Pricing while learning and getting into a market - Page 2

AndyBarnhart · 08-05-2008, 05:01 PM

Originally Posted by Mike Davis

And that is when you must be able to start over without remorse.

Not sure which is harder - part A or part B.

Trent Mason · 08-05-2008, 08:21 PM

This is a very interesting predicament. I've found myself in this in the past and I'm actually about to be in it again. I've only made things for friends so far, so I like to hook them up, as they do for me at their work. If I were building something for a stranger, I would charge substantially more.

I'm about to build a bar for a coworker of mine. I'm in the same predicament as you are Andy. She is a great friend of mine and has done so much to accomodate my insane schedule issues (two jobs). It would be hard to charge her $40 an hour. I'll probably do it for less as she has helped me out so much in the past. However, if someone inquires about the price, I'll tell her to simply say, "a lot, but it is worth every penny."

Mike Davis · 08-05-2008, 08:29 PM

I was talking to my wife about this tonight and she says there is a huge need for good quality student grade instruments in the $300 to $1000 range. Most beginners can't afford the better grade and they need something better than the cheap imports that are marked up double or triple by the catalog companies.

So if you can build it a little better and sell for the same price you will have great demand.

AndyBarnhart · 08-05-2008, 08:50 PM

Originally Posted by Mike Davis

I was talking to my wife about this tonight and she says there is a huge need for good quality student grade instruments in the $300 to $1000 range. Most beginners can't afford the better grade and they need something better than the cheap imports that are marked up double or triple by the catalog companies.

So if you can build it a little better and sell for the same price you will have great demand.

The lower end of that range is a large market for historically inspired instruments - the SCA/Ren Faire crowd. That was my plan for some of my first instuments (seems like "True Confessions" after the way this thread started). Again, I wasn't necessarily planning to build to a lower standard, but I didn't expect them to be top notch either.

Mike Davis · 08-05-2008, 08:59 PM

So, marketing is mostly recognizing a market and providing a product to suit that market.

Nothing wrong with building a business based on a given market. You can grow into the higher end as you get closer to going full time. Some companies provide multiple lines of products each geared to a given target market.

I just picked up a used Applause guitar, its is made by Ovation. Looks just like an Ovation, sounds OK to me and plays pretty well. I think they cost maybe half as much. The point being that they are marketed under a different name to indicate that they are not the same as the ones costing twice as much.

If you can figure out how to differentiate yourself from yourself....

junquecol · 08-05-2008, 10:22 PM

No matter what the business, you can always lower your prices, but it is hard to raise them. Market value is described as what a willing buyer will pay to a willing seller. Once I almost lost an insurance claim job because I was less than half of the next two bidders. Made money "hand over fist" on that job.

AndyBarnhart · 08-06-2008, 12:41 AM

Originally Posted by junquecol

No matter what the business, you can always lower your prices, but it is hard to raise them.

I take it you are not in the oil business.

With all due respect, raising prices drastically as you gain experience and a following is fairly common in luthery. And I do mean drastically; I think Gilchrist and Monteleone have gone up an order of magnitude at least. Had they tried to sell their first instruments for half of what they get now, they would probably still have them.

Trent Mason · 08-06-2008, 03:34 AM

Andy,

I've thought a lot about this and to me the solution is simple. You still have some time before you retire. You have a passion for building, playing and listening to instruments. Use this time to do research and experiment. Just go out to the shop and make some sawdust. If you end up with something that you're satisfied with, then cool. If not, then figure out how to improve it. You can always sell them on ebay. It seems that you are only seperated from your destiny by time and research. Once you get something really good, you can charge whatever you want.

Cheers,

Trent

AndyBarnhart · 08-06-2008, 06:47 AM

The research path is pretty well trodden. I have a few books and the Internet resources are sparse, but a few are very good. If you have reasonable bandwidth, some time to kill and are interested in this sort of thing, check out this guy's site:
http://crab.rutgers.edu/~pbutler/instrum.html
I am going to use his plan and instructions to build the citole. That guy really needs a bandsaw! He uses a lot of hand power tools, so I don't think he is opposed to it, but I don't think he has a dedicated shop. Kind of makes you wonder about all this stuff we "need" to make things. I will be pretty pleased if I build as well as he does.

jerrye · 08-06-2008, 07:29 AM

Andy,

Just tossing in MTCW. A friend used to hang wallpaper for extra income (yeah, I know, much different-but principle the same). He was having a hard time cracking the "fancy" neighborhoods in town. A friend of his in the business full-time told him "Your price per roll to hang it is too low. Charge almost half as much more again." He didn't have the gumption to do that initially, so he went about 25% higher. The first job he quoted after that he got, but with this reservation from the homeowner. She said "Your price sounds low, but your references say you do good work, so I'll take a chance on you."

You can raise prices later, but it will probably involve selling to a different market and re-marketing yourself. As you stated, luthiers regularly raise pricing as work improves, so you can too!

HTH

Jerry

Residency requirements