giramomma
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Post by giramomma on May 23, 2016 19:58:22 GMT -5
Those aren't bad ideas, but they're all available at free or low cost classes around here. Prices vary by area, but in this area it would be tough to get people to pay $20 for any of those crafts which again puts you into the very large amount of work for very small amount of profit zone.
Wondering if you could get interest and profit up by offering more unique ideas like your voodoo doll divorce craft. BTW, I think the voodoo doll would also go over for business groups. I had a voodoo doll dressed in a suit in my office and people loved it. Interesting stuff like that - where again people can drink wine and giggle while making it - might have more appeal or buzz.
I was thinking something more along those lines..What about something like a subversive cross stitch? They even have a facebook page... shop.subversivecrossstitch.com/collections/pdfsOne of the patterns I want is the bookmark "OMG, Becky, look at her book." Anyway, they have lots that could apply to things like baby showers, divorce parties, gin, etc. There's even a few free star wars patterns floating around the internet. The tie-dye shirts would lend itself well to all sorts of situations...you could tie die onsies...I could see it being an adult event..or a bachlorette thing.. I like your crafts, but they are really mostly geared towards the outdoors. I've considered a stepping stone now, as a project with my kids. When I was in my early 20's, living in an apartment, most of this stuff wouldn't be on my radar. I think you should consider adding jewelry making to your list. Now, that's something I would have considered for a bachelorette party, if I had one. And you could branch out to other crafts with the bling, bling...I'm thinking markers for knitting, scissors fobs. Then, what you could do is find places that do retreats/weekend long stitch-ins, etc...Then you offer your services..to the person organizing the retreat/stitch-in, what have you. "Look quilter Sally, I noticed you have 15 retreats a year. Can I come to your spot and offer a scissor fob class for $X dollars? Here's what you get." ETA: Some people like to have souvenirs to help the remember friends/good times, etc. ETAA: What about something like painting/decorating stem wear?
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on May 23, 2016 20:30:18 GMT -5
Okay - so....you've all just about convinced me (already) that my original idea is WAY bigger than what I'm ready to tackle. HOWEVER.... That doesn't mean the idea is totally kaput. I've just adapted and rethought my idea. Shooby is right - I already have my business plan, I just wasn't charging any money for it before. Now I could and still keep my day job (for now). I'll provide and bring the craft to you (your choice out of a selection {that I'm comfortable w/teaching/demonstrating} - discussion available for something not offered) for a set price per person ($20-$50 depending on the craft and length). Minimum number of participants (maybe 4-6?), maximum (15-20?) - over that would need to be discussed (reason why to follow). Cost per craft would include: Tables Chairs Craft & all supplies to complete craft Instructions/cheerleading on completing said craft Tent (if needed/wanted - possible extra cost) Set up/tear down I already own both a Suburban and a truck (both paid for) to haul these items. I already own 2 8' tables (I have access to more) I do not have chairs, but I have access to some, and can definitely buy some. I already own a very nice 10'x 20' tent w/sides - It takes a minimum of 2 people to set up, but it's doable. I already have the experience to lead/set up and tear down events like this. I already have experience w/booking and scheduling. I have some (need more) experience w/running a website. Reason why I would want to discuss hosting larger groups - the tent I have would barely fit 15 people (10 is ideal), 20 would be absolute max (unless they're okay with not everyone sitting under the canopy). Plus it gets into the logistics of hauling tables and chairs for that many people. It would be better off if they had a hall/rental space (yes, yes, I know!! Ironic! ) to host the event in rather than me hauling everything to them. I'm okay with hosts/party bookers to pick out a craft I don't offer, as long as it is "available and feasible". That's where the discussion with them would come in. If they wanted to have a 1 hour party, but the craft they want to do takes minimum of 3 hours, that would be a discussion. Or, if the craft supplies are not available to me (requires specialty items that I don't have or no experience in), that wouldn't automatically be a no, just another discussion. Then it can be - whatever the host wants it to be - sorority group, girl/boy scout troop, friends getting together, wedding/baby shower, divorce party (hhhmmm.....voodoo dolls might make for an interesting craft! ), or anything else you might be able to come up with! Thoughts? This sounds like a great place to start. Find out. What will people pay? Will they pay $20? Will they pay $50? I don't know. Having it in a tent doesn't sound that appealing to me unless it is a really nice summer or spring day. I was really thinking more that you would be the one providing the venue. Say at that YMCA or somewhere like that and hosting the group. Of course that adds expense. However, going to them might work and get you started or you could offer it as something that you bring to them or vice versa.
