By Gaye Weeks, A&V Designs
Ok – I know I am not alone when I say “I HATE SELLING!” I love designing and making the items (one-off or limited edition aprons, bags and cushions created from antique and vintage fabrics) I sell on my website and here at WowThankYou but the few times I have ‘girded my loins’ and tried to sell at a craft or specialist fairs I didn’t even cover the cost of my petrol, let alone stand fees. Plus, I hated every minute! I’ll work behind the scenes with matchsticks propping my eyelids open but ask me to even sell something of my own … so what’s to do? Can we WowThankYou sellers help each other or can WowThankYou help us in some other way?
As a designer/maker living in a very rural area (North Wales – everywhere is a long way from us) there is also the logistics of actually getting to a fair. There must be others of you out there with the same problem. Local people often find prices too high and I can’t afford the cash or the time to get myself down to the big fairs, many of which are in the South where I believe my market lives.
Maybe there are those of you who love selling and can think of some way to help? Maybe sell other people’s items on a commission basis? Or should we compile a ‘Help List’ of people in all areas (do you have relatives or friends who love to sell?) who we salesphobes could employ at a reasonable rate?
So let’s open this up for discussion, ideas and comments please!
Tags: aprons, cushions, fairs, selling, vintage, WowThankYou
I LOVE selling! The transaction confirmation email followed by the one from paypal is really exciting to me haha. I have found that craft fairs aren’t always the most profitable days for me, but I do it sometimes just because I love it. It’s all about chatting to other crafters and getting realtime feedback on my work.
I worked in retail for 10 years and I miss it. I would be happy to help anyone who is uncomfortable with selling.
Lou x
I know exactly what you mean. I love to make stuff too, but don’t like the selling side. It’s really hard to get out there on the internet and it’s hard work and really time consumming to do fairs, go to shops etc. You have to try and fit this around work and everything else and like you say you end up just covering the stall costs and not making much.
I started out making stuff for myself and friends/ family and thats a nice way of doing it. People always say they like what you do, but once you’re out there trying to sell stuff it’s really different. And like you say- the price has to be high for handmade items due to the time that you have to put into them.
I’d love it if someone wanted to sell my stuff on my behalf with some commision. I’d be interested in what everyone else had to say.
Hannah.
Handmade Jewellery
Oh dear, something happened and previous comment went too early.
Have had some discussions about this offline in last few weeks. As a response I wrote a blog with some tips to get started with wholesale and I’ve just done a podcast version –
http://starrybluesky.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/and-now-the-podcast-version-7-tips-on-wholesale-for-crafts/
When I first started out I didn’t expect to like selling, but once you get going and you start to get some orders it is quite fun. I did craft fairs, trade fairs and calling directly on shops – and I found the latter the easiest as you have the person’s full attention . In the fair context you are competing with everything around you.
Learn to love selling – or if you really can’t , then look for someone to do that part for you.
I’m the same – really don’t like selling face to face at craft fairs etc.
Although someone gave a me a good tip once. Team up with another crafter/artisan and each have a stall at a craft fair. BUT sell the other persons items not your own. I haven’t tried it but can see how it would work…