How framing costs can affect your PROFIT!

I want to talk about ensuring that the retail price you set will result in a profit for your business.

It's not my place to tell you how much to charge for your reproductions - if you want to give them away as gifts, that's up to you. If you want to charge 10 times what others are charging, and can still make sales - fantastic!

If you are treating your reproductions as an income stream to your art business, then you MUST set prices that make a profit. Profit is not a dirty word - it is essential to help you maintain the lifestyle you lead or can allow you to improve that lifestyle. No business can stay afloat without making a profit.

So with that in mind, I want to talk about a product most artists, most often, forget to charge enough for - Framing.

Here's an example of what I mean. Many artists simply add their cost of framing onto the cost of the original or reproduction - if it costs you $100, you add $100 onto the price of the painting. This often happens because artists are afraid to make a profit on the framing. You may not do this but I have to tell you, a lot of artists do and they don't realise how it's killing their bottom line.

Here's an example to see how it affects your profit...

Painting/Reproduction price ($1000) less gallery commission (40% = $400) = Gross profit of $600 less cost of production (wages, materials) and that thing you have called "skill".

Now let's say you add a $200 frame to the painting and only add $200 to the price...

Painting/Reproduction and frame ($1200) less gallery commission (40% = $480) = Gross profit of $720.00. Looks like we made more money but wait, if that frame cost YOU $200 that comes off the gross profit leaving you with $520.00. Your frame actually just went up in price and cost you $280!

So you went to all that time and trouble to choose a frame (that potential purchasers may not even like), at least 2 trips to the framer to choose the frame then back to pick it up, all to end up with $80 less profit than selling it unframed. That's just doesn't make any sense to me and I hope it doesn't to you.

If your goal is to make a living as an artist then you must make a profit on everything you sell. I'm not saying 'don't frame your artwork', I am saying 'charge enough so that the effort you go to in choosing that frame is rewarded'.