David Hendley on mon 31 dec 01
The key to making a living selling something you make is
stacking the deck in your favor. If you just act like you
are running a regular business, you will be playing by
Las Vegas rules, and we all know, the 'house' will always
win in the long run.
Make your own rules, by thinking things through, gaining
experience, and trying things until you get it right.
Just as you would not plan on firing a wood kiln if your
studio is in downtown Houston, don't plan on an avalanche
of drop-in customers if you are located 8 miles down a rutted
dirt road in Arkansas.
No matter what your situation, or where you live, when you are
starting out and trying to figure it out, use EVERY means possible
to sell your work. Don't bitch about paying gallery commissions,
paying high art fair booth fees, or how unfair consignment is.
AFTER you've tried it all, you can start being selective.
This is what I call the 'easy money-hard money' concept:
do everything to maximize the easy money, then go for the hard
money only if you really need more.
For me, as well as for many others, this means that I try to maximize
sales at my shop. What could be better; I sell the stuff for full
price, I don't have to take it anywhere, and I don't have to pack
it for shipping. Easy money.
This approach is workable for all but the most extreme situations,
urban or rural.
In fact, my experience is that living away from a metropolitan area
can be an asset; I have more customers from Dallas, 130 miles away,
than when I lived in the heart of the city.
Like Bill Campbell, I've worked to make my shop a destination, not a
location, a great and valuable idea.
The '60-mile rule' is only a concept, not a hard number.
Sales at your shop will not just happen. You have to let people
know you're open for business. You need a good mailing list
(another reason to sell at art fairs when starting out), and you
need to have a good attitude when you have visitors.
Do anything to make your customers happy.
One of the main cause of business failures is under-capitalization:
not having enough money to get the business started and make it
through those first lean times. Same for potters. If you aren't desperate
for cash, you can do things the right way, by developing your
business to your benefit, rather than depending on that next art
fair or consignment check to make it through the month.
If you are in it for the long haul, plow half of your sales back into
advertising and promotion. This is the 'easy money', don't forget,
so if you spend half of it building your business, you still have
as much as if you had sold wholesale, or incurred the expenses
of travelling. Spend time every week promoting your business.
After a few years, you will be on auto-pilot, and can maintain what
you have going by investing just a little time and money on a
regular basis. The dividends are great.
BTW, being a typical thick-headed potter, it took the urging and
help of my wife to get me to the point where I can sell most of
what I make right here at home. Every year, when I'm debating
if I really need to spend another $1500 to promote my open house,
she has to remind me how these investments pay off. And they do.
Even if your advertising is not successful in convincing someone
to come to your open house, by the time they get the third invitation
from you in three years they are more familiar with the idea, and more
likely to respond.
Easy money. The long haul.
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
hendley@tyler.net
http://www.farmpots.com
Cl Litman on tue 1 jan 02
> Even if your advertising is not successful in convincing someone to
come to your open house, by the time
> they get the third invitation from you in three years they are more
familiar with the idea, and more
> likely to respond.
David Hendley's comment here reminds me of something I heard in a
marketing class. The instructor was discussing various ways to advertise
and said about newspaper ads that if you aren't willing/can't afford to
run a weekly ad in the paper for at least 6 months you should find
another way to advertise. Said that the rule of thumb was that someone
needs to see your ad about 9 times before they act on it. The first 3
times are name recognition, the next 3 times are with a sense of 'been
meaning to check that out' and somewhere in the next 3 times it actually
fits their schedule and they act on it. The other rule of thumb was that
most people don't notice/mentally process the ad every time it's
published, more like every third time. That's where he came up with the
6 month rule for seeing if newspaper ads work for you - 9 times 3 gives
you half a year before you see a payback.
He recommended a book called The Guerilla Marketing Handbook which gives
some great tips for free and low cost marketing and my library had
another one called Guerrilla Marketing for the Home Based Business which
was also good.
Cheryl Litman - NJ
cheryllitman@juno.com
David Hendley on tue 1 jan 02
A little more about advertising.
I second Cheryl's recommendation for 'The Guerilla Marketing
Handbook'.
As with most things, there are different approaches to advertising,
and there are ways to create successful advertising that rely
more on creativity than money. There are also lots of ways
to get free advertising.
A little ad in the newspaper the week before your open house
will produce little, if any, result. I think there are 2 ways to go
to make the advertising effective: lots of ads, as Cheryl advises,
or a few overwhelming ads. I like the latter, because it allows you
space to really tell your story, and differentiate yourself from just
another business.
My most effective advertising has been to buy a separate 4-page
section in the newspaper. I create my own newspaper-within-a-
newspaper, 'The Old Farmhouse Glaz-ette', that can't be overlooked.
