Back through the years, I always had more work / commissions waiting, than I could ever hope to catch up with, but a couple of years ago, I put that side of business on hold so I could prepare for a one-man-show. Since then, I have not had a commission for a single piece of furniture.
I have been earning my living by doing repair, and carpentry work. I just can’t understand why, with all of the skills and equipment that I have, that I can’t find any meaningful or challenging work. I know it has to be my poor marketing skills.
Do any of you know of or have agents who are marketing your work, may be: looking for more talent?
Replies
I would bet that most of your work came from referrals and when you "dropped out" to prepare for the show, those folks found someone else. Now, you're essentially trying to re-start your business. Try contacting some of your old customers and let them know you're back. Start with the customer(s) you had the best relationship with - they'll be easier to talk to - lol.
Was your show a success? If so, you could try contacting some of the addendees to see if they would want one of your pieces.
Keith,
Let me say right off that it's hard to suggest things without an intimate knowledge of your situation. Add to that the fact that I'm really removed from the current US market, and you've got a recipe for suggestions that are 180° off. Having said that, I thought to outline a few thoughts about jump-starting a custom business. I've been doing it for a very long time. Maybe some will seem off-the-wall, but maybe something will click:
1. I don't know of any small crafts business that successfully uses an agent as you ask. What does work is a close relationship with a handful of interior designers or architects. If you're making (or trying to) high-end custom work, what you're really selling is yourself. Nobody can do that for you.
2. Find a friend to regularly brainstorm with (over a beer, or coffee, or whatever). He doesn't need to be a woodworker. A small businessman with common sense is fine. The point is to provoke your own ideas and air them out with someone who will ask questions that you didn't think of.
3. Cultivate the clients you've already had. Send a regular letter or holiday greeting to every client you ever had, telling them a bit about what's new. Make the style of the letter fit your business - high quality, personal. It's not a sales pitch, it's long-term customer relations.
4. Sponsor something visible. I once ran a photo contest together with the local newspaper for the best amateur interior design. The winning photo got a free custom-made coffee table from me. It cost me the coffee table but I had weeks of free publicity in the local paper.
5. Create an event. If you've got a suitable space, and especially if you've got some gallery pieces lying around, invite 3-4 other craftspeople to a weekend showing where you supply the space and cabinets, stands, etc. I once did an extremely successful show like this on a japanese theme - we had a calligrapher, pottery, sculpture, etc. all on the japanese theme. It had nothing to do with my furniture, but no matter. We got free radio announcements because it was a "cultural" event, and some 500 people came who otherwise would never have known we existed. It takes some work to organize, but it puts you in another class as far as the public perception is concerned.
6. If you don't already have one, get a good website up and running. Then spend one day and call every interior designer in a 100 mile radius. Tell them to look at your website and then you'll call them back to arrange a meeting. This is a numbers game. If you call 50 designers, and meet with 10, you might develop a relationship with 2. That would set you up just fine.
gotta go,
DR
Ring, and Dave, Thanks for the advice, I know I need to work harder at wearing that salesman hat, but it is my least favorite part of being in this business, and they all take up time, and I guess I just keep wishing that someone would come along and take over that part.Since starting this thread, I have gone in with a few other artist, for a party / show. I did manage to sell a few pieces, and make some new contacts.I have not managed to do very well with the interior designers, they just seem to want to show a client a photo in a catalog, and order it. I am not big on making one product over and over, so it is hard for me to work with them. I know that my salesman hat has fallen off, and I had better pick it up, and put it back on. I guess I was just dreaming some pipe dream. Now how many hours should I dedicate to sales, designer, getting materials, making patterns, constructing the project, finishing, and installation. Clean up is how I spent most of today.
Keith, in a self employed furnituremaker's business with no staff a 'typical' work week of forty hours comprises something like 27 hours of productive work, i.e., billable, and for about thirteen hours to be non-productive-- non-billable. This thirteen hours is to cover administration, holidays, sickness, maintenance work, pricing, planning, advertising, meetings with the bank, accountant, lawyers, et al, schmoozing customers, etc..
