Who Is Your Customer
This is the most important question you need to ask yourself when you decide to start selling your work.
Before you can choose where to sell you need to know how much you want to sell your work for and who is your potential customer. I shared with you how to price your work in my blog post on pricing, which I hope helped you to price your work fairly and so you will make a profit. Based on what you are making and how much you are selling it for this class will help you choose what is the best market for you.
Finding Your Market or Where to Sell Your Work
Basically, there are two options; either in person by you or your representative this would be through a gallery or gift shop. Or the second option is selling your work online.
Let’s start with selling your work in person.
Farmers Markets
Farmer’s Markets are a fantastic place to sell your work especially if you make food ware. The booth fees are very low, and the customers are looking to buy handmade pottery to go with their food purchases. Years ago, I started out by selling my own work at farmers markets and did very well. Just be aware that people at farmers markets are looking for functional ware at reasonable prices. If you make one of a kind hand carved pieces that start at $200 then this may not be the best venue for you.
Craft and Art Fairs
These vary widely in both the booth fees and the customer that attends and can be hit or miss. I have done fairs where I have sold almost everything in my booth and I’ve done fairs where I sold nothing. If there is one you are thinking of applying to, I suggest you attend it first to get a feel for the customer, the other vendors and if your work would fit in there. Another thing, better craft and art fairs will be juried and require an application so be prepared with images of your work and your booth set up.
This is a great way to talk with potential customers face to face and to get feedback on what they are looking for.
Your Studio
This can be one of the easiest ways to sell your work if you are willing to put in the time and effort. You will need to set regular business hours and plan to be there which can be quite a commitment on your part. You also need to look into how accessible your studio is as well as liability insurance. You can have a very successful studio business. You will need to do a fair bit of promotion to let folks know where you are, when you are open and what you have.
A great option is if your area holds an Open Studio Weekend. Here in Vermont we have the Vermont Crafts Council that sponsors two such weekends, one in the Spring and one in the Fall. They print a map, signs, posters, promote the event and offer advice on how to have a successful OSW. All you have to do is pay a reasonable fee to participate, follow their advice and promote your event online and be in your studio for those days.
You may want to consider advertising in local papers but there are many free options such as posting on social media, putting up a poster at your library, community center, school, chamber of commerce or anywhere that you think your potential customers will see it.
Local Galleries
This a one of the easiest ways to get your work out into your local community. Usually these break down into two categories; a private gallery and co-op or member run galleries.
Private Galleries
These galleries are owned by an entity that will show and sell your work for a percentage of any sales of your work. Often these galleries will take 50 percent of the sale. This seems like a lot but consider that they do all of the promotion of your work, cover all of the overhead for the gallery including the salary for the sales staff, bags, packing materials, shipping and so much more. The benefit of this is that it frees you up to spend your time making your work and not the selling aspect.
The down side is that you are paying up to 50% commission. Also, you will be responsible for delivering your work to the gallery, maintaining an inventory list and keeping it stocked with new work.
Co-op Galleries
These are often run by its members this means you will be expected to sit shifts in the gallery, pay a commission on your sales, a membership fee and possibly a monthly rent. The commissions here vary widely, but they are usually around 20 % which is much lower than a private gallery, but you still have to commit your time and still pay fees or commissions.
One of the biggest benefits of belonging to a co-op is the opportunity to be part of a community of artists focused on supporting and helping each other sell their work. I have meet some of my dearest friend through co-op galleries that I have been part of. I will however caution you that sometimes co-op galleries don’t work out. It can be very difficult working with so many different, unique personalities who may be more interested in looking out for their best interest and not the gallery’s. Also, I will add that not everyone has a head for business so having a gallery run by someone like this could end badly.
Gift Shops, Cafés, Coffee Shops
Selling your work in local shops can be one of the simplest and most rewarding ways of selling. Usually these are local, so they get your work out in to your community. They are staffed so you won’t have to worry about sitting shifts. One of the best parts is they often take a smaller percentage of each sale, this tends to be around 25 % -35 % which is completely reasonable. They have quite a bit of foot traffic which is good, but the downside is that sometimes things can get broken.
You will want to be sure you have a detailed inventory sheet and to check often to see what you’ve sold and the condition of your work on display.
Pop-Up Gallery
This can be a fun way to sell your work with other artists over a short period of time, but it can require a lot of time and planning. You will need to find a location to host your Pop-up and other artists whose work you want to sell alongside. You will need to plan on sitting in the location when it is open, and you’ll need to advertise your event and possibly make postcards. Be prepared to pay rent for the space or commission to the owner of the space and set up a way to take payment from customers.
Also, if you are setting up in an empty store front you may need to have the space painted, shelves or pedestals installed and even pay for utilities for the duration of your Pop Up event.
Selling Online
Now let’s look at selling your work online. This can be through your own website, an online gallery, a craft site like Etsy or through social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram.
Your Own Website
Selling on your own website is a great way to make your work available to the public and you won’t have to pay a gallery commission! You just upload the images of your work (of course you have to take the images first), a description and sale price. Your website has to have an eCommerce plug-in, so you can manage your product inventory and connect your shopping cart to your payment processor. Setting one of these up from scratch is beyond this class but there are plenty of tutorials out there.
Another option is to use a service such as Shopify, Square Space or any of the website builders with built in shopping capabilities, which is what I recommend. These also provide website layouts and hosting which can be great if you are setting up your website for the first time.
Etsy
Perfect for those who don’t have a website and want an easy and fast way to start selling their work. It is very simple to use, and Etsy offers great tutorials on everything from taking photos of your work, writing good copy and how to promote your shop.
