Selling Holster

[otak]

Hey everyone, I am hoping that all you holster and gun leather makers can help me out. I would like to start selling holsters for black powder revolvers. I have never sold any of my leather goods before, and would like to start on a very small scale. I have looked around on some of the popular gun auction sites, and they seem as though they may meet my needs. I don't want to spend a lot of money on the websites, as I will probably only be making/selling one at a time. What do you guys think? Is there a website in particular which would be the most cost affective? We're any of you once in my shoes? What did you do? I'm not looking to make tons of money, but definitely don't want to loose money. Also, can any of you tell me what you would charge for the holster that I have Aiken a picture of? Thanks again - Jonah E.

[Dwight]

My first "venture" into selling holsters and such was at a gun show.

It will cost you something near $100 in some venues, . . . $25 in others, . . . and you may not sell a thing.

That's cool though, . . . because you are there the first time to listen, . . . observe, . . . and learn.

Your customers will for the most part be civil, . . . but some will be brutal, . . . they are the ones you learn from. You will find out if your product is sellable in your area.

My area of the world does not have a market for BBQ holsters, . . . or fancy schmancy rigs. Plain, utilitarian, personal (sometimes), and cost effective (notice I DID NOT say cheap).

It took a couple of shows to learn that, . . . and the money was well spent.

If you want a web site, . . . GoDaddy is the one I use, . . . it's a bit clunky, . . . sometimes aggravating in the navigation, etc. but it meets my needs at least for the time being.

May God bless,

Dwight

[TwinOaks]

If you can, find a local store that sells the bp guns and let them know of your enterprise. Turn out exceptional products and don't compromise....customer service above just about everything else. Let your customers sell your products to the next line of customers. Word of mouth is the best advertising you can get and as long as you are making good products and serving the customer well...it costs nothing extra.

[particle]

If you're not already on one, find a message board the focuses on black powder revolvers, then become an active participant of the forum. Once you have a few dozen posts under your belt and people become accustomed to seeing your name on the board, start posting photos of your holsters in the gallery section. If people like your work, they'll likely post in the thread or via private message, inquiring about getting a custom holster made, wait times, etc. I think you'll be surprised how quickly you'll start getting orders.

Regarding a website - you might consider creating a Facebook page, then linking to your page in your signature on the message board. Once you have a holster for sale, post it in the gallery on your FB page with a price. Once it sells, edit the description to indicate it's sold.

An even better option would be a website built with something like Wordpress that's easy to edit. If you use PayPal, you can generate buttons that link to PayPal with a "Buy Now" option, then place the code on your website - just make sure to remove the button from your site so people won't keep trying to buy it.

You can also do something like a Picasa Web Album, then embed the album on your website. Use Google Picasa to edit your albums on your computer then enable "Sync to Web", which will automatically sync the gallery on your computer to the internet gallery. You can add a description to your individual galleries, which should automatically show up on your website. If someone contacts you and wants to buy the holster, send them a PayPal invoice, then once payment is made, change the description of the holster to remove the price, or remove the album from your website altogether.

[Treed]

Black powder shooters are hard to come by. The forms are a great place and go to SASS and NCOWS shoots. Their web sites will show the local shoots in your area. Most clubs will let you bring out some stuff to show and or sell. This is where you will find the most shooters in one place for black powder. Try to find Civil War or mountain man re-enactments to go to for the black powder gun owners and dealers. The biggest way to build the business is word of mouth, show your goods to as many people that you can and let the ones that you sell to, sell your good to others.

[mato]

if you want to make a free web site chek out Web's they do free web sites i have used the a bit to make a club web site and

It's Free

but you do have to put up with some adds

but well worth a look

http://welcome.webs.com/?referer=cpc_gaw_international-webs-branded-pc-search_branded_nwk-g_mtch-e_16180621324_kw-webs_ex-&mkwid=szqdXrLdX&pcrid=16180621324&pkw=webs&pmt=e&gclid=CM7N0K3ZiLYCFcxDpgod2nAA9w

[billymac814]

I started using a blog page and that was my primary "website" for a couple years. It was free and easy for me to use and I was able to even have a store by adding Paypal buttons to it. I was also able to purchase my own domain name for it through google which also have me email which was cheap at around 10 bucks a yr and it looks more professional having @mccabescustomleather.com instead of @gmail.com I now have a regular site and a Facebook page. Forums are great places to show your work, I got started from one particular forum and sold quite a few holsters because of it. Once you sell enough and have enough happy customers they take care of the rest. I don't post my stuff anywhere anymore, I haven't had time to really be active on any forums and I don't want to come off like I'm soliciting my wares if I don't participate in other areas of the forums so I just don't post them.

I haven't done any gun shows or anything like that, I've never had time to be able to make up a bunch of stuff. There is one coming to my home town in August so I may try to build up some inventory and do that show, probably more for fun and for the opportunity to be able to tell people where I'm at than to make any money.

A web presence is really necessary these days. That way your not limited by your local market. It also allows you to focus on a specialized item like BP rigs. My first 1.5yrs making holsters I only made them for one model of gun. I would have never been able to do that just selling locally but was able to because there were enough people in the country looking for a holster for that particular gun.