However, I can't think of many one person self employed furniture making businesses that only work forty hours a week, but the proportion of hours alloted to billable and non-billable activities usually remains about the same for most of them, i.e., something like a 65/35 or 70/30 split. A lot of people new into the business completely forget about this and don't charge enough for their billable work to cover the non-billable element of the business.
Of course, large businesses with administrative staff, sales staff, etc., also have to work out how to charge for these 'non-productive' functions. Slainte.Richard Jones Furniture
kiethNewton
I'm a pro salesman have been one for almost 40 years now.
Doing what you ask would be extremly time consuming and if you want my time it needs to be paid for.. Salesmen are well paid. The failure rate is tremendous.. less than one person in a hundred who enters the profession remains in it 5 years later.. to get someone who has made a career of it is even harder!
As a Career salesmen are right behind doctors in earnings. way ahead of lawyers and other careers..
The absolute worst thing you can do for yourself is to turn it over to a eager beaver with little or no experiance in the industry and little guidance to get him started and keep him motivated..
He will need contacts and information that has taken you years to aquire. in addition there really are techniques that work and those that fail.. he needs to know those..
Finally the pay schedule for a salesman is complex and would need to be structured to ensure that you achieve your goals while meeting his immediate fincial needs.. and still provide a motivating factor to ensure he simply doesn't go thru the motions..
If you simply say sell this and you will earn X dollars, plan on a new hire when he gets discouraged and can't buy gas or whatever on what he's earning..
As for your idea of maybe sharing an agent, I can see all sorts of problems with that. First agents do it for the money.. If they have asupplier who fills their needs they seldom want to rock the boat if they are willing to take you on what makes you believe they won't take on many others. Heck, they increase their possible sales that way and if that increase doesn't come from you it's really no skin off their neck..
Bottom line you need to do the work yourself.. (or give up all possiblity of profit)
Keith,
It's a tough gig, being a woodworker for sure. My business suffered a hit after 9/11, and the stock market/Nasdac plummet. My clientele lost their play money. Combined with that was a certain degree of success, to the extent that folks got the idea that "He's probably so busy, he wouldn't want to mess with this little old job. I'll call someone else." And, around here at least, the whole craft fair scene has gone into the toilet. The crowds just aren't there like they were in the 80's after the bicentennial celebration, and hands-on examination, with one to one interaction, is I think the best way to sell custom work. It seems that for now, interest in traditional craft across the board, not just furniture, is on the wane. A year ago, I was seriously looking at trying to get a real job.
The suggestions you've gotten I think are good ones. A group of us here locally had an "artist's studio tour" this past spring. Potters, jewelers, woodworkers. Five shops/studios open for one day, with 3 or 4 displays at each stop. Local newspaper coverage, and we bought a day sponsorship on the local public radio station. Mailed out postcards to our past customers. Response from the public was surprisingly good. I think it will be an annual event. http://www.shenandoahhands.com
I HATE blowing my own horn. I was taught that bragging on myself was bad manners, and self promotion feels like that to me. I much prefer word of mouth, and letting the work come in on its own (don't we all?) but when things get slow, ya gotta get past your inhibitions. As a friend likes to say, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."
Good luck,
Ray Pine
Thanks Ray, So I don't guess I need to hold on this fairy-tale idea. I was just hoping someone would jump in here and turn me onto someone who had a great marketing agent that really was able to move their work. I have been doing some of the things that you mentioned, and it sound like we are a lot alike. When it comes to selling my work, something about the salesmanship part, is just a little too close to bragging, and that irks me, and I don't think I am doing a good job of getting my work in front of the right people to begin with.Thanks everyone for the great advice, I think you have helped me adjust my thinking.
Keith,
Well, if you do find that person who will do all your legwork and let you stay in the shop, you will let me in on their name, ok? ;-)
Ray
Sure, In the meantime, I need to get back to making my next marketing tool,,,,,,,,,,What do you think about,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Magic Wands. I have this special mo-jo to lend it power. I of Newt.
Keith,
Hmm, magic wand...I once made a conductor's baton for a friend who was starting a job as a high school music teacher. If I could find some pixie dust, I'd give you a little competition.
Ray
KiethNewton,
I read your last post and comment with interest..
seems like you believe that a salesman should sell,,, period.. That a conscience and ethics should be foriegn. he should be pushy and make people take stuff they don't need or want..
