There was a seminar scheduled at the Small Business Development Center, but it was cancelled though I got to set up an appointment for next week to have one-on-one business counseling. On top of that I think I got a new customer.
Got lots of information, have to start going over it and making decisions.
Still working to hunt down the seller of the mini football helmets. Have a customer for a Carolina Panthers, a helmet I do have at this moment. The guy works at a high-profile business so if I get him to keep it in view. . . I may just get me some more customers. Plenty of them.
Though people know of me and my bears 'cause of a project I used to do with the fire department here. I just need to jog their memories. When I went back to the Farmer's Market during the Christmas season, people remembered me. "You were here years ago," this other vendor told me.
I replied that I was.
"You've gotten better," he said.
And I have. I take more artistic risks with my bears, working different textures, choosing furs that aren't traditional to stuffed bears, etc.
"Your bears are interesting," a woman said as she selected the bear her husband was buying her for Christmas.
"They're like designer bears," this other man said.
The money is nice-- I've gotten good at pricing my work; in the beginning I wasn't even charging what it cost me in time/material to make them!-- but I so much enjoy the look on people's faces. That's the reward. Getting bears to people I said I would this week and next. Just this morning I dropped one off and the joy on this woman's face!
That's why I do this. That's why I intend to spend the rest of my life doing it.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Other options
I can knit (when I really learn how to knit) bear clothing and sell it in bear magazines and I can sell my patterns to bear supply companies.
I can sell my patterns through my business, but either way, I will have to write a "process paper"-- ha! I hated writing those and I hated assigning them to my students 'cause I'm not one for written instructions. I learn by seeing--I follow the pictures in the bearmaking books or I cut out the pattern pieces and figure out what goes where as I sew. I will definitely have to pull something out of me as a writer for that.
I can sell my patterns through my business, but either way, I will have to write a "process paper"-- ha! I hated writing those and I hated assigning them to my students 'cause I'm not one for written instructions. I learn by seeing--I follow the pictures in the bearmaking books or I cut out the pattern pieces and figure out what goes where as I sew. I will definitely have to pull something out of me as a writer for that.
Making decisions as to what to offer for sale .
Going through the patterns I created and choosing patterns by others that I could use. I don't understand the copyright laws, but most patterns say that the finished product is copyrighted and can't be sold for profit. Other patterns, a person can make 25 before the pattern designer has to be mentioned and others, you have to mention the designer on those first 25.
There is a woman who designs huge bears (3' to 5') and I've always wanted to make them. Luckily, she's one who allows you to make 25 a year from each pattern as long as you note that she's the designer. More, and licensing becomes the issue. Still she has six patterns that I want to try and if you times that by 25 you get a lot of bears.
I have a book of patterns from a place in England and I had written them years ago and I was told I could sell the bears because the copyright was for the patterns exclusively.
I also got permission from a company for its patterns, again as long as I note them.
There are some products I do that will be the anchor of my business, and as long as kids are graduating from high school, as long as women are having babies and as long as men love football and their women want to gift them with a cute bear w/a football helmet (I have to contact the company that makes the NFL and college helmets and see about wholesale/bulk purchases), well as long as those three things keep happening, I might make a buck or two.
Going through the patterns I created and choosing patterns by others that I could use. I don't understand the copyright laws, but most patterns say that the finished product is copyrighted and can't be sold for profit. Other patterns, a person can make 25 before the pattern designer has to be mentioned and others, you have to mention the designer on those first 25.
There is a woman who designs huge bears (3' to 5') and I've always wanted to make them. Luckily, she's one who allows you to make 25 a year from each pattern as long as you note that she's the designer. More, and licensing becomes the issue. Still she has six patterns that I want to try and if you times that by 25 you get a lot of bears.
I have a book of patterns from a place in England and I had written them years ago and I was told I could sell the bears because the copyright was for the patterns exclusively.
I also got permission from a company for its patterns, again as long as I note them.
There are some products I do that will be the anchor of my business, and as long as kids are graduating from high school, as long as women are having babies and as long as men love football and their women want to gift them with a cute bear w/a football helmet (I have to contact the company that makes the NFL and college helmets and see about wholesale/bulk purchases), well as long as those three things keep happening, I might make a buck or two.
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