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on May 23, 2016 22:07:21 GMT -5
Karaboo, your latest direction made me think of the place linked below that is in a tiny town I drive through between my current city and hometown. I know several hometown friends that have made the drive to this place just to do their classes. This isn't the same business model you're thinking of as they also sell handmade items, but they definitely offer classes, workshops and parties. www.facebook.com/TwoByFourClassics/I wouldn't do the tent option - you're in Texas and it is freaking hot for a good portion of the year. I like the idea of being able to take the crafts to people, or taking care of reserving a space and hosting there (i.e. Library, community center, etc).
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on May 24, 2016 5:39:43 GMT -5
Yes, a library, community center, etc would be a very nice venue. You could contact other craft stores and also hold them there as well.
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milee
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Post by milee on May 24, 2016 8:19:51 GMT -5
On an ongoing basis, one of your challenges is how do you acquire your customers and how much does it cost to both get a customer and do the set up for each job (answer questions about what you do, give quotes, make arrangements). Your mobile craft service idea faces some challenges in both of those areas, IMHO.
The crafts you describe as offering are not crafts that any of the groups you describe as being potential customers would normally seek out. The only exception I can think of is that scouts would do those crafts, but you're going to have a big problem trying to convince a troop to pay an outsider $20 a person to do a craft they normally do by just buying supplies and having a volunteer lead it. As for the other groups, there may be a few brides, groups of friends, sororities or showers that want to build a birdhouse or make a simple felt pillow, but those will be the exceptions not the norm so you'll be seeking a needle in a haystack as far as customers go. Then, once you find that rare gem and provide their craft day... you'll have to find the next customer because that customer is even less likely to repeat.
You want to provide something that appeals to a large group of potential customers, doesn't take much time/effort to arrange with each customer and that will draw repeat customers. That last point is key because that's where you make money long-term. If you're always having to find and sell to new customers you will never get out of startup mode, but if you can build a base of repeat customers then over time your time and cost to do each project goes way down and that's where as a business owner you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Ideas for how you tweak your plan to address these issues: - Different craft offerings that are either widely appealing or unique enough to attract buzz among a wide audience - Figure out a few target customers and design craft offerings that appeal directly to those customers so you can market efficiently. You will find it hard to do targeted marketing to multiple groups, so by identifying who you're seeking you make your marketing easier, less expensive and more effective. You will not be able to market the same stuff to boy scouts and brides. Figure out who you're going after. - When you determine your target market, keep in mind that you either want to be so well known in that market that all the ______ come to you and you don't have to worry as much about repeat customers or pick a target market
I'll give some examples in another post.
