How to Price Your Craft Products Properly (Without Undervaluing Your Work)

Working Out Prices for Your Craft Products

Pricing your work is one of the hardest parts of running any craft business.

It’s not just numbers. It’s confidence, experience, and sometimes a bit of trial and error.

I’ve learned that the hard way, across two different businesses.

Hand pressing calculator beside handmade woodturned items while deciding whether to price at €27.99 or €30

My First Mistake: Undervaluing My Work

When I was working as a carpenter, I never really valued my time properly.

Wages on site were rising steadily, but I never adjusted my own rates to match. I kept charging what I had always charged, partly out of habit and partly out of fear of losing work.

If a builder asked for a slightly better price, I’d usually shave something off.

Even when I was probably already cheaper than everyone else.

I wasn’t a ruthless businessman, and my pocket paid for it.

Starting Again as a Beginner

When I moved into woodturning, I was starting from scratch again but with much bigger unknowns.

In the beginning, I couldn’t even make my early products properly. I was a complete novice.

What I did manage to make, I sold cheaply just to keep things moving.

My first couple of lessons helped enormously, but it still took:

6 to 12 months before I was making pieces I was happy with
3 to 4 years before I settled into products that actually sold

That’s the part people don’t always see.

The Biggest Pricing Mistake Most People Make

Early on, my pricing was based on one question:

“Will someone buy this if I charge €X?”

That’s the wrong question.

The better question is:

“What should I be charging for this?”

Looking back, I should have been charging at least €X + 25% from the very beginning.

Not because I was greedy, but because I was underestimating everything that goes into making a product.

The Traditional Pricing Formula (And Why It’s Not Perfect)

You’ll often hear the standard formula:

Materials
Labour
Overheads
Profit
VAT (if applicable)

On paper, that makes perfect sense.

In reality, it’s not always that simple.

Materials are easy enough to calculate
Labour depends on what you think your time is worth (very difficult)
Overheads are where things get messy

Trying to divide your electricity, tools, rent, wear and tear across every item can become very complicated very quickly.

Personally, I’ve never followed this strictly.

It’s too finicky and too easy to get wrong.

A More Realistic Approach

What I’ve found works better is this:

Get a rough idea of your costs
Set a price that feels fair for the quality
Then add a margin to protect yourself

Over time, you can refine it.

After your first year, you’ll have a much better idea of:

What your actual expenses are
Which products are worth making
Where your time is really going

From there, pricing becomes easier.

A Real Example (What Pricing Actually Looks Like)

Let’s take a simple example.

Say I make a small woodturned piece, something straightforward like a bottle stopper or a small gift item.

Here’s how it might break down:

Material cost (wood blank, finish, fittings): €5
Time to make (including sanding, finishing, packing): 30 minutes

Now, let’s say I value my time at €30 per hour.

That means:

Labour = €15

So already we’re at:

€5 (materials)
€15 (labour)
€20 total cost

Now add a few realities:

Tool wear and tear
Electricity
Website fees, packaging, payment charges
Time spent not making (emails, admin, photos, listings)

You could easily justify adding another €5–€10 just to cover that.

So now we’re realistically at:

👉 €25–€30 cost per item

If I sell that for €30, I’m basically working for nothing.

There’s no buffer, no growth, no room for mistakes.

So what should it sell for?

👉 €35–€45 minimum

And that’s before VAT if you’re registered.

A Reality Check: How Many Can You Actually Make in a Day?

There’s another side to the example above that’s worth thinking about.

On paper, you might look at that same product and think:

“I can make two of these per hour.”

Over an 8-hour day, that sounds like:

👉 16 pieces per day

But that’s not reality.

Take a normal working day:

30 minutes for a coffee break
1 hour for lunch

Now you’re down to 6.5 hours.

And even then, nobody works flat-out for every minute of that time.

There’s setup, small delays, interruptions, and just general fatigue.

So let’s be realistic and round that down to:

👉 6 productive hours per day

At 2 pieces per hour, that gives you:

👉 12 pieces per day

Where Pricing and Reality Collide

Now go back to the earlier numbers.

If your product needs to sell for:

👉 €35–€45 (before VAT)

You now have to ask:

Will the market accept that price?
Will those 12 pieces actually sell consistently?

Because this is where things can get tricky.

You might find that:

Your price is correct based on your costs
But it feels high compared to what customers expect

Working Backwards From a Day’s Earnings

Another way to look at it is this.

What do you actually need to earn in a day?

Let’s say you want to bring in:

👉 €300 for a full day’s work

Divide that by your realistic output:

👉 €300 ÷ 12 pieces = €25 per piece

Now add your material and business costs on top.

Suddenly, that €35–€45 price range starts to make a lot more sense.

The Balancing Act

This is where pricing becomes a balancing act between:

Your costs
Your time
Your output
And what the market will accept

If those don’t line up, something has to give.

You either:

Improve your efficiency
Change your product
Or adjust your pricing

Why This Works

It doesn’t repeat your earlier points
It introduces production reality, which is a higher-level insight
It strengthens your authority without sounding preachy
It quietly reinforces why your prices are where they are

If your pricing only works when you assume a perfect 8-hour day, it’s probably not realistic.

Where Most People Go Wrong

Most beginners would price that same item like this:

“It only took me 30 minutes”
“The wood cost me a fiver”
“€20 seems fair”

And that’s the trap.

You’re not charging for 30 minutes.

