The Business Chat - How to sell your work - 3 ways

No matter how beautiful your work is, if you don’t sell it, your business will fail. In a crafty business money is sometimes not the main reason we’re in business. We do this because we love it, because we want a creative outlet, because we want to share our talents. Regardless of why you are in business, if you lose money it’s a failure. 

The bottom line is you need to sell your work. 

There are 3 ways you can sell your work.

1. retail your products directly to the public
2. wholesale to stores/galleries
3. in stores on consignment

There are advantages and disadvantages to each method. Each method isn’t mutually exclusive and most successful makers use a mix of all three.

Retailing to the public.

Let’s start with retailing your products directly to the public.

Pros:

• You receive 100% of the final selling price and you receive this immediately. Cash is good.
• You control the sales environment. You design your own display or store
• You meet the buying public and conduct on the spot market research

Cons:

• Time spent selling is time away from the studio
• You have to deal with the buying public. You are the salesperson
• Craft shows cost money. Opening your own store or studio costs money. Selling online costs money
• You have to start up and maintain your own display or store, or website

 Where to sell to the public:

• from your own studio/shop
• craft shows
• home parties/office parties
• online

Wholesaling to stores

Wholesaling is when a store buys your jewellery outright. They order from your catalogue, you produce the work and they give you money. 

Pros:

• you don’t produce the work until you receive an order so you don’t have to invest as much in inventory
• you spend more time in the studio, less time selling
• unlike retail where you make a lot of small sales, in a wholesale model you set a minimum order and make fewer, but more lucrative sales

Cons:

• stores expect a discount from your retail price, usually at least 50%
• you need a catalogue or line sheets
• you must have work that is consistently repeatable, wholesale does not work for one of a kind work
• you still have to sell the work, to the store buyers

Consignment

With consignment, the store doesn’t actually purchase your work. They agree to display it and sell it for you. When it sells, they send you money. This is advantageous to the store as they do not have to spend money on inventory. While most of us would prefer to sell only wholesale, most stores deal on consignment. In the beginning of your crafty career, you will find that you are obliged to deal with stores on consignment. 

Pros:

• your work is continually on display somewhere unlike a craft show which is a few days here and there
• unlike wholesale, you set the selling price
• you usually receive a larger percentage of the price than you do with wholesale
• consignment works well with one of a kind work or with large expensive pieces
• more time in the studio, less time selling.

Cons:

• As the store has not invested any money in your work, they may not be as motivated to sell it as you would like
• You must keep meticulous records of what pieces are in what stores
• Your inventory may be tied up for a long time without bringing you any return for it
• Stores aren’t always prompt in paying, it is up to you to be a collection officer

How you choose to sell depends on a number of factors.

• If you know that you are not a people person and don’t like the general public then craft shows are not a good option. 
• Selling online is much easier than it used to be, however it does require a minimum of computer literacy and a lot of time. 
• If selling your work for 50% of the price means that you are losing money and you feel that you cannot raise your prices, then wholesale and consignment will not work for you. 
• Think about how much time you want to spend in the studio rather than in a selling position, although if you want to sell wholesale or consignment you still have to sell, only this time to a store buyer. 

Sometimes it’s a loathing of selling that stops many crafters from moving forward with their business. Think of it not as selling, but as an exchange between friends. You are gifting them with your work, and they are gifting you with money. 

And you have made their world a more beautiful place, that’s fair.

The Business Chat - how much will I make?

“I’ll never have enough time to make enough! What am I going to do?” wailed my caller. My friend was in quite a panic, she’d just received her acceptance into a much larger show than she has done in the past. It’s a good show on a summer long weekend and now she’s in a state about not having enough inventory. Here’s how the conversation went.

First, I applauded her for starting to think about inventory 4 months in advance. Then we talked about her sales expectations.

My friend makes a large statement necklace that gets a lot of compliments when she wears it. At the small shows that she has done she usually sells one or two a weekend. She was panicking about trying to make 75 or 80 of these before the show. This necklace sells for $150. I punched some numbers into my calculator and came up with $11,250. That is how much you would make selling 75 necklaces at $150.

I asked her why she thought that she could sell $11,000 worth of ONE style of necklace when she usually only sells $150 - $300.

“Because it’s a really good show,” she explained.

Wrong answer.

In my business workshops students always ask, how much work do I make for show? Unfortunately, there is no magic formula. What I can tell you is that there is a rule that we can use to help judge our stock.

In the jewelry industry we have the 10% rule. This rule tells us that our booth cost should be 10% of sales.

For a $25 show, you should sell $250. A $250 show, sales should be $2500. It doesn’t matter if your $100 show is 1 day or 3 days, if the show costs $100 you should sell $1,000. For a $350 show you can expect to sell $3,500.

