Curly Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 Ok to cut a long story short I got really fed up of working in the office over the last 6 months, saved up enough to get me through at least 3 months of non guaranteed pay and as of the 6th of May will be selling ironwork to pay the rent. (Will also be doing a bit of web design on the side) Very much jumping in at the deep end but feel for many reasons this is the best time to give it ago. Now one of the things I keep going back and forth on in a business name and domain. Currently I have Lloyd & Co. Blacksmiths. My name being Tim Lloyd and have a good friend who will also possibly become part of this hence the & Co bit. The domain I purchased for very little money was www.lloydblacksmiths.com but looking back at it now not sure how well it sits. What do you think? Need to finish building my website and get some business cards printed, so need to commit to something soon! Noticed a lot of people trade under their own name or the name of their forge rather than actually having blacksmith in the name. Any reason for this? Might start a separate thread at some point if anyone is interested on how I will be setting up this business. I actually did a degree called Entrepreneurship in IT, Technology and Business (Yeah its quite a mouthful and I get many funny looks when I tell people thats what I did, but it should serve me well now!) I have also got 3 years experience working in a sales and marketing position. So I am hoping that all of this will give me at least a fighting chance! All the best, Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 Tim: It sounds like you have the tools to make a go of blacksmithing as a business, though I don't know how much blacksmithing you have under your belt. I'm assuming you have smithing in your tool kit as well. If not, oh well back to the paycheck job. The name Lloyd carries weight in and of itself so I feel "Lloyd and Company" works for a good solid company name. I look forward to seeing your web site. Dont worry about working two or more jobs till the company is enough in the public eye to have regular custom and a following. There's nothing unusual or odd about that. Frosty the Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curly Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 Thanks Frosty, I believe I have enough smithing experience to get me going but have to say by no means a vast amount in comparison to others on here. I have actually just taken out a small unit at a local antique place which has many different traders selling different things and think ironwork would sell well there. So I plan on selling the standard bottle openers, fire pokers type stuff and develop my skills as I go and of course getting as much information from experienced smiths as i can! Ive always been pretty good at problem solving and using my hands, so feel reasonably confident I can pick most things up one way or another. This fork was my first attempt at smithing not too long ago, although I do have John B from here to thank for his great teaching. Will hopefully get the website up in the next week or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 Taking space in an antique shop has some oppotunities that may not have occured to you. Look around and start forging cabinet hardware replicas of what you see. Lots of decent antiques don't sell because they need restoration needing a blacksmith. If you build a rep with the antique shops as someone who can make hardware to restore, repair said item. Not only is it a potential market, it's in a close comunity and if you develop a rep as THE go to guy. . . <wink> Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curly Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 Well the website is now live Any feedback welcome! I havent tested it on any tablet devices yet, it should work but if you are browsing this on an iPad for example and all the images are all over the place then let me know! Images of the products arent great but hopefully will get some better ones up soon. Also Frosty, you were correct. Set up shop this week in the antique shop (Not fully sure its the right move yet, fair amount of old forged ironwork going for cheap that you would never be able to make for the same price now which make my items look expensive) however I had one old lady ask me to forge a new bracket for a lamp she has and another seller asking me whether or not I work in brass as he has a pool table that needs fixing! contact admin about self promotion of your URL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Evans Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 Works fine on my mum's iPad. The site is good, clear and clean. I do have some feedback for your images though... You could maybe do with a better image or at least a close up of the twisted candlestick. The slicing and dicing are a bit lost unless you zoom right in. Try a sheet of paper or white card just outside the frame reflecting light onto it...better than a flash. The pig tail one could also do with bit of a "lift" . Maybe a three quarter view rather than full frontal would enable one to see the form better...do the curves justice. I have had professional photographers expose the the background beautifully and the iron is just a black silhouette. If you can get light onto the workpiece and force the light meter to read the light reflected from the metal you are in with a chance. Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curly Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 Thanks for the feedback Alan, have found it quite tricky getting good photographs. Will try some more lighting and get some images with better detail. Also have a friend who is really into his photography so will see what he can do with some of the images. Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Evans Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 Your welcome. Iron sucks in all available light as soon as you pick up a camera! Good luck. Seeing your site reminds me I must get round to making up my website one day. Mine is the result of an evening's experiment after a day at the local sixth form college being introduced to Dreamweaver. I though at the time I uploaded it I would do it properly the next weekend and that was over ten years ago! Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Your website looks good Curly. Improve the photos, yes, more content oh yes. It looks well, smooth and polished, professional. Well done. I wasn't thinking so much about you selling new work as being able to supply unique restoration parts. However, if you're getting commissions for new work already, then . . . YES, that's what I was talking about! B) Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Good looking website, shows off your current work without promising the moon. Add to it as your product base grows. There have been several discussions here and on the knifemaking fora about tabletop light tents to photograph in. Basically a white cloth tent with outside lighting for an even look. Steel is notoriously hard to shoot under ambient lighting conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianinsa Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Nice looking website- I wish I had one like it B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyndon2472 Posted August 29, 2013 Share Posted August 29, 2013 Hi Tim Great looking site m8 wish i had the skills to do similar, off to Hereford collage in 2 weeks to start my lvl 2 diploma , did you go there ? im looking to do the same as you when (and if ) i qualify if you're ever in wales drop in :) my little shop has a name but im not sure what i have to do to secure it ? i have the web address bought and payed for but im not sure its a domain exactly i know nothing about these things ....although i do have a friend that made and runs the TESCO web site maybe i should ask lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted August 29, 2013 Share Posted August 29, 2013 Nice work. Your coding looks nice and clean (I just opened it in my editor) and it should be easy for the web crawlers to read. Sadly so many use the fast to build programs that fill the code with so much trash they can not be searched, so they never get a ranking in the search engines. yours is clear no nonsence programming. I also commend you for the fast loading pages that are in a simple layout and easy to view, that matters because many will not wait for a page to load, so they move on. also great photos, they seem to belong where you placed them, and do not distract from the reading. Also I noticed no delay getting them to come up on my screen. I do not see any prices? is that intentional ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted August 29, 2013 Share Posted August 29, 2013 Really nice, clean website! The black and white format suits it very well, and the graphics come across as clean, sharp and dignified. Pages load fast, as mentioned earlier and the site loads just fine on an Android tablet as well as PC. Good luck with the new venture. Association with an antique shop should be good for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curly Posted September 1, 2013 Author Share Posted September 1, 2013 Well 4 months in and I couldn't be happier! So glad I made the daunting decision to jack in the 9-5 office job and take up smithing full time and would fully recommend it to anyone. You don't have to be the best smith in town to make money! Still working very much within my abilities, mostly making BBQ items and cooking tripods. They seem to be my bread and butter at the moment. But have been commissioned to make fire place companion sets and weathervanes so that gives me a good chance to practice new skills. Just got back from a 2 day show where I took more than I used to make a month at my old job. So that was very reassuring! Website wise, my last job was marketing for a software company so got to know my way around building a site which has paid off! Lyndon, I hear Hereford is really good. Formal training wise I have actually only done one taster day and a weekend course on making flowers. The rest is self taught and I am still very much learning as I go! Website name, if you are paying for your domain name then the next step is to basically buy a chunk of space on the Internet. I use one.com and think I payed 10 pounds for the domain name and a years hosting. So it's pretty cheap to do! Steve, prices I am still working out! I am nearly there with what I am happy to charge for certain things and hopefully over the next couple of weeks I'll have ecommence set up on the site so people can buy straight from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 Well done Tim, glad you are forging ahead in your new career, and you look to have a sound base to build on and a great website. Are you going to the Dorset Show this coming weekend? There's a Blacksmithing event on there which may be of interest. make a bottle opener in an hour is the competition I think. Bring your own material and tools, enter the competition and sales are free. See http://www.blacksmithscompetition.co.uk/dorset_county.html for further details, and contact Simon if you haven't already, and want to go. Or pay on the day and just visit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curly Posted September 1, 2013 Author Share Posted September 1, 2013 Hi John, unfortunately will not be able to make the Dorset show this year. Heading to a good friends wedding up in Ipswich. Shame, sounds like a fun compition, quite like making different style bottle openers. Will hopefully get to one of the big shows soon though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Einhorn Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 Very nice web site, congratulations. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reitenger Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Curly- Like the website and read through it all as I am also headed the same direction. One small thing I did notice is that you misspelled the word unique on your commission page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curly Posted December 8, 2013 Author Share Posted December 8, 2013 Thanks reitenger, spelling was never my strong point! Need to add some more items tomorrow so will make sure I remember to change it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senft Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 I think the web site looks great! Very nice and clean. A thought on the Etsy shop may be to add more on policies etc., and more about yourself. The more details there may help encourage shoppers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.