preparing for the show
By Heather on Wednesday, March 15th, 2006
I spoke with the organisers of Concert on the Rock today, got info on set-up and installation for the show in June. This is where my friends, Danny and Tom, and I will ply our wares this summer. OK, it’s only a short event, but we’re really excited about it.
Of what I’ve seen, this website has a good checklist of things to follow about preparing for a show.
The space has a tent over it, and a table that is 1.5 x 5 feet. Sounds narrow. But we can bring other tables and things to display with. Tom is well-experienced in boot sales (fleamarkets) and I grew up in an antique show. So we can plan some display options.
Pricing conundrum
Danny and I met and looked at things we are making. She’s making collaged postcards, and was considering selling her original paintings… but I’m not sure it’s such a great idea. It’s hard to know how to price things. I made two kitties, thinking that ‘yeah, i’ll amigurumi circles around this’… but they take alot longer than I expected. I need to be able to price things reasonably, since it’s not a craft-fair, it’s a market at a weekend long concert. People aren’t there to shop! But they will probably make impulse purchases when they see all of the lovely unique goodies.
The same site linked above has basic info about pricing your work.
Cost and value based pricing
Cost-based pricing means working out the exact cost of making something and adding a proportion or ‘mark-up’ to that. It is important for high-volume production and where buying decisions are made mostly on price.
Value-based pricing means setting prices according to the value of the product to the customer. It is useful in particular for low-volume, high value products, and where decisions are made on a number of factors, of which price is only one.
Posie gets cosy generously offers advice to would-be store sellers. I’m not capable of shop-selling yet, but it’s a great article to read, in terms of developing your work for sale.
I read somewhere a blog post about not pricing work too cheap, since it degrades the market, but I don’t know where this article is! Bah, in my delicious bookmarks hiding somewhere probably.
This isn’t it exactly, but this post from the SuperNaturale forum is helpful. The poster, Alisha, explains that craftspeople starting out (first couple of years), are buying materials at full cost. The wholesale prie includes “supplies, overhead (lighting, rent, etc), PAYING YOURSELF, and adding a profit cushion that goes back into growing your business. Your retail markup pays for shows, marketing and sales, and your time spent trying to retail your work (separate from creating the pieces)”
It’s complex, but a business afterall. I have ben keeping my receipts, but not very good notes.
I’m glad I’m starting small.