

09 — A note on deposits

Requiring a deposit — typically 30–50% upfront — is standard practice for custom commissions. It covers your initial materials cost, signals that the client is serious, and protects you if someone disappears mid-project.

Eccolo's invoice section lets you track deposits separately from the final balance. You can request a deposit payment directly from the project portal and track what's been paid and what's still outstanding.

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Pricing well is a skill you build over time. The most important thing is to start tracking your costs honestly — and to stop guessing. Once you know your numbers, every pricing decision gets easier.