By mouth{JT}

I have been selling what I make for a very long time now. Different crafts such as children’s drawings, greeting cards, crochet, etc., but for the most part, I made serious money from pottery and ceramics. I’ve picked up a few tricks along the way, and so I’m passing them along. If they can be of any benefit to others, great.

Firstly, do (make) something you love.

You have to love what you’re doing. Otherwise, you will never survive it. You’re putting in hours and hours of work for far less than the minimum wage, so loving what you’re doing is an absolute must. Make that product unique to you in some way – style, design, technique; it really dosen’t matter so long as it’s recognizable as “yours”. (For example, a few years ago, every ceramist was making fairies, and cheaply – about a tenner each. I chose to make my fairies very gothic-looking and naughty, semi-nude with ripped fishnet stockings, for $30 each, and I couldn’t keep up with demand.)

Give good value for money.

Always do that little bit more, for free. It will pay off in the long run. If someone, for example, orders some journals, add a couple of book marks and mention it in a covering note, so they know the add-ons are a freebie, purely because you appreciate their business. In ceramics, I would spend a lot of down time at home painting endless small pieces to give as freebies to clients’ children. And if the parents didn’t buy? Hey, it ain’t the kids’ fault. A small egg with a chick peeking out of it cost me maybe twenty cents to make, and I always found that if you make the kid happy, the mum is far more likely to buy. These small things I would make while watching TV, and carry with me every time I went to sell.

Offer a better commission rate.

This is easy to do if you remember one simple rule: Never give commission in cash, but always in goods. Goods are a fraction of the cost to make.

Give clients limited choice.

I learned this the hard way. A client wanted something done in blue, so I hauled out a paint chart, and they chose Azure Blue. I didn’t have the color in stock and so had to buy it, and ended up using very little out of a jar that sat there doing nothing afterwards. What I should have done was offered three colors: light, medium and dark. The more choices a person has, the worse it gets. Keep it simple.

Lastly, practise.

Practise, practise, practise. It’s boring, I know, but you get better and better – better than your competitors. Perfection, or as close as you can get to it, only comes from endless practise. I have made several thousand greeting cards, and I still have the first one I ever made pinned to my wall, to remind myself how far I’ve come. It is bad (my word, but it is bad). Now, well, there’s a big difference. (There’s a divider here – people either buy the best or buy the cheapest.)

The Market

So you’ve decided on your product, and now you want to sell it. You have to decide if you want to make it an expensive product and only sell a few, or a mass appeal product that will sell loads. I’ve always been in favor of the former. Personally, I would rather sell one real up-market looking piece for $100 than ten pieces at $10 each. My own rule is I never, but never, sell seconds at a cheaper rate. I either destroy it, or give it to friends or family. I think, in the craft world, reputation is everything, but that’s just my opinion. (There’s also a weird subset of clients that actually want to pay a lot of money. Bragging rights, and all that.)

How you sell is entirely up to you. Internet, direct to shops, word of mouth, party plan, all of them – it doesn’t matter as long as you sell. I have always sold by party plan or word of mouth. A typical night for me would be to load up the car with about five boxes of stuff, arrive at a client’s house, and set everything out on the floor. The client would invite all her friends, and I would then give a small speech (cringe) and invite people to touch, pick up, and feel things, then ask for all the children to come see what I was doing. I’d lay out all my little “freebies” and invite the kids to take one home, to keep for their very own (the mums just melt). Then I’d remove myself from the room, saying come see me if they had any questions (usually making a joke that I would be in the kitchen scoffing the snacks), then – leave them alone. No one wants someone hovering over them pushing them to buy. (Oh, and the kids’ freebies? Sorry, only available at parties. A party? Sure, I can do one for you. I give twenty percent commission in goods, on anything you want.)

Two to three hours later, I was packing up my boxes with orders for roughly a grand – maybe even $2000 on a good night. The hostess collected the money for me, and three weeks to a month later, I delivered. All I had to do was one a week to make enough money, and when the client’s friends saw the amount she got for just having the party, they would have one themselves.

Nowadays, I don’t party plan, but it was really good income for almost twenty years. And it’s still out there – I was asked recently if I still did them myself. But crafting, art, whatever you want to call it, is a passion of mine, and I still sell the odd few things, all by word of mouth. I rarely take orders, preferring to do what I want. I make weird one of a kind things, and yes, they’re kind of expensive, but I remind myself of the words, “You only get what the market thinks it’s worth.” I was very fortunate to have some incredibly loyal clients, who, through their own word of mouth, introduced me to others who were interested in the one of a kinds. I do limited runs, choosing my own medium, making a few things, and then placing a phone call, and so have gotten a reputation for the, “I’m looking for something a bit different for my sister,” client.

Ka-ching!

I hope this has been of some help to anyone reading, and please bear in mind this is very much an overall view. If anyone wants me to go into more detail, shoot me a message!)