How to Price Hair Bows: Full Cost, Margin, a Calculator

To price a hair bow you add up its full cost first: the ribbon, clips and centers by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the card and bag, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one bow costs you. Then set the price so that, after card and selling fees, it leaves the margin you want: price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate). For a 4-inch boutique bow that costs $2.83 to make, a 55% margin after 3% fees means $6.73, rounded up to $6.75. Ribbon is cheap; your time is most of the cost, so how fast you tie decides the price. Wholesale to shops is a different price, set so it still covers the full cost with something left. In the example below, a Utah bow maker prices for its online shop and a children's boutique.

The short version

• Full cost = supplies a bow + your time + card and bag + overhead.
• Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate).
• Count your time at a real hourly rate, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
• Time is the cost; batch the cutting, sealing and gluing.
• Bows for children carry a tracking label; count it in packaging.
• Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
• TaroStack keeps ribbon, clips and centers counted and costs every batch. More below.

What goes into a bow's cost

Pricing handmade work in general is in how to price handmade items, and the label children's products need in CPSIA tracking label requirements.

An example: a 4-inch boutique bow

Wasatch Bow Co., a made-up bow maker in Provo, Utah, ties 20 four-inch bows in a batch:

At a 55% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $2.83 ÷ 0.42 = $6.73, so $6.75. At $6.75 a bow, each leaves $3.72. It had been asking $8, which leaves $4.93, and kept $8. A children's boutique asked for bows at $4.00, which leaves $1.05 each; the maker agreed for orders of 40 and added its tracking label to the card. Time is $1.67 of the $2.83; supplies are 76 cents. Selling to shops in general is in how to price handmade items for wholesale.

Get the calculator

Download the hair bow price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's supplies, amounts and costs, the bows it makes, the hands-on minutes, the card and bag and overhead, your hourly rate, card fees and the margin you want; the full cost, the price for your margin rounded up, and what a wholesale price and a test price leave fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The calculator prices a bow on paper. A new ribbon supplier, a batch of clips that snap, and a slow week change what each bow really cost.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps ribbon, clips and centers counted, and costs every batch.

Supplies in their units. Ribbon bought by the 100-yard roll is used by the yard, and clips bought by the hundred are counted by the each.

Designs as recipes. Each bow is a recipe of its supplies, so a batch takes them off stock and is costed from what they cost, and good and rejected pieces are recorded.

Reordering. Supplies come up on a reorder list in days of cover, worked out from how fast they're used.

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.

Questions people also ask

How much should I charge for a hair bow?

Work out the full cost, ribbon, clips, time, the card and overhead, then divide by 1 minus your margin and fee rate; the example's $2.83 bow prices at $6.75 for a 55% margin.

How do you calculate the cost of a hair bow?

Add the batch's supplies and divide by the bows it makes, then add your time, the card and bag and a share of overhead.

What is a good profit margin on bows?

Set your own target after fees; the example uses 55% on direct sales and accepts less on wholesale.

How much should I sell hair bows to boutiques for?

Enough to cover the full cost with something left; the example's $4.00 wholesale price leaves $1.05 a bow.