CBrann Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 Fe Wood I understand all your points, and take no offense, quality can make some people weird. I put a lot of work in, but my pieces come out kinda rough, but I am always working on better product. My stuff is wants, and marketing seems to escape me constantly, as far as price point and target demographic. Have not found my niche yet, but never stopped looking. I must admit I usually make things I like to make, not things others make and sell often. Primetech Good for you !! glad to hear someone is having success in this economy.!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fe-Wood Posted June 3, 2009 Author Share Posted June 3, 2009 CBrann- sounds like we have the same delema.... making what we like, not what sells.... Hopefully we both find things we like to make and people really love to have them too.... and they are happy to pay the price for them:o:D Glad to hear your still looking and improving your product line... Post pics or a thread, I'd love to see what you do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBrann Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Put up some pics in a gallery here, Cbrann's work, take a look, and let me know. I have a couple of people that buy things or order things from me and never even blink a my prices or time lines. Marketing has always escaped me, but I am willing to make anything the can be thought of, or imagined and explained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finnr Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 One point it took me a long time to learn was do not underprice your work. Perceived quality is a big factor. People look at a nice hand made piece and pass because the price is low and they wonder why. Finnr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fe-Wood Posted June 3, 2009 Author Share Posted June 3, 2009 Good point Finnr!!! When pricing my work, I go with an hourly rate I feel appropriate then add or subtract what I think the market will bear. Sometimes price is the only clue people have for value that goes beyond the "I like it" value. CBrann- I spent a few minutes looking at your work- Nice stuff!!! You have a nice loose and playfull style. From your work, it seems you have fun with the iron:) May I be so forward as to suggest you move away from the horse shoe work and move more into your household items? I think with more items and further development of your style, you could have some very nice unique and saleable items there. Price them as one of a kind pieces. By all means- keep it up!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easilyconfused Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 (edited) CBrann- sounds like we have the same delema.... making what we like, not what sells.... Hopefully we both find things we like to make and people really love to have them too.... and they are happy to pay the price for them:o:D In my limited experience I've noticed, as we are primarily a want, it's harder to sell something we make rather than having someone ask us to make something for them. That's just the name of the game though. Edited June 12, 2009 by mod07 control code cleanup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fe-Wood Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 easily- That IS a Great Point!!! Vertually all of my work has been on a commision basis of one sort or another. I am trying to change that however, so I can focus on a new direction in my work... Its hard to sell untried concepts. I guess you could call this R&D that goes up for sale when finished with the intent of inspiring commisions.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Ameling Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 (edited) Most of my work is in that ... luxury ... field, even though it is smaller stuff. I do reproduction iron work for people involved in recreating the Fur Trade era in North America. It's a pretty ... niche ... market. There are only a few parks/museums to deal with, so the rest is individuals. Yes, sales have dropped off dramatically over the winter. Now, this is usually a slow time anyway. But this year it has been worse. One good point is that most of my items are "relatively" inexpensive to purchase. My flint strikers run high for the general marketplace, but I make up for that with quality and styling. Mine generally sell for around $15 each, while most places sell their generic versions for $8 to $10. Given a choice, most people tend to go my way. But I still get contacted by people wanting wholesale/resale pricing of around $4 to $8 each - including the fancier shapes/styles. I understand them wanting be able to sell cheaper and still make money, but I don't work that cheap. The iron-handled clasp knife reproductions go in cycles. Sometimes interest is up, sometimes it is down. But I can generally sell any that I make when I get them done. So the economy hasn't hurt that part - yet. I've thought about upping the $35 I charge for them, but know that would hurt sales. Plus it ain't a bad wage for less than an hour of fun ... tinkering. (a half hour or less if I really worked at it) But the economic slow-down has hurt me in other ways as well - sort of second hand. There are several people that owe me for past work/materials that are having a hard time paying me. One guy still owes me over $1400 for going on 2 years now. He was going to start slowly paying it off starting in January. But then he lost his full-time job - 3 days after signing the papers to buy a new acreage just outside of town! So I'm back to "hind teat" for getting paid. And other people have had similar experiences with their sudden ... unemployment. So I have continued on --- sold a few "toys" --- covered current bills/obligations --- and life goes on. Right now my main goal is to not have to ask you if "... you want fries with that? ...". As long as I can stay ahead of that, I'm good. Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands Edited June 12, 2009 by Mike Ameling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golden_arm Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Well, according to the government our economy is improving at a steady rate..(chuckles). Perhaps that's why California is sinking their claws and pulling in everything they can get in to, or why Michigan is still loosing jobs by the thousands... ie.. GM and Chrysler. I know I'm venting, and I really do apologize. Despite what our government says about Not wanting to "own" these companies, I believe otherwise. I feel it's way to convieniant how things worked out. The Gov forced these companies into bankruptcy and now gas prices are rising again... trying to force people to buy the new fuel efficient/alternative fuel vehicals with money hardly anyone has. Oh yeah, let us not forget the 787 BILLION dollars which that have been "injected" into our economy. In reality, the majority of that money is somewhere since only 7 billion dollars has been used... so yeah.. the economy is great. Like I said, I am sorry about venting, but it all seems like a lie to me. I work at a Fab shop and ya can tell when things are getting tight because we don't have any "Scrap" anymore... only drops, and the boss man's face puckers up like he just ate a lemon when ya drill a hole in the wrong place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fe-Wood Posted June 13, 2009 Author Share Posted June 13, 2009 Please- Don't take this political.... Mike, I've found that small items, although hard to generate large sums of $$$ from usually do best in hard economic times such as these. Tuff part is generating enough volume... Back in the early '90's I was making little garden stakes, people loved them... At the time I was shut down (another XXXX landlord story) I was doing about $1000.00 a month in repeat sales after only about 3 months of business. I keep thinking I might go back into something like that but my overhead is a little higher now:( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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