Keep in mind - this 10% is an average not a guarantee. Do not expect to make the 10% in your first 10 shows because as a newbie you will make mistakes. On your three shows be happy to break even (including ALL your costs not just your booth fee).  In the next 7 shows you should see your sales improve as you work out your display and show techniques. Now start charting your show sales.

Sometimes you will do a $25 show (expected sales $250) and make $500. Bonus! Then your next show might be a $75 show and you sell $500. Booth costs = $100, sales = $1,000, average = 10%.

Knowing this rule does help with inventory. If you are doing a show that costs $50, you can expect to sell $500. If you expect to sell $500 there’s no point stressing about bringing $8,000 worth of work.

Every piece of jewelry you make costs money to make. If you don’t have reasonable expectations of selling it, this inventory is going to end up sitting on your shelf. That’s money sitting on a shelf instead of in your bank account.

A good starting point is to bring 2 or 3 times your expected sales. If you expect to sell $500, then bring $1,000 or $1,500 worth of work. Over time this will increase and you will be carrying around 4 or 5 times expected sales.

It takes time and money to build an inventory.

If your costs are 25% making $5,000 worth of inventory costs you $1,000. Spending $1,000 to go to a show where you sell $500 isn’t a great idea. Yes you still have the leftover inventory so if you are doing a couple of shows in a row you might be okay. It is still a better idea to make $1,000 - $2,000 to start, sell some, make a little bit more, sell some, and so on.

When I ran these numbers past my friend I explained that if she made $20,000 worth of inventory she would have spent $5,000 in materials. The show she is in costs $350 so she can expect to sell $3,500 (although being her first real show it will likely be less). At that rate she is going to lose money.

I had to rain on her parade. There is no magic bullet. You aren’t going to make $20,000 on a weekend craft show selling jewelry.

You succeed in this business like you do in any business, slowly and with a lot of constant work. Knowing approximately how much you will sell means that you can reasonably build your inventory, budget your expenses and maintain a realistic vision of your business.

So, if you have received your acceptance letter, congratulations!!! Now, multiply your booth cost by 10, double it, and make that amount in inventory.

Remember there are no guarantees, but at least this gives you a number to start with. 

The Business Chat - Mental preparation

Yikes! it’s been 6 months since I did a craft show and I’m having a hard time switching my brain into show mode, I’m sure you know how it feels. I’ve been so busy focusing on other stuff, like applying to shows, making cool fun new work, blogging, facebooking my little heart out and planning future endeavours. Basically I’ve been working ON the business and now I need to switch gears and start working IN the business again. To do this I sat down today and had a staff meeting.

“Gee, self, planning the new website is really awesome but wouldn’t it be great to pay the rent?”“Uh, yes. And I’d to order more glass. And I need to print new posters.”“So I need to get my butt in gear and sell at the show this weekend.”“Right, let’s focus on selling.”

And then the meeting broke up for a cookie break.

Time to break out my 7 steps to getting into Let’s Have a Successful Show mood.

1 Calculate how much the show is costing by the hour.

Take the cost of the show and divide that number by the number of hours the show is open. For example, if the show cost $300 and is open from 10 – 6 for 2 days (16 hours), then you are paying $18.75/hr. If there’s a slow period in the day, don’t pick up that book or your phone. Really, did you pay $18.75 to read a book or talk to your friend? Do something productive.

2 Set your show goals.

You can’t know if you’ve had a successful show if you haven’t defined what is success. If you are exhibiting at the show to make money, how much money? Name a number, be exact. If you want to increase your mailing list, by how many people? Are you testing a new product, what would make you think it worked out? List your show goals on a piece of paper.

Now decide what you will reward yourself with when you make those goals. The carrot and stick method can work wonders.

3 Assuming there is a monetary goal involved, break that goal down into a per hour goal. If you want to make $1000 and the show is 16 hours, then you must sell $62.50 per hour. $1000 is a big chunk of change, $62.50 is not. When you get tired and think, “gee maybe I’ll just sit down for a bit” think of that $62.50 and see if you can’t make one more sale.

4 Go over your booth display checklist twice to make sure you have all the bits and pieces you need. Knowing that all display items are in the car means that you can focus on actually selling.

5 Go over your story in your head, or discuss it with your cat. What makes you so special? What makes your work different than your competitors? Why should a customer care enough to buy your work? Don’t think it’s going to sell itself, help it out.

6 Take 10 minutes to mentally walk yourself through the whole show. Picture yourself arriving and setting up the booth. Imagine your first customer, greeting them, chatting about the weather. Now imagine your first sale! And the next one! Imagine a whole flood of sales. Picture yourself finishing off the day, how tired you are, but how happy that you made your goals!

7 And lastly, imagine yourself with your reward. Go ahead, you deserve it! You worked hard at that show and you totally rocked! 

