This Stickman public service announcement is almost ten inches tall. As we come out of this lockdown, businesses are going to have all kinds of safety requirements in place. Many will be asking their customers to wear a mask. A simple reminder at the checkout lane may be helpful. Anyplace where people gather will require constant reminders until we all adjust to this new norm.
Where to sell you crafts this summer:
This summer could be a tough season for crafters who normally sell at arts and craft shows. Many of those events have been or will be canceled until further notice.
I had a suggestion from a reader the other day that I had not thought about. Many farmer's markets now allow prepared food and craft vendors to sell their products at the location. I don't know if it is common all over but where I live the farmer's markets are considered essential and will remain open.
It is going to take considerable thought to determine if the conditions are safe enough to set up a booth and sell craft items. I know that a few of you depend on the income from your craft sales to supplement your income. If you cannot get out this season then maybe the farmer's market can help recover some of the lost revenue.
I have spoken to a few scrollers who are going to try to move their sales online. By all means, dive in and give it a shot. The competition online at places like Etsy.com and Ebay.com is absolutely brutal. Average prices for sales on Etsy are driven down by the large numbers of sellers. We are talking over 2.5 million sellers. sales online are all about getting eyeballs on your product. Those 2.5 million sellers cut up the pie into thin slices.
The good news is that there were nearly 50 million buyers on Etsy in 2019. That is a pretty big pie.
If you do start an Etsy store or eBay make sure you try to bring your past customers with you. Hopefully, you have maintained a list of the email address from past sales. When you collected those email address you should have had an opt-in for future emails. If you did that then send every past customer an invitation to your new online store.
Etsy makes it pretty easy to set up a new store. There are many videos on YouTube showing the details. Here is one video that has a lot of information. She talks fast but seems knowledgeable. Make sure you understand the fees associated with Etsy. They are not bad but you need to price your products with the fees in mind.
It is not uncommon to spend years building a customer base to sell arts and crafts. If you want to stand out then you have to stand out big time. Be unique. Be special. Be smart and give it the time to develop. It took me almost five years to turn a profit online. That is a long time so you have to make sure you do not overextend your cash thinking you will make an instant profit and pay the banker back. It seldom works out that way. Especially for a product like arts and crafts.
Good luck.
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Every Scrollsaw Workshop Pattern from 2007-2019 on DVD
This DVD has over 2,900 patterns published from 2007 thru 2019.
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The DVD is $20 plus shipping. Ships to 60 countries around the world.
If you use the DVD on a Windows PC there is a simple viewer program to browse through the patterns.
The DVD also works fine on a MAC. The viewer program is not MAC compatible but there is an included PDF with all the patterns shown as thumbnails for easy viewing.
All the same file but in an easy to use thumb drive. The USB thumb drive option is $23 plus shipping.
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