How much is your time turning pens worth.
My personal opinion on this subject is simple - it is worth as much as you'd be getting for it if you were doing something else.
If you turn pens rather than watch recreational football on Saturday and Sunday afternoons - it is worth zero because that what it's worth watching footbal - in fact it might be less than zero because you could very well be having a couple of cool ones watching the game that you wouldn't have turning pens. This, in my opinion, is why you see so many low priced pens offered on Etsy and websites. The makers properly value the time they spent making them at the recreational rate of zero, and need only to recover the material and shipping costs to make a profit. They also recognize that a pen sold at any price brings them more money than a pen in a drawer of display case gathering dust.
If you turn pens rather than go to another job, then your time is worth what you'd make by taking the other job and if you can't earn that much by making and marketing pens, you ought to take the other job.
If you turn pens as a profit making small business your time is worth what you make in profit, it is not represented in your cost of doing business and in fact for tax purposes, by law, cannot be included in your costs. Small business owners considering the long hours they put in are typically low paid when their profits are calculated and spread over the hours worked. Most would make more per hour working for someone else. Pen turners have no reason to expect that turning pens would be different than almost any other small business.
My personal opinion on this subject is simple - it is worth as much as you'd be getting for it if you were doing something else.
If you turn pens rather than watch recreational football on Saturday and Sunday afternoons - it is worth zero because that what it's worth watching footbal - in fact it might be less than zero because you could very well be having a couple of cool ones watching the game that you wouldn't have turning pens. This, in my opinion, is why you see so many low priced pens offered on Etsy and websites. The makers properly value the time they spent making them at the recreational rate of zero, and need only to recover the material and shipping costs to make a profit. They also recognize that a pen sold at any price brings them more money than a pen in a drawer of display case gathering dust.
If you turn pens rather than go to another job, then your time is worth what you'd make by taking the other job and if you can't earn that much by making and marketing pens, you ought to take the other job.
If you turn pens as a profit making small business your time is worth what you make in profit, it is not represented in your cost of doing business and in fact for tax purposes, by law, cannot be included in your costs. Small business owners considering the long hours they put in are typically low paid when their profits are calculated and spread over the hours worked. Most would make more per hour working for someone else. Pen turners have no reason to expect that turning pens would be different than almost any other small business.
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