The Business Chat - Sell a story

Listing A:

First light is around 5 a.m. as we camp overnight in the desert. The sky turns from midnight black to a pale grey. Streaks of purple and pinks appear. There are some touches of blues and greens. Everything is still and quiet as the world waits for the giant ball of orange to appear and a new day to begin.

I make my beads to tell stories of my travels and of the world I see. From my beads I spin tales into not jewelry, but wearable art. These earrings are memories of my Australian outback camping trip where I learnt about wild camels, wombats and all the colours a night sky can be.

Each bead is individually made by me! There is no paint on any of my beads, just glass upon glass upon glass. These earrings beads each measure approximately 13mm x 11mm. They hang on handmade sterling silver ear wires for a total length of approximately 30mm.

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Or Listing B

Glass bead earrings, grey/purple. Handmade beads, sterling silver ear wires. Length 30 mm.

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Which do you think is going to sell?

When you make something, it is just that, a thing. Things have features. They are short, long, round, made of wool/clay/silver/glass etc. You can describe the thing.

When you describe something to a customer it is just a thing. We can buy things anywhere. If all my customer wanted was a pair of earrings they could go to a mall. My customer (and yours) wants more. They are looking for a connection with the actual making of the product. They want a story. They want to know the artist, this is why they have chosen to shop at a handmade venue, either online or at a craft show.

Customers who shop handmade like to own unique work, not mass-produced-in-third-world stuff. The more you can tell them about the process and the story and inspiration behind the work, they more they will engage with it. I want my customer to know why I call my earrings Desert Sunrise. I want them to know that I make the glass beads. If someone compliments my customer on her earrings I want them to respond with “oh, I got these online by a woman who makes the beads. She watched a sunrise in the desert and got inspired to make these. Aren’t they great?”

Telling the story behind each piece sets you apart from your competition. While other designers can make a pair of earrings similar to mine they cannot tell the same story. This is your way of standing out from the crowd. If you are selling online your story is your product description. If you are standing at a show, your story is your conversation with the customer.

Your story doesn’t have to be long and complicated, you aren’t writing a novel. People have short attention spans, sometimes just naming a product is enough. If you aren’t used to selling/telling your story you can start by naming your pieces.

Your homeworkfor this week is to take a good look at your descriptions. Pick one piece andrewrite the description. Sell them a story.

The Business Chat - How to sell without being a sleazeball

If you want to make a go of your small business, at some point you are going to have to ask people for money.

Did you feel that? That twinge in your stomach that said, “ooh ick, that’s gross! I’m an artist, selling is sleazy.”

Get over it.

Sometimes we’re so worried about not looking like a sleazeball that we go the other direction and never mention money anywhere. We show our work to people who love it and then we don’t ask them to buy it.
You know what happens?
They don’t buy it.

These days we are inundated with sales messages and ads and people shoving products down our throats. So how do you join the ranks of those sales scum without being scum yourself?

Can it be done?
Yes.
5 Tips to being a Nice Salesperson

#1 Listen

Picture this. You enter a clothing store and a smiling set of teeth has just asked you what you want. A blue sweater for less than $50 you say. Oh, they respond, well just look at this fabulous green coat, it will be great with your eyes, and it’s on sale for $80. And these shoes are darling. Blah blah blah. At this point you leave because it’s just too tiring to deal with the teeth. The teeth believe that if they shove enough stuff at you and flatter you, they will make a sale.
People don’t buy products, they buy solutions. They want to know how your product is going to improve their lives. If you listen to them talk, you can figure out their problem and then you can present your product as the solution.

#2 Educate them.
Your work is fascinating to your customers. You are a talented artist. Let them know how you make what you do by sharing some stories about your technique.
When you share the story behind the work you are telling them why the work has value. When they understand the process and your inspiration your work becomes so much more than just another product. 
#3 Focus on Serving The customer A sleazy salesperson is easy to spot, they have that “I’m on commission look” that says they’re in it to make money. It’s all about them. As a salesperson turn it around, it’s not about what you are going to get out of the transaction, think of it as what is the customer going to get out of it. How can you serve the customer? What can you do to make the experience better for them? 

#4 Build Relationships
Don’t think of them as “The Customer”, think of them as a potential friend, or a loyal fan.
A customer buys once. A loyal fan buys, tells all their friends how great you are and then keeps coming back. They are your ambassadors, treat them well. Answer their questions, respond promptly and show your appreciation for their loyalty.

#5 Smile smile smile! 
Look at the customer as a potential friend and not a wallet. A genuine smile as opposed to a predatory sizing up of the potential windfall will go along way to making both of you comfortable.

People pay attention of actions and how you handle yourself defines how they will handle you. If you’re dealing with the customer in person watch your body language, stay relaxed and loose. Keep your language positive and pleasant, this is especially important when you are dealing with the customer online. Watch that your language isn’t confrontational and salesy. Just be nice.

The Business Chat - Selling on consignment

Consignment is the most common method of selling to stores and the topic of today’s post. 

