Pricing Without Guesswork - The Art of Making a Profit
2 Day Workshop | $525
Cincinnati | April 24-25, 2009 | 9am-5pm
The first step in elevating the perceived value of an artisan's craft is for the artist to value themselves. This business class was developed for those who use computers in their business, with both the beginner and established faux artisan in mind. The class focuses primarily on job/costing - how to bid a job, how to manage larger jobs requiring help, and how to price with confidence - even if you've never done the finish!
Each student will receive a CD that contains the "Client Workbook", an automated job cost and estimating template, an automated invoice/proposal template, as well as other valuable tools and information. The Client Workbook will not only serve as a tool to do estimates and refine your pricing with ease, it also serves as a tool to track your progress during the job, and when complete - a job cost history for your client file that you can refer to for future bid work.
The class is taught by Susan Bickford, developer and designer of the Client Workbook. Susan is owner and principal artist of Susan Bickford Singing Walls in Nashville, TN. Because of her background in finance and accounting, and experience in developing automated spreadsheets and databases, the first thing she did when she started her business was develop an automated system to track job costs and easily and efficiently develop estimates. Through the years, she has refined the automated program, as well as her estimating techniques to a fine art. Susan says, "In talking to friends in the business, I realized that this was an area in which a lot of artists struggle, even after years in business. The issue of how to price and whether one was actually making a profit was a big question mark for a lot of artisans. In helping other artists, I began to realize another area of difficulty was in figuring square footage and how to read blueprints - both skills that are necessary in refining the art of pricing and estimating. That's when the idea for a business class focusing on pricing and estimating began to grow. I felt compelled to share my knowledge and teach other professional artisans the true cost and value of the talent and craftsmanship they provide their clients."
NOTE: Sign up for this class and Adrienne van Dooren's Marketing to Survive class at the same time and receive a 10% discount!