Pricing handicrafts

The artisans form a society and work under that banner. There are many of them, for example, there may be around two hundred artisans or so in a society, each entrusted with a particular kind of work, to make a finished handicraft product. For example, in the making of traditional handicraft garden umbrella, a group of artisans is involved in cutting and stitching the cloth, another group is involved in cutting the motifs of elephants, flowers etc, another group is involved in stitching the mirrors on the cloth, another group is involved in stitching the ready hand crafted garden umbrella cloth on the umbrella sticks and etc work, to meet the demand of the number of garden umbrellas ordered and to be supplied to the corporation or individuals. There is bulk production, as per the orders.

For pricing of handicraft products, women entrepreneurs, have to understand what is required in the manufacturing of that handicraft product. For that, women entrepreneurs, should visit artisans manufacturing homes/villages. They can find many artisans living in urban areas as well as in rural areas. Women entrepreneurs, should also visit state handicrafts training centres. There they can see the manufacturing process of the handicraft products, the raw material required, and days taken to complete a piece. There they can learn the cost of the raw materials required to make a piece. Also they can talk to the officers of the state training handicraft centres, to understand more about the costing of a handicraft product and the artisan's cost in making a single piece, so that they can price their own products. If they are given permission, they can join these training centres to learn the manufacturing of the handicraft products they are interested in and they may also get a certificate, if such a provision is there. This gives a fair idea, to women entrepreneurs, to how to, price, a handicraft product. Artisans societies have printed letter heads and they can see on their letter heads what the artisans charge for a single piece of handicraft product that they supply to the corporation and private organizations and they use these letter heads for the release of the payments on a particular order from the corporation and others. Women entrepreneurs must see that. Women entrepreneurs, can buy similar products from them, at the same price, to compete in the handicraft markets. There are chances, that after receiving repeated orders, the artisans may try to increase the price of their products, so women entrepreneurs, have to handle that.