Selling your work on consignment means that you place work in a shop and when they sell something they pay you a percentage. Unlike wholesale where the store buys it outright, with consignment you retain ownership of the work until the customer buys it. It’s like you are renting shelf space. Consignment is often the easiest way to get your products into a store and is a good first step if you're just starting out.

Consignment is beneficial for shop owners and designers alike: it allows shop owners to fill their shops with items at no upfront cost to them and lets them test out the saleability of your goods to their customers. For you, it's beneficial as you retain a higher percentage of the sales price on your items than you would selling via wholesale (or, you should!) while also testing our your saleability in different markets, and getting exposure in retail shops.
A typical consignment agreement is 60/40 in your favour. Consignment is also good for selling one-of-a-kind or very high-end pieces. A big advantage of consignment over retail craft shows is that your work is continually on display somewhere, not just when you're doing shows or parties.

Even in a great store or gallery, there are disadvantages to consigning work. One is the lag time between delivering your product and receiving your money after it sells. Your inventory may be tied up for a long time without bringing you any return. The store or gallery may shut down and the owner may disappear with your work and the money they owe you. The store may not issue payment promptly. Finally, a retailer has less incentive to promote your work since they haven't invested any of their own money in it.
It’s very important to maintain more detailed records than you would in other types of selling. Inventory is money, your money, and it’s sitting on a shelf in someone else’s store under someone else’s control.

When you do agree to place your work in a consignment store (either online or brick-and-mortar), make sure you get a consignment agreement signed! Most stores will have their own agreement: read it, and if you don’t like parts of it, work it out before handing over your work. Be sure that both parties have a signed and dated copy of the consignment agreement.

A consignment agreement must talk about the following:

• Inventory: Generally, the agreement includes an inventory sheet of all the items that you are placing on consignment with the shop- it should list the item quantities, descriptions and retail prices.
• Sales split: When your item sells, the shop owner will retain a certain percentage of the sales price of your item, and you will receive payment for the remainder. The most typical consignment split is 60/40, with the designer/seller/you retaining 60% of the sales price and the shop getting a 40% commission
• Payment schedule: The agreement should explicitly state when you can expect to be paid for work that has sold. Often, payments are made by the shops every month for all sales that occurred the month prior. You should also know how you will get paid (via check? paypal? cash in store?) and you should expect to receive a list of items that have been sold along with your payment
• Duration of consignment: Each consignment agreement should have a trial period. Both you and the gallery needs to make sure that it is a good fit. Once the trial period is over you both have a right to end it. You should also be able to pull your items from the shop and have them returned to you whenever you'd like, as technically, you still own them- remember that. You don't want your items collecting dust on the shelves for too long and if they haven't sold after a period of time, then perhaps it's not the right market for you anyway.
• Shipping costs: For out of town/online consignment, it is usually the designer's responsibility to pay for shipping costs to the shop, and generally the shop's responsibility to pay for shipping costs back to the designer if the work doesn't sell. It's always best to ask the shop their policy upfront and get it in writing.
• Insurance: It is usually the responsibility of the shop to assume the loss for stolen/lost property or items that are damaged by shop/customer error, make sure you clarify this up front!
• If damage occurs due to faulty workmanship on your end (e.g. a clasp falls off one of your necklaces) then responsibility for that loss should be yours.

Here’s one last BIG piece of advice. When you first start your crafty career, and a store asks to carry your work, it is a real ego boost. Many new makers make the mistake of putting their work in every store that asks, thinking that stores = sales. This is not true.
Take a really good look at a store you are considering for consignment. Make sure it’s a good fit for your work, do they carry other work similar to yours? Is it a store your target market would shop at?

Now stop and think about this. If the store owner asked you for a loan, to invest money in the store, would you do it? Do you think you will get a good return on your investment? If the answer is no, then do NOT place your work in the store. Putting your work in a store is the same thing as investing in the store. You paid money to make your work. You are giving your work to the store, this is the same as giving your money to the store.  If you wouldn’t give them cash, then don’t give them work.

Once you have placed your work in a store, keep in touch with the buyer to see how it is selling. You don’t need to stop by daily, but calling every 2 or 3 weeks to check in and see if they need more is always a good idea.

Succeeding in consignment requires excellent record-keeping and careful planning. On the plus side, a good gallery understands that the more they sell the more money you both make. A good gallery is a win-win situation.

The Business Chat - How to create a line sheet

“Help! A store asked me for my line sheet! I’d love to have my work in this store, but I don’t have a line sheet because I don’t know what it is.“

The good news about this is that if they are asking for your line sheet then they are looking to buy wholesale and not on consignment. Yay! Moving on, now you have to create your line sheets. Easy.

A collection is all of your work organized into “lines” or “series”. A line or a series, is a body of work with a common defining element. A line sheet is basically a catalog page or brochure that shows your line to prospective wholesale customers. A catalogue is all of your line sheets together.

