Craigslist!

What's not to love about Craigslist?

1. It's Free!

2. It gets you customers! 

I know the concerns of safety especially after the infamous Craigslist killer, but in all things not just craigslist safety first. 

So before I moved I sold off some stuff from my apartment on Craiglist. Being a single woman I did not want anyone coming into my home without my having someone else there. That wasn't always possible. So when they emailed me they were interested they would call and set up a time to come and see the item and I'd make sure it was outside my door for them. It would be a bit funny because as much as I was unsure of them, they would come with someone which said to me they were unsure of me. 

Here in my new home I can't do that. I live in a gated community that would frown upon a business being conducted from my home.  I do have a booth at Knot on Main Street and before Christmas I started doing limited amounts of ads on Craigslist directing them to Knot  and am proud to say I have sold everything I posted. Here are the items I sold.

1. Vintage Sewing Machine

2.   Farmhouse Chic Chalk Boards  

(sold 3) 

3. World Globe

With my marketing efforts for my business and the success I've had with Craiglist I'll be utilizing this FREE tool.  I'll be posting to that customer who loves the vintage, chic shabby, farmhouse country or French country look. Those type of customers read Craiglist. My subject line will be written specifically to attracts those customers.

Oh yeah, another plus will be a link to my blog that I'll include in the ad. Can always use more traffic to my blog. 

Do you use Craiglist for your business? Would love to hear how you are doing with it.

Where To Sell Part Three Brick and Mortar

Brick and Mortar is my favorite way to sell, can be your own store, a flea market booth  or space in an antique mall.

Source

 Having my own store involves a lot more than I'm willing to do right now. Because of the expenses and commitment to the amount of days to work  I opt to not open a store.

Back in the 80's in Syosset, NY I had a store with my sister called Once Upon A Gift. Then in 2005 I opened 2 stores which both were called Soapier in Tarpon Springs, Fl with my adult children as my partners.  Having experienced having my own store right now I'd rather spend my time doing what I love and that's FIND then RE*PURPOSE.

Source

A flea market booth is a great idea, you can grow a business with some very affordable rental rates. Usually the cost for rent includes everything except insurance and payroll.  There is a commitment of someone manning the booth each weekend, I'm not ready to do that yet. 

Back in November I rented a booth space at an antique mall in Dunedin, FL called Knot On Main Street.  You can read about it HERE.

So what's so great about this you ask?  I pay rent $3.00 a square foot and I believe I have about 110 square feet. Commission rate is 10% plus I'll also pay a percentage if the customer uses a credit card.  Stock my booth, do a nice display and the rest of the work is done for me. Love it! 

My focus for my Plan For Business will be to increase my sales at Knot which will be accomplished with more inventory in my booth and marketing using the free classified of Craiglist which I'll talk about in my next post.

Where To Sell Part Two I Do But I Don't

I do but I don't like Flea Markets, Farmers Markets and Craft Shows.

They are similar in the fact that you pay for a booth, set it up and wait for customers and are organized by promoters. Each type of show might attract a different customer base.

First let me explain what I LIKE about them.

Display, display and display. Did I mention I love displaying. Display is one of the most important things you can do for your business when doing shows. It's crucial to success. If you do shows start watching how people react to your booth. Notice how maybe 1. they gravitate to a certain part of your display. 2. they ignore your booth all together. Then step outside of your booth and try to see what they see. I then start switching things around and then again I see how those walking past my booth respond. It's fun, and interesting.


I like a good promoter who makes sure the right amount of marketing is done to get the customers to the event and hopefully to your booth.


I like meeting new people at these events and getting to know them. I love talking to people.

I like the weekly flea markets and farmer markets with their very affordable rates. You can rent a space with a table here in Florida for $10 for the day, can't beat that.

I like the idea of a flea market that is indoors and you don't have to set up a tent and you can also rent the space permanently. It's almost like having your own brick and mortar store. Plus you can grow the business with the proper marketing.  



What I DON'T LIKE.

Sitting around all day waiting for customers. So what happens to me if business is  slow,  I talk my neighbors ears off until they start to yawn,  I then move on to thinking about all the stuff I could be doing at home. No sales, low sales I then wonder what the heck am I doing here?   I tend to be a very antsy person, find it hard to enjoy just sitting doing nothing.

