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Each item below corresponds to one of the fields on the pricing calculator. The instructions here are to guide you through the numbers on the calculator if you don't know what to do, or you want a little more in-depth information about what the numbers mean.
Your Target Salary
- -- Enter the amount of money you want to make in a year -- just like if you had a normal 9-5 job.
- -- this is how much you would cash in at the bank at the end of the year with a 9-5 job and the salary you designated.
- -- your employer has to pay employment taxes, life insurance, health and dental insurance and unemployment taxes for your salary. Usually, this is one times your base salary plus 40%. We are using this figure here to provide you with a pre-calculated figure for all the same taxes and benefits you would have to pay yourself on a self-employment basis.
- -- This is more of a comparison, if you are used to seeing an hourly wage figure instead of a salary figure. Pre-tax mean before taxes -- no tax has been deducted yet.
- -- if you were to be a temporary employee or consultant, this is the minimum that your company would bill you out to their client. It is calculated based on a 40 hour work-week, 52 weeks in a year. Companies also tack on a margin to this rate, but we are assuming here that you've already padded your desired salary, so the margin is left out. If you want more money, add to your desired salary -- ah, the beauty of self-employment.
Cost of Doing Business
- -- if you add up all your utility bills, including water, gas, heat, electric and phone, and average the total over the year. If you work out of your home, you may or may not have a dedicated work-space that is deductible from your yearly taxes. We are making the assumption that if you work out of your home, you will include this amount and your rent or mortgage as your cost of living, not your cost of business. If you do have a dedicated work-space you can deduct from your yearly taxes, you can enter in the amount you can deduct from your taxes. If you rent or own an entirely separate work-space, enter in this and the next fields.
- -- (sic)
- -- any show or gallery material you print up, any advertisements you take out in your local paper, and other promotional work you distribute is considered Marketing Material expenses. Enter the total you spend on these services/products per year in this field.
- -- Any retainers or fees you give to attorneys or lawyers for copyrights, contracts for art, contracts for galleries/shows, whatever, enter the total you spend on these services per year in this field.
- -- if someone else handles your books or taxes, include how much you spend in these services a year in this field.
- -- after all your major expenses have been added into your salary and benefits, this is the amount it costs you to operate per hour as an artist.
Direct Cost of Artwork
- -- estimate how long it took you to complete the work of art you are estimating on this sheet. You can change any of these values whenever you want and the entire sheet will change based on the values you enter here.
- -- estimate how much you paid for in materials to produce your work of art.
- -- calls and time spent actually talking about this particular piece of artwork to friends, neighbors, galleries, potential buyers, whoever. This is marketing time you spent and it needs to be given consideration into the final sale price as much as the time you took to create your work. Time is money!
- -- after all is said and done, you can't afford to let this particular piece of artwork go for less than this sum. This is calculated by taking how long it took you to create it, how much marketing it took to sell it, and how much it cost you in materials to produce it. Your time spent creating and producing is multiplied by the cost of being an artist per hour, and the cost of materials is added in.
- -- (sic) You need to create and sell this many pieces a year at this price to make the salary you want to make for yourself. The sale of this work doesn't take into consideration that the gallery you show at, or your agent, might take a cut, so keep plugging along in this worksheet to get an even better idea how much your work will need to sell for. This is the amount YOU must receive per artwork.
Reality
- -- OK, so you can't produce 5000 paintings or sculptures in one year. How many CAN you produce in a year? NOTE: suppose you create editions of your work or prints; in this case, your minimum price might be much higher than the target sale price later on. Read on for a more detailed discussion...
- -- This is your salary plus benefits and your yearly cost of doing business divided by the number of works you can produce in a year. This price is the amount YOU must receive per work to cover all costs and give yourself that nice big fat salary you put in at the top of the calculation.
At the Gallery
- -- almost all galleries and agents take a cut of the sale price to the buyer. Galleries have all the same expenses you do: rent, utilities, legal, accounting, insurance, marketing, salaries, benefits, and other business related expenses such as office supplies. Their cut of the action ensures they can continue to sell your work.
- -- this is your lowest amount you can sell your work for at the gallery or through an agent that covers your costs and salary. This does not take into consideration that you may not be able to produce 500 similar artworks a year. So if you only sell only one throughout the year at this price, be assured you will be taking a huge cut in pay, and may not be able to make ends meet just on the sale of your art. Nevertheless, if you have a job outside of your artwork, this might be a good price point to start with that ensures you are getting a fair return on your time and effort.
- -- this is the price that if your life depends on the sale of your art, you must sell your work at the Gallery at this price or better.