Help on pricing

Andronyme · 26 July 2016 at 12:40PM

Hi ladies,
I am working on my business idea and I am a bit stuck on my pricing. On 24th September, I will held a baby and children market of my own (not under a franchise). It will be held in Suffolk, in Mildenhall village. I am hoping to do one each months. I have 48 stall available to sell. I'll charge an entrance fee and will serve food and drinks. I will also offer gift cards where someone can pay someone else stall fees.

Here is the prices I thought of :
- 6£ : for families willing to sell second hand baby and children stuff
- 10£ : for any person that sells homemade craft that are family related
- 20£ : for any family related business
- 1£ : entrance fee per adult - children free
- 0.50£ : tea/coffee/squash - cupcakes
- 1£ : slice of cake

Would you pay yourself 6£ to attend ? Would you pay more ? And if so, how much ? Do you think I am under-priced ?

I am asking because those prices are low compared to the competition and also that payment are made online. That means I get charge a fee for each payment. All cakes will be made by myself.

Thank you for your help.

Jo_F · 26 July 2016 at 6:43PM

Without going into the pricing, a few questions first....

How much is it costing for the venue?
How much is your Public Liability Insurance?
Do your stall holders have their own insurance (especially product and public liability for the handmade)
Does the kitchen where the cakes are being made have a hygiene certificate?
How much is your advertising?

When you take the cost of all the above into account, you can then start working on prices, to make sure you cover all costs and make some profit.

PS don't forget the legal stuff like insurance and hygiene cert.

DomRavioli · 26 July 2016 at 6:54PM

I wouldn't pay - there are NCT table top sales near me that don't charge for entry, or on the rare occasion its only a pound. I also wouldn't pay £1 for a slice of cake.

Prices are way too high for second hand sales - maybe a reality check is needed because nobody will pay £6 to get into what is essentially an indoor car boot/jumble sale full of second hand gear and some "businesses" selling the same crap you get at school fairs and fetes.

iammumtoone · 26 July 2016 at 7:04PM

Your pricing is a bit off, for a start someone selling handmade crafts IS a business but you have listed these separate to businesses.

Why are the prices different? do those selling baby clothes get a smaller table to those selling crafts?

You need to price per table size not against what they are selling. If you are worried about having too much of the same thing you need to manage this by only excepting a certain amount of each stall type.

I would not pay £1 entrance fee to get into a glorified car boot sale, I also would not have a stall anywhere, where customers had to pay an entrance fee.

I would pay £6 for a table if the entrance was free for customers.

I think your cake and tea prices are reasonable but do not expect to sell any of these to the public, just the stall holders.

Andronyme · 26 July 2016 at 9:18PM

Jo_F wrote: »

Without going into the pricing, a few questions first....

How much is it costing for the venue?
How much is your Public Liability Insurance?
Do your stall holders have their own insurance (especially product and public liability for the handmade)
Does the kitchen where the cakes are being made have a hygiene certificate?
How much is your advertising?

When you take the cost of all the above into account, you can then start working on prices, to make sure you cover all costs and make some profit.

PS don't forget the legal stuff like insurance and hygiene cert.

Here is the breakdown of my costs so far :
- Venue hired for 4 hours (2 hours for the market) : 20£/hour so 80£/months.
- Public liability = 5£/months.
- All professional stallholders must have their own product or public liability insurance.
- I was a professional chef before I got into this business idea. I have a degree in the catering industry and my kitchen has a hygiene certificate level 2. Cost : 10£
- I don't know yet how much I need in advertising I thought of 100 A4 flyers for 15.95£ and 9.95£ for 50 A5 (VAT + delivery included) to start with on back up with free online ads on social network, word to mouth, homemade prints etc...
Total : 120£

I understand how you work it but what about the cost that my website involved (hosting, domain, plugins etc ...).

DomRavioli wrote: »

I wouldn't pay - there are NCT table top sales near me that don't charge for entry, or on the rare occasion its only a pound. I also wouldn't pay £1 for a slice of cake.

