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Thread: Starting a loss making business - is this the right thing to do?

  1. #31
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    Cooksons have just launched their new magazine 'the Bench', you may have it by now and might be inspired by the featured designer, Anita Bates. However I am worried about her pricing and fear she is just giving her stuff away. What do you think? http://www.ezzentiallysilver.co.uk/Home. Dennis.

  2. #32
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    I personally think her pricing is very reasonable. I have been told myself by many people, including my jewellery teacher, that I under price my jewellery that I sell, but I honestly believe that in the current economic climate, I have to price my work accordingly. Yes, handmade is worth more than the factory made jewellery that is on the shelves of primark, but at the moment the majority of people don't have the money to buy these expensive items. I personally try to keep my work simple, and reasonably priced to entice the client, and then once my name is out there, I can then introduce a more luxury line. By doing this I have had commission orders for more complicated jewellery, that I can therefore charge a higher price for. Established jewellers already have their corner of the market, and its hard for us new jewellers to squeeze in.

  3. #33
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    Hi Guys,

    Thanks for the comments. It's always great to hear other people's feed-back and I'm a total sponge when it comes to advice.

    Dennis, my brother is always telling me that i should put a £100 on all my prices, however i totally second what Laura has said ( thanks Laura), that in this age old art I am still realitly new and I can only charge what I feel comfortly with.

    I think putting a price on the work that we do is sooo sooo hard and I have done fairs where there has been various different Silversmiths ranging from the top end of the scale downwards and anyone still does well.

    I started doing silversmithing as a pleasure and yes, it has taken me a while to think "you know what I am good at what I do and if people think I'm expensive (and they do) then they are not for me and it's about feeling confident when asked about the price rather than embarassed.

    Thanks again
    Anita

    www.ezzentiallysilver.co.uk

  4. #34
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    In honesty Anita, I think some of your prices are too low. It's hard to tell with some pieces as you don't give weights or diameters on your chains, but I suspect that if these are hallmarked items, you're not really paying yourself enough for the time you're taking to make them.

    You might also want to have a look at a couple of things on your website - to comply with distance selling regulations, you must give a geographical address, and really should have a terms and conditions page somewhere.

    Congratulations on the feature

  5. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by snow_imp View Post
    I registered for self assessment as a sole trader from that date as the Tax Office said I needed to. I put in my first tax return for 2010/11 in Jan this year, there were no sales at all that year so technically everything I spent was a loss - and ended up with a small tax refund as tools could be put through as a separate item.
    Hi - I'm in a similar position in that I'd like to expand (allbeit on a small scale!) what is currently a hobby to something more and am looking into website options. I'm curious about the comment above regarding the tax refund.
    I've been buying tools since September however will only be (hopefully!) registering a business with HRMC in the summer. Does anyone know if there is a cap for how far back you can claim expenses against tools for? I'm not sure if it needs to be bought within the same tax year (therefore everything pre-April will be invalid)?
    Thanks

  6. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by mizgeorge View Post
    In honesty Anita, I think some of your prices are too low. It's hard to tell with some pieces as you don't give weights or diameters on your chains, but I suspect that if these are hallmarked items, you're not really paying yourself enough for the time you're taking to make them.

    You might also want to have a look at a couple of things on your website - to comply with distance selling regulations, you must give a geographical address, and really should have a terms and conditions page somewhere.

    Congratulations on the feature
    Thanks mizgeorge, I didn't realise about the distance selling reg or about the t&c's. Is there anywhere on line where I find out about the selling reg and a template for the t&c's.

    I do think it's hard working out prices, how do you work out much your hourly rate should be? Some people have said that you should charge 4 times the weight of the silver. I work that out and it's wow that much! Soooo confusing. :-)

  7. #37
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    We discussed this earlier in the month Anita, so you will find some answers here: http://www.cooksongold.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4142. dennis.

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