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milee
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Post by milee on May 24, 2016 10:05:36 GMT -5
Examples of customer acquisition and set up costs under two different models:
Current plan - list birdhouses, felt pillows, stepping stones, etc. and hope sororities, showers, scouts, bridal parties, etc. want to do one of those - Because so few of any of those groups will want to do any of those crafts, you'll need to blanket market and do a huge campaign to find the few that will be interested. You'll need to find a way for your ads to convince everyone from sororities to boy scouts how you have the perfect craft for them or you'll need to make up a large number of different types of ads and then try to get those in the right hands. - The few that will be interested will take a lot of time for you to explain to each one how much fun it will be to make a stepping stone at their baby shower and how they won't have to worry about mess and how it will fit with their theme and not ruin anybody's manicure. - You will spend hours answering calls like these: "Do we need to bring helmets or do you provide them?" "My sister is allergic to gluten, is the paint we're using gluten free?" "The picture of the stepping stone on your website shows the stone is grey. We'd like a hot pink sparkly stone, can you do that?" Probably 10-20 of these type calls for every one event you book. - Once you do the event and everybody loves their craft, that's it. You're done with them because how many people are going to have multiple weddings or whatever event it is you've convinced them a birdhouse would be a perfect memento of? - Start the whole process over for every.single.event you do. - Very time consuming and will never stop because it's not like you'll get a huge reputation for being the go-to lady to do a bridal shower craft. You'll be in constant customer acquisition mode. Forever. - And unless you figure a way to leverage this model, you'll never make more than the small hourly wage mentioned in my earlier post. There's no way for the wage to grow or for you to grow this into a real business that runs on its own with only some management from you. And there's sure as heck no way to grow that into a real business that has value in itself or that you can sell to someone else.
"Made in Dallas - a place for locally made craft" - your location offers a coffee shop/hangout lounge plus large crafting space. During the day or whenever there's no class, you rent tables by the hour. You also offer a calendar packed full of interesting, diverse, fun classes, experiences and events. - Your product isn't any one class, it's fun projects for people who are curious and like to learn new things - a huge market. - As customers come in to get their coffee or hang out with a friend, they will notice your prominently placed calendar and see all the fun upcoming events (which you describe as a marketer would with fun, teaser phrases). Even if they decide they don't need to make their very own Office Voodoo Doll, they will remember and talk about it to others. - Each time someone takes a class there, they are added to your customer database of "people who want to do fun projects". You can market to those same people again and again and again because the same type of person who would sign up to do Subversive Crossstitch would also probably be interested in another fun, unique craft. And again, even if they're not, they'll probably tell their friends. - Over time, you'll develop marketing groups of people who are interested in certain broad categories. For example, your hardcore crafters (who you'll pull in when you have a specialist teach a class there) will also be interested when you offer a class on "how to get started on Etsy." The people who come in to decorate cookies might also be interested in gardening in small spaces. - After a few years, you will have enough people coming through your coffee shop and being pulled in to classes that way plus your accumulated database of people who've done classes in the past that you won't need to do much, if any, marketing. Yes, you'll still have some of the weird, PITA question calls, but those too will decrease as people hear and know about your offerings. It's not a custom product you're trying to make fit or something you're trying to convince them will be nontraditional for a shower but fun anyways, it's something that they are already seeking out. - If you offer a different class a night and your classes average 40 people at $35 each, that's about $30,000 gross revenue a month from just the classes alone... Yes, you'll have higher costs associated with this model, but your net is still going to be substantial if you control the costs. You'll also be building up a business that can operate without you being there. You'll build up a real business with value that you could someday sell.
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Shooby
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Post by Shooby on May 24, 2016 11:50:02 GMT -5
Do people want to do this nightly? Or is this more of a weekend business?
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milee
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Post by milee on May 24, 2016 12:09:01 GMT -5
In a market as large as metro Dallas if you offer interesting enough offerings they would easily be full weeknights. Weekends you could even book more than one class per night.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2016 12:13:12 GMT -5
Personally we do moms night out stuff on weekdays, because weekends are for family. but we only do them once a month. and we wouldn't be interested in a craft more than 1-2 times a year. but thats just one social group.
what i think is the biggest issue with that model is that it is primarly a coffee shop, whatever. while the craft aspect is there, it actually seems secondary to why people would come in, and as such requires effort, quite a bit of it, plus regs and location, etc. which are not necessarily primary to her main goal.
What do you do now for you main employment Karaboo? Is owning your own business a necessity? Or could you just be better satisfied with a change in job. Maybe a recreation director?
OR... i don't know much about the recreation direction industry, is there any chance that nursing homes and hospitals and etc. may be looking to outsource this type of work, ie. not hire their own recreation department, but look to an outside agency to provide ongoing classes and crafts? Could that be an avenue to explore?