Here are the sections of a good line sheet.

 

The Basics

• Business Name/Logo
• Your name
• E-mail, phone and addresss
• A short statement about your business – what makes it special

Your company wholesale Policies

• Opening order: The minimum amount a retailer must buy from you the first time they order (e.g. $200). Remember these numbers are all the wholesale numbers.
• Reorder amount: The minimum amount a retailer must buy from you after the first order.
• Payment – Outline your payment options and policies here. Do you accept cheques? Paypal? Direct Debit? Credit Cards? Do they pay in advance, COD or do you accept terms such as Net 30? It is common for first orders, or the first 3 orders, to be paid in advance and then for the maker to offer Net 30. (Net 30 means that the buyer has 30 days to pay from the date they receive the order).  Do you offer discounts for early payment?
• Shipping Cost and Times – How long will it take you to ship your items to the retailer once they have ordered? How long will the actual shipping take from where you are to where they are? Who is paying for the shipping?
• Valid Until – Make sure you put an end date on the validity of your prices!! It may become necessary to raise your prices, make sure you have this option.
• Your warranty policy. Do you take returns for damaged/incorrect goods? How long after receiving your goods does your customer have to return these goods? Do you refund shipping costs, too?
• Your Returns policy –Do you offer a “swap” policy? (If your work doesn’t sell can they swap it – exchange it?)

 

The Items

• Start with the name of the line featured and the season. For example, “Ocean Line, Summer 2012 Collection”
• Each Item should have a photograph that is clear, professional-quality and large enought to show the details. Keep the photos simple and uncluttered
• Next to each image on your line sheet:
• The item's name or order number.
• Any available options such as colours, sizes, etc.
• The item's measurements, length, etc.
• Price Sheet

It is a really good idea to keep your prices separate from the actual line sheet. Your supplies fluctuate in price and if you were hit with an increase in supplies you have to increase your prices. Rather than changing your whole line sheet, you only have to change your price sheet. (Make sure you have a statement on there saying “prices subject to change without notice”). A price sheet is just a list of your items by number, your wholesale price and the MSRP (manufacturers suggested retail price). Keep in mind, once a store has bought your work they own it and have the right to charge whatever they want.

 

Order Sheet
Start your order sheet with your company information and then a simple table for them to fill out. Head the columns with quantity, item number, title, and subtotal. You can make this a pdf that they can download and fax back to you, or you can fill it out in person. If you don’t have a fax, you can ask them to scan it in and then email it back. Or you could try sending them a Word file so that they can fill it out online and email it back.
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Brand your line sheet.

Make sure that your that your line sheet evokes the style and personality of your work. This is sometimes one of the first pieces of your company that a potential account sees. They should have a good feel for you from this.

 

Keep it simple and clean. If the buyer can’t read the tiny print, they can’t read it. If this is going out electronically test it out on a variety of screens. Designing on a 27” screen may give you a lot of space, check out how it looks on an iPad.

 

Some makers include a short artist's statement or artist biography as part of their line sheet, or any unusual information about their products. This kind of info isn't necessary, but if it happens to be unusual, interesting, or related to a timely topic in your case, it can sometimes lead to more sales.

 

Getting your line sheets to prospective customers

You should have printed copies of your line sheet available to hand out in person at trade shows and when visiting a shop or gallery. It’s important to have an electronic copy that you can email to  wholesale prospects.

 

The best way to create the electronic version is to save your line sheet file as a .pdf file, and either make it available on your website or email it when you contact a store.

 

Some designers prefer to keep their product lines and prices a secret from their competitors and keep their line sheets in a password protected area of their website. You definitely don’t want your retail customers seeing your wholesale pricing sheets as they won’t always understand why the difference between the wholesale price and the MSRP. It’s your decision on how you want to distribute your line sheet or catalogue.

 

If you do make it openly available, there's a much greater chance it will be found by a shop or gallery that's interested in carrying your work. One idea is to put your line sheet openly online but not the price sheet.

 

If you are serious about selling wholesale, creating line sheets is a necessity. The first one is the hardest to do, after that you have a template and can just change the images. It’s worth the time.

The Business Chat - Wholesale

Wholesaling is when a store buys your work outright. They order from your catalogue, you produce the work and they give you money.

There are a lot of advantages to selling your work wholesale. The biggest advantage from a business point is that since you don’t produce the work until you receive an order, you don’t have to invest as much in inventory. Many makers also like wholesale because they spend more time in the studio and less time selling. Of course, you still have to sell to the stores.
Note: a store that buys wholesale is also known as an account

The downside to wholesale selling is that you have to have a catalogue or line sheets in order for your accounts to order from. The work in your catalogue must be repeatable, wholesale is not designed for one of a kind work. As the store makes their money from marking up your work, you sell to the store at 50% off your retail price. Of course what the store actually sells for is beyond your control as they own it.

