Quick Start: Price Your First Class in 5 Minutes

We built the Class Price Calculator because we were tired of guessing what to charge. If you've ever stared at a blank registration page wondering whether $120 is too much or too little for a six-week class, this tool is for you. Let's walk through it together with a real example so you can see how it works.

We'll price a 6-session watercolor class, 2 hours per session, with an expected enrollment of 8 students. By the end of this page, you'll have a recommended per-student price and a table showing what happens to your margins at different enrollment levels. The whole thing takes about five minutes.

1 Class Information

Start at the top of the calculator. Type a name for your class in the Class Name field. This is the one field the tool absolutely requires. If you leave it blank, nothing will calculate. It doesn't need to be the final name you'll use in your catalog; "Spring Watercolor" works fine for now.

Next, enter the number of sessions and the hours per session. For our watercolor example:

• Class Name: Spring Watercolor
• Sessions: 6
• Hours per Session: 2

That's it for this section. Three fields, and you're already making progress.

2 Enrollment and Overhead

The calculator asks for three enrollment numbers: minimum, expected, and maximum. These aren't just labels. The tool uses them to generate a range of pricing scenarios so you can see what happens if fewer students sign up than you hoped, or more students sign up than you planned for.

• Minimum Enrollment: 4
• Expected Enrollment: 8
• Maximum Enrollment: 12

Below that, you'll see Facility Overhead. This is the percentage of your venue costs (rent, utilities, insurance, cleaning) that you want to allocate to this class. If your organization runs ten programs a month and this class is one of them, something in the 10-15% range is reasonable. We'll use 15% for our example.

3 Direct Costs

This is where you tell the calculator what the class actually costs to deliver. There are four parts, and each one has a toggle or two to fit the way you work.

Instructor Rate

You'll see a toggle for Hourly vs. Flat. Most of us pay instructors by the hour, so we'll stick with Hourly. Enter the rate and the calculator does the rest (it already knows the sessions and hours from Step 1). For our watercolor class:

• Instructor Rate: $50/hour

If you pay a flat fee per session or for the entire series, flip the toggle and enter that amount instead.

Materials

Another toggle here: Total vs. Per-Student. If you buy supplies in bulk for the whole class (say, a set of shared brushes), use Total. If each student gets their own kit of paints and paper, use Per-Student. For watercolor, materials tend to be individual:

• Materials: $15 per student

The calculator will multiply this by your expected enrollment automatically.

Coordinator Time

Somebody handles registration emails, sends reminders, orders supplies, and fields the inevitable "can I switch to the Tuesday section?" questions. That time has a cost. Enter the estimated hours and the hourly rate:

• Coordinator Hours: 2
• Coordinator Rate: $25/hour

Other Direct Costs

If there are any other expenses specific to this class (model fees, kiln firing charges, a guest speaker), add them here. For our watercolor example, we'll leave this at $0.

4 Risk Buffers

Things go sideways. A student drops and you issue a partial refund. The instructor needs a substitute for one session. Supplies cost more than the quote you got last month. Buffers are a small contingency you build into the price so these surprises don't eat your margin.

You don't need to understand every buffer field to get started. The calculator offers three preset buttons: Lean, Moderate, and Robust. Each one fills in a set of sensible defaults.

If you're not sure which to pick, start with Moderate. You can always adjust individual fields later once you've seen the results.

Click "Moderate" and move on. You can explore the individual buffer settings (cancellation risk, material waste, administrative contingency) in the Complete Walkthrough when you're ready.

5 Target Gross Margin

Gross margin is the percentage of revenue you keep after covering all the costs you just entered. If you set it to 15% and charge $100, then $85 covers costs and $15 stays with your organization for future programming, reserves, or scholarships.

For most community arts organizations, 10-20% is a healthy range. Set it too low and one bad surprise wipes out your surplus. Set it too high and your prices may push away the community you're trying to serve.

• Target Gross Margin: 15%

You'll notice a hint box in the tool that explains the margin formula. It's there if you want it, but you don't need it to keep going.

6 Calculate

Click the "Calculate Scenarios" button in the header. That's the moment everything comes together.

The results panel on the right side of the screen will show your recommended per-student price. For our watercolor example with the numbers above, you'll see a price that covers all your costs, buffers, and target margin at 8 students.

Below the headline price, the enrollment scenarios table shows what happens at every enrollment level from your minimum (4) to your maximum (12). You'll see the per-student price, total revenue, total costs, and margin for each row. This is where the tool really earns its keep: instead of a single number, you get a complete picture of your financial range.

If the price looks too high, go back and experiment. Try lowering the margin to 10%, or see what happens if you bump the maximum enrollment to 14. The scenarios update instantly, so you can explore different configurations until you find a price that works for your community and your budget.

What's Next?

You've got your first price. That's a real accomplishment, and for many classes it's all you need. But the calculator can do a lot more when you're ready for it:

• Complete Walkthrough covers every feature in detail, including tiered pricing, the break-even chart, and all the advanced settings we skipped today.
• How to Set Up Sliding-Scale Tiers walks through the Supported/Standard/Supporter pricing model so you can keep classes accessible without running at a loss.
• How to Track Actuals shows you how to use the post-class review loop to compare your predictions with what actually happened, so your next estimate is better than this one.