So, how much do you make?

[Thierry Duguet]

No I shall not ask for your tax return. I was often told that I am too cheap, am I? I am getting about $35.00 an hour. Of course I charge by the job but at the end of the year if I divide the number of hours I work by the amount of money it is what I got (I work at home and have little overhead). Note that I do not sell anything, I do not make "spec" job or anything of that sort I just engrave
Please tell us if engraving is your hobby or you sole source of income as it is for me.

 

[mbroder]

Based on the work of yours that I have seen, you are seriously short-changing yourself. You have to remember, what you do is an art. There are not thousands of others ready and willing to replace you and your skills. I know plumbers and electricians that make well over $100,000 per year. While there skills are in greater demand, they are almost quite easily replaceable (no offense meant to any plumbers or electricians ).

Pricing art will always be hard to determine. Part of it is based on what you think your customer is willing to pay. Although I prefer not to, I sometimes will adjust my price if I really want the project, not neccessarily because I need the money, but because the project or the customer intrigues me. There is nothing worse than quoting a price and having the customer say "that's all?". He then gives you a small down payment and drives off in his Mercedes. Sometimes you will have customers that can't afford your prices. That's okay. Maybe they'll come back in a few years when they have saved up the money.

Only you know what it takes to put food on the table.

 

[monk]

one thing never to do is adjust your price based on what you think a persons' earning power is. if you do a given job at one price for a poor man, and the same job for the wealthy guy at an inflated rate- ah you're lookin fo some real bad pr there. you can do work for folks with less cash, just do nice work, but less of it. i've done simple monograms on a gun that was rather quick work. the guy loved it, i didn't ruin his economy, i got a fair price for the time, everybody was happy.

 

[mbroder]

Hi Monk,

I agree with your statement. What I said was "willing to pay", not ability to pay. Of course, the scope of the project could be vastly different from one to the other. As you said, maybe a little less detail and so forth. However, I won't accept a project and nothing leaves my shop if I don't feel I can give 100% on it. That's not acceptable. My business is mostly word of mouth, so I need those words to be good ones.

 

[Cody]

To my way of thinking, and this applies to ANY business, if you have more work than you can handle, that is an indication that your price is too low for what you are producing or doing. If you aren't getting enough work to keep you busy, your price is too high. When you are starting out you need a lower price to get exposure. As your reputation grows and the workload increases, your price needs to increase enough to just wead out the price shoppers and keep the customers that appreciate the value you provide. If your workload gets too heavy again, raise your price a bit to "fine tune" your customer base.

 

[Thierry Duguet]

To my way of thinking, and this applies to ANY business, if you have more work than you can handle, that is an indication that your price is too low for what you are producing or doing. If you aren't getting enough work to keep you busy, your price is too high. When you are starting out you need a lower price to get exposure. As your reputation grows and the workload increases, your price needs to increase enough to just wead out the price shoppers and keep the customers that appreciate the value you provide. If your workload gets too heavy again, raise your price a bit to "fine tune" your customer base.

What you are saying make sense if we agree on "work load", I think that three years is good enough. do you think it is too long? Furthermore, I basically do what I want with very little guidance from my clients I should say that I appreciate the freedom more than I would like extra money (within reason).
Of course I am a terrible businessman.

 

[jimzim75]

There are different kinds of engravers on the forum. We don't all work or take work in the same manner.
I'm sure the gun engravers wouldn't like the way I take in work, which is more jewellery related. It would be
nerve racking for me to accept commissions the way they do. Spending three months on a single job,
that could be turned down. I don't know if I find that appealing. I'm sure they would find having more than
fifteen deadlines a week, out of question.

The two groups might have fee schedules that looks similar, but usually are not. Fees should start at a minimum of 25.00/hr in my area of the world. I make more than the base amount form the area because
I'm good, on time, and have a known reputation.
Engravers graduate from base amount for a lot of different reasons. You should find out what your reasons are.
The original question is not a simple one to answered. Something that might help is to find out what others
in the area are asking. Find out what the customer expects. Then just charge an amount that they feel
is slightly uncomfortable paying. You should make money.

Jim

 

[KCSteve]

One way to see if your prices are in line is to talk with your customers. You can casually mention that it's looking like you might have to raise your prices due to the rising prices of everything else. If they don't flinch then you're prices are currently low.

