Working Art Markets - a Monday Lunch Discussion 10-5-15
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Working Art/Farmers Markets merchandising your woodworking is an Art Form. While I don't proclaim to be an expert I have found a few things that work. This is an introduction to a new segment in our Monday Lunch Discussions where I'll share what and how we did working markets around the area every weekend during the busy holiday season.
Super useful with lots of great ideas & tactics. Thank you!
The numbers are kinda brutal Shawn, and you didn't even mention remitting sales taxes. Your woodworking skills are top notch, along with your teaching skills. A school like yours would likely be overrun with students in southern California. There are very few woodworking schools to serve roughly 15 million people and they are priced accordingly; e.g., William Ng in Anaheim.
im a great picker of nits.....setup cost is actually by your figures $510 not 410.
my business was always small...and the "expense" of running it from home...we had no off-site shop...did not add significantly to the normal household utility bills, so we didn't even figure that amount in.. We had no loans; all our equipment was bought and paid for in full, used, from a relative. So a negative on that expense as well...So, yeah...your numbers are way out of line for the kind of small potatoes operation I have. Hell, I can't even afford to pay for a hotel/motel, so I don't do 2-day shows, and don't travel farther than an hour or so away from home.
So you subsidize your prices.
Very good ideas Thank you!
+Jerry Andersen Thanks
Question. What do you do to keep kids from torturing your pens. I just had a kid mess mine up today at a show ( only ever done 2 shows ) I made it out not to be a big deal but it ticked me off. Thanks
I'd say about 10% of my merch gets damaged by customers, including kids or weather. Welcome to Art Markets. Plan accordingly and swallow your pride.
Great information. Do you have a place where you post your next market attendance?
+Frank Henderson Thanks. Mainly via Facebook and Twitter, just google wortheffort woodworking, and links are on our homepage wortheffort.com and
Its 510 bugs ;)
I disagree with many of your points. 1) don't try too many markets. Find a good one and stick with it...return customers & word-of mouth customers are essential. 2) make & sell something unique to you that others in the market are not doing. No product competition....better sales. 3) don't tell people you use a CNC!!!! You may as well tell them you are mass producing like China. A serious woodworking buyer will see that straight away.....start selling at Walmart!!!! True woodworking buyers will notice the little hand-made imperfections & appreciate knowing that it is hand-made.
+texasaussie45 dissagreements good when you do it right and you did.
My experience showed me there is diminishing returns when you attend the same market every week. And when you see other vendors selling art, not commodoties like food, they usually seem to settle out to a consistent but low sales point. There's a reason the people that make a living doing markets usually have 6-7 they do consistently. I personally I have found two that meet monthly that I attend regularly, one weekly farmers market that I attend month on a regular weekend, and I''ve been sampling others on the 4th week of the month looking for something really good.
Ya, occassionally a newbie will show up to the market with similar products but if you have better quality they tend to go away.
Some items its obvious you use a CNC, so I'm upfront. But my higher end stuff (meaning more than $10) just can't be done by automation or many times by machine.