How To Rock The THIRDS RULE In Your Art/Design/Craft Business

How To Rock ‘The THIRDS RULE’ In Your Art/Design/Craft Business

In my one of my previous posts I talked about ‘The Power of One’ so today I’m going to introduce you to ‘The Thirds Rule’.

Now I come from a superstitious family, my late grandmother always had a saying for everything and I was brought up in a household were ‘everything happens in threes’ and ‘three’ is an extremely auspicious number.

Those who know me will have experienced this with me in many ways. I design in 3’s – my production work generally always consists of a repeating unit in small, medium and large. I arrange ‘things’ in 3’s and after that group ‘things’ always in odd numbers. I’ve even been know over the years to buy something I like in 3’s – especially clothes (not 3 all the same, maybe the same style in 3 different options) lol!!

So you can imagine my joy when fast forward many years and I heard someone talk about the ‘thirds rule’ when working out how to price a commission. It was so simple – a third of your budget should be spent on time, a third on materials and a third should be profit. Wow – effective, powerful, easy to remember and a ‘rule’ I’ve used hundreds of times.

Here’s a few ways you could apply this rule:

1. Your accounts – spend a third of your money on materials, a third paying bills, a third on profit or paying yourself.
2. Pricing a commission – spend a third of the persons budget on materials, a third on time and make a third in profit. (its not quite the right ratio for pricing from wholesale to retail but I’ll talk about that later.)
3. Your time – spend a third of your week on making work, a third on marketing it and a third on breaks (yes we all need to eat).
4. Your work life balance – spend a third of your time in work, a third with your family and doing fun stuff and a third in bed (sleeping and whatever else your fancy because yes we all need to rest).

So go on, change your mindset and give it a go!!!

#everythinghappensin3 #thethirdsrule #makemoney #changeyourmindset #mentortip

So I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below & if you liked this post then please share it with a friend and spread the love!