There are millions of people selling through Etsy, so you cannot rely on Etsy alone to generate sales for you. You will need to promote your work and then send people to your Etsy shop. Etsy charges a listing fee for each item and another fee when you sell the item. These are small and in comparison, to gallery commissions really not a big deal.
When I first started to sell my work online, I found Etsy to be a simple way to get the work out there and for customers to be able to buy it.
Social Media: Facebook / Instagram
This is a casual way to sell your work to your friends and followers. Social media is fast becoming one of the most popular ways of showing and selling your work and it’s easy to do! You just post pictures of your work and in your post, you write that if anyone is interested, they can message you for the price. Then they pay you (more on how to take payment further on in this class), you ship out their piece and it’s done!
Easy peasy lemon squeezie!
Online Galleries
Many people find that using an online gallery like Artful Home or Artsy is a better fit for them. The way these works is: you submit an application and fee then you wait and see if you are accepted. If you are accepted, you pay a yearly membership fee (up to $300) along with a commission of around 50 % for each sale. You will have a page on the online gallery’s website where you upload your images to and wait for sales to happen which leaves you free to concentrate on making more work. The online gallery will promote your work and handle the sale details. You still need to let customers know that your work is available through the online gallery and promote it on social media. Once your piece sells you pack and ship it to the buyer and then you get a check from the online gallery for your portion of the sale.
I feel this can be a good way to sell your work but only if you are making one of a kind high end work that can justify the high yearly membership fee and the 50% commission.
Inventory Sheets
Regardless of where you sell your work you want to be sure to keep detailed records ad inventory sheets. I always list out each item, a complete description including dimensions and the retail value. I make two copies of this and sign both of them, when I am dropping off or sending out work to a gallery, I ask them to sign and return one copy to me and to keep the other I their records. This might seem like over kill but anyone who has lost work to an unscrupulous gallery will tell you that it is not!
Contract
No matter how nice the organization seems to be it is always in your best interest to have a contract. This will outline what each parties’ expectations of each other are and what happens if one of you decides to terminate your relationship. Sometimes galleries close very suddenly, and the owners disappear leaving the ownership of your work in limbo. I hope you never experience this but by having a contract and up to date inventory sheets you will be protecting yourself and your work.
Getting Paid
We all want to make it easy for our customers to buy our work and for us to get paid in a timely manner. There are so many ways to get paid that it can seem overwhelming. I will share with you at a few simple to use ways you can get paid for selling both in person and online.
Cash or Check
Cash is king, but you don’t want it sent to you in the mail. Cash or a check is great for in person transactions or for your commission checks from galleries, but it doesn’t work well for online sales. For these you’ll want to consider other options which I will go over next. Also, I have found that customers will spend more if they can use a credit/debit card, so it is always good to offer this option.
Square
Simple, fast and easy. I use square for all credit card transactions done in my studio and at craft fairs. Once you sign up Square will send you a card reader (for a fee) that you use with your smartphone or iPad along with their app. You can also link it to your website for online sales. The fees are very reasonable and listed up front on their website www.squareup.com
PayPal
I love using PayPal!!! It is in my opinion this app is the fastst and easiest way to send invoices and get paid from private sales. When I sell my work on Facebook I always PayPal the customer the invoice via their email, so they can pay me in a fast and secure manner. All you do is sign up (you’ll have to link your bank account, so the money has someplace to go to and to come from) then you fill out an invoice with the purchasers’ email address, the item and the amount for them to pay you. Then you just hit send and the invoice is sent to them then when they pay it you’ll get a notice from PayPal.
PayPal does take a small percentage of the sale 2-3% but it is so worth it for the convenience.
Venmo
I have only used Venmo a few times but it was really easy. You download the secure app and link it to your bank then you just open the app and request to receive or send money to another Venmo user. It is similar to PayPal except that it is FREE, yes that’s right there are no fees at all. How they make their money I have no idea, but I am assuming it’s from ads somewhere, but I have not seen any on the Venmo app.
Perhaps you know and if so please enlighten me!
Price Consistency
This is one of the most important aspects of selling your work. If you do not keep your prices the same no matter where you are selling it will come back to haunt you. Say you sell at a gallery a few towns over and once in a while at a local farmers market. You sell your mugs at the gallery for $40 each and the same mugs at the farmers market for $30. The gallery takes 50% commission while the farmers market cost $20 for a table so you can charge less at the farmers market than at the gallery, right? Wrong! Because if a customer buys your mug for $40 at the gallery then sees it at the farmers market for $30 they will feel that they overpaid and they will not be happy. Most likely they will not buy your work again and they will tell their friends and that will be very bad for your business. You must keep your prices the same no matter where you are selling. That is why it is so important to know what you need to sell each piece for in order to make a profit.
For more on this see my blog post on pricing your work.
Taxes
I cannot stress enough how important it is that you file your taxes. Make sure you apply for and file the correct paper work to collect and pay your taxes. If not this can really come back to haunt you! I don’t want you breaking any laws and going to jail because then I’d feel bad and have to bake you a cake with a file hidden inside it so you can break out of jail and because I’m terrible at keeping secrets I’d get caught delivering the cake and then we’d both be in jail and not making pottery!… So file your paperwork, pay your taxes and stay out of Jail!
If you do not know what paperwork you have to complete just contact the Department of taxes for your state and they can help you out.
Rewards of Selling Your Work
Selling your work has so many rewards beyond the monetary. I feel that knowing that you are bringing joy to another through the use of your work is the best job satisfaction possible. Of course, we all need to eat, and we can’t keep every pot we make so it makes sense to sell our work.
I know that this is a very densely packed class, but I wanted to give you all the information that I wish I knew when I started selling my work.
I hope you find this helpful and that you make lots of happy pots and sell them too!