*Very* small scale beadmaking - how to keep going?

[sparrow]

I've been pondering this - essentially, I get 1-2 hours torch-time a week, and pretty much zilch time for photography and photos. I realise in order to get noticed, you've got to keep updating your shop, etc. - with swaps and presents and stuff (and fuglies ), I'm lucky if I produce 1 or 2 beads to sell a week.....I'd love to go down the sculptural flower route, but they're so big, they need to go to the post office for posting. I'm come up with a few options I could think of........any comments/ideas/thoughts??

- List only 1-2 beads a week.
- Wait and list a few more beads once a month
- Shift everything to ebay, time ends for times I can get to post office (Friday/Saturday)
- Put up pictures of scupltural flowers on web site and do those on a commission-basis
- Stop selling
- Collect everything, put all eggs in one basket, and do a Christmas fair (or similar).
- Take the shop down and only supply the galleries I work with in Sheffield (which don't sell anything, so I should be able to keep them supplied
- Stop experimenting, so I don't progress, but produce more sellable beads in the same time-span.

...?

[afina]

Hi Sabine!
Fairs are a nice option if you like doing them. I love it, a friend ofmine hates it and stopped going with me - she now sells on ebay and etsy.
If you are not the person for fairs, then I would do the "List only 1-2 beads a week" thing. I think it is better to update more often, even with not so many beads, than to wait until you have more and be forgotten in the meantime.

And you can do the commission-basis besides fairs and / or an internet shop.

What I think you should not do:
* stop selling you beads
* stop experimenting
* take down the shop

Good luck with your sellings!

[Kaz]

This is a difficult one and something that all of us doing this as a hobby/sideline rather than a real business face. I think it is about being honest with yourself about what you expect from it and what you want the outcome to be. My own position is that I am usually able to devote upwards of 8 - 10 hours a week, which means I can make 2 or 3 sets (or so) for selling to keep me in glass and then still have time to play with glass aand experiement and produce odds and ends and stuff for swaps. I also sell my odds and ends at a realistic price if they are not really fugly or wonky and people have been pleased with them. I know I cannot make a living from it - or at least not a living that comes anywhere close to what I earn from my consultancy business - therefore I am being pragmatic about my expectations - that may change over time as my circumstances change. Ideally, I would like to build up a bit of a following so that the demand for my beads outstrips the supply and I can risk charging a bit more for them. My longer term aim is that this is something I will take with me into semi-retirement and retirement and that it might earn me a few quid a week towards bills and food shopping. Ultimately, I will offer teaching - when I have reached a stage where I am sufficiently confident to do that. It is the same dilemma in a way that Julie mentioned in another thread - what do you do when you want to increase production but there are only some many hours in the day and one pair of hands. My own view is that upping production will not work, it is only by upping quality and commanding higher prices for your work that would make it sustainable. Remember, Sabine you belong to you (thanks Jane ) and it is up to you to work this in a way that suits you, not what you think other people might expect of you.
On a practical level, my own position is to list batches of beads on ebay on a less frequent basis and also keep my "better" beads on my website at a higher price.
HTH
Kaz
BTW I am bored stiff here in Doncaster!!!!

[Isabelle]

 Everything Verena said! Oooh, and Kaz too, I'm not typing fast enough!
I don't think I have the temperament for fairs, but if you do, they seem to be a good outlet. The commissions idea is brilliant, and then you could save the rest of the time for experimenting/growing. Even for one or two beads a week, people will check your shop. What you mustn't do is stop!! :-))

[Fired Silver]

Are we all in a pondering mood today  

I DO NOT think you should stop selling! Having said that, I do think you should really look at whether it's feasible for you right now.  I've had to do this myself recently and have closed my Fired Silver ebay shop for now.  My time is really limited - probably for the same reasons as it's limited for you   and I had to work out what was important with regards to my "business".  Supplying other people so that they could be creative I decided wasn't important at this stage.  I was spending my free time packing orders.

I think listing a couple of things a week is a good idea, I think it's good to see a change in a website even if it is only a couple of things.  If someone doesn't go to your site for a couple of weeks, they'll notice more of a change.

Putting things up for commission is great - but do you have the time make the commissions if you suddenly get 10 in one week??  I've got a commission that I'm really behind on and it's stressing me out big time!!

I've just listed on ebay for the first time in a while and I'll probably have more beads going on there soon.  They go on when they're finished and I can set the time for the auction to end (as you said to get to the PO so that people aren't kept waiting).

In terms of experimenting - decide what it is you want to get out of your business. Is it to make extra cash (profits) or is it to simply sell off beads that are taking over your house and get some money in to buy more glass with!!   If it's the latter then experimenting doesn't get in the way of that.  If you need your bread and butter beads and are limited for time then it's a difficult choice!  I spent most of last year making things that I knew would sell and consequently didn't really experiment very much.  I've changed direction a bit this year now and have a list of challenges pinned above my workstation.  I flit between making to sell and challenges.