You’re charging for:

The years it took to get good enough to make it
The tools you had to buy
The mistakes you made along the way
The fact that not every product you make will sell

The Hidden Time Nobody Sees

This is the killer that most people ignore.

For every 30 minutes making something, there’s often:

10 minutes sanding properly
10 minutes finishing
10 minutes photographing
10 minutes listing it online
10 minutes packing and shipping

That “30 minute product” can easily turn into an hour or more of real work.

If you don’t account for that, your pricing will always be off.

I also had to learn how to properly package and ship my products, which was another learning curve altogether to be honest.

It’s not just throwing something in a box. There’s a system to it if you want things to arrive safely and look presentable when they do.

I wrote a full breakdown here:
👉 How I Process Orders in My Small Business

Why Pricing Too Low Actually Hurts You

This is something I didn’t understand early on.

Pricing too low doesn’t just affect your income.

It affects your entire business.

You attract bargain hunters instead of serious buyers
You burn out trying to keep up
You leave no room to improve your setup or tools
You make it harder to ever raise prices later

And worst of all: You train your customers to expect cheap prices

This is something I’ve covered in more detail over on my woodcraft site blog, especially around why handmade products cost what they do. It all comes back to time, skill, and everything going on behind the scenes.
👉 Why Are Craft Products So Expensive?

Looking at Competitors (Without Copying Them)

Another thing worth doing is looking at similar businesses and what they’re charging.

Not so you can undercut them.

And not so you can blindly match them either.

Think of it as a benchmark, not a rule.

If someone is selling a similar product for €40, you need to ask yourself:

Could I make money at that price?
Would I be under pressure constantly trying to keep up?
Is my product at the same level, or better?

That’s where it becomes useful.

Don’t Race to the Bottom

There’s always someone cheaper.

Always.

If you try to compete on price alone, you’ll end up in a race you can’t win.

Instead, focus on:

Quality
Finish
Presentation
Trust

That’s what people actually buy.

The €1–€2 Difference Most People Overthink

One thing I’ve learned is this:

People rarely quibble over small differences in price.

If your product is €1 or €2 more than someone else’s, it usually doesn’t matter.

Not if:

The quality is there
The product looks right
The buying experience feels solid

That extra €1 or €2 might not seem like much per item, but over time it adds up.

And more importantly, it gives you a bit of breathing room.

Position Yourself, Don’t Undercut Yourself

Instead of asking:

“How do I beat their price?”

Ask:

“Where do I fit in the market?”

Budget option?
Mid-range?
Premium?

There’s space in all three.

The mistake is trying to sit in all of them at once.

What People Forget: Market Forces and Customer Behaviour

Pricing isn’t just about your costs.

It’s also about:

What customers are willing to pay
What similar products are selling for
How your product is perceived

If your work looks cheap, people expect it to be cheap.

If it looks high-end, people are more comfortable paying for it.

There’s also something else I’ve noticed over the years:

People don’t always buy the cheapest option.

They buy the one that feels right.

That’s quality, presentation, and confidence all working together.

Where I Am Now

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reviewing my own pricing again.

And I realised something important.

I hadn’t properly accounted for:

Rising material costs
New production methods
Extras like gift boxes
The actual level my work has reached

That’s not me patting myself on the back, it’s just where the work has reached.

I put in a lot of hard years, and the quality of my work is now at a professional level.

Raising Prices (And Hesitating Anyway)

Even recently, when I increased my prices, I still didn’t go as far as I probably should have.

That hesitation never fully goes away.

You always wonder:

Will people still buy?
Am I pushing it too far?

But here’s the interesting part.

Within days, I started getting back-in-stock requests.

That told me everything I needed to know.

My Advice (If You’re Struggling With Pricing)

Start here:

Make products you are genuinely proud of
Get your quality right first
Then price accordingly

And don’t be afraid to:

Increase your prices gradually
Or set them where they should be from the start

People understand that prices go up.

What they don’t understand is when something looks high quality but is priced too cheaply.

There are plenty of other challenges that come with running a small craft business in Ireland, and I’ve touched on some of those here:
👉 How Hard Is It to Run a Craft Business in Ireland?

Final Thought

If you don’t value your work, no one else will.

It took me years to fully accept that.

Charge what your work is worth.

And if that feels uncomfortable, you’re probably getting close to the right number.

Working this out is part of a much bigger picture too. Pricing, doubt, confidence, and the constant second-guessing all come with the territory of working for yourself.

It’s not always straightforward, but it is worth it.

I’ve written a bit more about that side of things here:
👉 The Madness & Freedom of Working for Yourself

Thanks for reading,
David

💬 Got thoughts or feedback? Please leave a comment below, I’d love to hear your take.

About the Author

I’m David Condon, a small business owner and blog writer based in Tralee, Co. Kerry. Running my own woodcraft business means I’ve seen first-hand how much confusion there can be around shipping times, delivery dates, and what “business days” actually mean. That’s why I wrote this post — to share a bit of what I’ve learned and hopefully save you some frustration.

Every so often I step outside the workshop to write about wider business topics like this one. If you’d like to know more, you can follow the link in the Note from the Author section below or visit my About Me page to learn more.

💬 Note from the Author
This post was written specially for David Condon Finds. If you enjoyed it, you might also like my other projects:

Phoenix DVD Blog – where I write about DVDs, Blu-rays, and life as a collector
David Condon Woodcraft – my main site focused on woodturning and handmade Irish pieces

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