Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: Making money

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    2328 Morris Creek Road Stanton, KY.
    Posts
    1,906

    Default Making money

    Most of you have a much better chance than I have. My home town is Meta, Ky. Population 115. We have one service station which is the local groucery store and used to be the post office till they closed it. The town has two part time employee's and one full time. The Mayor acts as the only police officer we have. For me to ship or mail a package I have to drive to pikeville about a half hour drive. So I do my shipping on one day a week Friday. To ge my raw wood, I have to drive 4 hours one way. I do that on Saturdays I get up early so that I will arrive at the saw mill by 9 am. (they close at noon on saturday) I buy as much as my 1500 chevy truck will haul plus what my small trailer will haul.
    To get screws or nails etc I have to drive 30 minutes...
    My home town market everyone has bought almost every thing... Several people drop by to see what I have new.. By the end of the week every one knows about the new products, and the ones that want one have come by...
    All of my customers except one are at least 2.5 hour drive from my shop, I ship to 15 states, most of the ones out of state I have never been too. Some have seen my products at shows or heard about my product and ordered from me..
    Most of my customers I have driven to and showed them my product. Every state has state parks, found out which have gift shops call and set up a appointment with the buyer and go show them your product. While driving to the state park look for other stores get their phone number, call them talk to the person that does the buying offer to ship a sample or set up a time to come by to show them the full line.
    I use the calling time as small vactions for my wife and I... We leave on thursday's or friday's and drive to a town that we have never been too. On the way we do a little cold calling and gather phone numbers.
    If I can make a good living, those that are in large towns can make a good living alot easier than I have.
    You can make all the products in the world, but if you do not show them to the right people or stores they are useless and just sit there on your shelf..
    Get out there and find wholesale customers make good money and enjoy
    doing so... Take your wife on these trips gives you quality time and browny points..
    www.tgdesigns.net
    eking1953@yahoo.com

    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS IS A LABORER.
    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS AND HEAD IS A CRAFTSMAN.
    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS, HIS HEAD AND HIS HEART IS AN ARTIST.
    ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    2328 Morris Creek Road Stanton, KY.
    Posts
    1,906

    Default Making money

    You can have 100 competiors it does not matter. It who get out there and sales their product who get the accounts.. At the ky craft market that i do each year. There are at least 10 wood workers that i compete with... I always do better, several reassons 1 my pricing, 2 quality workmanship, shipping on time presentation, and location of my booth.\\ i always pay extra for the dead center booth... This year at the market. There was 600 booth set up.. I did over $7.000.00 in three days. Trade shows that are geared to wholesale customers is the best to do... Most states has some sort of wholesale shows. You can also do your state fair shows... Some shows that i do cost me over $2,000.00 just for booth space. All the festivals that i do are juried shows. I do not do shows where the allow chinia made products...
    Most shows i make over $2,000.00 clear profit. I have had one show that we totally sold out of product and ended up having to get my father to bring us more product so we could finsh the show. We did a show in nashville, indy last year the first night i had to drive back to ky to pick up more products... Presentaion is a big part in sales..

    This show was a one day show the govenors derby breakfast it lasted 6 hours we made cleared over $1000.00 for that show.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    www.tgdesigns.net
    eking1953@yahoo.com

    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS IS A LABORER.
    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS AND HEAD IS A CRAFTSMAN.
    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS, HIS HEAD AND HIS HEART IS AN ARTIST.
    ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    1,010

    Default

    Eugene have you thought about setting up an Ebay Shop? Not hard to do and a real winner for small sign sized stuff. You could think about really personalised trophies perhaps? Most of us are darn good at making stuff but fail in the super salesman stakes. The problem with owning a Bot is you can make literally anything and this causes mental confusion as to what path to go down. Can identify with your isolation problem as we are in the same boat.
    Buddy BT48 with 6' power stick
    2.2 HSD Spindle
    Aspire 9.5
    6" ShopBot Indexer

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Delray Beach, FL
    Posts
    3,708

    Default

    And the big smile and sunny attitude of your number one assistant there as well as the obvious hard work and well developed plan are part of it too!

