Cost of Items (part 2)

The same can be said of the houses.  Take for example, the cottage hidey house.  It sells for $20 at the moment.

This house is 11 x 8, and requires 46" of wood to make.  It also requires glue, rubberbands to hold it together while it is drying, and of course, the hole saws to cut the holes.  Wood isn't horribly expensive... but much of that other stuff is higher. 

Our one hole saw is a 4.25" one.  Just a quick search on HomeDepot.com shows a wide variety of prices, though this is similar to the one we have -- https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-4-1-4-in-Big-Hawg-Carbide-Hole-Saw-49-56-9255/305211255 -- it is $49.99.  We also have a smaller hole saw, a 2.5" one.  Again, searching online, https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-2-1-2-in-Diamond-Hole-Saw-49-56-5660/204994418 -- $34.97.  Now, hold up, can't use a hole saw without an arbor -- https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-7-16-in-Quick-Change-Large-Hole-Saw-Arbor-No-Wobble-W-W-Pilot-Drill-Bit-49-56-9100/203113673 -- $21.47.

So, just to have the pieces necessary (not counting the drill) to make the holes in the houses, the equipment costs us $106.43.  Mind you, I'm on my second of the large hole saws, and third arbor -- this stuff unfortunately doesn't last forever.

The houses take about an hour to make, from cutting the wood, to using the whole saws to drill the holes, to sanding the houses, to piecing them together and letting them dry.

I was recently told by someone in business that a business should charge, at the very minimum, $10/hour for labor, plus 2x the cost of materials.  Hypothetically, if we want to look at that... the wood for this house is probably about $4 or so.  That would mean $8 in wood.  If we want to say it takes exactly an hour to cut / sand / assemble / etc, that's another $10.  So $18 total would be their minimum cost for the house.  We charge $20, because I'm not sure how that ~$107 in necessary equipment is supposed to be factored into the cost... but at some point, the money from the houses has to pay for the equipment needed to make the houses, or what's the point, right?  And not only that, but it'd be good to have money made after just paying off the cost to make the item, so there's money for the animals!  I mean, right?

So, I guess just try to think about this sort of stuff, if you're ever looking at a product a small business made, and thinking oh that's too much -- maybe it is -- but often, a lot goes into certain things that people don't think about.  There's often more involved that's not obvious, but is factored into the price.