Wholesale can be very important for your crafty success. Selling wholesale provides you with another income stream for your business. Unlike consignment the store or gallery has invested their own money in  your work and therefore they are more motivated to promote and sell it. This leads to increased exposure for your work and free marketing for you! A good store will actively push your work in the media meaning more publicity for you. If the store is a large one it can mean more media coverage. The media is much more likely to mention your work if their readers can find you in a store. One big advantage to selling wholesale is that you can lower your manufacturing  costs because when you make in bulk, you buy your supplies in bulk and get bulk discounts on them.

What stores are looking for

Stores want to make sure that your product will sell. They are always looking for work that is unique and original. The store will also think about if your product will sell to their customers. You already know your target market, is the stores target market the same? If so, then talk to the store buyer about this.

Many stores will ask you for exclusivity. This means that they are the only store within a certain geographical distance selling the product. Exclusivity makes sense sometimes. If every store in the neighbourhood has the same work the customers will tire of it. You should think carefully before you grant exclusivity to a store, are they the best to sell your product?

How to get started in wholesale:

Here’s a checklist to get you started. You will need:

• Product.
• You need a product that is something a store will want to carry. No matter how beautiful it is, if it is not going to sell no store will buy it.
• You need to have enough product to meet the demand a store might have. Landing an account is no good if you have to tell them to wait 2 months. As a wholesaler, your products must also have the correct packaging (this is not the same as the packaging you’d use at a craft show). If you want to deal with very large retailers you might also need bar codes, hang tags, sku numbers,  labels or other supporting material.
• Catalogue/line sheet. This is absolutely necessary. Your catalogue or line sheet has to be professional in all aspects. You need professional quality photos, descriptions, lists of ingredients, colours if applicable, a product number , time to ship.
• Pricing sheet. It’s a good idea to keep the pricing sheet separate from the catalogue or line sheet. This way you can change prices if necessary.
• Order form
• State your minimum order, reorder quantity, shipping and payment terms
• Terms and conditions
• What happens if they want to return unsold merchandize? State your payment terms How to find wholesale accounts.
• and any other administration stuff.

How to find wholesale accounts

One way to find multiple accounts is to exhibit at a wholesale trade show. These are very different from retail crafts shows. Trade shows are not open to the general public, only to registered buyers. As an exhibitor at a craft show, your booth is filled with as much product as you can as your customers want to see everything you have. In a wholesale trade show booth, you carry only samples of your work. You might only have 20 – 50 items on display. Your customers (stores), order multiple units of each of the products on display.

Wholesale trade shows are not for the beginner. It is a seriously large financial investment to attend one of these.

To look for individual stores start by looking locally. Ask your friends and your customers to recommend stores they think would be a good place for you to sell in.
Online searches are a good direction to go. Try using Google and search for something like “jewelry stores Montreal”.  If you are looking for larger stores, you can look in Linked In. Search for the store name or the buyer. Try connecting with them there. Of course, this means that you have your online presence absolutely spiffied up.

Approaching a store

Before approaching a store, always do your research first. Check out the store to make sure it’s a good fit. If you can, go to the store and look at their current inventory and who they represent. Find out the name of the store buyer.

Make sure you know your story. When you walk into your appointment with the store buyer you must be wearing your best salesperson hat. Talk about the benefits your products will bring to the store and to the stores customers. Know why your products are better than your competition., You are selling twice here, once to the store and once to their customers.
When you are ready, call or email and schedule an appointment with the store buyer. Practice what you are going to say and make sure to show up prepared – bring your catalogs, samples, and order forms.

After meeting with a buyer, always send a thank you note. This keeps you in their sights and shows that you can follow through. If they didn’t place an order this time don’t despair. Schedule a follow up for a later date. Sometimes they may love your work but just not have the shelf space or the money at that time. You can ask the buyer when you could contact them again, or just put a note on your calendar for every 3 months or so.


Notes about succeeding in wholesale


Some makers dream of seeing their work in a large store such as Target, or Nordstroms. While it is always important to dream and dream big, working with very large retails is perhaps not the best fit for handmade work. If you are manufacturing your work elsewhere and can supply large orders a large retailer might work. The upside to huge accounts like this is the potential to make a lot of money and the increased exposure you get. The downside is that these stores typically pay net 30-90 days and they will want a larger discount than 50%. It is also rare for a superstore to deal directly with you, the small maker. You will need a sales rep or your own sales force.

When you are selling wholesale, you need to have an inventory system so that stores can easily reorder. You don’t want them phoning up and ordering “the really long blue and green necklace with the crystal pendant”. The easier it is for them to order, the more likely they will.

It’s a good idea to follow up to see how well your work is selling. Don’t wait for the store to call you once they need more work. If it’s not moving as well as it could, perhaps you can help them. Provide them with marketing materials to help promote your work. If you use a special technique inform them of it. Let them know what’s special and unique about your work, these are your selling features. Sometimes you need to train the store staff how to sell your work.

