Читать книгу Start & Run a Craft Business - William G. Hynes - Страница 11

If you sell directly to the public, you receive all of the final selling price yourself. You make a profit as the producer of the goods and you make a profit again as the seller. However, before you start counting your profit, you have to reckon with selling expenses.

If you are selling at a craft market, the net income from sales can be relatively high. Sales from your own studio can also be more profitable than selling to stores. If you have your own separate retail outlet, you will have retail selling expenses, but you may still make more profit per sale than you would wholesaling.

Retailing all your work at craft markets will mean that you must spend substantial periods of time away from the workshop. This is seen as a plus by those who like traveling and/or meeting people. Even if you are not particularly fond of retail shows — and not all craftspeople are — it is still a good thing to meet your customers in person from time to time and get a first-hand idea of their reaction to your products.

Retailing your own work usually means going to shows or selling to the public out of your own studio. There are, however, a couple of other options. You can retail your work through the mail, something we consider in the following chapter when we look at the various selling channels in more detail. You can also take advantage of opportunities to sell your work on the Internet, a subject we explore in detail in Chapter 7.