Watcha' sellin' ? (And how are you selling it?)

[Old Greenhorn]

"My wife is in a quilting guilt and..." I think that is a Freudian slip.
My wife had no guilt about her quilting and steadfastly maintains that "she who dies with the most fabric wins". In fact we have two rooms filled to the ceiling with fabric (yes, That's a concern for me). She goes off to these 'groups'  and comes home with bags of scraps that she uses to stuff dog beds. Every time she comes home, I gasp, but keep my mouth shut, I gave up years ago.
I doubt I will ever see her idling away her time, she's not built like that and will almost for sure be 'making stuff' almost every day for needy groups. But IF she ever has time, I could use a little help here and there.

[WV Sawmiller]

  You may have to build and sell quilt racks to display quilts and use your wife's quilts as a display or if you price them right "Every rack purchased today comes with a free quilt" and sell them that way. I have had customers buy lumber to make such racks for their wives and daughters.

[thecfarm]

Yes, life goes on.
Enjoy the time off.

[aigheadish]

Sounds like a good end to what was likely an interesting and challenging run! Congrats Pat (and Tom)! 

My wife stopped doing shows pretty early and now only sells on Etsy. She never gets the big bumps a show can provide but it's slow and steady and a lot less pressure. She's mostly doing it for fun not profit. 

[Old Greenhorn]

I did my last show in Mid-September and thought I was done, but I have this other one coming up in 2 weeks now, indoor and afternoons evenings for 2 days. I have to par down my merch and choose carefully but after my last show I had a list of stuff to start working on re-stocking. I figured I would whittle away at that over the winter, but I have been knocking stuff out faster than I thought. I replaced the trinket boxes, made a bunch of stools, plus some of new designs, a hemlock bench with maple branch legs, a pair of matched RO benches, another hemlock stool, that high back step stool, and a dozen of those floating bottle holders I am putting finishes on now. Another few days and I will be done with all these new adds. 
 Of course I have limited room in this indoor booth, so I got some shelving units from wife wife's show setup and spent time fitting them to my needs and doing a test setup in the shop. I have no idea how I will fit all this stuff in the booth, so I am bringing the whole trailer load and will figure it out as I go. I suspect it will take 3 or 4 hours to get this booth setup, adjusting as I go.

 In the process f all this I began to think about maybe having an 'open shop weekend' and setting all my stuff in the shop and inviting folks in for a shop sale before the holidays. It would take me a long week of work to clean the shop up, stack machines and figure out a layout. I could put some cider on the woodstove and have donuts or something, maybe offer a 10% discount for the event. I could maybe invite my chainsaw carver friend to bring some of his stuff and enjoy that day. His stuff can be a pretty big draw and his place is a bit off the beaten path, much more than me.

 Anyway, there is a bunch of collected experience here and I am wondering if anyone has tried something similar and what you learned and how it worked out for you? I get a strong feeling that I will spend a lot of effort cleaning and setting this up and nobody will show up. My wife did these for a couple of years a long time ago and I can't remember hw she did but it wasn't super, as I recall.

 Any thoughts folks?

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   I like the concept of the open shop event but don't know how well your location will draw folks or what the logistics of such an event would require. The first thing I think of is parking and toilets. Would you need to rent a porta-john or do you have a toilet in the shop people could use?

    I like the idea of inviting other vendors such as the chainsaw carvers you mention. I have said before it is like comparing a yard sale to a flea market. The more attractions the more attendance you should expect.

    I have thought about doing a sawing demo but am far enough off the beaten path I could not expect a lot of attendance. I have done them at the flea market and they work but it is a pain to make a trip over to haul the logs then another to bring the mill then another to remove the lumber and slabs and such. If I could arrange for a customer in the area to bring a few logs and I could saw them there with no hurry so I could stop and talk and answer questions I could saw the customers logs free or deeply discounted.

   I am waiting to see what others thing and suggest. I like the idea though.

[Old Greenhorn]

No Howard, I won't get a porta potty and have no facilities in the shop. I have plenty of parking space. When my wife did these years back she was lucky to get close to a dozen people all weekend. I will invest time in cleaning the shop and making display space (if I do this), but I am not spending any money on it until it develops into something dependable.
 My carver friend turned me down, he sold out all his stock last weekend and it trying to rebuild for black Friday, whatever that means. He's got quite the following he has built over 30 years of doing his thing.

 As I said, it's a lot of work to prep the place and set it up, then re-pack it all up again. Plus I'd have to make some sandwich board signs made up for up at the corner and further out. That's another few days of work. I should have started on the work several weeks ago and I don't know if there is time to do all this without throwing money at it.

 It's just another idea I am rolling around in my head.

[Hilltop366]

Insurance.

