Getting Started In Stores

By Susan Beal, susanstars.com

Once you have perfected a few of your cool handmade designs, try approaching small, independent stores you like around town. Call during slow hours (weekday afternoons are usually a good bet) and make an appointment with the manager or buyer. Bring a selection of your best-made pieces and your cards and catalog or line sheet (more on this below). I know this can be nerve-wracking, but be confident in your work! You’re doing the buyer a favor bringing cool stuff in; otherwise he or she would have to go out searching for inventory. Try to be open to constructive criticism/feedback, too; if the buyer is a jerk, write off the store, but suggestions from people who look at cool stuff all day can strengthen your designs, too.

A $3.00 sales order invoice book is invaluable here for keeping simple records of how many pieces or samples you are dropping off and how much you are selling them for. Leave one carbon copy with the shop owner and keep one for yourself. That way you’ll know for sure how many, how much, and how long they’ve been there.

Check in about once a month to see how things are selling.

The Switchboards is a great resource for advice and business tips; if you want feedback on your products or designs before you try your luck at stores, just ask around!

Shop owners and customers will take you much more seriously with professional cards and tags for your work. Put your name, your business name, contact info , and website (if you have one) on your cards. Try designing them yourself, or ask a friend—I traded a pendant in exchange for mine. You can print and cut them yourself at Kinko’s, or get free ones made at Vistaprint. After you get your cards made, never, ever leave the house without them.

For sew-in clothing tags or custom hangtags, I highly recommend NW Tag & Label ( 2435 SE 11th Ave in Portland , 503-234-1054). They’ll work with your own design or create something new. Once you have tags made, they’ll keep your design on file forever—very handy for reordering.

If you offer different designs or fabric choices, a catalog or flip book of photos is very helpful for showing the range of your work. Name or number each piece for maximum simplicity (like Resin Ring in design #4B, or Butterfly Bag in #7 denim lined with #2 red cotton). If you do one-of-a-kinds only, number or name them clearly too.

You can make a catalog using Photoshop, Quark, Microsoft Word, or scissors and a gluestick. Organize your work into categories and create pages with good photographs paired with descriptive text, wholesale prices, and design choices. Don’t forget to mention things like your minimum order (mine is $150, for example), shipping options, and return & exchange policies. Also be sure to put all your contact info rmation on the price list or first page.

Another option is a line sheet, which can be as simple as a one-page list of what you have available and how much you’re selling it for. Definitely bring (or send, if it’s an out-of-town shop) samples of pieces with the line sheet.

You may want to update your catalog seasonally—many shops buy for spring in January and for fall/holiday in July. Mixing in new designs or choices can keep your work really current, and the beginning of a new season is a great time to check in with buyers.

This is a truly difficult part of the job. There are a few good ways to get started pricing your work.

One is the standard formula of tripling your materials and paying yourself a decent hourly wage. Another is to ask several friends or crafty businesspeople what they would pay for a piece. Ask shop owners their opinion, too; you can start something out at the upper end of your price range and lower it after a few weeks if it hasn’t sold yet.

There are two ways to get paid for your work:

•wholesale means the store will pay you outright for your pieces, either when they receive them or at net 30 terms (within 30 days of getting your merchandise and invoice). The store typically doubles your wholesale price, so you will be paid 50% of the retail price.

•consignment means that the store will pay you for a piece after it sells, and the percentage you’ll receive will be set between 50 and 70%. There is no guarantee things will sell, of course—you may be getting things handed back to you after a few months; be prepared to trade old pieces out for new ones.

Either way, you should get paid in a timely fashion. Many shops pay on either the first or fifteenth of the month for the previous month’s sales. Consigning is a little trickier than wholesaling—ask for a list of which pieces sold, so you can check it against your own records and make sure everything is in order. This is especially crucial if you are dealing with a shop in another city! Good communication is essential.

Selling your work online can transform your business. Creating a simple website, finding hosting, and creating a shopping cart are easier than ever. Services like DotEasy or Hexstream Media provide inexpensive hosting; if you sign up with PayPal, they offer a free shopping cart. If you can’t make your own site, trade for the design—that’s what I did to create mine, susanstars.com.

Get in touch with other handmade businesses you like online to trade links. With more links to your site, you’ll have better placement on search engines, and more traffic. List your business on resources like I Buy DIY and BUST’s for maximum visibility, too.

Make sure your URL is on your tags and cards, and add it to your e-mail signature if you like. Add an opt-in e-mail list on your site if you want to send a periodic newsletter mentioning updates, sales, or new products.

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Susan will be posting articles on other creative business topics like basic web design, DIY marketing and promotion, and organizing art and craft sales over the next few months, and will have more how-tos and business advice up on susanstars.com and pdxsupercrafty.com