To price bracelets, cost a batch of them, the beads, spacers, charms, cord and glue, divide by the bracelets, add your time and the card and bag, and price for the margin you want after card fees. Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fees). In the example below, ten beaded stretch bracelets use $17.50 of materials, $1.75 each, and an hour of stringing adds $2. With the card and bag, each bracelet costs $4.10. At a 55% margin after 3% card fees, that's $9.76, rounded up to $10. A boutique paying $5 leaves 75 cents. Below is a batch's cost, the time, the price, wholesale, friendship and silver bracelets, and a free calculator.
The short version
- Count the beads: a 7-inch bracelet of 8 mm beads takes about 22.
- Cost a batch: beads, spacers, charms, cord, glue or crimps and clasps.
- Time the batch, stringing to tying off, and divide by the bracelets.
- Add the card, bag and a share of the tools and table fees.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − card fees), rounded up to a dollar.
- A shop pays about half; check what's left before you say yes.
- TaroStack keeps beads counted by the each and charms by style, and costs every batch. More below.
What a batch costs
Red Rock Bead Co., a made-up bracelet maker in Henderson, Nevada, I use in these examples, strings beaded stretch bracelets ten at a time:
| A batch of 10 | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Glass and stone beads, 8 mm | 220 at $0.05 | $11.00 |
| Spacer beads | 40 at $0.03 | $1.20 |
| Charms | 10 at $0.40 | $4.00 |
| Stretch cord | 10 ft at $0.10 | $1.00 |
| Knot glue | $0.30 | |
| Materials, a batch | $17.50 |
That's $1.75 of materials a bracelet. Gemstone beads cost several times glass, and a sterling charm several times a plated one, so price each design from its own beads.
The time, the card and the overhead
Stringing, knotting and gluing ten bracelets takes an hour. At $20 an hour, that's $2 a bracelet, more than the materials. Each bracelet goes on a backing card in a bag, 25 cents, and carries 10 cents of tools and table fees.
| A bracelet | Cost |
|---|---|
| Materials | $1.75 |
| Your time | $2.00 |
| Card, bag and overhead | $0.35 |
| Full cost | $4.10 |
How the same arithmetic works for any handmade piece is in how to price handmade items.
The price
| Bracelet | |
|---|---|
| Full cost | $4.10 |
| Price at a 55% margin after 3% card fees | $9.76 |
| Rounded up to a dollar | $10.00 |
| Left after the cost and fees | $5.60 |
| At $8.00 instead | $3.66 left |
| Three for $25 | $8.33 each, $3.98 left |
A three-for deal at a market moves stacks of bracelets without giving away the margin. How jewelry pricing works for rings, earrings and necklaces is in how to price handmade jewelry.
Wholesale to shops
| Price a bracelet | Left after cost and fees |
|---|---|
| $10.00, retail | $5.60 |
| $8.00 | $3.66 |
| $5.00, to a boutique | $0.75 |
A boutique pays about half the retail price and keeps the rest. At $5, a bracelet leaves 75 cents after the hour is paid, so wholesale works for designs you can string faster, or at a retail price of $14 that lets the shop pay $7. How to set wholesale prices is in how to price handmade items for wholesale.
Friendship bracelets and silver bracelets
Friendship bracelets use 30 cents of embroidery floss and take 40 minutes to knot. With the card and bag, that's $13.88 of cost with the time paid at $20, and $34 at a 55% margin. Sold for $12, a friendship bracelet pays about $16.60 an hour with nothing left over. They're worth making if you price the time honestly, or as a quick add-on to a bigger sale.
Sterling silver chain bracelets use about 7 inches of chain at 80 cents an inch, a $1.50 clasp and 30 cents of jump rings, 15 minutes of work and a 60-cent box: $13 of cost and $31 at the same margin. Call it sterling only if it is, at least 925 parts silver in 1,000, as permanent jewelry business plan sets out.
Get the calculator
Download the bracelet pricing calculator. Type what goes into a batch, the bracelets it makes, the hands-on minutes, the card and bag, overhead, your hourly rate, card fees, the margin you want, a wholesale price and a price to test; it works out the full cost of a bracelet, the price for your margin rounded up to a dollar, and what each price leaves. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Thirty kinds of bead bought by the strand and used by the each, charms in a dozen styles, and designs that each use a different mix. A sheet can say what one design costs; it can't say whether there are enough of the turquoise beads for another twenty, or what the bead you reordered last week costs now. Counting small, valuable stock is in how to inventory jewelry.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps beads counted by the each and charms by style, and costs every batch.
Beads in the unit you use. Beads bought by the strand are stocked by the each, so the stock is in the unit a bracelet uses.
Designs as recipes. Each design is a recipe of so many beads, spacers, a charm and a length of cord, so a batch takes them off stock and is costed from what they cost, and "what could I make right now" says how many more the turquoise on hand allows.
Reordering beads. Each bead and charm comes up on a reorder list in days of cover, worked out from how fast it's used, and a supplier's price rises show up in the price-creep report.
| The job | Calculator | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Beads on hand | Count the tubes | Stock by the each |
| What a design costs | Prices you type | Costed from what you paid |
| Enough turquoise for 20 more? | Count and hope | What could I make right now |
| When to reorder charms | When they're gone | Reorder list in days of cover |
Recipes, units, costing and reorder lists are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.