Did you hear about the retail apocalypse? As discussed in a previous blog post, the trend is that people are not shopping at big-brand stores as much as they used to. As a result, malls and shopping centers are losing their tenants and in many cases closing entire malls. However, even in a down market…
Month: May 2017
Continuing Education for Small Business
One of the things that is constantly a challenge when building a small business is finding out what you don’t know. Even selling at a farmer’s market or a craft show introduces all of us to new situations and technologies that we may not have the skills for. This could be as basic as not…
Doing Less to Meet Our Goals
We were just at a festival over the weekend that wasn’t very good for us. Even the other vendors were struggling. The vendor next to us shared with us that he’d only made $2300 so far that day. WTF? Only $2300?? He said that he had almost broken the $10,000 mark in a day but…
Ever Feel Insulted?
Monica and I were recently at a market when this young man (late 20’s maybe?) breezed through our booth and glanced at my pen display. I can’t remember everything he said but on his way his out he said “Nice, but 79 bucks?”.
Increasing Profitability
Once you have established yourself at markets, it is very common to “plateau” where you are limited by how much profit you bring home each month. This may be exactly where you want to be but for many of us, we want to continue to grow our business. To begin this discussion, we have to…
Markets Bring People Together
For the last few years it seems that every time I check the news or turn on the TV there is a story about some protest someplace about something or other. Sometimes it is that the police are being too aggressive while other times it is that they are being too lenient. Its protests regarding…
To Retail Or Not To Retail
One of Monica’s goals when we started our business was to open a boutique to show off all her amazing products. I kind of shared that goal, but being highly analytical, all I saw was dollars being spent on the lease of a storefront and wages paid to employees. While storefront space in most cities…
How To Price Your Products
Most vendors struggle with pricing their products. Their biggest error is asking too little for the work that they do. Pricing your products is a very difficult task. You want to get a fair price for your work but you also don’t want to undersell your work. Fortunately there is a formula to use as…
Developing a Branding Strategy with 99Designs.com
Developing your logo can be one of the most important decisions you make regarding your business in the long-term. Over time your customers recognize your logo and your brand. Since you are doing such a good job, this is a great thing!
The Vendor Life 