Don,
Sod the professionals, why should you take less money for equally good product? I agree with you on the £15 top end for a slimline unless there are extenuating circumstances such as segmented (if its nicely done as opposed to done for the sake of it!) but on the issue of £45 for an Omega, you can and I do! I exhibit at the SECC in Glasgow, and other venues in Scotland. The reality is that if any of our work appeared in a shop it would command much much higher prices than we charge. So what's the difference? A shop front and an enormous overhead? No - its simply one of modesty, we have to sell the benefits of our products and effectively boasting about our products isn't in our British nature.
With all these pricing modules and the value of time, its a huge Red Herring. Do your cost module, great, you've now got your MUST NOT GO BELOW price. Then go and find five reasonable people and ask them "How much would you expect this to be in a shop?", and see what the answer is. If you've made some good quality stuff and is well packaged the answer will always be more than YOU and your calculator expect!!!!
Its worth what people will pay for it, not what the calculator says they should pay for it, and you should charge them just less than they expect to pay, then everyone is happy.
I know this saying from memory and used to use it frequently when I was challenged by Architects and Designers in London (and Scotland, America, the middle East, Australia etc).
Value,
It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.
People expect to pay for quality.
By charging cheaply what message are you sending out?
Sorry but a hobby horse of mine!