It's really difficult to fit everything in - especially with young children.  I've written a sort of business plan for this year to try and get all of this sort of stuff out of my head.  I've got a new business idea which I think will be really popular but it needs quite a lot of work to develop it to the point where I'm ready to launch.  Breaking everything down is (for now anyway!) helping me to stay focused on that business plan and tick the jobs off.  But then I need lists!

I've rambled again - 2nd time today!  Hope it's been of some help - I'm sure someone more useful will be along soon  

Rebecca

[sparrow]

Thanks everybody I'm rather low on a lot of fronts at the moment (especially work-work), so I'm trying to get sorted what I can.

Well, I haven't updated my shop since I started work, I think (4 months), and I might have made £20 in that time (sold, that is, not profit, obviously). I don't mind pouring in more money than I make, it is a hobby, and I don't really want added pressure (family & job take care of that). Having said that, I enjoy having a happy customer, so I don't mind commissions (having only ever had 2), a paying one is even better. I think I'm more after the buzz of a sale than the money. I think, looking at it critically, my prices are too high, so I'd possibly shift more if they came down. Maybe I'll list a few things on Ebay after my holidays, including a couple of flowers, because I've got no idea how to price them

Thanks again!

[Fired Silver]

How you're feeling is totally understandable!  If you ever want to let off steam feel free to PM me!!

Rebecca

[mizgeorge]

Of course you missed one option Sabine.

You could just send everything you make to me. And I will love them and stroke them and eventually make them into stuff....

Seriously, don't stop any of it! I suspect you'll find that everything will find its own level in time, and it will all fall into place. As long as you're not depending on sales for the income, then you should only do what is fun to do. I think commissions could be a good idea - as long as you limit how many you take on, and don't end up hating them!

I will never a successful at the selling thing - I can't bear doing fairs (I end up wanting to give things away if people like them!), and I dislike face-to-face selling. I lack the confidence to trog round the galleries (though there are plenty around here, and most are full of expensive tat). Plus I can't be bothered with all the networking, blogging, site updating, multiple shopfronts blah blah blah stuff that seems to be required. So I remind myself that I do this for fun as well - and try to let it be a self-funding hobby that also challenges me on both a technical and creative level.

Don't let how you feel right now stop you making things though - you are far too talented, and, more importantly, I think you'd miss it. One of the things I learned after 20 years in an increasingly technology-dominated so-called creative industry is the value of making things with our hands and minds. There are few things as satisfying, and liberating, as to be able to turn a bunch of ordinary looking raw materials into something of beauty - even if only to our own eyes.

Wherever did all that come from.....

[Billie]

I agree with everyone, and like you Sabine, I only get a couple of hours a week if I'm lucky.  It's more like 4 to 6 hours a month.  I've found over the last few months though that all I've worked on is commissions which has allowed me to get most glass restocked and some tools I really wanted.  My website hasn't been updated for three months and is unlikely to be until after the summer holidays are over.  To keep myself in people's minds I've been doing the odd giveaway, try to keep pictures current on Facebook and Flickr and blogging (although that has also fallen by the wayside since the end of June too).  Until Ruby also starts nursery in the mornings after Christmas it's impossible for me to make enough to update my site monthly, let alone weekly    At the end of the day I refer to myself as a semi-professional as this is a self funding hobby until the girls are in school full-time and all money I make buys fresh supplies so I try to take my frustrations of not getting to the torch very often out on the furniture by kicking it hard occasionally.  One day the money I make might fund a holiday!!! 

[Vicki]

I'm pretty small scale, when the boys are at school I get more time & probebly get 2 - 4 sets on ebay a week, possibly a few more simple sets on the website & maybe some comissions, I always have enough to pay my credit card that funded the whole shabang & some left over for materials or whatever, I'm paying the bills, but it keeps me quiet, of course its the holidays at the moment & not much is getting done.  I would like to do fairs someday, but don't get the time to stock up a full table, I think I spend to much time fannying about trying to think of new stuff & failing   i think in an ideal world we would add things to our website everyday to give 'em stuff to look at, but people still seem to look at mine even though it doesn't realy change from one day to the next, maybe if the holidays lasted longer it would be a different matter...I've never been good at selling myself, thats my biggest problem

[Kaz]

Well, Vicki - you may be interested to know that before I joined FH, I was quite active in an ebay jewellery group - Designers E-Guild - and your name came up regularly as one of the top lampwork beadmakers in the UK!!!!
Kaz

[Billie]

See Vicki.  One of the UK's top lampworkers needs to have a bespoke knobs section on her site 

[Vicki]

Well, Vicki - you may be interested to know that before I joined FH, I was quite active in an ebay jewellery group - Designers E-Guild - and your name came up regularly as one of the top lampwork beadmakers in the UK!!!!
Kaz

did it? well bugger me

See Vicki.  One of the UK's top lampworkers needs to have a bespoke knobs section on her site 

your comment made me chuckle, you should check out the picture i just uploaded onto face book   

[Billie]

See Vicki.  One of the UK's top lampworkers needs to have a bespoke knobs section on her site 

your comment made me chuckle, you should check out the picture i just uploaded onto face book   
[/quote]

OOOooh, off for a look!

[Billie]

Blimey!!!! I need a cold shower