AR Custom Leather Report post Posted February 18, 2011 I know alot of you guys sell your own products. If you would like to give a new guy some advice on selling leather I would greatly appreciate it. I have made a few Custom Holster and money clips for close friends, neighbors, and co workers. I am wanting to take my goods to craft fairs, swap meets, and gun shows. Do "generic" items sell? Am I better off taking some examples of the work I have done, and sell custom pieces? I have a website built (www.wix.com/arcustomleather/arcustomleather). Also looking at pricing options...Again any help with anything selling leather would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys! Andrew Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pounder Report post Posted February 18, 2011 I know alot of you guys sell your own products. If you would like to give a new guy some advice on selling leather I would greatly appreciate it. I have made a few Custom Holster and money clips for close friends, neighbors, and co workers. I am wanting to take my goods to craft fairs, swap meets, and gun shows. Do "generic" items sell? Am I better off taking some examples of the work I have done, and sell custom pieces? I have a website built (www.wix.com/arcustomleather/arcustomleather). Also looking at pricing options...Again any help with anything selling leather would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys! Andrew Andrew Check out the Marketing and Advertising forum on this site, there is a mountain of information available for guys that are just getting past the selling to family and friends such as myself. Good luck. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JJLeatherworks Report post Posted February 19, 2011 Hey Andrew, Don't limit yourself to an either/or situation. Take generic items that are you can sell now, and be open for custom work. Don't take any custom work order unless you get a CASH deposit that will cover the cost of materials, you may lose a sale but you won't be stuck with item that would be hard to sell when they decide not to pick it up. Craft fairs, swap meets and gun shows can be good or bad, depending on where you go, and what the shoppers want. Go check some of them out before you commit to renting a space, do some market research of your own. i.e. Who are the shoppers, what are they spending and what are they buying? Are there other leather workers? Are imported leather goods for sale that would take away from your market? The costs of renting a space can be anywhere from $35 - 100 a day, and in some cases more. Have enough stuff to sell and don't give up, if the first few times you are out and can cover your expenses you're doing OK. Pricing: what you have on your web-site seems to me a little low. Are you covering your material costs and your time? Don't underestimate what it costs. Take a look at the prices for kits at Tandy and Springfield leather, figure that as a base price for materials minimum. Add a reasonable amount for labor and don't forget the overhead of renting space, transportation, etc. Set a price, allow for discounting if you have to, don't let shoppers intimidate you; they will try anything to get a cheap price. Marketing: if you can afford it later get a real domain and hosting for a website. A freebie turns people off (and are extremely hard to find), just as a freebie e-mail address does (G-mail not so bad; Hotmail, yahoo,AOL not good for business). They don't take you seriously if they don't already know you. Get business cards made that have your e-mail address and web-site on it, put them in your items that you sell. Have them freely available for shy people to pick up. Good luck! It may take years to become profitable, just like any other business. I know alot of you guys sell your own products. If you would like to give a new guy some advice on selling leather I would greatly appreciate it. I have made a few Custom Holster and money clips for close friends, neighbors, and co workers. I am wanting to take my goods to craft fairs, swap meets, and gun shows. Do "generic" items sell? Am I better off taking some examples of the work I have done, and sell custom pieces? I have a website built (www.wix.com/arcustomleather/arcustomleather). Also looking at pricing options...Again any help with anything selling leather would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys! Andrew Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DCKNIVES Report post Posted February 19, 2011 I agree with JJ.I do primarily custom knife shows, and gun/knife shows and internet.The cheapest and easiest advertising is using various forums to showcase your work. JJ covered the big expenses, but there are an absolute ton of small yet vital expenses to account for, thread, dyes, your various sizes of leather, glue and the list goes on and on.I realize your new to this, but I have to be honest, your quality needs improvement to command any reasonable prices.Your pricing while probably fitting the quality of what you are selling are ridiculously low.At those prices you are basically working for free and I doubt you are even covering your expense's.I know this sounds harsh, but in this economy folks that want custom stuff expect high quality and when you can deliver that you can price to make money.My prices average at least 5-10 times higher than anything on your site.My best suggestion for you to move forward is to spend a good couple of weeks going through this site and study everyones work, put your stuff up and get critiqued and learn.As far as pricing look at what others are charging and see if your work can qualify at that price point.Then you can do shows and let the customers decide if your work and prices are worth it. Above all keep at it and have fun, but realize that it takes time to get good at this.Dave Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
