Friday, July 25, 2014

Win $50 or $25 to spend online at Auntie's Beads

Winners:

Nicole Demore and Shaiha! Congrats!!

I know your first question is, "How?" Not only will it be easy, but I think you might find this to be a useful way to win a giveaway on top of it!

The drawing will be held in the evening of Sunday, July 27th. There will be two gift certificates given to the first two people randomly picked from the comments. The first person will receive $50 and the other $25.  Those will be good to spend at Auntie's Beads. This is open to everyone. Please leave a way to contact you in your comment or it will not be able to be counted.

Here is what we are asking from you. Please visit this LINK. It starts off on a page like the screenshot below.




Once you read about the online jewelry calculator, please visit this jewelry pricing calculator link to see how it works.

Here is what we would like you to do.

Share your ideas about how to make this calculator the most efficient, easy to use calculator for pricing jewelry. What do you like? What would you like to see added or changed?

Being that we create handmade at LMAJ, one of our suggestions was adding something about the handmade aspect whether it is beads that are handmade or found, skill level needed to make a piece unique, etc.

Carol suggested a field for a product that would signify earrings, bracelet, etc, as well as possibly a size option for length of a necklace.

Those are our suggestions. Now we would like some of yours. My guess is that some suggestions might overlap. That's okay! 

You might want to visit Auntie's Beads for a little more exploring. And, you might be the lucky winner who receives the coupon code for $50 or $25.

I would also like to ask that you please promote this on your social network sites.



Thank-you for participating in this giveaway and GOOD LUCK!!!
MaryAnn


9 comments:

sandi m said...

Oh dear, I just looked at the calculator. I wonder how they built their formulas. I would be losing an awful lot of money, really.
While I realize there a few ways to evaluate/determine pricing, everything I've learned from some great online jewelry biz courses by jewelry designers is:

materials+labor+overhead+profit = wholesale price

wholesale price x (at least 2) = retail price

Based on the calculator if I had materials+labor+other costs = 16.50, it shows that my wholesale price is 18.75 and retail is 23.25!! I don't think so.

This all is just my humble opinion. But designers/artisans need to not devalue their designs and labor! Remember you are not wally-mart or tarjay. If a customer balks at your price, then they are not your ideal customer. Value your art, and customers will, too, and pay your price!!

Unknown said...

To me the calculator itself looks pretty kosher, although I'm by no means an expert on these things at all. The part of it that seems a little wonky/weird is the time yourself portion of the page.

Firstly I think it's unnecessary and on top of that it's a little broken. Resetting after you leave the page or refresh is definitely not how it should work in my opinion. Kind of makes it pointless because you end up having to have your computer on and with that page open for it to time you. On top of that, if you're like me, there's probably more than one project going on at a time.

So as a whole I asked myself this, what makes this online program better than a spreadsheet and any other timer in existence?

I don't mean to rip into it too much, because I really do like the idea. It's really handy to have that kind of resource, especially if you're away from your own computer and have to use a backup plan like that. I hope there's loads of improvements in the future, and I'm excited about it!

Carol Dekle said...

Thank you Nicole & Sandi for your comments! These are all great suggestions that I'm sure Auntie's Beads will appreciate. I am with you Nicole, on the timer, their original design was with a toggle option. They are looking into that again. Also, I too think it's a good back up, and with some added suggestions it could be a great tool.

Sandi, I looked at the pricing formula, ouch! It looks as if the markup for wholesale is around x 1.5 and retail is x 2.5. My formula is wholesale x3 and retail x5. With all the added costs, if the price looks as if it won't sell in the market I then consider lowering the price. We will let Auntie's Beads know. Maybe they can have a drop down option to select your markup? I also suggested a print option with the cost of materials having a description field. That way it could then be a tracking tool. These all are great ideas so everyone keep them coming for Auntie's beads! I think it's awesome they have come to us for suggestions! We can help create a tool we can utilize!

Janice said...

I'm glad to see the above comments because I wasn't too sure of the calculations myself. I don't sell my work yet but I do donate to fundraising events and I try to give them a retail value. What little I do know falls in line with overall cost x3 and this didn't quite jive with the totals I got with the calculator. I didn't clue into the timer because I usually keep track of my time with my phone. Looking forward to seeing the end result.

baymoondesign said...

It looks great to me. I love how it is a one stop place to do all the calculations. I use this little formula in my head. Now, I don't have to fill my mind with this! I also like how you have retail versus wholesale built into it.

Saraccino said...

I was a little bit shocked seeing the price calculated for my work. I already try hard not to sell too low. But still... ;) The biggest factor that I still underestimate are the labor costs. Not only of the jewelery itself but also all the other parts that are necessary (including for example the work for selling at a fair).

I am not sure whether you should help by suggesting at least a minimum wage?

Also there is a big difference where a fair takes places. In different cities / areas (here in germany) people tend to have different limits what they are willing to pay for "stuff" they like and one has either to skip certain areas or lower the price a little bit.

Unknown said...

I use my own formula for calculating my jewelry prices. I keep my materials organized with place purchased, cost of materials, shipping cost of materials then add a reasonable cost for my labor. However this calculator would be a good starting place for persons unfamiliar with pricing their jewelry. I think we all actually know in our "gut" when we have priced our jewelry correctly.

Shai Williams said...

I haven't really started selling my jewelry yet as I do it as a hobby and am working at building up stock. I do however mark price down that I will sell my designs at and the formula I like the best is to add up the price of all the ingredients and multiply it by four. Since nothing I make it that time consuming, it all seems to work out well for me.

I do want to thank you for turning me on to this resource though. There are a lot of great articles there.

Shai Williams said...

Oh no. I wrote up a comment and forgot my email. blogbaby(at)comcast(dot)net

None of the jewelry that I make takes a lot of time and I will admit that I hate to track time since I tend to get side tracked easily. Even so, plugging in a time estimate and the cost of supplies makes for a price that seems way too low. I think that I prefer my formula which is to keep track of the cost of the supplies, round it up to the nearest dollar to account for overhead and then multiply it by four.

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