Gavin Stairs on tue 28 jan 03
I have a question for David Hendley, Tony C., mel and others who sell
direct from their studios at full price.
What fraction of your time do you devote to selling as opposed to
making? It's probably not an easy question to answer, as time tends to get
mixed up, and some of the making time is devoted to wholesale, etc. But
the answer would be interesting.
Gavin
David Hendley on tue 28 jan 03
How much time do I devote to selling pots at my shop?
You are correct, this is not an easy question to answer.
Some people come in with a couple of kids and let me throw a pot
( I always offer when kids are involved, if I am in "throwing" rather
than "glazing" or "firing" mode), show them the kiln, and talk for
10 minutes, and buy very little or nothing.
Some look around while I continue working, yell, "I'm ready,"
in 15 minutes, and have 300 dollars worth of pots on the table.
Some folks are so interesting I enjoy talking to them and keep
them probably longer than they intended to stay.
Most days I have so few customers that I can easily consider
time spent visiting with them "break time", so really I don't
even count it as time away from making. If they hadn't showed
up I would have rolled around in the yard with the dogs for
10 minutes to take a break.
I can confidently say, no ifs ands or buts, that time spent with
retail customers is immensely more profitable than packing up
boxes of pottery and selling them for half the price they are paying.
Even in the case of the family I spend 15 minutes with and they
buy one $15 pot, compared to wholesaling I am making the
equivalent of $7.50 for 15 minutes work, or $30 an hour.
And who knows, since they are now educated as to what is
involved in making pottery, they may be back to buy a big piece
in 4 months.
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
david@farmpots.com
http://www.farmpots.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gavin Stairs"
> I have a question for David Hendley, Tony C., mel and others who sell
> direct from their studios at full price.
>
> What fraction of your time do you devote to selling as opposed to
> making? It's probably not an easy question to answer, as time tends to
get
> mixed up, and some of the making time is devoted to wholesale, etc. But
> the answer would be interesting.
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