Fresh out

[DCanfield]

Hi guys and gals well I am fresh out of prison in fact I am still on house arrest. I tooled leather off and on before I went to prison and used prison like collage to get better at it. The last four years I was the leather tooling instructor and tooled leather almost every day. I sent a lot of the stuff I made to my sister and just set up a free web site yesterday. I am not sure if I can keep it free and sell things on it but if you want to look the address is danacanfield046.wixsite.com/website/shop. Her is an example of a boot purse I made while in prison. I t would be nice if I could make a living doing leather work and I have a shop set up and the leather to get started I just don't know how to go about it yet. Any tips from you that do make a living at it would be nice.

[Retswerb]

Your stuff looks good. (Here’s the address as a link to make it easier to access: danacanfield046.wixsite.com/website/shop )

As always when selling online, the site only gets you sales if you can get people to come to it. You may want to look into Etsy as a place to start.

[Aven]

I agree with Retswerb, you have some nice pieces.  

[chuck123wapati]

Congrats man and good luck!  I worked in the physical plant of a prison for 30 year and most of my inspiration in leather work came from the inmate leather shops. You do great work so getting business should be little problem. I would suggest you go for some college classes in business if possible, you have the expertise for the shop  now get the expertise for the office. 

[JLSleather]

29 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

I would suggest you go for some college classes in business if possible, you have the expertise for the shop  now get the expertise for the office. 

Second that. 

Also, perhaps it isn't absolutely required to make sure every person you speak with learn every bit of what went on yesterday.  We used to hire some of the boys coming out of "the ranch", and some of them just basically good boys who did something stupid and now want to get on with a normal life.  I promise it would not occur to me to shop for leather and ask the maker what he was doing 10 years ago!  (let's get real... there are a lot of members here who show you what they want you to see and think - often NOT the actual situation).

One humorous story, then one bit of suggestion ....

Long while back, we were hiring for a remodeling company.  I knew the guy running the halfway house, and he would sometimes call to see if we need help - helps us, helps the guy trying to work his way out of there, helps the facility, win/win/win.   Kid filling out the application got to the part about criminal convictions, and was .... hesitating.  Finally, I saw what he was stewing over and told him look, we KNOW you're from the half way house, so just tell me you weren't harming children or stealing tools from your last boss and we'll probably be okay

That said, I HATE that "price perception" MARKETING CRAP.  You know, where people take SUB PAR products and double the price, then tell you that you REALLY REALLY NEED this thing and ours "MUST BE" better because it's more expensive.  Far as I'm concerned, poop with a higher price tag is ... still poop.  

BUT... check around for what goods are selling for, and you may want to RAISE your prices.  Looking at https://danacanfield046.wixsite.com/website/shop I would have thought that pegasus thing would go for about twice that price.  ENTIRELY up to you what YOU do with YOUR stuff, but I would have charged $35 JUST FOR THE LACING on that little bag with the blue rose.  That's all I'm gonna say about that... I firmly believe a guy gets to charge whatever he wants if he makes it.