Selling your wares

[goaliedad]

I did some craft shows years ago. A mixed bag of results. I made Adirondack chairs, some out of vintage water skis and some using snow skis. It was all about location. One show in a resort town, I sold out. Others nothing
I had better luck working with a consignment shop

[Bob10]

Has anyone tried to sell things at craft shows, flea markets, whatever? My wife has me making little keepsake boxes. She keeps coming up for reasons to make more. To date, I have made about 30 of them. To make one box from start to finish takes about 2 bd. ft. Various hardware, and about 2 hours if you include planing. Total cost of materials for a plain walnut box, no inlay, no nothing but 2 coats of poly, is ~ $47. How do you go about setting a price on something? Is your time worth anything?


A couple of weeks ago at our local festival there was a guy selling pie cases. They were about 4 ft. high, 16 X 16 square. 4 hammered tin pieces in the door like most pie cases, and seemed to be made well. He was charging $85. That must work out to about a nickel an hour. If that much.


Thanks  Greg

You ever consider the guy has free time and learning how to make things?  Skill building and hoping to cover material costs might be how he funds his learning curve and hobby

[EightFingers]

I’ve been selling for over twenty years, starting with art fairs and ending up in galleries. People who go to art fares are cheap, mostly go to look. We sold things, but barely enough where we could call this a business (in the eyes of the IRS).
We moved to Hawaii in 2014 and since there are no art fares there, we had to go the gallery route if we wanted to sell anything. Started off slow the first year, but after that we were getting some pretty respectable sales. To really make it work, we did have get in quite a few galleries and we ended up being in eleven across the state.
Now, marketing your stuff is way different than making your stuff and you have to be a salesman about it. You can’t say “ Here’s my stuff, now go sell it”, it doesn’t work that way, you have to shmooz. Every gallery has a different personality, you should be aware of that and be willing to adjust your pitch.
Be prepared for rejection and be willing to take criticism as it can be very helpful. You get rejected, don’t burn bridges, just a respectable “Thank you for seeing me” is best. Maybe go back a year later and try again.
I have found a website is pretty much a waste of time except for initial contacts with galleries so it’s easy for them to look. We’ve never had a sale from our website and we eventually shut it down.
You also need to be a real business with all that entails: insurance, ein, business name and license and proper tax reporting.
I found the business end of things took about the same amount of time as the actual woodworking. I’m through with all that now, but in the end I think it was worthwhile. Made a good profit and all my tools and wood were paid for.

[Scott W]

I did some craft shows years ago. A mixed bag of results. I made Adirondack chairs, some out of vintage water skis and some using snow skis. It was all about location. One show in a resort town, I sold out. Others nothing
I had better luck working with a consignment shop

I remember the posts of those chairs. I liked them a lot.

[Ray Newman]

This might be useful: https://www.finewoodworking.com/2022/08/...ore-you-go

[EightFingers]

The article is a good start, but he left a lot out. Proper insurance, in addition to the liability insurance, licensing to do business in your state, reporting and remitting taxes are very important. Yes, you do have to pay self employment tax (schedule se) as well as income tax. If you want to deduct your expenses, you’ll have report those on schedule c. You’ll also have to take time to make proper records of your business activities.
Don’t forget those 87000 new IRS agents.

You should also spend some time studying the demographics of your intended customers. While I was sitting at shows, I had lots of time to spend studying who came and what they bought. Some shows will suit your intended demographic a lot better than others. “Craft” fairs can have lot different clientele than “art” fairs IYKWIM.
I found I was spending the same amount of time doing the accounting, marketing and selling as I was spending on woodworking.
Still, it was fun and fortunately I stopped before it turned into too much of a job.
Did it for 18 years.