Gyrogami Blog - Precious Metals, Jewelry, Artwork

Pricing Items - Labor

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Labor caluclations
Some, but not all

Categories: Instruction and information; Commerce and business

Word count/read time: 562 words; 3 minutes

Part three of this three-parter deals with labor.

The simple way to clock labor is from beginning to end of manufacturing. There's also the non-billables like phone conversations, signing up for shows, going to seminars and workshops, ordering and stocking, research, documentation, website maintenance, etc.

For basic situations:

Ordering, unpacking, and organizing supplies
Set-up and clean-up
Assembly
Quality control
Documentation: pictures, literature, etc.
Customer interaction
Packaging and shipping

For professionals:

Website maintenance
Shows: searching, applying, booth set-up and tear-down, etc.
Travel time
Making findings, clasps, wire, jump rings, etc.
Tool maintenance

Other factors (at least for me, condensed for space):

Search for and buy (scrap) metals
Document and separate sellable and meltable items
Ingot time: pouring, cleaning, prepping (two rounds)
Refiner: harvesting, set-up, manning, cleaning, storing
Make raw materials: solder, findings, sheet, foil, etc.
Populate and analyze spreadsheet to calculate each item
Manufacture custom presentation cases

Those buying pre-made parts will never appreciate what is required to manufacture them. While convenient, necessary for many, and by no means shameful (but it means your item is not legally handmade), you're at the mercy of the supplier. This severely limits the selection, variety, and quality.

Advanced chainmaking techniques like welding and soldering become a different matter. It might take 100 elapsed minutes to add 20 links. Time is wasted on failed welds and melted links so it might only take 60 actual minutes. In other words, lost labor.

Every metric is important, especially failures and wasted time, to know how long it should take for accurate pricing but also how long it really takes for time budgeting.

I time up to 100 links to calculate average, expected, and actual time with best- and worst-case scenarios, standard deviations, and more. I might track 20 separate processes. It's an incentive to improve efficiency. Less wasted time results in higher production numbers and better prices.

A detailed record and lots of trial and error uncover the fastest way to complete a procedure. When there are 1000 rings, a few seconds per ring add up to nearly two hours. Save another few moments here and there and that could be a full workday!

My pricing spreadsheet has a minimum of 75 fields and continually evolves. There are formulas for everything. Unquantified costs cause inaccurate numbers. A business is guaranteed to fail if it can't control costs, identify the bottom line, or establish a break-even number.

Hobbyists, i.e. posers and wannabes, who charge little or nothing for their labor ruin it for professionals who rely on income from their products. They explicitly state their time is worthless. Their selfish lowballing devalues the entire market. Chances are their quality is also deplorable, another slap in the face.

Here's a sample breakdown of immediate craft fair expenses (there will be additional expenses and/or labor so this is just a start):

Hours: 2 (driving) + 4 (loading, unloading, etc.) + 8 (craft fair) + 5 (est. manufacturing) = 19
Gross sales: $600
Cost of good sold: $300
Mileage cost: 120 miles @ $0.65/mile = $75
Craft fair booth cost: $75
Profit: $600 - $75 - $75 - $300 = $150
Taxes on profits: $50
Payment processing fees: $20
Net hourly rate: $80/19 = $4.21 (double egads!)

Remember, labor turns $5 of steel into $300,000 of precision watch components. Customers will value your time and effort only if you price your items accordingly.

Posted by M: May 20, 2020

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