Found an interesting article at My Arts and Crafts about making a profit at craft shows. It's short and very basic, but the one thing you should be taking away from the article is that you need to manage design, costs and price so that you are aiming for a 75% (ideally 100%) mark-up on your item.
All things being equal (this can vary based on low cost for materials but very labor-intensive), if it costs you $25 in raw materials to make an arts/crafts item you should aim to sell it for $50.
I enjoy your columns. I closed my crafts business in 2006 for family reasons. I’m looking to get it up and running again.
Thank you for your insightful tips and suggestions. It gets the “juices” going in hopes the economy will rebound soon.
Keep up the good work. I appreciate it.
Thank you! Right after New Year’s I am starting a motivational series about getting your craft business ready for next year’s holiday season (or in my case – ready for a submission to the Smithsonian Craft Show – which has been a dream of mine since I started working in crafts).