Wholesaling or Consigning your Handmade Arts and Crafts

1. Introduction: Hi, and welcome to the class on wholesaling and consigning your handmade arts and crafts tips for getting your first wholesale or consignment accounts for your hand-made business. By the end of this class, you will have learned the difference between consignment and wholesale. Decided what items to sell. Create a simple wholesale catalog price and order sheet. Learned how to find stores that may be interested in your handmade arts and crafts. And you will have simple script examples for talking to potential clients over e-mail, on the phone and in person. This is great for artists who have reservations about contacting businesses. This class is for those who are already selling their handmade arts and crafts online at craft shows, or both, who have a keen interest in seeing their items sold through physical stores, but don't know where to start or want to spend minimum time upfront investing on creating a wholesale or consignment component of their business. If that's you, then I'm here to help. I'm Amy and I work full time with my husband as professional fine craft artists. We are award winning professional artists with more than 13 years of experience making and selling our own original artwork and crafts. During our career, we've created and sold thousands of pieces which we presented and sold in-person at hundreds of shows online through North America, Europe, and Asia. And wholesale and consigned to over 40 stores, boutiques, galleries, and to corporate clients. Here's what we're going to cover in this class. How to decide what to wholesale, how to create a simple wholesale catalog. How the five businesses that may want to buy your work. The difference between consignment and wholesale. How to approach businesses over e-mail, phone, and in person, and how the follow-up with your clients. Additionally, my husband Tanner, who has talked to hundreds of businesses in his previous vendor relations and sales career. And now through our business, will share his knowledge on approaching businesses as a supplier. We have used these methods to sell them. Many of the businesses we have worked with, and we hope these tips will work for you. So let us know if you have any questions or get stuck along the way and let's get started. See you in the next lesson. 2. Class Overview and Project: Hello and welcome to the class overview and your class project. The beginning of this course focuses on deciding what to wholesale and if you have enough margin to wholesale your work. Next, we move on to how to make a simple catalog and what to include how to find stores that may either wholesale or consigner work, as well as the difference between wholesale and consignment. Then we go through how to approach businesses about your items and how to follow up with your new contacts. This is where your class project comes in. What you learned throughout the course, you will create a simple wholesale catalog and choose at least five products you'd like to wholesale. Complete with all the necessary information you will need to wholesale your work. Additionally, you will find five places locally that carry handmade items and write down their store name, contact information, what kind of items they sell. And if you can see your items fitting into that store, there'll be a PDF included with examples to get you going. For this project, you do not need to include anything personal about your pricing or store in contact information. You can use abbreviations for businesses you intend to contact and omit your wholesale pricing. Part is just for you to know, see you can get started. Start thinking about the type of items you would like to include in your catalog. And then as you continue through the course, you'll have more information on what items may be suited more for wholesale vs strictly retail. Now let's get started on the next lesson. 3. How to determine what to wholesale: Welcome to the lesson on deciding what to wholesale. In this lesson, we will offer advice and watch products to wholesale, to create a wholesale channel to brick and mortar stores. If you are unsure of what wholesaling is, it is the selling of your work or other products in bulk to other businesses or parties who then sell it. If you make a large collection of items, chances are you will have some items that sell better than others are easier and quicker to create and have a higher profit. We will first talk about the selection process. Consider choosing some of your current customer favorites for your catalog. If your customers loved them, chances are shop owners will too. And they will be able to solve them without a lot of information. Remember, these items most likely be sitting in a display case or on a shelf. And the salesperson running the shop may not know a whole lot about your product. If your items need an explanation, think about how you would add that to a small card or as part of the packaging for your products. Now take a look at what product you have made the most of. In the shortest amount of time, do you have any items that you can efficiently produce? For example, can you produce a batch of something in the same way a baker can produce a batch of cookies. You may not want to wholesale one of a kind items as they can be extremely time-consuming to create. And if the business has a lot of interests in that item, they may want more of that exact piece. Let's move on to determine if your product has enough margins for wholesaling. 