Approaching Retailers Seminar - long post!!

This post was originally posted in February last year but I thought it would be useful to share again :)

Last Wednesday I went to a seminar held at Inc Creative in Keighley. It was run by Neil Campbell from Business Specs and it was a very interesting evening. The first point he made was about your actual product - where does it sit in the market? What is your price point? And most importantly, what is your USP (unique selling point) If you don't have a USP then price has to be your key selling point.

My USP is that the large majority of my stuff is unique - once it's gone, it's gone!

Then you need to look at the sector of the market that your product fits into. Also observing trends helps as you can see where your product fits in with those. Also understanding your consumer is vital - certain products fit certain people and once you know who your demographic is you can target them. All of this is more about your product and not the retailers yet but of course you have to get your product right before approaching retailers.

Then Neil said something which I think is very difficult for for the small scale designer/maker to comprehend - we should make the retailers think that they are lucky to have our work in their shop. Now I don't know about you but when I get a retailer who wants to stock my things I jump for joy (often literally!) and often feel very grateful. Neil thinks that we should actually choose the retailers who stock our work very carefully which is a strange concept for me - in the past I have grabbed any opportunity that comes along. But thinking about it, it makes much more sense - target your products to the right people and places and avoid making mistakes.

He is just here to add some colour to this post!

There are 2 main types of deal that retailers will offer you - wholesale or sale or return. I won't go into these as I'm sure you will know about them but there are some points Neil had about SOR. Get them to sign for the goods on the delivery so that both parties know where they are (I do this already so do I get a brownie point?!) and have a return notice period which I hadn't thought about at all. It makes a great deal of sense though so that each of you knows exactly where you stand. And it also gives an opt out from both sides if the goods aren't selling or either side isn't happy for any reason. Neil suggested 7 day terms but I think that isn't enough - I would aim for 3 or 4 weeks myself. It's a good deal for the retailer as stock rotates fairly quickly and they get fresh things in (providing they want to continue stocking you!) There should also be a ceiling price on your goods that you should stick to across all your shops/stockists/websites so that retailers don't think that they are competing against your own website. And another good point that Neil raised is once you have these contacts, then make sure you keep them. Get in touch with your retailers and see how things are going. Pop in if you can and try to foster a relationship with them. If they are decent retailers they will want your work to sell as it means money for them as well as for you!

So how do you pitch to potential retailers? Research the shop first - will your products fit? Are they at the right price point for that particular shop? A phone call to verify the best time to go in is a good idea and then make sure you stick to that! Introduce yourself and your company. A great opening line is 'I've chosen to call you and I'd like to work with you because........' Another good line is 'I believe my products are complimentary but I would like to know more about your business' Next is when you show off your product ask about comparable product lines and how many they sell. What do they expect from you in terms of lead times? And always repeat back what they have said to you to make sure you both understand where you are coming from.

The last little bit is rushed as I have been writing this blog post for the last two hours and it's bedtime but I would love to know what you think. Are these things you stick to? Do you have any other advice? What works for you in terms of approaching retailers?

52 books - part seven

My readings for the last month :)

This book was recommended to me by Laura at Dropstitch and I'm so glad I listened. This book follows the story of Patroclus who is exiled to the court of Achilles and his father. It's a brilliant book and I highly advise that you buy it!

This is a book I've had on my shelf for a while and it's set in a high school in America. It's a young adults book that deals with some serious issues - I'm keeping this one for Anya to read when she gets older.

Matt bought this for me from Kickstarter so I don't think it's officially out for release yet. There is a Facebook group dedicated to the Academy Of Magick with updates about when the book is out - well worth a look! I loved it and I have friends who will love it too so they are next on the list to share it with.

I loved this play! It's very amusing and made me laugh out loud which isn't bad for a play written in the 1890's. It's also fairly short (I read it over lunch one day) so you won't waste too much time if you don't like it!

I must admit that I only read Brokeback Mountain in this series of short stories. I really did try to read some others but I just couldn't get into them. I really quite fancy seeing the movie now.

And I'm not counting them in this round up but I've been reading lots of fan fiction online too so that kind of makes up for the shortness of Brokeback Mountain :)

37/52 - any recommendations for further books to read?

Oh and the 150 books we sorted last month to go to the charity shop turned into 400 over the weekend. However our shelves are still full - how did that happen?

And so it starts....

One box done, 20 million to go. It's a start at least :)

Busy blah blah, excuses blah blah :)

Busy due to school holidays, frantic thinking about the new house, frantic thinking about how we managed to get this much stuff into this house and how it's all going to fit into the rooms we have ready in the new house, Country Living fair prep frantic thinking (not long to go to get lots of stock made!) oh and did I mention that it is school holiday so I have two extra helpers??

