Overpricing
Many years ago, a certain art professor showed his portfolio slides to a class I attended, as a sample of how to put together a body of work for presentation. His beautiful ceramic perfume bottles were quite impressive and skillfully made. Along with the images were prices for each item, which averaged in the range of $600 each, which was his example of pricing to the class.
Not long ago, I happened to speak with an artist who by chance got the same talk from the same art professor with the same slides. She, however, had the presence of mind to raise her hand and ask "How many of these perfume bottles have you sold?" The answer: Zero.
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One of the most baffling non-creative aspects of running an arts and crafts business is figuring out what to do about taxes. Owners who can face down extreme bargain-hunting customers at a craft show or vendors shorting an order that was needed yesterday can adopt that deer-in-headlights look when trying to get their tax situation under control.
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