4. Can I afford to wholesale my work?: Welcome to the lesson on determining whether you can afford to wholesale your work. Let's take a look at what to consider when deciding which items you may want to wholesale and see if they are a wholesaler or conceivable in terms of margins. Some things you may need to look into R, one, have you accurately recorded the cost of supplies, such as including all taxes, shipping or import charges, and regularly checking for price increases on the supplies you use to make your items to our your labor costs calculated at a high enough rate. What is your level of skill and how long have you been doing your art or craft? How much would you have to pay someone for an hour If they were doing it for you, if you're a jeweler or seamstress, this can be easily found by looking at jobs for this position and see how much these jobs are offering in terms of payment. Three, are there any miscellaneous costs you may be forgetting about, such as overhead? Do you need to rent a space? Or how much space do you need to allocate to your business in your home? You may need an extra space for storing extra packaging or creating large quantities of items. Other miscellaneous costs or Shop Supplies. This includes items that break down over time or have a single use like paper, towel, sandpaper, soap, and utilities. Some crass require a lot of power and water or specialized lading or heating. This will impact your power bill. You also have to think about tool depreciation, amortize the cost of each tool over a period of time, typically over several years, based on how much you pay for the equipment, when would you need to replace it or repair it? You also need to include all marketing materials like sines, business cards, packaging, et cetera. What kind of miscellaneous costs you have in your business for if you were to make ten to 20 of the same item every month for your wholesale clients. Would you be happy with the profits you are getting? Or would it barely be enough to keep doing it? What about if you are getting orders for 40 to a 100 of the same item, 5, take a look at some of your competitors. Look at the highs and lows to see how your price differs. If something is significantly lower, is it because they found a cheaper source of supplies? Or maybe they don't do wholesale. If it's higher, are they offering something else with their work and are they wholesaling as well? Due to the reduced margins, you will quickly find that the small costs accumulated when making retail products be exponentially increased for wholesale due to the volume created, you may find when checking over your prices, they are not high enough to accommodate most wholesale prices, which are usually 50 percent off what she charged retail, but can be anywhere from 15 to 60 percent of your regular retail price. That's something to consider for either raising your prices, are looking into making a less costly version of some of your bestsellers that you do just for wholesale purposes. How can you adjust your prices to where it makes sense to wholesale your pieces if they don't already make sense. However, you are calculating your retail price currently, make sure it includes enough of a profit so you can afford to wholesale your work and double-check the factors mentioned in this lesson to see if you need to make adjustments. One quick tip for those who are solo crafters, you may want to make the same amount or more wholesale as you would retail for the same amount of time. So if it's going to take you 40 hours over the course of a week to create the order for wholesale. And you are postponing or turning down retail opportunities or customers, then the total you are receiving from the wholesale order needs to be greater than or equal to what you would have received from your retail operations. Or you can afford to do it unless you have help. Hopefully that will help you to select your items for your wholesale catalog. See you in the next lesson. 5. Consignment: Welcome to the lesson on consignment. What is consignment? Consignment is where you would bring your handmade items into a business. And instead of buying your items at a wholesale price, they would solve the items for you and you would receive very close to what you would be selling your items wholesale for. There are some businesses that operate solely on consignment, makes a consignment and wholesale. And others start with consignment and move to purchasing your items after they test them in the retail environment. With consignment, you get paid for your pieces once your items have soul, and usually anywhere from 30 to 90 days after that sale. This will also depend on if the store has a return policy and their pay period. Galleries, exhibits, or specialty boutiques typically consigned. All or some of artists work as they tend to have higher price items and often they are unable to purchase outright. Otherwise, they would not have enough cash flow to keep their daily operations going. One type of consignment that is gaining popularity rate now is the rental of a space, often measured in square footage or per shelf at a local handmade boutique. This is a type of setup that is very close to a store, but instead of the shop owner consigning pieces, they rent the space to artists. Often there is a small percentage of consignment fees and a rental fee. Now let's move on to consignment contracts. 