The more you work, the worse you feel!

[UKRay]

A retail storefront sounds like a great idea but it ties you down. With a mail order business like mine I can take a day off when things are quiet and nobody is upset that I'm not there to serve them. I had a few shops over the years and eventually drifted into the world of medieval re-enactment markets - Renaissance Fairs in the US I believe... With a dozen or more shows a year I find I can still get 'face to face' contact with my customers and still retain my independence (and hopefully still have time to go fishing!).

Ive attached a picture of my booth at a few recent shows.

[Bob Blea]

Thanks for the words of wisdom Ray.  While I don't do this full time I do try to run it as a business.  I don't have tons of orders but I do always have something going on.  With a full time job and young children I always have other demands on my time, so it's always a struggle to balance work, family and leather work.

[UKRay]

23 hours ago, Bob Blea said:

Thanks for the words of wisdom Ray.  While I don't do this full time I do try to run it as a business.  I don't have tons of orders but I do always have something going on.  With a full time job and young children I always have other demands on my time, so it's always a struggle to balance work, family and leather work.

You make very nice stuff, Bob. I'm sure you are successful.

I wish I had the 'brainspace' to explore Etsy more fully as it seems to have a lot on offer. However, it would be yet another thing thing to check on every day - which is why I stopped selling on Ebay. I've had luck with my website and it now provides me with enough work. At the outset I was concerned that it wouldn't justify the money I had spent or even pay for its existence (hosting fees, updates etc) - but I was soooo wrong! Accepted, I do have to work on it regularly - change stuff around and freshen up the front page occasionally; but it earns its keep. I'd recommend any leatherworker to have their own dedicated online shopfront. It won't be cheap if you do the job properly, but my experience is that it will pay for itself time and time again with regular business.

To be honest, I'm glad I made the decision to sell online as this may well be the last season of shows for me, it is getting harder to shift all the stuff, put up marquees and generally deal with the public. My re-enactment customers are charming, polite and appreciative of the work we traders put into attending events - but there are always a few members of the public that cause grief! Frankly I'm wondering if I can be bothered with it. Time will tell...

[AndyL1]

Very cool Ray! The shop space you built looks amazing! I have mine setup in a corner of the garage where I share it with the wife's car and the kid's bikes. Haha! I do have windows though which is nice but I really envy all the ROOM you have. Cheers!

[Bob Blea]

On ‎2‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 3:15 PM, UKRay said:

You make very nice stuff, Bob. I'm sure you are successful.

I wish I had the 'brainspace' to explore Etsy more fully as it seems to have a lot on offer. However, it would be yet another thing thing to check on every day - which is why I stopped selling on Ebay. I've had luck with my website and it now provides me with enough work. At the outset I was concerned that it wouldn't justify the money I had spent or even pay for its existence (hosting fees, updates etc) - but I was soooo wrong! Accepted, I do have to work on it regularly - change stuff around and freshen up the front page occasionally; but it earns its keep. I'd recommend any leatherworker to have their own dedicated online shopfront. It won't be cheap if you do the job properly, but my experience is that it will pay for itself time and time again with regular business.

To be honest, I'm glad I made the decision to sell online as this may well be the last season of shows for me, it is getting harder to shift all the stuff, put up marquees and generally deal with the public. My re-enactment customers are charming, polite and appreciative of the work we traders put into attending events - but there are always a few members of the public that cause grief! Frankly I'm wondering if I can be bothered with it. Time will tell...

Thank you for the kind words Ray!  I certainly have been keeping my spare time filled up with leather projects lately.

I'd think you are better off with your own site than dedicating any time and effort to Etsy, especially since it sounds like you've established a good working site.  With Etsy you don't have a lot of tools on your site to set yourself apart from your Etsy competition, and frequently you are competing on price with MANY other Etsy leatherworkers.  I've been thinking going your route and developing my own website might be the right way to go now.  I'm glad to hear your site is working out so well!

Bob