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milee
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Post by milee on May 24, 2016 12:29:47 GMT -5
what i think is the biggest issue with that model is that it is primarly a coffee shop, whatever. while the craft aspect is there, it actually seems secondary to why people would come in, and as such requires effort, quite a bit of it, plus regs and location, etc. which are not necessarily primary to her main goal. Hm. Again, I guess maybe we're looking at it differently then. Her title was "Starting a Small Business" and I'm assuming her main goal is to start a successful small business that she can build up to where it not only makes great money and can operate without her 24/7 involvement but also is an entity that has value in itself so she can sell it when she wants to do something else.
If that's not the main goal, then my recommendation is going to be what it always is... don't do this. You will put in a ton of time and effort to make little to no money; you could even bankrupt your family. If your main goals are to work for yourself, to get out of a job you don't like, to get to do something you love all day, to craft, to hang out around people crafting or anything other than the main goal I list in paragraph #1, then for the love of God don't start this business. Get a job working for some other poor soul who owns a business that allows you to do this stuff.
As for offering coffee and pastry being additional effort and regulation - yes, it is. Even if you keep it simple like the models you find inside a bookstore (one person at the 8' counter and limited equipment/offerings), it will be more work and probably isn't something you know about or are interested in. But bottom line, you need some mechanism to draw in customers who aren't looking to craft, you need some diversity in your income stream, you need a way to convey that your brand is "locally made things, from crafts to pastry", etc. and a small coffee corner is a good way to do that. Plus it adds to the overall atmosphere of cozy, friendly hangout. People keep bringing up using space at the YMCA, library, back room of a craft store, etc, but 99% of those spaces are pretty awful - bare rooms with no decorations, crappy office type furniture and overhead florescent lighting. That's about the polar opposite of the vibe you need to convey fun hangout and attract people who view this as an outing not just a way to get a birdhouse done.
Whatever your extra draw is - doesn't have to be a coffee corner, that's just what I'm using as my example to illustrate what I think you'll need to diversify, set the tone and expose more people to your concept - figure out what the draw is and use it as part of your business plan.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on May 24, 2016 12:41:34 GMT -5
a friend of mine does the "Cocktails and Canvases" classes (I think that's what you are referred to as "painting with a twist") and makes really good money.
However, it's her second job, she is a public school art teacher, goes to places instead of having a fixed location, and knows that this will be a draw for a limited time period.
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milee
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Post by milee on May 24, 2016 13:07:08 GMT -5
a friend of mine does the "Cocktails and Canvases" classes (I think that's what you are referred to as "painting with a twist") and makes really good money.
However, it's her second job, she is a public school art teacher, goes to places instead of having a fixed location, and knows that this will be a draw for a limited time period. Yeah, I'm floored by the amount of interest in the local Painting with a Twist location. Not my thing, but I've gone a few times as part of an organized group and was amazed at the success of the operation. The local storefront is just a simple location in a mid-level strip mall with a few basic restaurants, office supply store and grocery store; it's in the mid-level part of town - neither ritzy or dumpy. It's just two open rooms divided by a bathroom and door between the rooms, probably 1000 square feet total. The space is cheerful and looks artsy but not at all fancy; more like a stylish painter's studio but no expensive decorations. Two rows of simple tables and stools run down each room. They serve no food but people bring their own wine and snacks. Classes are set up, run by and cleaned up after by one artist per room. There was sometimes a separate lady at the front desk to check people in (the owner?), or sometimes the artist/teacher did that, too.
From what I've seen, their average class runs $35-$40. Each time I've been there it's been a weeknight and both rooms have been full, probably 40-50 people in the front room and another 25-30 in the back room. The group I'm part of goes probably once or twice a month (not me - again, not my thing) and if they don't make reservations early enough then not everybody gets to go since the classes get sold out.
My conservative SWAG of the amount of monthly income and profit this place pulls in is this:
Revenue: 5 nights a week x $35 x 50 students per night x 4 weeks/month = $35,000 (again, I think that's way low. They seem to be fully booked almost all the time, but I'm sure there are off nights so this is a conservative guess.)
