Doug Fudge on tue 16 apr 02
Hello, I am a recently graduated college student who is moving back home to
the Orlando, Fl area. I am wondering what to do now with my ceramics degree
and starting a business is really appealing to me. Does anyone have advice
on what it would take to get a pottery business started? I am proficiant at
throwing and can make enough pots it is the technical business stuff that i
don't know much about. Thanks for any help provided.
Doug Fudge
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WHC228@AOL.COM on tue 16 apr 02
Doug
There are several potters in the Orlando area that could probably give you
some help. I would guess that if you went over to Geneva and talked to Steve
Jepson you could get a lot of advice. My advice is to try to work for or
with
a potter that is currently making a good living. Being exposed to the tempo
of the shop and the various ways of dealing with selling your work will best
be learned there.
There is a lot of information that you can get from CLAY ART, but the
practical day to day stuff is best learned in a working studio. Being able
to
go to sales events with another potter will help too.
Just don't get too dependent on any one and stay too long at that JOB. You
should be there to learn and earn your keep, not to make it a lifelong
pursuit.
Bill Campbell
Dave Gayman on tue 16 apr 02
Congratulations on beginning in some sort of organized way -- by way of
contrast, my wife & I drifted into it all, picking up a little here and a
little there, at first mostly at art fairs from fellow artists &
craftsmen. But then, that was 1970, and this is now...
Orlando's gotta be crawling with retired businessmen with all sorts of
great advice. Does SCORE still exist? -- yep, at
http://www.scn.org/civic/score-online/ There's a lot of free and
almost-free info from the Small Business Administration and links ("outside
resources") from its site, http://www.sba.gov/ and from the U.S. government
printing office.
When we finally realized we needed coherent information a good 4 years into
it, we talked for a day and half to a recently-retired prof. from the
University of Michigan who (in his pre-academic days) had made a fortune
putting together a business that made heavy equipment for logging... it
helped that we had plenty of bad experience and *gulp* no-income months,
but I can't tell you how much we picked up in that short time.... it was
fantastic.
If I had to sum it up, it was never to ransom the future... that is, buy
(or make) for the business only what you can afford on terms you can
afford... and to make mortgage pots plus carriage-trade pots, and let the
carriage-trade pots help sell the mortgage pots and vice-versa. But a
strong awareness of one-time costs (e.g., kiln, wheel), running or variable
costs (e.g., energy & clay), of presentation & display, of product mix, of
our own objectives, of our current equipment level and equipment
acquisition plans, of current decorating trends, today's colors,
demographics -- these are all part of that simple little sentence.
Good luck.
At 11:14 AM 4/16/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello, I am a recently graduated college student who is moving back home to
>the Orlando, Fl area. I am wondering what to do now with my ceramics
degree
>and starting a business is really appealing to me. Does anyone have advice
>on what it would take to get a pottery business started? I am proficiant
at
>throwing and can make enough pots it is the technical business stuff that i
>don't know much about. Thanks for any help provided.
>
>Doug Fudge
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Join the world's largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
>http://www.hotmail.com
>
>___________________________________________________________________________
___
>Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
>You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
>settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
>Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
>melpots@pclink.com.
Jeff Seefeldt on tue 16 apr 02
I don't care what anyone else tells you http://www.sbdc.unf.edu/ the
small business development center is your best source of "one stop business
startup assistance"
I've worked with people wanting to finance start up businesses and expand
existing businesses. I always refer them to the SBDC, usually located in a
state university. I've attended the classes they offer, one night / week
for several weeks.
Topics
Writing business plans
Financial statements
Physical needs of different businesses
Obtaining financing
They also will be able to point you toward any local revolving loan funds or
other sources of low interest money.
Jeff..
The weather is beautiful, 25 mugs downstairs needing handles and what am I
doing tonight??? Attending a meeting to discuss housing needs in a nearby
town..
-----Original Message-----
From: Ceramic Arts Discussion List [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG]On
Behalf Of Doug Fudge
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 11:14 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: business startup advice?
Hello, I am a recently graduated college student who is moving back home to
the Orlando, Fl area. I am wondering what to do now with my ceramics degree
and starting a business is really appealing to me. Does anyone have advice
on what it would take to get a pottery business started? I am proficiant at
throwing and can make enough pots it is the technical business stuff that i
don't know much about. Thanks for any help provided.
Doug Fudge
_________________________________________________________________
Join the world's largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com
____________________________________________________________________________
__
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
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