6. Consignment vs wholesale. What's better?: Welcome to the lesson on wholesale versus consignment. Now that you know the big differences between wholesale and consignment, you can see they share some of the same pros, such as getting your workout to a broader audience and not having to sell directly to each person or fulfill each order. Since they take care of the marketing, retail space, and customer service aspect, you don't have to. This is great for the off season or slow season of shows. Or if you want, you increase your sales outside of online and in-person retail. Some of the pros of wholesale are, you are paid often a higher than average amount in a single transaction. You don't have to go and individually select each piece. If your products do well, you can keep filling these stores and have somewhat of a consistent income. The business is in charge of marketing your items so you don't have to, you're selling to their customers, which means you don't have to go and find more customers. Some of the cons of wholesale are you need to make sure you're making enough profit to make it worthwhile. Incorrectly pricing any part of the process can mean you're not making any money off your items. And you may have a difficult time buying supplies to make your direct to customer items. You don't have extra time or capabilities to create more pieces. You may have a difficult time making the deadlines you have given the business owners. This is especially important if your items are seasonal or holiday related and they arrive too close or after the holiday or season has passed. Here are some consignment pros there's a place for you to have your work available up to seven days a week. You'll have a broader audience because not all people who go to galleries are specially boutiques or want Hami items, will go to a craft show or shop online. They trust a gallery or locally owned boutique, more than a temporary setup or buying something without seeing it in person. This is often especially true with high value items. As they get to see it in-person and feel the quality before they buy. Often these galleries and especially boutiques carry higher price items. Because of that, your higher price items may sell and you have a place to display them in the off show season, consignment can lead to wholesale purchases. Once business owners are able to see what cells in their stores. There is a range in the amount of consignment commissions and some can be negotiated. You can change the items that do not sell to test the target market for that store. And if you find the right products, it can become somewhat of a consistent extra income that can supplement your show and online sales. Some of the consignment cons are not getting paid up front means you won't have the money right away to invest in other areas of your business. You have to wait for something to sell and it may never saw. This could be an item you sold regularly at a craft show or online, becomes a miss opportunity to sell it, especially if the item is returned to you in a not new condition was shelf where it can be challenging to keep up with supplying new item after older items are returned. This can be difficult to make consignment a priority. Your items are not selling because the materials can be put to better use, such as using them for orders that did sell online or to refill the items you sold at your booth, or even to create something new. Based on the information presented. You can see there are pros and cons to consignment and wholesale. There may be other considerations based on your individual situation, but ultimately, you will have to assess the viability of each for your business to determine if either or both are a good fit for your hand-made business. See you in the next lesson. 7. Your First Catalogue - Product Photos: Welcome to the lesson on taking photos for your first catalog. Now that you have selected your pieces, we can start developing your simple catalog. If you are not yet sure if wholesaling is something you want to pursue, you may not want to invest in professional photos for a catalog. So instead, try taking your own photos with the equipment you already own and add new equipment, software, et cetera, as you go, or eventually hire a professional to take the photos for you. There are additionally low-cost editing services available online. I will go over some very simple tips for those who are using their phone to take photos. In the download section, I included two documents. One is a photo lecture on some common terminology and information about taking photos with either your phone or camera. One is a photography guide. For basic photography. This guide is for showing you a low cost approach to creating good quality photos that accurately represent your work. Many of the suggested items in this guide you may already have on hand, or you can buy at a low cost. I'm going to go through the guide with you right now. As you can see, the top photo is done in direct light through a large window. The sun comes through this window most intensely around the early afternoon, which is when these photos were shot. You can see in the photos that the sunlight not only creates a harsh glare and provides uneven lighting, but it also creates a harsh shadow as well. Wash does not accurately show the item as it doesn't show