It Costs That Much

[GEP]

Warning .... there are swear words in this song. But otherwise this is funny and empowering. A friend sent it to me and I laughed so hard. Thought it would give all the sellers a good laugh as we recover from the holiday season.

 

[Mark C.]

Just what I needed as I head out to work my pottery booth today. Only 5 days left to sell. Its nuts out there now.

thanks for posting

[Mark C.]

I'm not yet recovering as that starts xmas day-still selling daily-going to as Mea says put my feet up for 6 weeks starting xmas day.

What a season-Just told one market I'm not suppling them next year.

[GEP]

I’m skipping the show that I normally do in February. It was cancelled last February for covid, and that allowed me to appreciate how nice it is to take an extended break after the holidays. This coming year, the show is back on again (knock on wood) but I’ve decided the time off is worth it. 

I ended every show this fall with a single digit number of pots, so next year I am going to try doing fewer shows and packing more inventory for each. I’d like to explore how much more value I can get out of each show. 

[shawnhar]

That was awesome. 

 

I just have a shelf in our store 365, and no one ever tries to haggle, ever. 

I have kind of given up on being a "real" potter though,  I sell around 10k at our store but I don't have time to do shows so it is what it is.

[JohnnyK]

An amusing ditty...thanks, Mea! Up 'til now I've just been selling my stuff to friends and at my Saturday vegetable stand in the summer and make enough there to pay for the habit. I'm building inventory for the upcoming Spring when I plan to venture out to one of the local farmers' market that is open on Sundays (my stand is open Saturdays). Just selling one or two pieces will pay the booth fee and, up to this point, they don't have any potters selling stuff.

[Mark C.]

2 hours ago, GEP said:

I’m skipping the show that I normally do in February. It was cancelled last February for covid, and that allowed me to appreciate how nice it is to take an extended break after the holidays. This coming year, the show is back on again (knock on wood) but I’ve decided the time off is worth it. 

I ended every show this fall with a single digit number of pots, so next year I am going to try doing fewer shows and packing more inventory for each. I’d like to explore how much more value I can get out of each show. 

This was major business plan I followed for years-taking enough so I never ran out-do less shows but do them better. You can then see what the maximum dollars are vs running out .

I now say that at a time when every pot in every outlet and my booth are flying off the shelves at some rate I have never seen and my massive xmas build up of inventory is close to gone and I'm limiting on who gets what as today is my last glaze kiln unload and last day to distribute wares to outlets.

Looks like we are in for rain as well starting now thru xmas with low snow on xmas eve.

I really thoght raising prices would slow this madness but it did not.

[GEP]

My thinking was that leaving a show with less than one box of pots was ideal. Because every box you pack has a cost, in terms of energy and space. Figuring out the “right amount” to bring was efficient. But this fall I had one 3-day show where I ran out of pots on the 2nd day. And a 1 day show where I was basically out of pots by 1pm.  It’s hard to know if that was just “revenge spending” going on, and if that kind of demand is going to continue. I did raise prices on some things, and it didn’t seem to matter. These things are all up in the air going forward. 

[Mark C.]

I have found pots in boxes are not like loaves of bread in that they never go bad.If I came home with next to nothing I felt great but also I missed a lots of sales.

Say 35 years ago I took 10k of wares to a show-I found I could only sell just under 10k with some left overs-back then I was doing 15 shows.No wholesale

Then I decided to get a larger vehicle and carry say 20K of wares well what did I know I could now sell 18 K and still have wares left over.

I did less show but did them better,I usewd the se numbers only as a exapmle -noit actual show numbers but the idea is what matters.

Its called maximizing sales -the same three days show but up to twice the sales. Now I found if I had a double booth well you get it now I had to hire help but my sales went to the moon .

Now thats another thread.

[JohnnyK]

I find all this talk encouraging as I look forward to the Spring and the Farmers' Market.

As for increasing prices as mentioned above, I experienced something similar in my remodeling business. When I started out as a handyman more than 40 years ago I was charging $10/hr. I got really busy and I thought that by raising my prices to $15 I would lighten my load...wrong! More jobs came in. So, I raised my prices to $20 and got still more work...this over a 4  year period. Then more folks started asking for a contractors license. So I got my General Building Contractor's license. At that time I was getting $25...but for the folks that wanted the license, I charged $35. Ultimately I felt comfortable at $50/hr and stayed there until I retired . I could have charged more, but felt comfortable where I was.

I'm guessing that the same would apply to my pottery craft. As I get better at what I do, I'll increase my prices until I reach that sweet spot...the point of diminishing returns.

[GEP]

I have a limiting factor which is the capacity of a minivan. The most I’ve ever packed for a show was just over $12k and it filled my van up to the ceiling. I have no desire for a larger vehicle or a second vehicle. Although that was several years ago, and since then I have noticed that I can use fewer boxes to pack the same dollar value of inventory. That’s because I am semi-subconsciously evolving my work towards things that are more efficient to produce/fire/pack. When I develop a new item that turns out to be cumbersome to pack, it doesn’t last long in my line. So maybe I can squeeze more into the van now. 

[Callie Beller Diesel]

And Mom said all that time playing tetris was wasted! Ha!

Price increases have always lead to more money from less work for me, which I just don’t see the downside to. That said, I still have some hang ups over price increases. I’m working on it! I got the gears from a couple of colleagues this past season over the fact that I’m due for a price increase. I had intended to do one in 2020, but I felt guilty about it at the onset of the pandemic, so I put it off. I’ll maybe do a website announcement in the next week or two that prices will be going up at the end of January, so folks can take advantage before hand. I dislike the idea of discounting my work, so this might serve as an incentive.

Online sales have been lower for me this year, because I’ve done very little social media work. I find it very emotionally taxing, and I’ve needed those resources in other places this year.