How I Priced My Largest Commission Ever!
Creating a quote to meet a tight two-month deadline.
A few months ago, a designer reached out needing an enormous table for a yacht that would be based in Europe. They wanted to know if I was free for the commission.
I replied with a tentative "maybe," needing to know a bit more detail.
It turned out this table would be over 11 feet long and about 55 inches wide. This would make it the largest table I'd ever attempted, but its size wasn't the real hurdle—I knew I could handle that.
The real kicker? It needed to be completed in just two months.
That timeline seemed crazy to me.
Typically, my commissions take anywhere from 12 to 24 months, sometimes even longer. Still, I thought if I got started right away, I could pull it off.
So, I wrote up the heftiest quote I've ever sent anyone—$35,000.
To be honest, part of me hoped they'd say no, and I could return to my usual projects; making more practical tables.
But they quickly came back with a "yep, that'll be fine," and I thought to myself, "Well shit!"
However, for someone like me, that's a good chunk of money, so I said, "let's do this."
What followed was a frenzied scramble for material, not just around the state I live in, but also across the entire country. Eventually, I hit the point of desperation where I even checked Facebook Marketplace, but finally the slabs I needed surfaced, and when I showed them to the client, they agreed—perfection!
Now, for a lot of people reading this, I feel like the elephant in the room is going to be the price point that I'm charging for this table.
With the slabs costing roughly $2,800, and a commission cost of $35,000, some of you might be wondering how did I possibly come up with the math to justify this number?
So let's take a closer look at how I priced this commission…
Well, to start, I generally charge as much as I can where I won't be disappointed if the customer declines.
This isn't a model I'd recommend for everyone, especially not those trying to grow a cabinet shop or something like that, but it's worked for me.
“Note: To be clear, I’m not trying to petition or entice anyone to adopt what’s likely a suboptimal pricing model—this is just what has worked for me.”
For this project, as I understood it, there would be about eight collaborators, add to that the enormity of the table, a tight timeline, and most definitely some expensive hurdles that would surely come up…
…in my own personal experience I know that all these things add up to insomnia for Cam, combined with bouts of nausea. Which, by the way, doesn't mean the requests the clients made were unreasonable (everything they asked for was fine), I just needed to find a price that was commensurate with “pricing in” my nausea and sleepless nights.
…and of course, making sure that I could actually make some money on top of all of it, so after all of that was accounted for, I landed on the number of $35,000.
Now, I do think that they could have probably found someone cheaper, sure, but for whatever reason they decided that I was going to be the best fit for them and for me that was going to be the price to get it done.
It's kind of like if someone comes to me and says, "Hey, how much for you to be my dog walker?"
well, I would never say something like… "Oh, for no amount of money would I walk your dog," because trust me, I can be bought, I just probably won't be the cheapest dog walker out there.
So what's wrong with my pricing model?
There is a downside to using a pricing model like the one I use.
The reality is, it is going to be much more difficult to build those long-term customer relationships that are so important in almost every small business.
Think about it this way, if you have a customer and you build them a $10,000 table and they absolutely love it. They love it so much, they send all their friends to you. Whether they admit it or not, your original customer probably told their friends exactly what they paid for that table, or at the very least, close to what they paid for that table, so they know what to expect.
… but , maybe your business is growing and you're getting really busy, so you tell the new customer that to build the exact same table, it is now going to cost $20,000.
In this scenario, not only is that new customer going to feel a little deceived, but also your previous client is going to feel a little betrayed and might also be afraid to come back to you because now they don't know if your prices have doubled or not.
While my pricing model "charge as much as I can where I won't be disappointed if the customer declines,” may not be conventional or suitable for everyone, it has allowed me to take on challenging projects while ensuring that my efforts are well-compensated.
Balancing the demands of tight deadlines, unique client requirements, and of course my own well-being has guided me to set prices that reflect the true value of my work, as well as “priced-in” the stress involved, which I believe is key.
Although this approach might limit long-term customer relationships to some extent, it has served me well, as it also allows for the margins needed when creating unique pieces, without the constant financial pressure associated with more challenging builds.
Ultimately, I'm a woodworking YouTuber just here to make fun videos, and yet nothing is more fun than a $35,000 commissioned project!