the details very well. The photos below were taken immediately after with a couple of changes. Right away. You can see how the harsh shadow goes away and the item becomes evenly lit. Let's move on to the next page. On this page, in the top photo, I use a scrim, which is basically a stretched thin white sheet over a frame. You can do this with a white bedsheets or fabric. This will diffuse the light, making it less concentrated in one area. So your item will be more evenly lit and it will also reduce the harsh shadows. The backdrop the item is on is just a foam whiteboard, but you can also use a white poster board. On the next page, I show examples of the same bracelets shot with a DSLR camera and my phone. You can also take more stylized photos for the cover of your catalog if you wish. Switching out the white foam board for somewhere interesting backdrops such as hardwood or granite. Try experimenting and ask for critique from family, friends, or online photography forums. There are also great classes available on this platform from mobile phone photography. Don't worry about perfection when you start as you and your items will often be accompanying the catalog to various stores to present in person. This catalog will just be a reminder to the business owner of what they saw. See you in the next lesson. 8. Your First Catalogue – What to Include: Welcome to the lesson on laying out your first catalog. For this lesson, I create a basic catalog in Microsoft Word. You can do the same thing and pages or for free in Google Docs. Or you can alternatively make a catalog in a variety of programs including InDesign, illustrator, or whatever you have on hand. The ideal size is letter size. If you are printing it out yourself on your home color printer. Leather size would also show detailed photos of your items and all the information without it being cluttered. You also don't have to trim it and it can be put into a presentation folder. On the front cover of our hypothetical businesses catalog. I added the lifestyle photo featuring the jewelry being sold and the businesses tagline. Also on the cover includes the website and contact information for the business owner. If you have the budget for printing out the catalog, get enough copies for each of the businesses you plan to contact. If not, print one for yourself to bring to meetings, and then email digital copies to each of the places you talk to, along with any supplemental materials such as additional photos or information they may have requested, et cetera. I made the information on this catalog one page, but you can make this longer depending on what you want to add to your catalog. Near the front of the catalog, including the boat you blurb and your artist's biography or statement is a good idea to include a photo of yourself so the business can connect you as the artist and maker behind your work. Also include what makes your products different or unique. For example, if it's your materials that make your work unique, the mentioned it here along with any other features and benefits. This will help the buyer see how your items can fit into their store and why their customers would love it. Next, include your minimum order value. And you can add it here. If there's a certain order value that gets the buyer free shipping or a further discount. You then want to provide instructions on how a buyer can place an order and what is included with that order. This means the type of packaging that each piece comes with. Whether it's an individual boxes, attach care cards, or comes with branded packaging. List, how long it will take you to create the items. Try to make it flexible. So if you need a few extra days to finish the items, they are available to you. Unfortunately, we had several occasions where we couldn't fulfill our side of the order and had to refund the downpayment. Something that may have helped with this would have been a longer flexible delivery date. In our case, I had some health issues followed by a rush of online orders and a supply shortage that push my delivery dates months into the future. It's better to be over-prepared just in case and include in the catalog that there may be longer lead times due to the nature of each piece being hand-made one at a time. This may be applicable year round or gesturing your peak seasons. So you can customize this to your situation. But the main thing is to keep your customers expectations confined to what you can reasonably provide. And when. Next put when payment is due. There are three options for this. One immediately to half down, and three after delivery. The half down option allows you to buy supplies you need to create the items. Also list what types of payment you take. Putting half of the payment down also shows the buyer a serious when we started out, there were several instances when the buyer insisted on paying after delivery and when we contacted them to set up delivery, no one would get back to us or they would cancel. Be careful and protect yourself and make sure you have your costs covered, especially if you're creating everything or some of the order custom for that business. If you accept returns at that as well, and add how long the buyer has to make a claim for a return and who pays for the shipping back to you. You can also include this in your other important information, such as you can state the items you make will be as close to as possible as the photos featured in the catalog. This has worked really well for us. So our customers expect that there is some variation as each piece is made one at a time. And you can also put here, if you can or cannot, guarantee exclusivity either in a certain part of a city or with selected items. If you continue with your wholesale channel, you can often add a wholesale login to your website so buyers can check on there to see new items and updated prices. These often cost a monthly or onetime fee, but they can generate a full catalog or a line sheet for you. Make sure you slowly go over everything in your catalog, or how someone go over and check for spelling and grammatical errors. Now to add the products to your catalog. See you in the next lesson. 