A barista at Starbucks made me rethink my whole side hustle

I was complaining to this barista named Maria about how my leatherworking projects barely pay for materials, and she just said, "You keep pricing like a factory, not an artist." It hit me right there because I've been selling wallets for $30 to compete with Amazon, but spending 4 hours on each one. She told me her brother sells custom guitar straps for $150 each in Portland and has a 3-month waitlist. Got me wondering, how do you figure out what your time is actually worth without feeling like a jerk?

3 comments

3 Comments

seth_singh205d ago

Man that barista Maria sounds like a real one for dropping that truth bomb on you. I've definitely been there with the whole underpricing thing - there's this weird guilt about charging what you're actually worth, especially when you see big companies selling cheap stuff. It helped me to think of it like this: your customers aren't comparing you to Amazon, they're comparing you to the handmade guy in the next town who charges triple what you do.

ryan_shah385d ago

Seth, did @michael669 ever try raising prices just to see which customers actually stuck around?

michael6695d ago

Three months of underpricing and I was basically paying people to take my stuff (which sounds noble but is actually just bad math). Seth's right though, that comparison trap with Amazon is like comparing a home cooked meal to a frozen dinner - completely different ballgame. Maybe I'll start a "triple my prices" support group, Maria can be our hype woman.