Practical frameworks for every creative medium — from the basics of cost-plus pricing to strategies for raising rates without losing clients.
Every pricing model for creative work comes back to the same core equation. Most creatives get materials right but systematically undercount labor and ignore overhead.
Your time, at your real hourly rate. Not minimum wage. Your actual required rate, calculated from your living expenses, business costs, and desired income. Use our Hourly Rate Calculator if you haven't done this yet.
Ceramic pricing is notoriously difficult because of kiln costs, firing variability, and the time-intensive nature of handbuilding or throwing.
Active hands-on time per mug is often shorter than makers assume — an experienced potter throws in 3–5 min, trims and attaches a handle in 5–10 min, and dip-glazes in 2–5 min — about 15–20 min of direct work. But total attributed time per piece (kiln loading/unloading, QC, photography, packing, admin) runs 30–45 min. That's the number to price from.
If 10–15% of your pieces crack or fail in the glaze fire, those lost pieces still cost you materials and kiln time. Divide your total batch cost by the number of saleable pieces, not the number you fired.
Jewelry pricing must account for precious metal costs, which fluctuate with spot prices. Separate the metal cost (recalculate regularly) from your labor and overhead (stable).
Weigh your finished pieces in grams or pennyweights. Your metal cost = (weight × spot price per gram) + your supplier's markup (typically 10–20% over spot for small-batch buyers). Check spot prices weekly and adjust accordingly.
For wholesale to work financially, your retail price must be at least 4–5x your cost of goods. If your cost-based retail is $80 but your wholesale buyer won't pay more than $25, the piece isn't viable for wholesale at that cost structure.
Photography has two invisible costs that most photographers forget to price: editing time and equipment depreciation.
A 2-hour portrait session might involve 4–6 hours of culling, color grading, and retouching. If you're pricing for "a 2-hour session" and only counting 2 hours of labor, you're paying yourself $0/hr for your editing work. Count every hour from first shutter click to final file delivery.
If a client uses your photos for commercial purposes, that use requires a licensing fee separate from the session fee. Commercial use should cost 2–5x your base session rate depending on scope, duration, and exclusivity.
Fiber arts have some of the most extreme labor-to-price imbalances of any creative medium. A sweater that takes 40 hours to knit, listed at $120, works out to $3/hr before materials.
Track your actual speed using a timer over 3–5 projects. Most makers underestimate by 30–50% because they don't count finishing time, blocking, seaming, or photography.
Woodworking pricing is complex because material cost varies significantly with species, and custom commissions require extra contingency for design time, fit-up, and finishing.
Quote lumber in board feet (length × width × thickness ÷ 144). Add 15–20% for waste, kerf loss, and defect cutouts. Price at your current landed cost, not what you paid 6 months ago.
Sanding, staining, sealing, and finishing can easily equal the production time for a piece. Track finishing separately and include it in your labor estimate.
Design and illustration pricing requires balancing hourly cost with project-based value pricing — and knowing when to switch between them.
A logo that takes you 8 hours to design at $75/hr has a cost basis of $600. But if that logo represents a new $200K business, pricing at $1,200–$2,500 for a small business brand identity package is common practice and appropriate — it's priced on value, not just hours.
Build explicit revision limits into every proposal: "two rounds of revisions included; additional rounds billed at $X/hr." This makes extra work visible and compensated.