In my latest installment of Wearables Magazine’s ‘Ask an Expert‘, I address the issue of pricing one’s machine embroidery for profit. Though I welcome you to read the article in its entirety, the regularity with which I need to address this question makes me want to boil it down even further to a list of simple, scannable bullet points- these are the takeaways you need to remember to make sure you are getting the value you need for your work.

1. Start with the math– Know what your business is costing you and how much you can reasonably expect to get done in a given work day. After that, breaking even is a matter of simple division, and profit comes by coming in above what you *must* make to survive.
2. Prepare for problems and expansion– Know that you’ll encounter downtime and that you’ll want to add/upgrade equipment and likely add staff. You can’t just price for the break-even point; you must price to compensate yourself appropriately, make room for repairs and the resultant downtime they cause, and to save for your business’ future.
3. The perception of value is more than ‘work’- Though you should charge for the amount of work you execute, never forget that people pay wildly different amounts for roughly the same amount of ‘work’ a product requires- this difference is based on the perception of a brand or the experience a seller provides. Customer service, responsiveness, creativity, company culture, and even packaging all create the perception of value allowing you to charge for more than just a number of stitches.
4. Confidence is key- Many people who consider themselves creative don’t like to sully their work with talk of compensation, especially those that may have started out as hobbyists. Though it’s easy to get lost in your enjoyment of solving design problems, never forget that your creative work is real labor and deserves pay. You can’t profit until you get past this block. If you remember nothing else of this article, mark those words. You can’t earn what you aren’t willing to ask for. Have the audacity to demand what you are worth.

There’s little more to say that that, folks; though it can be more complicated by far, so many of the problems I see are related to these points that I ‘m going to keep shouting these points as often as I must. I want to see you succeed and to see all of us making what we deserve.