I know some folks in other lines of work (computer consulting) who have a standing policy that their rates will be 'reviewed' at the start of every year. Doesn't mean that they'll go up, but it's not uncommen for them to do so. They make sure all their clients know about the policy and in general no one has a problem with it.

They'll also do an occasional 'special deal' on a project if it's something they want to try their hand at. The special price is explained up front as a one-time only deal where the customer is getting a break on the price because they (the consultant) are going to be doing some learning as they go and expect to take longer because of it. The goal is to get the project price to come out about the same as it would if the consultant were familiar with the new 'stuff', less (perhaps) a small percentage for the inconvenience to the customer of the extra delays.

If you want to give someone a special price 'because it's a good cause' don't. Let them do it as a layway thing, where they pay over time and you only work on the project when you have 'spare' time. Or find a way to officially make it a charity thing. It's hard for your other customers to complain about you donating some work to a good cause - in fact, they might like you better for doing it.

 

[Thierry Duguet]

There are different kinds of engravers on the forum. We don't all work or take work in the same manner.
I'm sure the gun engravers wouldn't like the way I take in work, which is more jewellery related. It would be
nerve racking for me to accept commissions the way they do. Spending three months on a single job,
that could be turned down. I don't know if I find that appealing. I sure they would find having more
fifteen deadlines a week, out of question.

The two groups might have fee schedules that looks similar, but usually are not. Fees should start at a minimum of 25.00/hr in my area of the world. I make more than the base amount form the area because
I'm good, on time, and have a known reputation.
Engravers graduate from base amount for lot of different reasons. You should find out what your reasons are.
The original question is not a simple one to answered. Something that might help is to find out what others
in the area are asking. Find out what the customer expects. Then just charge an amount that they feel
is slightly uncomfortable paying. You should make money.

Jim

First, I do not mind or care if a Jeweler engraving is taking guns or knife work, I do not see other engravers a frets, if they got the job and I do not it is either because they are better than me, and I need to improve to their level, or because they are better at promoting themselves and I need to learn to do the same or because they had the opportunity and I did not.
Second unlike jewelry engraving, gun or knife engraving is not a local business, it has to be nationwide to be viable.
Third, it is easier to ask $60.00 an hour for a 2 hours job than to ask the same for a four hundred hours one. The pool of customer for a $120.00 job is almost limitless, the pool of customer for a $24.0000,00 one is very limited.
As for asking around, I did in this forum LOL

 

[Weldon47]

Thierry,

I try to work at or above the $200.00 per hour level.
Unfortunately, I find that this only lasts for about 10 minutes (per day) & then it's back to my normal level of poverty! (Look where I live for Pete's sake!!)

Weldon

 

[Thierry Duguet]

Is my question " So, how much do you make?" inappropriate? I have yet to receive a strait answer. Actually I am a little curious about the answer but it can also be interesting for people who might entertain the idea of starting a carrier.

 

[mbroder]

Thierry,

How many hours do you put in per day on average?

 

[mbroder]

Is my question " So, how much do you make?" inappropriate? I have yet to receive a strait answer. Actually I am a little curious about the answer but it can also be interesting for people who might entertain the idea of starting a carrier.

There are times when I make $175.00 per hour and times when I make $30.00 depending on the job.I definitely make more money engraving than I do in other aspects of the jewelry trade. But having an actual retail shop also means that I spend a lot of time making the middle of a donut (meaning O). It's much simpler and infinitely more satisfying to just work at the bench. I may choose to go back to doing just that within the next few years.

 

[jimzim75]

Hi Thierry,
My mistake, I thought you were asking an entry level question. I didn't realize you were going for a much more advanced
price list on custom knife engraving. There are others more suited to answered your question.
I wish you good fortune with it.

Jim

 

[BrianPowley]

I make $200.00 per day on average.

 

[Thierry Duguet]

Hi Thierry,
My mistake, I thought you were asking an entry level question. I didn't realize you were going for a much more advanced
price list on custom knife engraving. There are others more suited to answered your question.
I wish you good fortune with it.

Jim

Hello Jim,

No need for apologizes, I do appreciate your answer to my question.

 

[Thierry Duguet]

I make $200.00 per day on average.

Thank you for your answer.