It is critical to your wholesale success to properly price your work. Underpricing at a retail craft show means that you might be losing money on a couple of items. Underpricing at a wholesale level means that you will sink your crafty venture. Use your spreadsheets and make sure you have accounted for everything.

Succeeding in wholesale for a handmade crafty business is absolutely possible. Do your research, prepare properly and go into it with your eyes wide open.

The Business Chat - 3 ways of selling

No matter how beautiful your work is, if you don’t sell it, your business will fail. In a crafty business money is sometimes not the main reason we’re in business. We do this because we love it, because we want a creative outlet, because we want to share our talents. Regardless of why you are in business, if you lose money it’s a failure.

The bottom line is you need to sell your work.

There are 3 ways you can sell your work.

1. retail your products directly to the public
2. wholesale to stores/galleries
3. in stores on consignment

There are advantages and disadvantages to each method. Each method isn’t mutually exclusive and most successful makers use a mix of all three.

Retailing to the public.

Let’s start with retailing your products directly to the public.

Pros:

• You receive 100% of the final selling price and you receive this immediately. Cash is good.
• You control the sales environment. You design your own display or store
• You meet the buying public and conduct on the spot market research

Cons:

• Time spent selling is time away from the studio
• You have to deal with the buying public. You are the salesperson
• Craft shows cost money. Opening your own store or studio costs money. Selling online costs money
• You have to start up and maintain your own display or store, or website

 Where to sell to the public:

• from your own studio/shop
• craft shows
• home parties/office parties
• online

Wholesaling to stores
Wholesaling is when a store buys your jewellery outright. They order from your catalogue, you produce the work and they give you money.

Pros:

• you don’t produce the work until you receive an order so you don’t have to invest as much in inventory
• you spend more time in the studio, less time selling
• unlike retail where you make a lot of small sales, in a wholesale model you set a minimum order and make fewer, but more lucrative sales

Cons:

• stores expect a discount from your retail price, usually at least 50%
• you need a catalogue or line sheets
• you must have work that is consistently repeatable, wholesale does not work for one of a kind work
• you still have to sell the work, to the store buyers

Consignment
With consignment, the store doesn’t actually purchase your work. They agree to display it and sell it for you. When it sells, they send you money. This is advantageous to the store as they do not have to spend money on inventory. While most of us would prefer to sell only wholesale, most stores deal on consignment. In the beginning of your crafty career, you will find that you are obliged to deal with stores on consignment.

Pros:

• your work is continually on display somewhere unlike a craft show which is a few days here and there
• unlike wholesale, you set the selling price
• you usually receive a larger percentage of the price than you do with wholesale
• consignment works will with one of a kind work or with large expensive pieces
• more time in the studio, less time selling.

Cons:

• As the store has not invested any money in your work, they may not be as motivated to sell it as you would like
• You must keep meticulous records of what pieces are in what stores
• Your inventory may be tied up for a long time without bringing you any return for it
• Stores aren’t always prompt in paying, it is up to you to be a collection officer

How you choose to sell depends on a number of factors. If you know that you are not a people person and don’t like the general public then craft shows are not a good option. If selling your work for 50% of the price means that you are losing money and you feel that you cannot raise your prices, then wholesale will not work for you. Think about how much time you want to spend in the studio rather than in a selling position, although if you want to sell wholesale or consignment you still have to sell, only this time to a store buyer.

Sometimes it’s a loathing of selling that stops many crafters from moving forward with their busines. Think of it not as selling, but as an exchange between friends. You are gifting them with your work, and they are gifting you with money. And you have made their world a more beautiful place, that’s fair.

The Business Chat - Know who you sell to

My first day of grade 9 was terrifying. I was too skinny, really short and younger than everyone else. Speaking of everyone else, wow, there were so many kids! All I remember was a sea of bodies all dressed in different styles and hanging out in so many little groups. It was overwhelming. Of course as time went on I figured it out, I weeded out who I liked, who liked me, and what style worked for me. It did take time though.

Starting to sell your work is like going into grade 9. There is a sea of customers and some will like you and some will not and at the beginning it is overwhelming. Just like high school it is up to you to find the sweet spot of who you want to hang out with and who wants to hang out with you. Trying to be friends with everyone means that you’ll waste a lot of time on some people who truly don’t care about you, and short change those who want to be with you.

In business terms this is called finding your target market, or your right people. All it means is hanging out with the people who like you and your work. These are the people who will support you and buy your work. In high school trying to hang with the wrong crowd just meant loneliness, in business hanging with the wrong crowd means no money. That sucks.

