How to factor materials shipping costs into base price of candles?

Question

I'm starting a candle business and I've got the cost of the materials figured out per candle. The one thing I don't know how to do is factor the shipping costs. It costs me money to have everything shipped to me to make the candles. Should I find a way to factor in .25cents a candle or so or just take the shipping costs out of my overall profit per candle? Help?

Answer 1

We figure the shipping costs of raw materials (wax, scents, etc) into the cost of production. So if wax costs us $90 for a 63 lb case ($1.43/lb) and an additional $20 to ship, we calculate the price  as $1.75 per pound. Do the same for Scents, Dyes, Additive (Steric, UV Inhibitor, etc), add it up, multiply it by 1.5 to come up with your manufacturing costs (covers electricity, rent, etc) and then multiply by 2 to reach your wholesale price. Multiply that 1.5 or 2 to get a reasonable retail price (depending on what your market will bear). So if a candle cost us $2.00 in material cost to make, we bump it up to $3.00 in extended costs, then could wholesale that candle for $6.00 or sell it retail for between $9.00 to $12.00

Hope this helps!