And breathe!! Things always work out in the end don't they? And to keep you happy here are some pictures of the lovely Ben Wishaw (he was Q in Skyfall) Well you can't have a picture less post now can you ;)

So we went to an auction the other day....

.....and bought a new house :) Well I say house but it's actually a church that is partially renovated!

Yes that's it!

Yes it's all of it and yes there are some gravestones that will be in our garden (the rest of the graveyard doesn't belong to us) There are two bedrooms, a kitchen/diner, bathroom all to one side and a snug to the other side that are all finished so that we can live in it while we do the rest of it up. The liveable bits also have doors so that the unfinished bits/dust/dirt can be closed off :) It's about 20 minutes from where we live at the moment and is back in Yorkshire (just!)

We get the keys at the end of August and are beyond excited!!

Questions welcome - I'm adding them into here :)

Louisa - yes we will be keeping most of the nave as full height but the sides will have two floors as well as there being a gallery at one end. We have access to the tower but that will be the last thing we do - the plans have a floor up there with double staircases going up to it!

Say It - it's partially renovated at the moment so we have their plans to go from so not as scary as it seems and yes, I will have a much bigger workroom than the one I have at the moment!

Garden tales

So the good weather has been here for a few days now and the garden is springing into action like mad (those bloody weeds!)

This is the view out of our front door down the steps to the gate - there are lots of plants packed into that space!

These are on the left as you come out of the front door - beans, many carrots and tomatoes.

And these are on the right - peas galore, more tomatoes and some beetroot too.

The front windowsill/floor/bench - millions of radishes, garlic, onions (I have just pulled some and they are drying in the sun right now!) spinach and chard.

The raspberries are looking better and new growth is coming on the ones I thought had died! I have high hopes for these in years to come!

The courgette seems to like it's pot and is growing well although the pumpkins that I planted out ready to grow up the trellis have been eaten by slugs :(

And the strawberries are doing well - the ones I bought from the garden centre that is. The wild ones I'm growing from seed finally have some small green shoots so they may be planted out later in the year depending on how they look.

How is your garden growing?

Hexipuffing away!

My hexipuff quilt hasn't grown much since the last time I shared it's progress (you can see the start of it's story here) but I am making more of the hexipuffs themselves.

When we were away at Camperjam last weekend the girls really wanted to help so I gave them the task of stuffing the hexis. They thoroughly loved that and Anya even sewed one up on her own which she was mightily pleased with (hey, it might grow quicker if I have a helper!)

And here are a selection waiting to be sewn onto the quilt itself. That '10 years until it's done' prediction isn't looking as silly now!

This time of year

There must be something in the air at this time of year re blogging and feeling crappy/tired/distracted by internet and having no motivation. I wrote my brain vomit post at this time of year last year and others have also mentioned motivation/distraction issues too. I think the correct term for it is end-of-term-itis! So to cheer everyone up here is a picture of old man Harry dog in a very cute tweed hat :)

Isn't he cute? He doesn't like wearing it though so it will only be for photographs!

Life blah blah

I'm not going to apologise for not blogging much at the moment but I will say I want to come back to regular blogging soon. But my excuses are;

Life

End of school term soon

Garden

Wholesale orders

Wasting time on the internet Oooops I mean research :)

Panicking about how much stock I have to make for Country Living but not actually making any of it!

A very messy craft room which means I can only just about get to my sewing machine.

Anyway, here are some pretty pictures to cheer up this post - oh yes I'm still pinning (see 'research' excuse above!)

52 books, 52 weeks - part 6

Hey, look at this - it's the first of the month and I'm already up to date with my book list :) Go Lynsey!

This is the second time I have read The Scarlet Letter and I must admit it dragged a bit on second reading. I'm assuming it's because I knew what happened and I was just waiting for it to get to that point. I first came across this book when a customer in the pub I worked in in my home town (I was 18/19) was reading it at the bar one day and he encouraged me to have a read!

I got about 6 chapters into this book and realised I'd read it recently (maybe late last year) but I carried on reading anyway. I love one of the main characters in this book and the other I dislike immensely and she doesn't come across much better second time round! Good book though and very readable.

Another thriller and this one was a bit meh. There were likeable characters but it seemed to drag on quite a bit without revealing anything of interest and then suddenly bam, all the information came at once. I have a couple of other books by Tami Hoag so I will see how I go with those.

I got this out of the library (and it's actually a bit late back as I forgot to take it back with the others!) and it's a very good read. I was drawn to it because of my recent obsession with vegetable gardening and for a factual book it was very easy to read. There are quite a few numbers in there but it shows how  well war time efforts to grow your own food worked.

32/52

I hoard books but something snapped this weekend and we sorted out 120 books to go to the charity shop without really thinking about it/sorting properly. Oh and that's only off a few shelves in the study. Imagine what would happen if I went through each book, one by one! Maybe I should stop going to the library as much and read the books I've got!