9. Your First Catalogue – Adding Your Handmade Products: Welcome to the lesson on adding your handmade products to your catalog. The final part of the catalog is adding your handmade products. This was made in Microsoft Word, but it can be made in any of the programs listed in the previous lessons. To showcase your items, you'll want to list no more than four to six items per page, depending on how elaborate they are, you may want to add only two or three items per page. The main thing is that they look good and are displayed in an uncluttered way. In Microsoft Word, I use textboxes for both the photos and descriptions, so everything can be easily moved around. I know there are a lot of people who swear by professionally made catalogs. I know they work well for some people, but it hasn't for us. So we are sharing with you what has worked for two people who do this full time and who want to spend minimal monetary and time investment in doing a catalog while still getting plenty of wholesale orders. I had actually made several catalogs in InDesign that took me months to create for doing wholesale. And every single time the companies didn't want them, forgot they have one because they filed it with other catalogs from other artists. Or they flat out refused to take one due to having too much paper around the office. Instead, most of the wholesale orders were done in one of three ways. One, I sent them a short catalog with my bestsellers and an order form and pricelist to iPhone them and made an appointment to see them. And I brought in my items for them to see in-person and then later sent a catalog over e-mail. And three, I had a priceless available at a craft or trade show. They bought on the spot after I talked to them on the phone or by e-mail ahead of time. Below or beside the photos, you can include the name of the item. You're items may not have names like these examples. So you can use how you'd have them listed on Etsy or how you would describe them at your booth. Then below, give them a simple item number or stock keeping unit, abbreviated skew. The item number is how things will be listed on the order and price sheet. Make sure your price list is in the same order as your catalog. So items are easy to find and cross reference. Below the item list is the materials you use to create each piece. If all of your materials are the same for your items, then consider listing the material somewhere on the top of the page. Finally, at the bottom, LR size or sizes available if you solve small, medium, and large of each item makes you have the sizing information somewhere in the catalog so the buyer can compare sizes. Now let's move on to the final part of the wholesale catalog, the order form and price list. 10. The Order Form and Price List: Hello and welcome to the order form and priceless lesson. This is an example order form that we found works really well. You can make this yourself in Excel or some other similar program. For this example, I use Microsoft Word. A priceless mix with an order form is highly recommended. Instead of adding the price directly to the catalog. This is so you can update the prices when you need to. And it can also act as an order form. Also, if the business owner happens to show a customer your catalog, your wholesale prices won't be listed. And Microsoft Word, we made these entirely out of textboxes, just like the catalog, so we can move the tables and other information around easily. If you're going to use Excel, the sums and totals can be added up quickly by using formulas. Instead of manually calculating each order form. Include your logo and business name. At the top. Near the top right here is who? The invoices too. And all of the businesses information. Most likely the business will be filling this out themselves and sending it to you through email. Or you can pick it up from them and you can work together to make their first-order include an area for special instructions in case they want the order after a certain date or they want to pick it up, et cetera. On the other side, put your address, contact information, the order date, and when you expect to ship. This can be a range of dates. Then add your order number and tax number if you have one. Below is where you put your price list, which can be additionally used as an order form. If you choose to do your price and order form like this, then if the pricing needs to be updated, it is much easier and less costly than reprinting a full catalog. You can also include the suggested retail price here as well. You can add a range that goes higher than what you normally sell it for. Some businesses null. They can sell your item for higher than what you can sell it for. And they may also have higher than average overhead. And if they see they can sell it for a higher value, which means more profit, they may be more inclined to buy it. At the bottom, I also include some of the key terms and conditions. These are the same ones in your catalog, but abbreviated that way your buyer doesn't have to look back and forth for these between your catalog and order form and priceless. If you collect this in-person, send a copy over email to your buyer, so they have it on hand as well. Now that we're finished the catalog, Let's move on to how to find businesses that may be interested in carrying your work. See you in the next lesson. 