How to Price Your Artwork (Before It Costs You Your Business)

Underpricing didn't just cost me money. It nearly cost me my love for the work.

You already know I'll reference ABBA's "Money, Money, Money" any chance I get, and today is the perfect excuse, because we're talking about money. More specifically, pricing.

Let's start with the obvious: you, me, all of us, we're pricing too low. Okay, maybe not all of you, but after coaching hundreds of artists worldwide and running my own art business for a decade, I can confidently say most artists undervalue their work.

As Sabrina Carpenter might put it in that pleading, sing-song way of hers: please don't let this be you. But let's be real, nearly everyone does it, and I just can't take it anymore.

If you're part of this unfortunate majority, don't stress, I was in your shoes, and let's be honest, sometimes still am. If I could go back and change one thing in my business, it would be knowing my worth from the start. Here's how underpricing actually hurt me.

Burnout With Coaching

I'd love to say every day of running my dream business felt like a dream, but working for yourself is still work. It's not always fun, but it should at least be enjoyable, and I reached a point where it wasn't fun at all, because I was so, dang, tired. I was working with anywhere from 60 to 100 artists a month. Yes, you read that right. I was giving and giving without charging enough to make it sustainable, and the result was exhaustion, frustration, and a business that stopped feeling like a dream.

Then I raised my prices, and everything shifted. My client load became manageable. My clients started taking every call more seriously, and their results improved because of it. I started feeling like a great coach again, and most importantly, I fell back in love with my work. It was a win for everyone involved.

Resentment Toward Commissions and Clients

Commissions have always been a love-hate relationship for me. They're great for guaranteed income, but I have a terrible habit of biting off more than I can chew. This past Christmas, I took on a few less-than-ideal commissions at less-than-ideal prices, and honestly, I resented every second of it. Not because of my clients, who were lovely, but because I hadn't charged enough to make the time and effort worth it. Charge your worth and skip this particular tragedy. Your future self will thank you.

Overworked and Underpaid

This is the roller coaster I live on. I love helping artists, which means I also love giving things away for too little. But then the inevitable happens, I take on too much, burn out, and my content and coaching suffer for it. And when my energy and my content suffer, the artists I'm working with don't get the best version of me either. Don't be like me, overworked and underpaid. Charge correctly, set boundaries, and build a business that supports you instead of draining you.

Are you sensing a theme here?

How to Price Your Artwork and Art Commissions With Confidence

So how do you know if you're pricing your work correctly, and more importantly, what can you actually do to fix it? That's exactly what I'm breaking down this week: a real formula for how to price your artwork and your commissions, plus the ChatGPT prompt I now use whenever my confidence wavers and I need a second opinion before I hit send on a quote.

Want to learn more about how to price your artwork and finally charge what you're worth? Click here to read the full Substack post.