I closed my rental office a my parents house to the public a few years ago because our current insurance would no longer cover commercial use so now I meet people at the rental properties instead as they are already covered under a commercial policy. The house/office is in the same driveway as one of the rental properties so it was handy. I still use it as a office but not open to the public which was OK with the insurance company.

Is it worth the risk? Only you can answer that.

[aigheadish]

I love the idea Tom! Yes, it'd take some work to prep for it and would likely take several tries to get folks used to seeing signs with "open today" on them. You get tons of traffic on that major road just a bit out from you. You'd need a big sign there, might I suggest chalkboard paint so you can write the date and address real big on it and use it again later? I think it's a great idea, especially if you can make a "booth" at the front of your shop so you can continue working on stuff if people don't show. You'd be out there anyway, right? 

[YellowHammer]

We didn't build it, but we did sell it...the most expensive single board we have ever sold.  It went to a custom guitar maker of a Nashville country star.  8 inch wide 8/4 jet black, shiny as glass, 45 year old piece of ebony, $200 per board foot. 

Now I have to buy another to sell another.  Oh well. 

[aigheadish]

Got a picture of it @YellowHammer it sounds incredible! How long a board was it?

[Old Greenhorn]

Sounds about right, between the import issues with ebony and the initial expense, it's pricey stuff. Chances are that luthier will resaw that piece into a hundred other parts, It's used for bridge bases, peg head overlays, finger boards, inlays, and a bunch of other stuff. Robert, how long was that chunk? 8/4 by 8' is a pretty big hunk of ebony. The Gaboon variety brings big bucks.

[YellowHammer]

Unfortunately I don't have a picture, it was all I could do to convince Martha to let me buy it, and even harder to convince her that we could sell it.  So I kept it an out of sight, out of mind kind of thing.  We sold a couple small pieces, then a guy comes in from Nashville last week, says he's Alanis Morissettes's custom guitar maker and needs several feet of the 8" wide 8/4 board.  Then this last weekend, another guitar maker comes in from Nashville, and says he wants some and asks how much is it per bdft, and I hold up two fingers for $200 per bdft, so the other customers won't hear it and freak, and he says, "give me what you have."  Sold!   That quick...

So now I've got another board coming.  Brad Paisly's dad came in a few months ago needing some wood for Brad's new guitar, so maybe we will become the Nashville "thing."

We already sell to the guys who are under contract with the Grand Ol Opry to build 60 guitars a year, for the weekly guests.  

[Old Greenhorn]

.... it and would likely take several tries to get folks used to seeing signs with "open today" on them. ...

Well back up the horses there pardner! I don't plan on making this is regular 'thing'. Since I have to empty the whole trailer into the shop and set it up, then reverse that process. I MIGHT do one in the late fall and one in the spring, but I don't see any justification for doing any more than that. My stuff is always available anytime by appointment with just a phone call.
 Yeah, I'll need some signs, decent ones too. I'll have to find a way to advertise it also and stick some flyers up. BUT, I am still thinking on it. I plan it all on the ground floor, so the upstairs in the shop, where I do most of my work can continue through the weekend unhindered. But today I needed to catch up on cleaning and swept and vacuumed upstairs because the dust and chips were building up. It took me two hours. Can't begin to guess what it would take to get downstairs cleaned. I'll need half a day just on the workbench.

[Wlmedley]

Sold enough board and batten siding about a month ago to buy a router. The fella built a small building to keep gas,diesel fuel and flammable material in. He sent me a picture. Turned out pretty good I think.

[WV Sawmiller]

Bill,

   Good looking shed. I wonder why he put the crescent moon on the door if it is not an outhouse? BTW- the crescent moon indicates it is a Women's toilet.  A Men's toilet was supposed to have a sunburst.

     I have a "Small Business Saturday" here in Hinton on 30 November then they have a "Home Town Christmas" on Saturday 7 December. 

    The SBS is inside while the HTC event is a street festival where they shut down Main street and we set up there like they do for our big Railroad Days event we have every October. There was no charge for the HTC.

   I'll take some benches, birdhouses, crates and give out business cards for anyone who wants sawing work. Hopefully people will buy some for Christmas gifts or such.

[Resonator]

Tom, the word I would suggest if you do a open shop event is "Boundaries".
Only be open for a limited number of hours, and only open one area of your shop. That can keep things from getting out of hand. I've learned having multiple customers show up at the same time can be overwhelming, especially if you don't have staff to help people.
-----------------------------
Good to hear the custom guitar makers are buying your wood YellowHammer.
Ebony wood in Alabama... isn't it ironic... don't you think?

[Wlmedley]

Howard,He wanted it to look like a outhouse and probably (like me) didn't know there was different symbols for men and women. Or maybe he did and thought it would be funny. This fella loves to build stuff and has built three houses and several other buildings. The house he lives in now was built with a lot of rough lumber and is really nice. He likes my lumber and doesn't fuss about the price so I try to supply it as long as he is not in a hurry or doesn't need a really large amount.

