Years ago — a market stall, a table covered in crochet lions and bunnies, and a stack of paper price tags I'd written and rewritten by hand. A measurement in centimetres, a dollar sign, a number crossed out more than once. That's the honest version of pricing. Not a spreadsheet. Not a formula pulled from a business course. A woman with a pen, guessing, adjusting, guessing again. If you're standing at the start of your first product and you have no idea what to charge, here's what I actually know after twenty years of pricing things — restaurant plates, bubble tea, rental units, and crochet toys on a market table. Start with what it actually costs you Before you think about profit, add up two things honestly: materials, and your time. Materials are easy to undercount if you forget the small stuff — thread ends, packaging, the ribbon you tied around it. Time is where almost everyone lies to themselves. Not because they mean to. Because two hours sounds better than four...
There's a strange kind of loneliness that shows up the week your child starts school. Everyone warns you about the tears at drop-off. Nobody warns you about the walk back to an empty house, and the question that follows you around for the next three hours: okay, so what now? If you're standing in that exact spot right now — kid at school, a few hours back that used to belong entirely to someone else, and a quiet feeling that maybe it's time to build something of your own — here's what I actually know, after 20 years of building businesses around a life, not instead of one. You don't need a niche. You need an inventory. Before you think about what business to start, make a list of everything you already know how to do. Not resume language. Actual skills. → You've negotiated with a four-year-old over pants. That's conflict resolution → You've run a household on a shifting schedule with zero notice. That's operations → You've made a stranger ...