Tag: Wholesale

You want to be small fry or a big fry?

You wanna make $10 or $10,000?

That is the ultimate question.  Indie sites, like Etsy, Farmer’s Markets, and Vendors shows as well as many of these other small handmade businesses are great. You are making money here and there. But after talking with a mentor this week the big question loomed out there.

do I want to do my passion and potentially make no money or do I want to be in business? This is the difference i the $10/$10,000…seriously.

Making money on Etsy is fine for some. It’s $10 here or there. If you are fine with that, then great. I have no problem with that. Maybe you only desire to have a little spending money. Or maybe you just want to earn something for what you love to do.

However, if you want to play with the big kids here is a few things I learned yesterday I actually had no real awareness about til now…

Today I am doing research on Business Models. This is not a model like walking down a runway. I am talking about the Business Model for your company or Brand…aka what you are selling.

  • For every product you make you have to look at it as 1,000 items not one.
  • If Modcloth, or Rebel Circus or QVC Lori Greiner from Shark Tank Modcloth wanted to sell my product I would need to make 1,000 of the same item to be sold in their inventory. That is how it works. (Ok I kinda knew a bit about this but not as much as I learned yesterday)
  • Every product you decide to make you have to ask yourself if this product is worthy of 1,000 of the same item being made?
  • Is this product something you want known as your brand?
  • Is this product something you desire to make 1,000 of?
  • Then there are the channels….
    • That is where you are selling your product or item
    • Retail
    • Consignment
    • Drop Ship
    • Etsy
    • Goodsmiths
    • Square Market
    • Shopify
    • Other
  • This is all alot to take in even for me and I know there is SO much m ore I am not even touching on because well, honestly, I don’t know it all. 🙂

I found this online and really like the explanation of it so I thought I would share…

  • I also found this explanation of Goods on Wiki that I think is helpful as well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_good 
  • Learning about your Goods and what you have and where it fits in this stream is a good thing to know.
  • I think it makes a difference in how you move forward…
  • I am currently looking up Business Models of brands I like and that inspired me.
  • Uniqlo is one of them. Here is their model

I am a lover of Modcloth. So when I was doing research for this blog I found this little diddy and fell in love with the story. Check out how Modcloth made it here http://mashable.com/2013/08/13/modcloth-scaling/

I am going to drop off this subject with this little board I saw and think this might be a good thing to find inmy notes from Leonie Dawson and Right Brain business Plan…I have something like this from them..Might be a good place to restart my engines..

Now we move onto to channels (or what I am learning about them anyway)

This is the old way

This is the new way (or so it seems to be the most)…Shop Channel sites like ones I mentioned earlier

  • Etsy
  • Goodsmiths
  • SquareMarket
  • Shopify
  • IndieMade
  • other (What are you using that I don’t have in this list so I can update my list…please comment)

My mentor challenged me to a couple of “homework” items to make some changes to change my thinking and how I am doing business based on the answer I gave him..

Which was..

I want to make $10,000, be in business and get off this presipus I am on.

Step one:

I need to make it easier for my customers to buy off my website. I have a lot of people who say they love my site www.trishatrixie.com 

but the feedback from my customers is they have a hard time finding out HOW to buy things and WHERE to get things, HOW to order a custom Apron or Accesorry and so forth.

So I have to fix that.

I have these channels:

Brick and Mortor Stores:

Inspired Locally

Burlesque Hall of Fame

Green Goods for the Home

then I have two channels for online stores

Goodsmiths for my Comic Creations (Actions Aprons/ Superhero Inspired pieces etc)

and

Square Market for everything else

(I have two because Goodsmiths does not currently have an Andoird Swipe and Square does. However I have an Itouch and am going to test out if I can use the Swipe on the Itouch and that might alleviate some things)

then I have a Fashion Question Form for them to order Custom (but yet even that form is still unclear)

However people aren’t getting it…which leads to step two

Step Two…

Clean out old inventory if it did not sell.

Post pictures of current inventory ON my website and lead /drive them to the online channels

Have the picture DIRECT link to the BUY page of that item (why didn’t I think of that!!!?)

Step Three:

Take time to focus on my Residual Income idea now that I have the time because the third challenge is gonna be the hardest for me as a designer…

DON’T CREATE/MAKE ANYTHING ELSE

I whined…

so he said “Okay, don’t make anything new until something old is sold”

I can do that. 🙂

Now driving business to the page..and I learned it should be one page. This again, was a nice reinforcement as I somewhat already knew this. I used to have a apge for one thing, and then another page for another type and I had one prifle for one thing and one profile for another and so on. When I noticed Danielle La Porte and Susan Barconi Moe and many others were consolidating and turning everything to ONE palce to find it all, that’s when I started adopting this. I may have a few FB pages, but they all lead back to me.

My website it the same. I know (and listen up if you are not following this rule) that all your products should be able to be handled and found on ONE page. It is not good to have a page for one type of product and one page for another type. You WANT people to get to know YOU, your BRAND, who YOU are and to TRUST that brand. If you throw something new it, add it to your current brand under a different line. If your current brand or website does not embody that, then perhaps it is time for a change and time to rebirth your brand. Make your Business name or Brand so unique but simple no matter what you do could be under that brand. Thus why I am Trisha Trixie. Everything that I am falls under that. PinUp. Model. Fashionista. Blogger. Designer.