    I tell people on a regular basis that if you build a better mousetrap the world will NOT beat a path to your door. You have to market it correctly and, whatever your product is, marketing it to the right audience in the right way is crucial.

    Eugene, I don't recall having commented on your threads before (although I may have), but I would like to take this opportunity to express my sadness at your wife's situation. I understand that anecdotal evidence supports the use of a product that is not legal in all states (but is becoming legal in more and more finally) as being a big help to that particular problem. You may want to check that out. (No reply or further comments to this requested).

    IMHO your offering is priced at a level that is low enough that you should take no responsibility for whether the purchaser ends up succeeding in making money or not. You have certainly made it clear how much more work you put into it and tools required than just cutting parts on your mill and shared more about your particular business operational system than darn near anyone. Your sharing your system free for all is to be commended and I hope you get enough paid subscribers to make it all worth while.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    2328 Morris Creek Road Stanton, KY.
    Posts
    1,906

    Default Making money

    Mr Eustace i have tried that route before. It is one's and two's and most often a one time sale. I did get retail prices however i have found that it is much better to sale wholesale and have customers that order 20 to 50 of one item each month. I have over 200 wholesale customers. They range from $50.00 a month orders upwards with one customer that orders $1000.00 per month. By offering my product at wholesale i can make more product per run and maintain a good number of product in stock. I do not have to deal with the general public which i like.. ( i have ptsd)... I sale more and have a better profit margin by saling my products wholesale. I move far more wholesale than i would if i had a store front in a large town.. Some of my customers see anywhere from 100,000 to 2,000,000 people per year. That is one reason i go after state parks, gift shops in high traffic areas..they will see more people in one day than would visit a on line store. Do not get me wrong there is money to be made on line, i wholesale to a company that has a on line store...they take the order, send me their invoice by e-mail and i ship and bill them for the product and shipping.. But i have found that i make more money wholesaling.

    Mr Rosenbleeth: Thank you for your kind words, those that do buy my designs, i want them to make good money, what i am sharing is to help them and anyone that will listen and put my way of thinking into practice. Sometimes people have a great product, but like you said the world will not beat a path to your door. You have to go knock on their door. When i first started. I would knock on a 100 doors to get one customer. I almost gave up on having a wood working business. But i kept on knocking on doors, after several started to sale my products others started noticing how well they moved, and several that had said not to me at first came knocking on my door. (completly kentucky in frankfort ky is a high end store.) i had tried for three years to get into that store and never could even get a chance to show them my product. I was doing a festival in frankfort, one of their owners came to the festival, i noticed this lady watching my booth but was too busy with customers to go ask her why she was watching me. Latter that evening when it slowed down she came back and placed a $1,000.00 order. I told her that i had been trying to get into her store for years and had given up, she explained to me that the see thousands trying to sale things to them and that they no longer look at product. She told me that the crowd that was backed out of my booth waiting to buy things made her stop and watch what everyone was so interested in...the presentation of our product draws crowds this happens at every show we do i end up getting one to two new wholesale accounts each show we do.. I have learned which shows to do. I only do juried shows, at them i am competing with other people that make products not china made products that sale for nothing.
    You can have a great product, but if it is not presented correctly or not visible it will not sale... A good gift shop will move product around each month. Placement in the store is important, on some of my items i buy cheap colored jars and let the customer use that as a display,, this helps bring attention to the product, it gives the end user a idea of how to decorate there kitchen... So they buy other items that i have at that stroe to match.. (this was my wife's suggestion and it has paid off.) the biggest suggestion i have for anyone that makes things ask your wife, what she thinks will sale... Them make those items only... Women do 90% of the buying, they are your target.
    Mr Rosenbleeth thank you for your kind words about my wife... We have tried everything, multi eye surgeries special meds but the best we could hope for was to slow it down and that is what we got this last time, they put drain tubes in her eyes to reduce the pressure. But even then the damage that is done will not improve and will slowly get worse.
    We have spent thousands of dollars we have been to every major eye clinc that we could find even mayo clinic...
    We have accepted this and are preparing for the loss of vission.
    Thanks ..
    www.tgdesigns.net
    eking1953@yahoo.com

    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS IS A LABORER.
    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS AND HEAD IS A CRAFTSMAN.
    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS, HIS HEAD AND HIS HEART IS AN ARTIST.
    ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    2328 Morris Creek Road Stanton, KY.
    Posts
    1,906

    Default Making money

    Here is why i prefer to do whole sale.