I make sure it is included with the paper on a day when there
are no other advertising sections from Penney's or Lowe's.
Is it expensive? Yes, it is, and it would be prohibitive in a big
city, but I have 4 pages to educate, impress, and create desire
among the readers.
After 3 years of the 'Glaz-ette', almost everyone in 2 counties
has at least heard of the pottery shop in Maydelle. Another
amazing phenomenon is that people can't tell the difference
between news and advertising. Every week I hear people tell
me that they read about me in the paper. Another benefit: the
people AT the newspaper will read your advertising, become
interested, and want to write a feature story about you (free
advertising).
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
hendley@tyler.net
http://www.farmpots.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cl Litman"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2002 5:11 AM
Subject: Re: Easy Money vs. Hard Money
> > Even if your advertising is not successful in convincing someone to
> come to your open house, by the time
> > they get the third invitation from you in three years they are more
> familiar with the idea, and more
> > likely to respond.
>
> David Hendley's comment here reminds me of something I heard in a
> marketing class. The instructor was discussing various ways to advertise
> and said about newspaper ads that if you aren't willing/can't afford to
> run a weekly ad in the paper for at least 6 months you should find
> another way to advertise. Said that the rule of thumb was that someone
> needs to see your ad about 9 times before they act on it. The first 3
> times are name recognition, the next 3 times are with a sense of 'been
> meaning to check that out' and somewhere in the next 3 times it actually
> fits their schedule and they act on it. The other rule of thumb was that
> most people don't notice/mentally process the ad every time it's
> published, more like every third time. That's where he came up with the
> 6 month rule for seeing if newspaper ads work for you - 9 times 3 gives
> you half a year before you see a payback.
>
> He recommended a book called The Guerilla Marketing Handbook which gives
> some great tips for free and low cost marketing and my library had
> another one called Guerrilla Marketing for the Home Based Business which
> was also good.
>
>
>
> Cheryl Litman - NJ
> cheryllitman@juno.com
Marianne Lombardo on tue 1 jan 02
David;
Want to hear something kind of funny about this? Back in September I made a
bunch of candle holders for my son's wedding. A week or so ago, one of the
guests was in a prosperous store that sells pot smoking supplies, etc. (head
shop?) in a large city. She looked at the candle holders he was selling for
a high price, and came back with my candle holder from the wedding to show
the owner.
The result was that he gave her his business card and asked her to give it
to me. Wants me to send him some digital photos and discuss selling my
work.
After giving this some thought, I've decided to go ahead and sell there if I
am able to. I need the money, have to start somewhere. I am now making
more candle holders for my next kiln load.
> No matter what your situation, or where you live, when you are
> starting out and trying to figure it out, use EVERY means possible
> to sell your work.
Marianne Lombardo
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Gary Elfring on wed 2 jan 02
DH> Sales at your shop will not just happen. You have to let people
DH> know you're open for business. You need a good mailing list
DH> (another reason to sell at art fairs when starting out), and you
DH> need to have a good attitude when you have visitors.
DH> Do anything to make your customers happy.
By the way, one easy way to build a mailing list at art fairs is
to have a drawing once a day (or maybe more often). Give away a mug
or something small each day. To enter, people can drop in a card or
write their name and address on a piece of paper. You get a list of
people who want your work for just what it costs you to create those
pieces. And if you make only a single sale from the list, you should
come out ahead.
--
Best regards,
Gary mailto:info@elfring.com
Steve Mills on wed 2 jan 02
Nice one Marianne; that's the best way in. My start into what became MY
speciality (serving wares for Restaurants) was when a hotel owner came
into my workshop looking for something different from the bog standard,
all prevailing, white-ware so common at the time (early '70's).
Steve
Bath
UK
In message , Marianne Lombardo writes
>David;
>
>Want to hear something kind of funny about this? Back in September I mad=
>e a
>bunch of candle holders for my son's wedding. A week or so ago, one of t=
>he
>guests was in a prosperous store that sells pot smoking supplies, etc. (h=
>ead
>shop?) in a large city. She looked at the candle holders he was selling =
>for
>a high price, and came back with my candle holder from the wedding to sho=
>w
>the owner.
>
>The result was that he gave her his business card and asked her to give i=
>t
>to me. Wants me to send him some digital photos and discuss selling my
>work.
>
>After giving this some thought, I've decided to go ahead and sell there i=
>f I
>am able to. I need the money, have to start somewhere. I am now making
>more candle holders for my next kiln load.
>
>> No matter what your situation, or where you live, when you are
>> starting out and trying to figure it out, use EVERY means possible
>> to sell your work.
>
>Marianne Lombardo
>Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK
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