It just doesn't work that way.. Not if you intend to make a living for a while..
yes there are a few gullible people who can be taken advantage of.. but if you do you will lose all referals and instead wind up with a bad reputation..
Real selling is about letting people buy.. Give them information and sound advice regarding merchandice and pretty soon they will be beating their way to your door. Once again you will have a backlog of work. Quality work that you can be proud of..
Real selling is about understanding when people are ready to buy and capitalizing on that. Not on forcing something on some gullible person..Or taking advantage of them..
Real selling is doing a lot of pioneer work where you recieve a hundred NO's for every sale.. A carefull salesman knows how to measure his success, find his close ration and contact ratio and modify each untill he becomes effective.. It does no good to contact ten thousand expectant mothers if they aren't the ones who buy your product.. Itv is also counter productive to drive past potential clients because you don't have access to them..
Selling has a bad reputation while marketing seems more upscale.. Well the problem is that to be successful you need to do both..
You might make wonderful products but untill you sell one you haven't made a profit.. Learn marketing techniques and sales techniques..
Thanks frenchy, I agree with all that you said about selling. I meant for my last post to be a joke. Perhaps I should have used some of those little happy faces.I have been in business for myself all of my adult life except for one year. That has always required that I was among other things a salesman, and understand more than let on about, I just don't like that part. K
Kieth Newton,
I'm the opposite, I'm a salesman for the finacial rewards and work with wood for the spiritual rewards.. early in my life I tried to make a living doing my hobby.. I was good at it and had some real great skills but I quickly realized that the biggest return I could ever expect wouldn't allow me to do my hobby well. So I lost both my hobby and my income..
There is an overabundance of people who want to do rewarding (spirtitually) things.. Look at the thousands who attempt to be a pro athlete and compare it to the tiny few who make it.. same with anything that isn't grinding work..
If I'm going to do the grinding work required to be successful I want to do it in a rewarding field.
I really enjoyed reading what you have to say about selling, I too do it for a living and love it. It is THE most financially rewarding profession there is, and yes, I out earn my doctor. But to be good at it, one must realize that the salesperson is a servant first and foremost, it is true that the customer comes first and he sets the market. I think a lot of crafts people want to build what they like and believe that someone will just buy it. People fail at sales and business in general because they do not want to be good servants or put in the time required to be one. There have been many more times than I can count, that any of the many engineers I call on will dial my cell at 4:50 on a Friday afternoon needing a complete system layout by 8:00 Monday because they forgot to start their work on time, what do I do? Work the weekend, why? Because I will get the order in the end, I out serve my competition, every day.
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What do you sell Frenchy?
Napie,
You got it right!
You must meet the needs of your customer or you lose that customer and it's 100 times harder to get a customer than to keep one..
As to the thinking many have regarding building what they want and expecting it to sell itself.. Again you hit the nail on the head..
I sell construction equipment. Fridays are always my busy day for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I wish I had a dime for each time somebody would call me late friday afternoon and expect me to deliver a 30,000 pound piece of equipment first thing monday morning.. (and be pissed when trafffic makes the delivery a few minutes late) ..
It sounds like we are in realated business's, what type of construction equipment?
The good servants gets his reward when he cashes the commission check......
Napie,
Currantly I sell Ingersol Rand equipment.. I used to sell Caterpillar and John Deere
Keith, There are many sales reps out there. The better ones own galleries and have a definite interest in selling your product if you can get into their gallery, it can be a tough nut to crack. But that is selling wholesale, I don't know if that is what you want to do. The thing about selling this way is it gets your name back out there and possible in a much larger area. Just don't expect it to happen overnight.
The comments about just building something and expecting someone to buy it, that is the only way to find out if you have something that people want and also let your own style grow and change.
If you don't like building the same thing over and over well GET OVER IT. By not doing that you are saying no to potential customers and turning away business, and with that you have no right to complain. I don't like building the same thing over and over but I do because that is what my clients want. I don't build every piece exactly the same, there are always minor variations with either little details or in the wood itself. In the end that is what we do we give clients what they want.
There are plenty of options out there, you just have to put the time in.
Darrin
VB Woodworks
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