Hanging out with your right people means that you make the work that your fans like. You go to the shows they go to. You place your work in the stores they shop at. You hang out in the same social media places, you stop by the same blogs, you place yourself in their line of vision all the time. And when they like you, and they see you, they buy from you. If you try to hang out with people who are totally uninterested in your product then you are just wasting your time and resources.

So how do you find these people? My first tip is that you sell to who you are. If you are a 40 something conservative stay at home mom, you aren’t selling to 20 something skateboarders.

The best advice is to write up a profile of your ideal customer. Imagine sitting down at your work bench with her and having a conversation. Give her a name. Now start detailing out exactly who she is and what she does. If you know a lot about her, then you’ll know where to go and really hang  out with her so that she has the opportunity to give you money.

Grab yourself a notepad and answer these questions.

1. What is your ideal customers’ gender?
2. Age range?
3. Do they have kids?
4. What is their education level?
5. What does she/he do for a living? Do they sit at a desk? Do they use a keyboard a lot? (charm bracelets are very annoying on a keyboard). Do they dress up for work? Do they wear a uniform?
6. What’s their approximate income?
7. Where does she shop? (do they like craft shows? Farmers markets? Do they shop online or just browse?) make a list of shops.
8. Who is the product designed for? You may make kids stuff, but kids don’t buy. Parents buy, grandparents buy more, especially luxury items.
9. Where do they live? Rural, small towns, suburbs, urban centres. A specific geographic location?
10. How much are they willing to spend? You need to know their buying habits. Would $10 for a bar of handmade soap make them flinch?
11. What magazines does she read?
12. What social media does she use? Professionals use LinkedIn, musicians are still using MySpace. What blogs does she read? Why?

The more you can narrow down who she is, the more likely you are to find yourself in the same places she is.

Remember, she likes you. You like her. In high school it meant a lunch buddy. Now it means money in the bank.

The Business Chat - Know what you sell

So you have made a pile of work and now you need to sell it. How hard can it be? It’s really easy to sell a few things here and there, but oh, you made a BIG pile. Oh, you want to actually make some money, you might even want to make things for a living. Well that’s still not hard but it takes a bit of smarts.

Step one of how to sell your work is: Know what you sell.

Most new sellers will blink, and then wonder if this is a trick question. That’s easy, you think, I made a sweater/pot/earrings/pillow. That’s what I sell.

No.

That is your product.

People don’t buy products. People buy solutions.

It’s your job as a salesperson to figure out what their problem is and then position your work as the solution to their problem.

I hear you muttering away, just as I did when I first heard this. “There’s no problem, they just want earrings/mittens/art.” I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, if a customer just wanted earrings they’d go to a mall. The customer has sought out (through a craft show or online) HANDMADE earrings.

Time after time in my booth I hear, “wow, there’s so much talent here, I wish I could do something like this.” Are you listening? The customer’s problem is that they think they can’t create, that they aren’t artistic. And they think you are. The customer is looking for a creative story.

You need to sell you as a story. Give them a fully formed real live 3D artist. If you’re selling online presenting you the artist lends your work authenticity and depth. For those at a craft show I can guarantee at least 10 times a day you’ll be asked something along the lines of “how long have you been doing this?” or “where did you learn?”.

It’s hard when you’re starting out and haven’t yet fully claimed the word artist as you. Some people never really know what to say and just hum and fidget. But you, the savvy craftista, will be ready to continue the conversation and communicate your story. For communication is marketing and marketing leads to sales.

The second step to solving your customers’ problems is to communicate to them why your product will make their life better. This is explaining the benefits of your work, not the features.

While features are important and should be mentioned, if you want your customer to take out their wallets and hand over their hard-earned money you need to convince them of the benefits your product offers.

What’s the difference between a feature and a benefit?

- A feature is simply a characteristic of a product.

- A benefit explains what the customer has to gain by using the product.

The features are about the product. The benefits are about the customer.
Anyone can make a list of a product’s features. But it takes a bit of work to convert each of those features into benefits. A handy trick you can use is to add the phrase “which means…” to the end of each feature.

For example: a pair of mittens

Feature – made with 100% handspun wool.
Benefit – your hands stay warm and cozy.
Feature - costs less
Benefit - saves you money
Feature - comes in multiple colors
Benefit - reflects your personality

Here’s your homework for this week.

To get you started pick up your notebook and spend some time answering these questions on paper. Write several paragraphs on each question. If you feel too self-conscious at first write about yourself in the third person until you get the details down. Learn to spin your story.

1. How did you become an artist?
2. How did you learn your skill?
3. What training have you had? Have you studied with any big names? Taken a course at a well-known school?
4. How long have you been making your current work?
5. What did you make before this?
6. What was your creative path?
7. What is it about your current work/technique that lights your fire? Why do you do it?
8. What new techniques do you want to learn? What’s in your artistic future?
9. What do you love most about being an artist?

Now, take 10 of your “products”. Write down the features of each product. At the end of the features list add the words “which means” and write the benefits.

Go.