Post
by willnewton » Wed Jan 21, 2015 8:59 pm
All your friends and family will want whatever you are willing to give them for free, because they value your time at $0/hr. When you say, "This only costs $0.25 in plastic to make". They only hear the $.25 part and are offended if you even ask for $5 for a copy, because "You said this only costs $0.25" If you do not charge for the work you do, then your work has no value in the eyes of others.
If you are not doing this for a living, then don't give away the time that you should be paid the most for. I don't mean your "at work" time. I mean your personal, well earned, not-at-work time. Time that your real job would be paying you overtime to take away from you. You just give away your priceless family/personal time? Bad idea!
If you want to be a professional, then charge a professional rate. If you do not, then you will be treated like a vending machine. The M2 is amazing, but it does not come with a free CNC technician, a free 3D designer, free electricity, free storage, free marketing, free maintenance, free design software, or free shipping. It costs money to just let it sit there and do nothing!
Now, I am not going to tell you what to charge, because EVERYONE will have differing rates. I will give you something to think about though. Around here, a guy can get $35-40 to cut my yard and weed whack and it takes about an hour. This is job that a twelve year old can do with no specialized knowledge or equipment.
So with a highly specialized piece of equipment, using highly specialized knowledge, doesn't it stand to reason that you should make more money per hour than the lawn guy? If you are not charging more, then you should just go cut grass in your free time.
There are only two prices in my shop- full price or free. I have varying shop rates ranging from $40 to $60 to $100 hour depending on what manpower, tools, and skills are required to finish the job.