Farren on sat 12 dec 98
Hi,
I have been talking with artists of other media (jewelry, candlemaking,
etc.) about starting a cooperative. We are considering renting space and
selling our wares while working in the store. Does anyone have any
experience with this arrangement -- good and bad? How important is the
location, advertising? How much should one invest as initial startup
costs? Is it worth the time and energy to set up a cooperative like this
or best to stay the route of craft shows, consignment, and the like?
Thanks for any input you have.
Patricia
bryan on sun 13 dec 98
-----Original Message-----
From: Farren
To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
Date: Saturday, December 12, 1998 2:40 PM
Subject: Cooperatives
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi,
>
>I have been talking with artists of other media (jewelry, candlemaking,
>etc.) about starting a cooperative. We are considering renting space and
>selling our wares while working in the store. Does anyone have any
>experience with this arrangement -- good and bad? How important is the
>location, advertising? How much should one invest as initial startup
>costs? Is it worth the time and energy to set up a cooperative like this
>or best to stay the route of craft shows, consignment, and the like?
>Thanks for any input you have.
>
>Patricia
>
We 've had a coop as our main outlet for at least ten years. It has had its
ups and downs. The members are the most MOST important part. If they can
work together ( do the work of running a store) they'll figure out ( or
already know ) the answers to your important questions. If they can't work
together it will be a night mare. Our board took a conflict resolution class
last winter that really helped. We have about fifteen members and work about
once every two weeks during the summer season. One member does books.
We haven't done a show in years, and still deal with a couple of other
stores.
Feel free to contact me if you'd like more specific responses.
Bryan
Sara O'Neill on mon 14 dec 98
Hi PAtricia,
I've belonged to a crafts cooperative in Chapel Hill, NC for several years.
The co-op is 26 years old and flourishing. If you have specific questions I'll
be glad to share my knowledge of the running of the store.
Sara O'Neill
Geometrix Clay Designs
Jennifer Boyer on tue 15 dec 98
Hi Patricia,
I've been running a coop gallery with 10 other craftspeople for 20 years:
the Artisans' Hand in Montpelier VT. We started out with 17 people and
were just going to open a holiday outlet for 2 months......we've gone from
25,000/yr sales to 340,000/yr and now display the work of 125 VT
craftspeople. I won't say it's been easy but it's definitely been worth it
and we've invented every wheel imaginable: business 101 for studio
craftspeople. I'd be happy to talk to you on the phone AFTER xmas if you
want to give a call: we started out very lo-tech and simple, doing
everything ourselves but have worked up to a computer POS system and
10(partime) employees.....one thing must be said: when you bring together a
diverse group of independent minded craftspeople to run a business
together, you better be flexible and able to work with peoples' strengths
AND weaknesses. We never would have made it if we tried to fit all our
members into a strict mold of conformity: doesn't work. We compromise a
lot and things aren't always as slick or graceful as they would be if done
by a conventional business model. Patience wins.
Call me
Jennifer
802-223-8926
Farren wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Hi,
>
> I have been talking with artists of other media (jewelry, candlemaking,
> etc.) about starting a cooperative. We are considering renting space and
> selling our wares while working in the store. Does anyone have any
> experience with this arrangement -- good and bad? How important is the
> location, advertising? How much should one invest as initial startup
> costs? Is it worth the time and energy to set up a cooperative like this
> or best to stay the route of craft shows, consignment, and the like?
> Thanks for any input you have.
>
> Patricia
--
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jennifer Boyer jboyer@plainfield.bypass.com
Thistle Hill Pottery
Vermont USA
http://www.vermontcrafts.com/members/JenniBoy892.html
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Deborah L. Blackwell on fri 18 dec 98
Patricia,
As a member of an art organization in my area I took on the task of
operating our "cooperative" gallery that we had for our members. We were
fortunate to obtain the space practically free in a small mini mall that
one of the members owned and had a shop available. We just paid them 20%
of our sales another 10% went back into our organization. The biggest
problem was getting people to man the store and we were only open Friday,
Saturdays, & Sundays noon till 5. Many times the gallery would be closed
because someone decided they had more important things to do that sit 5
hours at the gallery. The other biggest problem was location. We were
located one block from then main downtown area. The other shops in the
mall were a Subway, a craft rubber stamp store (which had many customers
visiting) and a massage therapist and a hair salon. There wasn't enough
draw for people to cross the street from the main drag to browse thru the
mall and find us. Yet another place opened that was one block in another
direction from the main drag that had several shops in and also a nice
gallery space. But it had ambience like you wouldn't believe. It was an
old church that "converted" into an awesome little mall of sorts. It had
such ambience that people would cross the street to visit it. the moral
is location, location, location. And advertising. We advertised and had
openings and special shows but ultimately location did us in. Of course
it really helps to have the members of your cooperative understand the
meaning of cooperative. Hope this helps and doesn't scare you, because I
know it can work under the right conditions.
Deborah
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