How to Price Your Items

⭐ The Shortcut Queen’s REAL Formula for Pricing Your Products (So You Stop Guessing and Start PROFITING)

Listen… if you are still pricing your products based on vibes, what the girl down the street is charging, or “whatever feels fair,” please pull up a chair. Auntie Shortcut is about to fix your whole business today.

Whether you are selling digital designs, editable templates, custom tees, DTF transfers, mockups, bundles, or anything creative, the pricing formula is the same.
The problem is that most people do not know it. That is exactly why they stay broke.

Not you, though. Not after today.

Here is the formula real CEOs use:

PRICE = (Cost of Goods + Labor or Time + Overhead) ÷ (1 minus Profit Margin)

Then adjust based on the market or competitor comparison.

Do not worry. I am breaking this down in Shortcut language so it actually makes sense.

 1. COST OF GOODS (COGS)

This is everything it physically or digitally costs you to create the product.
Not vibes. Not hope. Actual dollars.

For Custom Tees

• Blank apparel
• Ink, vinyl, DTF prints, sublimation sheets, etc. 
• Supplies such as tape, butcher paper, pretreat
• Equipment use such as your heat press, printer, or cutter

For Digital Products

• Canva Pro, Adobe, Midjourney, Creative Fabrica
• Purchased fonts, designs, or elements
• AI credits
• Any asset used to create the final product

If money left your account to make the thing, it belongs right here.

 2. COST OF LABOR OR YOUR TIME

Yes, your time is valuable.
Yes, you need to charge for it.
No, you are not “being extra.”

Ask yourself:

• How long does it take to make this product
• What is your hourly rate as a business owner such as $25, $40, or $75 dollars per hour

Example:

If a design takes 30 minutes and your time is worth 40 dollars per hour, that adds 20 dollars to the cost.

And here is the cheat code:

Digital products are created one time and can pay you forever.
This is why digital is queen.

 3. OVERHEAD

This is the category everyone forgets and it is the real reason many businesses profit zero dollars.

Overhead includes everything required to run your business:

• Website fees
• Etsy and Shopify fees
• Payment processing fees
• Packaging and shipping supplies
• Utilities
• Software subscriptions
• Marketing tools
• Administrative time
• Business taxes
• Subscriptions like Creative Fabrica, ChatGPT, Midjourney, etc.

If it keeps your business going, it belongs here.

4. PROFIT MARGIN (your real money)

This is the amount you keep after expenses.

Recommended margins:

• Physical products: 30 to 60 percent
• Digital products: 70 to 95 percent
  
  • Digital wins every single time and now you see why! 

Margin formula:
(Selling Price minus Total Cost) ÷ Selling Price = Profit Margin

If your margin is tiny, your business will feel tiny too.

⭐ The Bottom Line

You are not just selling a shirt or a design.
You are selling your creativity, your time, your tools, your overhead, and your expertise.

You deserve to price accordingly.

⭐ Want the easy button

I created plug and play pricing calculators that do all the math for you including:

• Digital product pricing
• Custom apparel pricing
• Overhead allocation
• Profit margin calculations

If you want to price smarter and faster with zero math headaches
👉🏽 Go check out the calculators.
Your wallet will thank you.

Need help calculating your overhead expense per item, CLICK HERE!