    COULD NOT COPY AND PASTE FOR SOME REASON.
    www.tgdesigns.net
    eking1953@yahoo.com

    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS IS A LABORER.
    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS AND HEAD IS A CRAFTSMAN.
    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS, HIS HEAD AND HIS HEART IS AN ARTIST.
    ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Posts
    7,832

    Default

    Eugene,
    In reading your first post above describing where you live I couldn't help but think you were actually describing a place like Mayberry

    Yeah it sounded like it might be a long haul and a hassle to get things but i bet many of us would trade places with you....
    btw I envision you wearing bib overall's and a ball cap where you stick the pencil you mark with in the shop in the brim of your hat, point sticking down....am i close? lol
    Words of Wisdom:
    “Words that sink into your ears are whispered…… not yelled”
    “The biggest trouble maker you’ll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every morn’n”
    “The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth”
    -----------
    Just remember...when it's time for the hearse to pull up..there's no luggage rack on top!
    -----------
    The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it...Thomas Jefferson

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    2328 Morris Creek Road Stanton, KY.
    Posts
    1,906

    Default close

    I do ware a ball cap, but not the bib overalls. I wear blue jeans and some sort of short sleeve shirt.. the draw back to this small town, is by the end of the day everyone knows what you have done or are going to do... you never know when someon is going to walk into the shop just to talk... if I have a lot of work to do.. I lock the door, they know I can not hear with all the equipment going.. and come back latter.
    www.tgdesigns.net
    eking1953@yahoo.com

    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS IS A LABORER.
    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS AND HEAD IS A CRAFTSMAN.
    HE WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS, HIS HEAD AND HIS HEART IS AN ARTIST.
    ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Posts
    7,832

    Default

    you never know when someone is going to walk into the shop just to talk...

    Man oh man, i know that feeling. In my retail stores I used to have people come in and want to stand around and have me basically entertain them because they had nothing better to do. I would go about doing what i had to do and sometimes they never got the hint....
    Words of Wisdom:
    “Words that sink into your ears are whispered…… not yelled”
    “The biggest trouble maker you’ll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every morn’n”
    “The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth”
    -----------
    Just remember...when it's time for the hearse to pull up..there's no luggage rack on top!
    -----------
    The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it...Thomas Jefferson

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Diamond Lake, WA
    Posts
    1,746

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by myxpykalix View Post
    you never know when someone is going to walk into the shop just to talk...

    Man oh man, i know that feeling. In my retail stores I used to have people come in and want to stand around and have me basically entertain them because they had nothing better to do. I would go about doing what i had to do and sometimes they never got the hint....
    Yep. A friend and fellow woodworking walked in to chat a couple of hours ago. Hadn't seen him in awhile. Was great to chat with him again.
    Don
    Diamond Lake Custom Woodworks, LLC
    www.dlwoodworks.com
    ***********************************
    Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece; But to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, bank accounts empty, credit cards maxed out, defiantly shouting "Geronimo"!

    If you make something idiot proof, all they do is create a better idiot.

Similar Threads

  1. Money in a box
    By joe in forum Sign Making
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 02-10-2014, 06:54 PM
  2. box of money
    By myxpykalix in forum ShopBotter Message Board
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 01-19-2014, 05:46 PM
  3. Brilliant money making idea
    By Bob Eustace in forum ShopBotter Message Board
    Replies: 15
    Last Post: 08-29-2013, 12:46 AM
  4. Making Money with Your shop bot
    By genek in forum ShopBotter Message Board
    Replies: 30
    Last Post: 07-22-2013, 03:53 AM
  5. Making money with your cnc
    By genek in forum ShopBotter Message Board
    Replies: 21
    Last Post: 11-09-2012, 06:12 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •