02/28/2020
Why should you pay me $30+ for a CUP?!
I know $30 seems like a lot. You work hard for that money and sometimes you want to treat yourself. But why would you pay $30+ for a customized cup and add shipping when you could just go grab a tumbler off the shelf at Walmart for $10 or less?
So, why? Why should you trust me with your hard earned money?
Here’s the deal… when you place an order with me, you’re not just a dollar sign or an address on a shipping label. Your input matters to me. I want to work with you to create something that you love and will last you for years to come… the idea seems silly, but it’s true. I put pride in my work and want each person who receives an item from me to be excited and in love with it. I want you to WANT to show it off, tell your friends about it, and tell them that I made it… not so I get more business, but so that I have the satisfaction of knowing I did a great job and made my customer happy.
When you shop with me, you’re not just lining the pockets of some big wig executive somewhere. You’re supporting a stay at home mom with her small business. You’re helping me buy new jeans to replace the old ones with holes, because I hate using my husband’s hard earned money for something that doesn’t benefit him or the kids. You’re giving me a creative outlet on a day filled with tantrums, meltdowns, and diaper changes. You’re showing me a purpose and providing me with a desire to grow and better myself.
If you see a $30 cup, and instantly think, “Wow, $30? Really?” let me tell you what you don’t see.
You don’t see the hours at a computer spent researching, advertising, designing, communicating, and ordering.
You don’t see the sanding, painting, glitter applying, 8+ hour epoxy coat on the turner, more sanding, more epoxy, decal, more epoxy, more epoxy, and stripping a whole cup and restarting the entire process over again if something goes wrong.
You don’t see the increase in my electricity bill from my turners running constantly, or the cost of building those turners to make this venture run smoothly.
You don’t see the early mornings checking my turners, the late night epoxy coats to make sure I’m following my deadlines, or the afternoons wrestling my kids down for nap time so I can switch out and get more cups turning.
You don’t see the adjustments in my weekend schedules for deliveries or pickups. You don’t see the packing, printing labels, trips to the post office with my two toddlers in tow…. You get the picture.
You might just see a pretty cup that costs a lot more than a decent looking one off of a shelf… and that’s okay. In life, we have priorities. If you see one of my pretty cups and think that I’m insane for asking “so much” consider what your priorities are. $30 for my family is 2 trips to Taco Bell. It’s a little more than one box of diapers. It’s less than the cost of a date night meal for my husband and myself. It’s the cost of our combined monthly subscriptions to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime. You get the idea.
I guess what I want you to understand is that YOU are important to me. From the moment you first contact me about making an order, you matter. All throughout the design and creation process, you matter. After your cup is delivered and I’ve moved onto another, you still matter to me. Please support small businesses. Please help change the perspective of what is “too expensive” vs what is cheaply made and quickly reproduced. Although it may be “just a cup,” it means something more to me, and every other person who is pouring their heart, soul, and sanity into their own businesses and creations.
(Not written by me!)
