What to Charge
What to charge for your classes?
One of the many great things about being an Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator is that each of us has the control to run our business in the way that best meets our individual goals.
At CIAF we provide you with detailed class planning information and suggestions to make running your business easier, but we don’t want to set a price suggestion knowing that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. One of the tools we provide for you is detailed Cost Analysis information. Each issue of CIAF provides you with costs for the individual project components, such as the cost for a set of cards and the cost for a coordinating purse, and the cost for the full class. This allows you to choose how best to offer the class to your customers. Do you want to make only cards, only a purse, or both? We also provide suggestions and costs for product based classes so you can offer these options without extra effort!
So how do you decide what to charge for your class? Well there are probably as many options as there are demonstrators, and that’s a good thing! When pricing your class it is important to take several factors into your decision including; all the costs, your individual market and your goals.
Consider all the costs:
- Stampin’ Up! supplies for the class from the Cost Analysis section.
- Cost of non-consumable Stampin’ Up! supplies for the class, such as stamp sets.
- Cost of food, door prizes, grid paper, etc that you will use for the class.
- Cost of your time to prepare and hold the class.
- Cost of advertising or facility rental if applicable.
Consider your market and your goals:
- What do local craft or scrapbook stores charge for similar services?
- What other competition is in your area and how do you compare?
- What price will your market bear?
- Do you want to make a guaranteed amount of money on the class?
- Do you want to discount the class and focus on product sales to make money?
- Do you want to do both by making a minimum amount on the class and encourage sales for extra profit?
Once you have determined all your costs, accounted for your time, evaluated your market and considered your goals you determine what pricing you think is best for you and your customers!
A pricing method that works well for many demonstrators is to price the class so they are covering their material cost and paying for their time. They then offer a discount off of a product purchase to encourage sales at the class. For example: “The cost for the class will be $20 but if you spend $30 or more tonight your receive $5 off your order“. This way the demonstrator encourages sales, the customers like getting a “deal†and the demonstrator still wins because she has covered her time and material costs and has encouraged sales. If customers make that minimum purchase (and it will probably be more) then that purchase more than covers the discount amount and the demo gets the remaining Instant Income and the Hostess Benefits of the order.
Another popular method is to offer special pricing on a couple of the main products used in the class that customers can only get when they order at the class.
Both these methods allow demonstrators to keep their prices competitive while creating urgency for customers to order our great products!
So how does this price setting process look in real life? Here are the steps to take:
- Decide which class or parts of a class to offer.
- 2. Use the Class in a Flash section with Cost Analysis tables to figure out the cost per participant. (In your situation the tax may be 4.9% or 0% rather than the assumed 7% so take that into account)
- Decide if there are any non-consumables that need to be ordered specifically for this class and add all or some of those costs. Things like stamp sets or special tools that will be needed that you want to help cover the cost of. (When planning to offer two sessions of one class, or using this product again over a short period of time, charge only a part of the cost to this class).
- Determine how many will attend the class. This can be how many you have in a club, how many you think will sign up or the number that you will limit the class size to.
- Use the Class in a Flash time estimates to calculate preparation and class time. Multiply that by the amount you want to be paid per hour.
- Add $10 for drawings or giveaways, if appropriate.
- Add the supply costs, non-consumable costs, hourly wages and giveaway costs.
- Divide that by the number of attendees expected to attend the class.
- You now have the class cost per person.
- Determine if the class will be product based, and if so, what products and their cost and add those in per person.
- Compare what others craft and scrapbook related businesses in the area are offering and their costs to come up with a price range for comparison. In some areas the price range for a card set class is $10-$45. ($10-$25 for non product based and up to $45 for product based.)
- Compare this class to what you’ve offered in the past for both content and price. If it is more than 10% higher consider adjusting the class content. If it is less than normal then you may want to consider offering more projects, product samples, giveaways, food, games etc.
- Decide if you will offer a discount, such as a discount on specific products purchased at the class or a discount off an order over a certain dollar amount.
- Put the info in the Marketing Flyer and email and send it out to your customers. Follow-up with emails, mailed flyers and phone calls.
We hope that this information helps you run your business in a way that is most successful for you! Please let us know if you have any questions. We love to hear from you on our blog, share your successes, thoughts and suggestions with us!
Are you wondering how the costs in the Cost Analysis section are calculated? Visit our Tip of the Month page for more details!
Review this Product