When you have six making hours and several products waiting, the item with the highest profit per order may not be the best use of those hours. A slower product can earn more on each sale while leaving less surplus across the working session. Compare both order profit and the resource that actually limits production, then check whether enough buyers want the product you would prioritize.
This worked example uses two imaginary products and US Etsy fees checked November 4, 2026. It is a scheduling worksheet, not a prediction of sales. Keep paying for your time in the model: dividing by hours does not require deleting the labor allowance you already included in your handmade product price.
Identify the scarce resource first
Sometimes your own active making and packing time is the limit. Sometimes the limit is oven space, curing racks, a printer, an embroidery machine or the availability of a specialist. Choose the resource that would prevent you from filling more real orders this week. A product taking two unattended days to cure is different from one requiring two full days of your attention.
Our example assumes the maker's active production and packing time is the only bottleneck. Both products use the same materials supply, have available machine capacity and can be sold individually. Their measured minutes include a consistent share of setup and cleanup. If those assumptions are false in your shop, change the worksheet before ranking products.
Compare complete order scenarios
Product A is a $30 pouch with $5 charged shipping and 20 active minutes. Product B is a $70 personalized tote with $5 charged shipping and 60 active minutes. Use a $24 hourly labor allowance for both. Assume one unit per order, one $0.20 listing allocation, no discount, no buyer tax in this simplified example and no advertising charges.
| Line | Pouch | Tote |
|---|---|---|
| Seller revenue, including charged shipping | $35.00 | $75.00 |
| Transaction fee, rounded | $2.28 | $4.88 |
| Processing fee | $1.30 | $2.50 |
| Listing allocation | $0.20 | $0.20 |
| Materials | $6.00 | $16.00 |
| Packaging | $1.00 | $1.50 |
| Postage | $5.00 | $5.00 |
| Labor at $24/hour | $8.00 | $24.00 |
| Surplus after the listed costs | $11.22 | $20.92 |
Etsy's fee policy specifies the 6.5% transaction fee and $0.20 listing charge. The US processing schedule is 3% plus $0.25. The example rounds each fee line to cents. Add your actual tax-related processing effect, marketing and other applicable costs before using a real product's result. The surplus shown here has no allowance for shared monthly overhead.
Divide the surplus by bottleneck hours
The pouch takes one third of an hour, so its surplus per active hour is $11.22 ÷ (20 ÷ 60) = $33.66. The tote takes one hour and returns $20.92 per active hour. The tote wins on surplus per order. The pouch wins on surplus per hour under these assumptions.
The $33.66 is additional modeled surplus after a $24-per-hour labor allowance. It is not a wage or take-home pay figure. Before labor, the pouch contributes $19.22 per unit, or $57.66 per active hour, to labor and remaining costs. After subtracting $24 per hour, that becomes $33.66. Keeping these labels distinct avoids presenting the same dollars as both wages and profit.
Apply a real demand ceiling
If there were sufficient orders for either product, six hours could produce 18 pouches and $201.96 of surplus, or six totes and $125.52. Both cases include $144 of modeled labor. The difference is $76.44, before shared overhead and other omitted costs.
But suppose only nine pouches are likely to sell within the period you are planning, and three totes have firm orders. Nine pouches use three hours and contribute $100.98 of surplus. Three totes use the remaining three hours and contribute $62.76. The combined plan returns $163.74. Making 18 pouches because the hourly figure looks attractive would instead create nine extra units of inventory whose sales are unproven.
Write the demand limit beside each product, with its evidence: actual orders, recent sell-through or an explicitly uncertain forecast. Preserve existing commitments and promised delivery dates. An hourly ranking is a planning input, not a reason to miss a customer's deadline or assume that production creates demand.
Recalculate when the bottleneck changes
Batching can change active minutes, but measure a complete batch and divide by saleable units. Twenty minutes per item may be wrong when a large batch adds extra finishing or inspection. Include rejects and rework. If both products need the same machine and its availability becomes the limit, compare surplus per machine hour as a separate decision rather than reusing the active-labor ranking.
Keep a short comparison sheet with price, order costs, labor rate, constrained minutes, surplus per order, surplus per constrained hour and the plausible sales limit. Use Craft Margin to calculate each order scenario, then do the scheduling arithmetic beside the results. Review that sheet when prices, production steps or demand change. The useful decision is which supported orders to make with the capacity you actually have.