Prices are way too high for second hand sales - maybe a reality check is needed because nobody will pay £6 to get into what is essentially an indoor car boot/jumble sale full of second hand gear and some "businesses" selling the same crap you get at school fairs and fetes.

Thank you for your views.

iammumtoone wrote: »

Your pricing is a bit off, for a start someone selling handmade crafts IS a business but you have listed these separate to businesses.

Why are the prices different? do those selling baby clothes get a smaller table to those selling crafts?

You need to price per table size not against what they are selling. If you are worried about having too much of the same thing you need to manage this by only excepting a certain amount of each stall type.

I would not pay £1 entrance fee to get into a glorified car boot sale, I also would not have a stall anywhere, where customers had to pay an entrance fee.

I would pay £6 for a table if the entrance was free for customers.

I think your cake and tea prices are reasonable but do not expect to sell any of these to the public, just the stall holders.

I have separated people into categories the same way competition set its price. I first thought of pricing per table rather per type actually. I do have two types of table available large 5ft round ones and large rectangular ones. Would you set a 1£ difference between them ?
Same for the entrance fee. I am not convince myself. As I hope that they'll get popular and that my stallholders will be able to sell as much as possible and will then spread the word etc.. But, in the other hand it is another way for me to make extra profits.

I've made a few nearly new sale as a volunteer and refreshments worked very well with the public. We had a few extra slices left which we have given away to our stallholders to take home.

To you all thank you for helping me out

I really appreciate.

arbrighton · 29 July 2016 at 12:40PM

Too complicated.

One price for pro/ business and one for second hand own baby clothes type.

You can't expect a new business to turn a profit straight away and if you charge too much, it won't work anyway, especially if there are free ones elsewhere

TBagpuss · 29 July 2016 at 7:10PM

I would definitely not be prepared to pay an entry fee.
If your competitors do, then you choosing not to may mean that you get more customers, and since people won't feel ripped off the moment they step through the door, they may be more likely to buy, too.

I agree tht it would make more sense to charge by table size (and *maybe* location, if you feel that some places in the hall are better than others. You could chose to charge less for private individual than for professionals, and could chose to offer a reduction for anyone prepared to commit to booking several events in advance.

I would probably expect to pay the same for a cupcake as for a slice of cake, and you'd make your life easier if you have a flat price rather than variable.

laura_hoggle · 30 July 2016 at 12:05AM

Andronyme wrote: »

- Venue hired for 4 hours (2 hours for the market) : 20£/hour so 80£/months.

I don't think this is long enough to allow to set up & pack away; also if people arrive to the sale late you/the sellers wouldn't want to turn them away, so they may not leave until after the designated end time. You might want to consider onlay offering refreshments for a short time in order to allow time to pack away. Depending on the venue, you may need to allow time to clean this yourself. Do not underestimate time, especially as there will be children and food & drink involved!!

Who would be in charge of manning the door & taking entry fee; would you pay them? The same goes for the refreshments. Are the facilities there to provide hot & cold drinks, and are there any fees for cleaning?

I have been to a few of this type of sale on the past, both NCT and franchise. I have had to pay entry for both, which was £1. At both I've been given a 'goodie bag' at the end, with one giving out a full size tube of Sudocreme worth probably £5, along with chocolate. They also had leaflets from local companies, who I am guessing will have paid for the privilege?

I would agree that all businesses should pay the same amount to sell, and you will probably find that you get inundated with local Usbourne book/Forever Living/Juice Plus/Jamberry Nail franchisees wanting to exhibit. I would try & invite local baby & childrens groups eg Baby Sensory to exhibit, as these can be popular.

I have paid £1 to get into a local car boot sale, and I think I have paid £10 for a 'pitch fee' at car boot sales in the past, so I would expect to pay around the same to sell at a sale like this; especially as it would be inside!

Are there good parking facilities? Are there baby changing facilities? These are all things to mention when trying to sell the event!

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