Not a big fan of packing up the car, unloading, setting up a tent and then repacking up at the end of the day and hauling the merchandise back in my garage. Of course this is all relative to how sales have been.

I don't like spending my money for a booth and the promoters is scrimping on marketing. This  happens a lot with not for profit organizations.

 I think that pretty much covers what I don't like. So here's the verdict, in my Plan For Business,  drum roll please!

About 30 minutes north of my home is a town called Mt. Dora and they host these antiques &  collectors xtravaganzas 3 times a year. People come from all over and the vendors sell products very much like my own which means there is a market for it. The flea market portion of this place charges $70 for the weekend. I can see myself doing this. I will need to hire help, rent a truck and buy a tent. I'll also need  lots of inventory. In my Plan For Business this is my goal for  fall of 2012. 

Where To Sell Part One

These next few posts about where to sell are from my own past experiences with these venues. My Plan For Business needs me to re-look over these ways and make a decision that feels right for me today.  My hope is that this information will be helpful to you as well.   

First you need to know that in the past I've been beguiled by the promise of making money.  You know those guys who say "read my ebook for $49.95 and you too can start making big money"? I was one of those who forked over the money, I'm ashamed to say more than once. 

You know that expression Jack of all trades, master of none well that could very easily describe myself. With all the jumping around I never focused on one thing and did what was necessary to make THAT successful.

So now after all the confessions lets first discuss the web. What's interesting and exciting about the web is the amount of potential customers.  A brick and mortar store could never get the amount of traffic that the web gets and to me in a business stand point this is it's best attribute.

1. Etsy  is a great site with very affordable rates filled with creative artistic people selling their wares. Etsy generates a lot of traffic, maybe not as much as Ebay but still a lot. The advantages to this site is the low fees, the traffic, the place to go for handmade and vintage items, and you can price your items higher on Etsy then on Ebay. It's a different customer base on Etsy than on Ebay.     
2. Ebay  you will hear the complaints about the outrageous fees etc but I have to tell you that nowhere are you going to get the potential traffic that Ebay generates. Logically if you had a brick and mortar store what do you think your expenses would be and does the customer traffic match up?
3. Own Web Site  Nothing like having your own web site, and you might be thinking why bother paying those other guys those fees when I can have my own site. Might be a good idea but remember someone has to make the web site, you need a shopping cart and gateway and all that takes knowledge, time and money.
4. Amazon  is also is a great site with lots of traffic. High fees, higher than Ebay.

For all of the above you can't expect to be successful by just listing your items. There's way more to it than that. It's called marketing and each one might need a different approach.

 For me right now the web is not where I will be putting my efforts. First off it takes a lot being successful on-line.  You have to take great pictures, write great copy for your listings, learn how to get your listings noticed but the real big reason I don't want to do the web is because I HATE shipping things.


Remember how I said in my previous post that I want to get up each morning raring to go, loving what I'm doing, well if shipping some sold items was on my list of things to do for the day I'd opt to just stay in bed.


I've learned from the past to never say never but for now it's absolutely been down voted. 


Am I the only one who hates shipping items? 

Tomorrow I'll go over my ideas for Flea Markets, Farmers Market and Craft Shows.

Plan For Business!

This post is not about doing a business plan or marketing plan like the experts recommend. My eyes tend to glaze over and I suffer an out of body experience when asked to do one of those.  Just can't seem to grasp the whys and hows of it.  I'd like to think I'm more the creative artist type than a numbers person.  One could hope, right?

This is more about doing what I love to do and finding a way to make money doing it. I don't need much, just to supplement what I already get.

So I love to paint small items creating a vintage aged look.  I love to sew, pillows and curtains, and tabletop dressings.  I love to write because I think I might have something to say.  I love thrift store shopping, finding items that might of seen their day and giving them second chances.

So the first part of my Plan For Business is to commit to doing what I love to do.  If..... I want to awake each  morning with a smile, raring to go then I'd best be doing what I love to do. Seems simple enough.

Step one of  Plan For Business is done. I know what I love to do and I plan on doing it.

Come along on this journey with me of discovering how to make it all work. Should be interesting.

Next I'll post about the areas that are available for me to sell my wares. Stay tuned!