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Brooke Knippa | Episode 958
Brooke Knippa is an avid maker and lover of nature. Brooke grew up on the Front Range of Colorado but was eventually called east by the Atlantic Ocean, making her way to the wilds of Maine where she currently resides. Brooke is a full-time ceramicist, bringing joy and whimsy through her functional art.
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How does researching other people’s pricing help you get a radar on how to set your pricing?
I think it gives me a really good baseline for what other people are selling their work for and sometimes it gives me justification that it’s okay to make things a little more expensive than maybe I feel comfortable with. I’ve seen people that have a price for their mugs that are three or four times mine and it also helps me remember that while it’s a mug it’s also a piece of art people are buying. Even if my mug is two hundred dollars that’s a really cheap piece of art which I think some people forget about when I tell them my mug is over one hundred and fifty dollars or something and their jaw drops.
Do you pay yourself a salary?
No, I just pay myself when I need to pay bills. All my money kind of lives in my business checking account with the idea that it is always going to be whatever I don’t need for my personal well being, it’s going to be re-invested into my business at some point. My dream is to build a separate studio that is separate from our house so I don’t have to pass my studio every time I get out of bed. (laughter)
How do you keep your feelings separate when customers don’t see your work as art but just a mug when the facts say that it is art? How do you keep the feelings and facts separate in your mind?
I still do craft shows, I didn’t entirely quit them, but I think having my work online and on Instagram I have been able to curate my followers. Those are the people that want to buy my work. Maybe they all can’t afford it but they all love my work and I think having the ability to separate myself from the people that…at craft shows you don’t know who is going to be there, so you get a lot of people that maybe aren’t your target market. I think that helps and I am so fortunate to have an incredible base of people who love my work and I think they help fill me up when I am doubting myself.
Does that mean you have to be a little bit transparent with customers about your pricing process? Like saying, To be honest with you I have spent six hours making this mug.?
Yeah, I don’t think I get a lot of people who ask about it. And I don’t have an exact calculation. I think the best form of pricing I really liked was learning this backward method where you ask, How much money do you want to make a year? And you break it down backwards that way. How many pieces would you need to sell at this price? and then you break it down hourly that way.
Does that give you confidence then, by having a standard like that to stand by your pricing?
Yeah, I think so. That’s why that’s kind of a hard question to answer. Because then you are breaking it down and telling someone I’d like to make this much a year...and that is a little more personal and private. Everyone’s expenses are different and everyone has a different lifestyle.
Is it important to have multiple price points for people to choose from so that they don’t have to necessarily buy the most expensive piece but they can buy the inexpensive or in-between?
Absolutely. I think that’s really important, but I don’t always do that. (laughter) It’s really hard to come up with things that are all different price points. It might be a bad thing but I get caught up in making what people want and what sells well and right now for me, that’s mugs.
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Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
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Instagram: @apcuriosities