Expense: Rent = $3,000 Artist/teachers @ $200/class x 5 nights x 2 teachers x 4 weeks/month = $8000 Supplies = $5 per student x 5 nights a week x 50 students x 4 weeks/month = $5000 Insurance, utilities, accounting, website, etc = $2000
Net Income: $17,000 per month All for hosting nontalented lushes who paint stuff they wouldn't hang in their own bathrooms.
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milee
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Post by milee on May 24, 2016 13:11:43 GMT -5
But before we go off the deep end with the Painting with a Twist model, I agree it's completely a fad and within a few years, that income will not continue. If those owners are smart, they'll be saving their customer lists in a database so when the fad starts to die, they can mine that customer base to see who wants to come to the new, fun classes they're offering. The lushes may not want to paint any more masterpieces because the walls of their bathrooms and laundry room are full, but that's when you move on into offering new, interesting classes such as painting stemware, subversive stepping stones, etc. Because the same people who want to get drunk and giggle with their friends while painting a picture of the beach are likely also going to think it's fun to get drunk and giggle with their friends while painting stemware to drink out of or making a stepping stone that appears to be of a person mooning them.
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emma1420
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Post by emma1420 on May 24, 2016 13:30:14 GMT -5
I think as milee and others have noted, that it's about finding the right sorts of projects, and making sure that either you or someone you know has the appropriate expertise to lead those sorts of classes.
For example, I quite like the idea of christmas gift wrapping, but only if it's some sort of fancy wrapping that is truly unique and would make my gifts stand out. Not the kind of wrapping that I could get done at the local department store at Xmas. But, I also think it would be a good idea to develop a list of 5-7 potential craft projects that are unique and relatively easy for non-crafty people to get good results. I think that way you could get a mix of people who really want to learn how to do that sort of project and those people who come for the social experience. Additionally, I think having multiple kinds of crafts means you will get some repeat business. Because once someone has figured out how to do a craft then they are less likely to pay for instruction again.
I would also think very carefully about who you target audience would be. Because I think whoever your target audience is will be how you want to customize your initial offerings. Then you could adjust as necessary.
But, in general, I think the pop-up idea is much better, and has far fewer risks involved.
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tallguy
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Post by tallguy on May 24, 2016 13:52:55 GMT -5
If one thought is to get into teaching how to do things, there is another set of competitors to think about. Community colleges (at least in this area) do a lot of that with a series of lessons in the evenings for those who are really interested. And they have professional instructors too.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on May 24, 2016 16:03:20 GMT -5
If one thought is to get into teaching how to do things, there is another set of competitors to think about. Community colleges (at least in this area) do a lot of that with a series of lessons in the evenings for those who are really interested. And they have professional instructors too. Same here. They aren't very expensive either and for a nominal fee they provide the supplies for you too.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2016 16:57:16 GMT -5
I do think exploring exactly what you want to achieve from starting your own business is of prime importance here. Could you list what your main goals are? I am definitely reading something different from milee, at least in what you stated outright in your original post.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on May 24, 2016 17:06:54 GMT -5
But before we go off the deep end with the Painting with a Twist model, I agree it's completely a fad and within a few years, that income will not continue. If those owners are smart, they'll be saving their customer lists in a database so when the fad starts to die, they can mine that customer base to see who wants to come to the new, fun classes they're offering. The lushes may not want to paint any more masterpieces because the walls of their bathrooms and laundry room are full, but that's when you move on into offering new, interesting classes such as painting stemware, subversive stepping stones, etc. Because the same people who want to get drunk and giggle with their friends while painting a picture of the beach are likely also going to think it's fun to get drunk and giggle with their friends while painting stemware to drink out of or making a stepping stone that appears to be of a person mooning them. She is now moving in the wreath making and painting stem ware as well as painting pictures.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on May 24, 2016 17:27:43 GMT -5
I'd like the painting stemware and furniture like mirrors, bar stools, things like that.
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