good elephant pottery
  • blog
  • recent work
  • where to buy
  • the potter
  • contact
  • mailing list
  • school

Hourly Earnings, Part 1: Wholesale

4/20/2010

3 Comments

 
Picture
This post is the beginning of a research project. It is the first of a several posts on the same topic that I will write this year, and possibly beyond. My pottery business has grown considerably in the past two years, but my ambivalence to let go of my graphic design practice continues. I recently realized that I know how much I make per hour as a designer, because my contracts are based on an hourly rate. It's not an exact number, because it doesn't account for expenses, or for the time I spend doing non-billable work. But it's a pretty good idea. I want the same sense of "knowing" about my pottery business. How much am I really earning per hour by making pots? I don't need an exact answer, just a pretty good idea.

I often hear people say "add up the costs of your materials, then make sure you pay yourself an hourly wage, and this is how to determine the prices for your pots," and I think "It doesn't work that way." It's not a normal job like graphic design, where you are entitled to compensation. There are countless intangible factors that determine the value of your work, and "time" might be the least important. So to presume an hourly wage for yourself is just plain foolish. 

So I am proposing that professional craftspeople join me in taking a different point of view of the "hourly wage" subject. Instead of pondering what I should earn per hour, I am going to calculate what I did earn.

Here's my methodology ... whenever possible I will separate pottery sales into quantifiable portions. I will keep track of the time I spend to complete the work. I will subtract any applicable expenses from the sales amount, then divide what remains by the number of hours spent.

The "quantifiable portions" will include wholesale orders, retail art shows and festivals, open houses, registries, etc. (Maybe I'll even settle the debate between the predictable volumes/lower prices of wholesale, vs. the unpredictable sales/higher prices/longer hours of retail?)

How I price my pots ... it's a long-term process, and definitely not based on a presumptuous hourly wage, which as I expressed before, is a dim idea. New pot designs start as low-priced prototypes. The prices and designs of good sellers grow over time. Slow sellers are eliminated. I compare new pot designs with the price points of my established good sellers. I also compare my prices with other potters who are working at the same level as me. I don't want to overprice, because I think a handmade pot should be affordable to average people. However, I am more careful not to underprice my pots. Underpricing is indulgent and amateurish, and harmful to other professional potters.

Now on to the calculation ... this first calculation is for a large wholesale order. It is the largest order I wrote at the Buyers Market in February. It contains a good mix of low, medium, and high priced items, therefore it should be a good measure of wholesaling in general.

I kept track of the time spent working on it, including the following tasks:
• preparing clay (recycling, pugging, wedging)
• building pots (throwing trimming, altering, hand-building)
• loading and unloading the kiln
• glazing
• studio cleanup
• applying hang tags to finished pots
• packing for delivery
• accounting

I did not track the time spent on tasks that didn't specifically apply to this order, such as mixing glazes, or the afternoon I spent carrying a year's supply of clay down the stairs into my basement studio.

From the total dollar value of the order, I subtracted the following expenses which I could quantify:
• clay
• shipping boxes
• a percentage of my Buyers Market expenses, equal to the percentage of Buyers Market sales that this order represented (by far this was the biggest expense related to this order)

I did not subtract the following expenses which I could not quantify:
• glazes
• tools
• equipment use and maintenance
• utilities
• bubble wrap and packing peanuts (some purchased, some recycled)

The dollar amount that remained was divided by the total hours spent. And in the end, I made $24.74 per hour. My official response to this is "not too shabby!" I feared that I was making less than minimum wage, but the real answer is nowhere close to that. The answer fits my self-evaluation as an up-and-coming, but bona fide professional potter. My time has a good value, but the value has room to grow, as do my work efficiencies, craft skill, and business development.

One final note about calculating my hourly value ... this is not a job that I can do for 8 hours a day like a normal job. The longest I was able to work in one day is 5.5 hours, and at that point my elbows and hamstrings were aching! My usual workday is more like 3 or 4 hours. So that's another issue I need to address ... how to reduce the physical strain of making pots in order to be more productive per day. (Then again, having worked in the corporate world, I know that many people with 8 hour-per-day jobs don't spend 5.5 of them productively, so maybe I shouldn't worry about that.)

Coming soon ... I will repeat this calculation for other wholesale orders over the next few months. Maybe different types of orders will have a different results, or I will get better as the year goes on.

3 Comments

Older Posts Can Be Found ...

4/19/2010

1 Comment

 
... at my former blog address: www.goodelephant.blogspot.com
1 Comment

    author

    Mea Rhee (mee-uh ree),
    ​the potter behind
    ​Good Elephant Pottery


    upcoming shows

    2023 show schedule is TBD.

    join the herd

    Receive email notices about upcoming shows/events.


    Follow me on
    ​Facebook and
    Instagram

    RSS Feed


    categories

    All
    Classes
    In The Studio
    Running A Business
    Shows
    The Art Festival Plan
    The Hourly Earnings Project

    archives

    December 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.