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Handmade is expensive, so should we give the price right away? If you are selling your works, you have surely done this more than once: Reveal the price and the customer runs away.... Handcraft should cost its money, the hours we spend, knowledge and experience that can be seen in the selection of leathers/hardware and finishing details is a valuable value. So you can't sell works at chain store prices. The price must stay high - it's a premium product, not for everyone. When someone asks "How much for that?" - we should give the price right away? Since most sellers delay responding to the price question, you’ll immediately differentiate yourself by giving the direct response the buyer is requesting. It also suggests you are unashamed of your prices. Give the price - but in context. "It costs X $" - it is not enough. In addition to the price, you need to interest the customer, encourage him to continue the conversation and, in a way, distract his thoughts from the price itself. So that he does not consider whether it is worth it or not - he will do it at the end of the conversation. Here are the 5 simplest techniques for giving a price with a distraction: 1. Price + Benefit: "The preliminary price is $____ with the little story behind. When someone asks "What's that?" - you will start the story, about joint design, about an idea, about a craftsman. How important is this benefit to you?" 2. Price + Question: "The preliminary price is $____ and that includes choice of leather. Please tell me what criteria, other than price, are most important to make your final decision?" 3. Price + Personalization: "The preliminary price is $____ and we will add something special for you like a guitarist dice pocket. I’m thinking this is the cool additional for you because you play guitar. Let me ask you some additional questions to confirm that I’m on the right track." 4. Price + Budget Check: "The preliminary price is $_____. Tell me how this sounds in terms of your budget and the prices you’ve heard from others." 5. Price + Anchoring Price: "I would compare the ____ I make to premium brand like LV, Fendi, Channel etc. that cost a couple of times more. I use much more expensive veg-tan leather and traditional craftsmanship - yet I have lower prices. Our price is $ _____. Of course, this will not make literally everyone suddenly buy an expensive handmade product. But it will make you able to have a longer dialogue with him and present the advantages, benefits and show that it is something more. If you are struggling with the sale of your work, below you will find 9 ready-made sales texts which show the benefits of leatherworks and convince sales (I study marketing). And a Card Holder pattern (it's free). Enjoy it. https://leatherinspire.subscribemenow.com P.S. Admin, if this content is not appropriate for this group, please do not add a post and a little feedback

Custom Snare Drum case I created for a friend. I was finally able to finish it up over the holidays. She is one happy drummer.

If you are looking to increase your company exposure, increase local traffic to your leather shop, traffic to a link, promoting a product or even promote your start-up company or blog. Then I would recommend the almighty little Instagram. Instagram is a mobile phone app that allows you to take pictures of things and share them with the Instagram community which is massive and still growing. Currently Instagram has over taken Facebook as the biggest platform for building a fan-base and driving traffic to websites. It costs nothing and is the biggest trend for companies and individual people wanting to promote. All you need is the know-how. If you have never used Instagram before or have and need some tips then here are some steps I have prepared that I think make a successful Instagram post. 1. Download to your phone and create an Instagram account. Filling in all the account details like, website, name, email and so on. Use a good business name user I.D. You want to come off as a business or someone with a brand or leather shop. 2. Post an image. The image should not be a graphic designed image but an interesting photograph of something related to your field of business or an image of the actual product itself or just about anything that seems to do the trick. 3. While posting the image you will be promoted with adding a filter that changes the attitude of the image by giving it a splash of vintage or monotone colors. I prefer to use nothing at all when posting product images, just because I want viewers and followers to see the actual product I am showing. However If I am posting an image of a scene that is not directly related to the importance of showing the product then I will use a filter to enhance the scenery. 4. In the text area for the image posting you want to be a bit radical in a positive way or make a strong point about the image or be humorous. Instead of saying something common like "Genuine leather backpack" in all of your posts, you should mix it up and say something like "The first and last bag you will ever need", “20 years and counting, almost like it was never used”. 5. Followed by the text you want to write your website web-link of importance. Example: www.leatherworker.net 6. After you have written the text you want to begin adding hashtags. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags. Hashtags make you discover-able through Instagram's search function and some other unknown functions. Your first hashtag after the text and web-link should be your company or products unique name hashtag. Example: #leatherworker. Yes, use your company name to make a hashtag. 7. After your company hashtag, you want to add 29 more. These 29 more hashtags should be related to your product and its scope of business. I usually add 14 hashtags directly related to the product itself and 15 hashtags related to the industry. As you input hashtags into your Instagram postings you will be given random lists of different hashtags showing the amount of users who have used these hashtags in the past . This is important because the more people using your choice of hashtags basically means the more exposure you will get from using that hashtag. Example: 14 hashtags related to the product itself would be #backpack #briefcase #bag #messengerbag #satchel #laptopbag etc...and then 15 hashtags related to the industry #menswear #mensfashion #mensstyle #businesscasual #travel #hiking #business #mensaccessories #leathergoods #leatherwork etc... Here is an example posting from my Instagram account. At the bottom it shows the amount of people who have liked the posting. It doesn't show the amount of followers you obtained from the posting, but once people follow you they will see everything you post in their home feed and in search as well. Example Instagram Post This is my personal way of posting on Instagram and it has played a decent role in giving my company and product extra exposure. I hope this post was very helpful to you. If you have any question about this feel free to reply.