advice needed on selling my pieces in a shop

[Petal]

Hi All,

I had this in another thread, but wan't sure if it was in the right place, so have copied into this thread, as this seemed a bit more appropriate.

I've been approached by a friend of a friend, who is setting up a new shop and is interested in selling my jewellery. I was flattered to hear someone say how nice my jewellery was, but to say I'm a bit is an understatement!

I don't have any logos on any of my boxes/bags yet, but do have a business card and have sold my stuff at 1 outside village fair, so not much experience there. As I have yet to finish my database, or get my books in order, I'm a bit reluctant to sell to a shop, as I imagine you have to be REALLY ORGANISED to do that They are coming round to view my stuff on Tuesday aghhhh

Any tips, advice, would be greatly appreciated

thanks a lot
love
Julesx

pps How it went today is further down this link.

[geti-titanium]

Hi Jules,

Just go with the flow and get it in there - worry about packaging and developing your brand later on when you start selling more items and get in more shops. Your friend will probably have her own packaging anyway and her own logos.

The main thing at the moment is getting your trade price right and producing the goods.

[MuranoSilver]

First, you should clarify if they want wholesale or sale or return. With sale or return you do need to be concerned with how they represent your work, how secure it will be and how busy they will be.
Wholesale is a straight out purchase.

Here are my wholesale terms:
Minimum purchase - 8 pieces
Discount - 8 to 14 pieces 40% off, 15 pieces or more 50% off
Special Delivery Shipping paid by buyer
Payment methods accepted - check, cash, credit card (credit
card purchases will be charged 2.5% extra)
Payment due upfront
Turnaround time - 14-21 days (smaller orders take less time)

I don't do sale or return. It takes so much time just to track and keep up with what shop has what and who has paid and .....

Pricing is very important so I have different ranges that I can do wholesale for(couldn't afford to on my one offs) and I'm working on a range for 2011/12 that I will try (probably at IJL) to go bigger volumes with.

I spent some time actually timing myself to see how long it took me to make a piece so I could figure out my time spent on one piece. I multiplied it by my desired hourly wage. Add materials, and a few pounds overheads. Then double the materials and overheads- that's my wholesale price. Retail is double that wholesale price.

If you couldn't sell the piece at your retail price (using that model) then it isn't suitable for wholesaling. Another way of looking at it is if someone ordered 100 of a necklace (you'd set a wholesale price on) would you be happy or sad.. If it's sad then you're not setting the price high enough because you know you're working at an unfair rate..

Hope that helps

[Di Sandland]

Jules I sent you a PM but, for the benefit of others reading, I've pasted it here too. They are just my quick top-of-the-head thoughts:

As with all sales avenues there are pitfalls!

1. Is she buying the stuff from you up front or will it be sale or return?

2. If she's buying it up front - what mark up will she want to put on and how much margin will that leave you.

3. If its sale or return - what's her insurance like. What does her stock look like - is it cared for or (as in one experience I had) covered with dust and open to damage.

4. Don't dare give her mates rates - you will be making a rod for your own back

5. If she wants to buy the stock up front - what are her payment terms. Normal 30 day business terms are not really much good for the small independent craftsperson because it leaves you with nothing to plough back into stock.

6. If you go with it - make sure you have a detailed and accurate inventory of what she has in her shop. With photographs!

7. In general, I've always found it dodgy to enter into a business arrangement with friends - but I'm soft. You have to be forthright x 2 to do it successfully.

If its any help - I'm not keen on face-to-face selling either. I come over as very confident but its all a bit of a facade. I've taught myself to think more about the other person instead of myself - like, well if I'm scared/shy/pissed/have a headache then how is that other person feeling. It works.

I'd be interested to see what the other guys come up with.

[ben b]

........................

[Petal]

Thanks for all the, very useful, replies.

I've decided to re-price about 12 pieces of my jewellery correctly taking into account the comments Murano Silver made and will find out a bit more about the person coming to see me. Will let you know how I get on.

Oh bugger, dinner's ready, will reply more tomorow, if I get time.
Love
Jules x

[Petal]

Hi all,

Thanks to Di (Moon Cottage), Nic (Murano Silver), MizGeorge, CyberPaddy, AlexandraBuckle and EmmaRose for their really useful comments, as they made me realise what I was proposing and whether I really want to do this and much more importantly for me, how much I should be charging, 'cos I've been told I don't charge enough!

I woke up on Saturday and my initial gut reaction when I thought about it was that I shouldn't sell through a shop at the moment, because I haven't got my database and pricing system set up. I gave up a very stressful job and am about to put myself in a position, where I am creating more stress than I need atm.

My reasons for possibly selling through a shop were that I get into a terrible panic with more than two customers at a time, don't know what to say to them/how to deal with them, and this last show was a disaster with the awning nearly blowing away, that I never really calmed down and was so disorganised, didn't know which pieces I'd sold and I never want to put myself in that position again. I feel that selling through a shop because I don't know how to sell to members of the public is a bit of a cop out (for me)! If I don't get over this hurdle and learn how to deal with selling professionally, then how am I going to grow - as a person, as well as a potential 'business'. I would have preferred to have approached the shop myself and decide whether I thought it would be for me, but being approached has caught me off guard and made me re-think the whole thing, which is also why I mentioned on another thread asking what databases others use, or not! Personally, I feel if I am to make a go of this, then I must have a database, otherwise I won't have a clue what I have or haven't got and with the amount of beady bits I already have, its already become a mammoth problem, which is also linked to not having pricing organised.

One of the other things I do is make wedding jewellery and as my OH and I were discussing pricing, I realised one of the main reasons for making it (apart from the fact that I like playing around with beady bits) was because shop prices for wedding jewellery were exhorbitant and I remember how little money we had for our wedding 13 years ago and felt I could make something that would be beautiful for someone on their big day, but would not cost a fortune!

Thanks a lot guys for all your guidance with this, it has made a huge difference to my decision making process and I am really grateful.

Love
Jules

ps. I tell you what though, I can't go on spending so much time on this forum, cos not only have I got 4 orders to do this week, but last night I burnt the dinner again! My poor PH had a horrible looking thing previously called a kipper that had been cremated! yuk... the night before it was a home made lovely courgette soup that I ruined ! Oh well, its his turn tonight - he's doing a prawn curry, so I can come and read what you are all up to ... oh no I must not post, I must not post ... oh god... I've done it again!