As promised, here’s a little peek into what is going into Scrap Venture Start Up. I would say it’s probably about 80% finished at this point but there’s more I want to put into it. My goal is that this could be a resource that you could print out and makes tons of notes to plan and develop your very own scrapbooking business.

Here’s a look into Pricing Your Products and Services…

One thing you’ll have to figure out before you get started is how you are going to price your products or services. This is the part that many entrepreneurs dread, because they are afraid of setting the wrong price. If they set their prices too high, they will get fewer customers. If they set them too low, their profits won’t be as high, and they may have trouble covering their expenses.

The best thing you can do before setting your prices is conduct lots of research. Find products or services that are comparable to yours, and make note of the prices they are selling for. You can do a great deal of the research online, but it is also important to check prices locally. Prices for the same things do tend to vary by location.

Here are some pointers specific to the different types of products or services you could offer:

• Custom scrapbooks – Do a Google search for “custom scrapbook artist” or similar terms. Make note of the prices and how they are figured for several artists. Most charge per page, according to page size, plus the cost of the album.

Once you’ve gotten a good idea of what others charge, determine how much you feel that you can charge. Keep in mind that you will need to cover the costs of your materials and make a profit. You may need to charge a little extra for certain materials that you don’t normally use. You could also elect to leave enough room to offer discounts on larger or multiple albums. This is a great way to get more business.

• Scrapbooking classes – Search the web for “scrapbooking classes,” and search the local classifieds for classes in your area. Pricing will largely depend on what materials you are providing, if any, and how in-depth the class is, so your pricing may be quite different from that of others.

• Books or ebooks – If you’re writing an ebook, search the web for ebooks of similar theme and length. The costs of writing an ebook are quite low, so the primary concern is charging a reasonable price for the information offered. You also do not incur extra costs with each copy, so the more ebooks you sell, the higher your profits.

Hard copy book pricing is a bit more complex. If you have a publisher, you can work out the pricing with the company. There are also self-publishing options available, in which you pay a certain price per book printed and sell them at a markup of your choice. If you go that route, you’ll need to take distribution costs into consideration when setting your prices.

• Scrapbooking Supplies – You’ll need to set your prices at a level that will cover the price you paid for the product itself, plus overhead costs, and still leave you with a profit. If you’re running a brick and mortar store, it may be some time before you see a profit. If you’re selling online or through mail order, you’ll have to take into account shipping and marketing materials.

• Website or Blog – When you’re getting started with a website or blog, it will probably be difficult to get top dollar for advertising because you haven’t built up any traffic yet. This is where affiliate programs come in handy. Once you get your site or blog all set up, you can sign up with them and include your affiliate links and banners in your posts or pages. When someone purchases through your link, you get paid. You could continue to use affiliate marketing only to monetize your site, offer paid advertising once you get some traffic coming in, or do some of each.

There are many more ways you can build a scrapbook business and I hope to inspire you with the craft that you are most passionate about! I’m getting excited, Scrap Venture Start Up is almost here!