[YellowHammer]

Yes, Resonator, it's odd when I think about where some of our exotics come from and they end up in Alabama.

I used to schedule customers one at a time, throughout the day.  However, I found out that some I had to babysit, some were "No Show," some were "high load" and some would talk my ear off. Some just knew what they wanted.  Before I knew it, I had wasted hours and hours, literally "waiting" on customers and Martha would tell me as I got frustrated wasting time "You can't get mad at customers wanting to spend money."

So now, I block off a certain time, depending on when I will be available, and just tell everyone who wants an appointment that day to come at that time.  It works well for me because the guy who knows what he wants gets his wood fast, the guy who asks tons of questions get the main ones answered and I have an excuse to walk away and help the other person who doesn't even own a table saw, and the guy who likes to talk gets to talk to all of them, and not me.  If it drags out too long, I just tell them "I got to get to work, call me when you are ready."

[WV Sawmiller]

Bill,

  I have never seen a sunburst on an outhouse either but a customer told me a couple years ago about the crescent meaning it was a women's toilet and when I looked it up I found he was right.

[Old Greenhorn]

Robert, I know a lot of high end luthiers and if they are coming to you for wood that's good business. I know you are selling bulk pieces, meaning not resawn. I see them at tonewood events and they will walk out with an armful of 1-4-1/2" pieces  less than 2' long and may have dropped about 500 bucks that that little bit. They hoard their wood, for sure and they search endlessly for the right tone. I see them thumping each piece with their knuckle and listened for the tone. They seem crazy, but I get it. Not that I am one to give YOU advice, but next time they visit, ask them what they are looking for beyond what they are buying today. You'll probably here about 'swamp ash' and a few different spruce names they come up with. They have to have clean, clear, no knot, straight grain, and quartersawn is preferred. But when you can sell your wood in 3/8 inch 'slabs' you get a lot of wood out of one good log. Think about it.
------------------------

 I have spent the last few years (OK, decades) doing things I thought were dumb just to see how things would go. I am doing another one now. I decided to have that open shop weekend. I ordered signs today because I don't have enough lead time to make them with everything else going on. I put the word out on FB but I also made up a flyer I can hang around town locally. The road signs I ordered I will put out about 3 days before the event. I'll work on shaking the bushes after I finish that 2 day show and in the meantime start dressing up the shop, which is the bulk of the work. One way or the other, it should be interesting and I will surely learn something. Right now I am thinking I will learn not to do that again.

[Nebraska]

Nothing ventured nothing gained  seems worth some trying.  

[Old Greenhorn]

That's kind of what I am thinking Pat. I can't make gains if I am not doing something.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well yesterday the wife and I took a ride into town to check out a show I had thought about doing last year, then considered again this year. Figured I would see how it looked. Turned out the place was packed with people some even buying. I talked to a few vendors and they thought the $300. or so both pace for a 6' table was a bit high, but they expected to make it back. I just don't see it, but if it works for them. I won't consider it for next year, not for me.
------------------------

 SO today I finished packing the trailer and headed about an hour west to do pre-setup for next weeks show. Since the Distillery is closed until we open the show on Friday, we could set up today and just let it sit until then. It gave us lots of time to set up the room and do our booths. It didn't take as long as I thought, but a lot of trips up and don the stairs. My booth is pretty tight and a bit cluttered.


 It's kind of an alley, but I worked with the owner and we moved around some large furniture they have no place else to store. This provided another shelf for me, so I went back out to the trailer and got two more benches.  Seen on the right in this photo.


After I parked my trailer and unhooked, I went back in and got a beer from the bar and looked over the booth and chatted with other vendors. Staring at the booth I found a spot for the small TV after I move some things, so I will get that ready this week and bring it. Some of the vendors at this show will only be there one day, so it may make more room for the rest of us on the second day.
 This is only the second indoor show I've done, the last one was a one day, with a tiny booth, barely any sales, not so great setup. I was just getting started. This one I was really prepared ad had the right stuff for a decent setup, better organized venue also. Still tight, but it's a to day show and all I have to do after I walk in is spend 5 minutes setting up last minute things and wiping stuff down. The show hours are 3-8pm both days, but there is a big town holiday parade on Saturday that ends around 7:30 and they expect an influx of folks, so we will hang in until the crowd thins. We will all go back on Sunday to pack it all out rather than stay really late and still have that drive home. I really don't mind doing the extra hours of driving in the daylight, but loading and pulling that trailer home on that road late at night makes me uncomfortable. I know I will be pretty tired. So this show is different.

 When it's done, I bring it all home and unload it all into the shop for the open house and do it again. Gotta keep trying something to find what works.