ForumsStarting a Business

A few suggestions . . .

If you live in (or have a friend/relative who does) a relatively high traffic area, set some of your finished work on the driveway early on a Saturday morning, along with an unfinished piece that you can be working on. People passing by looking for garage sales, taking their children to activities, etc. will be able to see at a glance that you do woodworking and have things for sale. Those who are interested (either in one of your items, or in some light carpentry or finish work will stop to talk.

If you have any spring home and garden shows, flea markets, or craft malls in your area (and if booth space is affordable), consider setting up a display at one or more of them.

To build your "sales" skills in any of those settings, practice engaging people in conversation. One technique (when people stop by) is to introduce yourself and ask for an opinion about one of your items. ("I'd really like your opinion about something. Could you take a look at this and tell me what you think about it?") Then show them the item (one you think they'd be likely to buy or want), and ask them what they think about its quality, usefulness, craftsmanship or whatever is relevant. Then ask what they think you should set the price at. If it's a lot higher than the price you set in your mind, you can offer them a good deal on it as a thank you. You may make a sale without "selling." If the price they set is lower, you can simply thank them for their input (if that happens several times, of course, you'll learn that your prices may be high -- so you can ask follow-up questions to find out what is lacking, and learn if there's something else you should be making/doing). Either way, you'll be gaining experience at "reading" people's interests and at interacting with potential customers -- without having to "hard sell" them.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your enterprise!

Hi. A few years back I got into building outdoor furniture. I always had a hard time pricing the custom stuff, so the outdoor furniture thing was based more on volume and sales strategies than on "onesy-twosy" high-end projects. Once I got into it, I found that establishing a manufacturing process that an hourly employee can master in a short time was the first challenge, then figuring out how to sell my products was the next challenge. There are lots of approaches to selling outdoor furniture, and I found that instead of getting a lot of orders from one place, I was able to get a few orders from many places. There's too much to go over in this blog, but if you want to know more about the outdoor furniture business, check out my site called outdoorfurniturebusiness.com. I wrote a 240-page ebook about my experiences, and it covers everything from manufacturing to sales. Best of luck with your venture!

Hi ChairDude,

I tried emailing you through your site but go an error page display so don't know if it went through to you. Purpose of my email: Have you thought about publishing a hard-copy/print version of your book that can be sold via Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc? I've published my own business books and also have three publishing imprints for working with client/authors.

Your book sounds like it would have a pretty broad commercial appeal and it may make sense to publish as a book available in hardcopy. If interested to discuss the best way to reach me initially is via email through my website (the one in my profile for this online community and my corporate site I'll put below). I don't mind to give you some guidance on how to publish it yourself or if we can be of assistance--to discuss that with you as well.

Dennis Lowery
www.AdducentInc.com