I am looking into selling some juice to friends and need to breakdown my costs before setting a price. Here's what I'm thinking of including in my costs:
- Flavorings, per bottle, per brand
- Nic
- PG
- VG
- Shipping costs
- Lab materials (syringes, bottles, etc.)
The above is just to get the baseline "break-even" dollar-amount. I will add a bit above that for my time, energy, experimentation.
Have I forgotten anything? How do you guys price-out your costs? I could just pick a random number, basing it on current, commercial juice prices, but a) I'm just an enthusiast and b) I don't want to gouge my friends... just recoup my costs and make a couple bucks more.
Advice is welcome!
I've done it here as well... I sell them a 30 for 7 in plastic and 8 in glass. Reasoning is quite simple... I've eaten the cost for my juice making, so they're simply buying me more flavors and the bottle. It takes a couple minutes mixing by weight to mix, so time is moot for me on this. I enjoy looking at recipes and and would probably do it anyways, so finding a specific flavor doesn't cost me any time I didn't lose already.
I could and should go higher, but I dont see a point right now. Still plenty of pg and vg sitting around, plenty of plastic bottles around and each time they hand over for 2 bottles, I can order a 4oz of a flavor or get 12 more glass bottles or 50 plastic or whatever other supply I need to keep mixing, and still have a buck or two left. It pays for itself at that level with not much profit (I'm also not shipping, so charge them accordingly), but that isn't my goal. If I was doing it for a living or mixing tons of juice, I'd charge more, but it's just a hobby.
I considered selling to my friends, but I've ended up just taking bottles of my stuff to their house and "accidentally" leaving it there when I go home. Essentially, they end up with empty bottles and donate them to me. I wash them out really well, mix something in them, then end up returning them eventually.
I've had a few return them... especially the glass ones. I don't charge for the glass bottle if they return it since I'll be reusing it then. The plastic, especially the ldpe ones, I don't like to reuse them. I will in a pinch, but I find that after they've had juice in them, they usually impart some plastic flavor if they're let to sit more than a few days.
Right-on. I think I am in the same boat in that I really am enjoying this hobby and want to share my creations with my mates. Keeps us all off the cigs, which is number-one, and costs a lot less for all of us (compared to buying commercial liquids). Re-using glass bottles is a plus, which will reduce my cost. If they can provide their own glass bottles with dropper, it's further cost savings for them. I'm not looking to turn this into a small business yet, just want to hook up my friends while also not losing any cash myself. A couple extra bucks, as you say, to go towards additional flavorings and such is a good way to go.
If it were me, and I wasn't trying to turn a profit - just covering costs:
Either average Cost or most expensive flavoring Per ML used in a recipe. (1.5ML in a 30ML bottle)
Cost of the highest nic concentration Per ML
Cost Per ML of VG
Cost Per ML of PG
= Total Per ML * Bottle Size + Cost of the Bottle
This way you are selling all your stuff for the maximum you could potentially have into it, and probably absorbing the cost of any variations or requests for alterations to a recipe.
If you are trying to turn a profit, none of the cost calculations really matter. Juice has a massive margin, but you have to have large volume to really make any money. Cover your resource and operating costs plus whatever you think you can sell it for.
That breakdown is the advice I was looking for. I was unsure as to how to calculate the cost of ingredients on a granular level. You just clarified it for me.
Yeah, I think of the pricing of e-liquids much like beverages (beer, soda, etc.) The markup is astronomical and profits are immense, especially if you are selling in high-volume. Nowhere near that now, nor do I have any plans for it in the near future.
Thanks for your help.