To some degree I am doing this, but since my shop sites are separate this has been where most of the confusion lies and why it has been an issue.

This has been a struggle for me which is why I was thinking oh I need a merchant account site or I need to pay and so on. How many of us in businesses like this think that way. But in the long run, I knwo there are workarounds and since WordPress.com offers FREE hosting, I have not wanted to go that route. I stare at pages like Shopify and groan thinking “but I like my site. Others like my site. Can’t I just make it better?”

Hopefully, with these changes and updates, I can.

So back to driving business to my ONE page. www.trishatrixie.com

Driving business I think is easier now that we have Social Media outlets like these…

I have seen a vast amount of upscale in sales since I have been using Twitter. But I do not have measureable goals and stats to prove that.

So that is Step Four:

Start Measuring.

Look at stats.

See what is working and what is not. Remove what is not. Make what is working better.

Hopefully, with all of this I will be able to proceed to the next level of sales. Also in cutting down what I am making perhaps it will allow me more time to work on the website idea I am doing, blog to drive more traffic, have time to write articles for magazines and start generating a different drive essentially thus again upping my sales.

Lastly,

as I said in the beginning. If you are fine with the way it is. Then that’s great. I enjoy designing, making creating,  but I want more. Or, at least I think I do. With these tips we will see if I can do things this way. I think this will also answer my questions on Passion or Business?

I realize this means not as much creating and that is the positive sacrifice I am willing to take right now.

My desire (#CDF) in the end is to be #Profitable (ned to add) and these others listed here…

Desires1Desires

I am for the path that takes me there…

My yellow brick road is mine to color, create, sparkle and lead me to however I desire to go. It is up to me to lay each brick down the right way. Otherwise I could end up in some crazy tree land with poppies that steeer me off my path.

I will find my Oz.

One way…or another…I’m gonna find it…

Xoxo Trisha Trixie

One little tidbit I found for ya as I was looking for imags to add to this. Ways to Make Gobs of Money. Check it out.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/9-ways-gobs-money-seriously-123000074.html

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Relative Fashion Terminology

I have learned while being a business owner that there are relative terms that do not necessary mean the same thing to all.I do not mean your relatives.. Sometimes those are bad enough but what I am talking about here are those words that mean one thing to you and can have a WHOLE other meaning to someone else. Watch out! Here is a little more definition on what I am talking about…

A relative word is a word that does not have an exact definition, and can change depending on the context and is very subjective

This list will grow and grow as I go along so I know this post will row and change and I might start making a page of these as a joke, but here are a just a few issues I have had with :

  • ALL: When someone tells you they are going to give you ALL of something you need, make sure you know what their definition of all is and what is yours
  • Help: When someone says they will HELP you make sure you know in what form and what style and how much of their time. Be very clear on expectations for both of you or one of you (I mean you) will be very disappointed. (also goes with volunteer)
  • Carry your line: When someone says they want to carry your line, make sure you know completely what that means to them. One piece? The whole line? One portion of that line?
  • Read :When someone tells you they have read the rules, instructions or directions for something, make sure they truly have because “read” can mean skim, glance, read enough to take a test on it, etc, it does NOT necessarily mean they truly read it
  • Late: Late to you could mean 5 minutes. Late to them means the end of your event
  • Consignment: Consignment can mean 60/40 60 to you 4 to them or 60 to them 40 to you. It can mean 70/30 either way. It can mean you have a side of the boutique or a side of the wall. Make sure you really know the details and get it all in writing
  • Trust: There is no trust. Get that in your head now. The person who is your best friend will and could steal your idea, forget to pay you, not think they should pay you and so on. I am not trying to be cynical, but real.
  • Guarantee: I have heard models tell me the “guarantee” they will be there for a fashion show. Photographers “guarantee” their images, their time, etc. I am learning this means nothing. There is no Guarantee. I have now lumped this into the same as Trust. You can’t trust anyone and there are no guarantees in fashion
  • Wholesale: Lots of stores want wholesale pricing. This has a been a hard lesson for me to learn. I of course feel like I would love to get my items out there in the stores, but learning pricing can be difficult. Some stores mean they want 50% off your MSRP and some stores are willing to go with 25% discount. Make sure you know up front what you are willing to sell your items are wholesale too and keep with that. Store owners do talk to each other and if you give one percentage to one and then change it to another be ready for drama.
  • MSRP: Manufactured Suggested Retail Price. There has been a controversy on what that actually means. Make sure you are clear on this and then when you are marking things down, you are getting your value and profit back
  • Tradeshows: I call everything I do as a show a Tradeshows. To some people a Tradeshow is only a huge big event with high priced tables. Craft shows, trade fairs, hobby shows, and art shows all have many different labels. I am very concerned with changing up what I call these mostly, because the viewpoint of others for selling my items at Craft Shows versus TradeShows. Also on Shark Tank Mr. Wonderful often downgrades and demeans others by telling them they don’t have a  business, they have a hobby or a craft. Be prepared for a variety of shows and call them what you will, just be warned your version of that and others might be two different things.

So there are the words I have for you today. As I said, I am sure I will add to these as I go along. Enjoy these terms. Just be warned and make sure any of those words you are unsure about it get clear definitions and means for what both of you might mean.

 

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