Why is it so hard to price your jewellery?

One of the most common questions I get asked in my School is how to price jewellery. But hidden behind that fairly loaded question is why is it so hard to price my jewellery?

It’s a great question and whilst there are some ‘formulas’ and approaches to doing so, it often causes a great deal of consternation when people sit down to work out their prices. There’s a lot of second guessing and soul searching that goes into pricing.  And I get it, I have this issue too! Why is it so hard to price your jewellery?!?

Since I am in the same boat as most of you and since I get all dry mouthed when I’m asked for a price for a piece of jewellery I’ve made – I asked my fantastic business coach Emma Holmes, to talk us all into doing what’s right for us and our businesses. Let’s take the fear out of pricing and look at what we need to do to make sure that we get a fair return for the products we make. Let’s get confident about pricing and making it easy instead of hard to price your jewellery! I really hope it helps you.

Don’t be frightened of pricing by Emma Holmes

Let’s start with the whole selling thing as these two bad boys are interlinked!

Selling is merely you offering an opportunity to your audience. It’s allowing them the chance to get what you’ve got. What we need to do is make sure we are addressing those opportunities well and that we are doing it with integrity and by being of the very best service to our crowd.

I often see people being polite in their selling, I see people worrying that they are being salesy before they’ve even told ANYONE about what they have to offer.

Getting emotional

I get that putting your products and services out there, pricing them and selling them is embroiled in lots of emotions and reactions. The one thing that we have control over in any given situation is the way that we react to it. Selling can make you feel uneasy, it can bring up fear about whether people will buy or whether people will think you are simply being ridiculous. Worst of all, it will make you analyse your self worth.

These are all valid and common reactions.

They are all normal, and most entrepreneurs will feel them at varying extents throughout their journey. Sometimes you can quell them for long periods of time and sometimes not so much. They are the wobbles. It is our brains going into self analysis mode, it’s our consciousness trying to protect us and keep us safe. You can feel these things and allow them to trot on by, if you decide that’s the way you will react to these circumstances. It’s often a case of “aaaahhhh, well, it’s interesting to hear that one again! I wonder why that’s come up”.

Whilst so much we do in business is super personal and we are subjective in our decision- making process, the ability to zoom out and be objective is a great tool to have in your arsenal.

How to be objective…questions to ask yourself

• Is the feedback you are getting from your brain true
• Is it an honest reflection of the current circumstances?
• Is it based in fear and lack?
• Is it because you’re stepping up and stepping outside of your comfort zone?

Stepping out of your comfort zone

When we step outside of our comfort zone, the natural reaction in our head is “whoa, whoa, whoa, COME BACK!!! What if this happens or that happens? YOU ARE UNSAFE THERE, come back!”

I suppose for our prehistoric ancestors that was super useful. It was the call back to the cave when they went too far. It was the warning shots of being outside the usual and the fact that they might get attacked or eaten. You’re not going to get eaten (unless you are deciding on your pricing and selling strategy in the lion enclosure of the zoo).

Each time you stretch that comfort zone a little more, the blighter has to chase you and try to catch you up. Therefore meeting you a little further down the road.

Remember that the way you react is what’s in your control. Listen to wobbles and you will stay stuck. You will never move outside of that comfort zone and therefore never build the business of your dreams, that business that serves stacks of people and makes a difference in the world << yeah that!

Do we need to worry about being too salesy >> absolutely we do.  BUT most people haven’t even touched the tip of iceberg and actually told people what they’ve got going on before they retreat back to basecamp with the “don’t be salesy siren” chiming in their head.

Give yourself a good talking to!

Firstly – stop thinking that you are psychic and know what people are able, willing or prepared to pay. Even if you are psychic it’s not your psychic prowess talking here, this is your ego and this is self-talk at work!

Secondly – look at the value! What will your clients be able to be/do/have if they take you up on your offer?

Thirdly – this is about fair exchange! Your clients need to be in fair exchange with you for your awesomeness. Align yourself to the price, practice saying it out loud and steer clear of the negative self-talk. Because as soon as the negative self-talk takes hold, you will be waving your clients forth with one hand and pushing them away with the other. << We don’t want that!

So, let’s reiterate – Why is it so hard to price your jewellery?

I was recently talking to a lady about pricing. She was really worried because she’d seen someone advertising a similar service to that which she offers but the price tag on it was making her wobble. It can happen in both directions. You can wobble that you are under charging and you can wobble that you’re overcharging.

In this case it was a provider who was undercutting her prices massively – not on purpose, not directed at her BUT that’s their business model.

It’s a stack ’em high and sell them cheap kinda thing. There’s lots of it about in all sorts of sectors. I hear independent retailers feel that way about the retail big boys. Discount stores are everywhere. It happens in the travel and flights industry with the budget airlines for example. There’s lots of offers based providers who you can subscribe to and get this weeks offer which has 1 trillion % off – it’s everywhere.

What can you do about it?

Well the biggest thing to know is that you have to get comfortable with your pricing.  You have to set yourself apart from the crowd, you have to inject yourself and your personality into what you do. Your jewellery is made by you, your hands and inspiration come from you and your experiences. This is your USP (Unique Selling Point) But the biggest thing you can do is to ease away from being compared purely on pricing.

On a Final Note

PRICE IS MERELY A NUMBER, IT’S MERELY WHAT YOU CHARGE – it MUST reflect the time, effort & energy you’ve put into something. PLEASE don’t be paying yourself a pittance. You wouldn’t take a job at a £/$ per hour for all the effort you put in so DON’T pay yourself that!