11. How to Research Businesses that May Buy Your Work: Welcome to the lesson on how to research businesses that may be interested in buying your work. There is a PDF included for this lesson and includes a list for you to fill out as part of your class project. Let's go over the list first before we begin our research. You will also use this PDF for the next lesson as well. For this class project, you will fill out the business name, contact information, e-mail, phone location, or the name of buyer, website and social media. So you can take a look at their business and learn a little bit about them. What type of items do they sell? Do they sell what you make if they don't, with your items, fill a gap for their customers. Is there a theme to their store? Is it Americana, fantasy, Boko, et cetera? Does your work fit in there? Does a price fit in and add? When did I email? This is information we will cover in the next couple of chapters. Also add in. When did you call or when did you visit below that is when to follow up rate a date here, often one to two weeks after the initial contact. Who did I talked to? The owner of the business is not always the person who buys the inventory. Did they say anything that may be important, such as, do they only by quarterly to they start off on consignment first or only do consignment, et cetera. When filled out. These sheets will help you also decide if the store is right for you. Even if the store seems like a good fit for your work. You may find after gathering all the information on the sheet, that it won't work because of logistics such as exclusivity, et cetera. The first thing to do when researching a business is to start rate in your local area, go to Google and type in handmade and your location. This will bring up a variety of businesses. Start by going onto their websites to see if they carry handmade items or just sell their own handmade creations. Some other search terms you can add in with your location is local designer crafts. And your location Made in the USA or Canada. And your location gallery, boutique, gift shop, et cetera. And your location, one place that often sells handmade items are gift shops. These include museum shops, large hotels, airports stores, hospitals, flower shops, hairdressers, and often those small businesses you see in malls that have a variety of items, take a look at small independent clothing stores as well. They often carry locally made items along with their other specialty brands. Start with these and start making your lists. Run the same type of search on Facebook by typing in handmade and your area. Then scroll down to pages and select shops. Not all occasions will show up on Google. So often you will find a completely different selection of businesses by running this search on Facebook. You can also do this on Instagram as well by looking for hashtags in your areas such as local business, small business, gift shop, et cetera. If you can visit the store in advance to get a feel for the items and products that carry. As they may not have everything listed on their website. You can do this exact same thing for every city, town, or tourist spot in your area, state or province, or even country. Take note when you travel to other areas and try to make it a goal to visit one or two places that carry handmade items to see if your work would fit in. Make sure while you're there to grab a business card and ask the salesperson or manager the buyer's name, and the name of the person who you talked to. You have a name to reference when you contact them at a later time. In case you happen to talk to them directly. You can introduce yourself and leave your card so they can check out your work when they are available. In the next lesson, we will go over other ways to find stores that may carry your work. See you in the next lesson. 12. Wholesale Trade Shows: Welcome to a quick lesson on wholesale trade shows. I'm only going to briefly touch on this topic as I recommend this for makers who have a large budget for acquiring wholesale clients and who have already made and completed several wholesale orders. That way you are completely prepared and you can make the most of your investment in the trade show. These trade shows can be quite a bit more expensive than a regular craft show as businesses are coming to you to buy their inventory and you're also getting contacts for future orders. The idea of businesses who are ready to order may sound like a great idea. You will need to not only make a profit on your items, but also cover the cost of the show catalogs and priceless and any travel-related expenses as well. You can see if your local, state or province offers these shows by Googling gift or wholesale trade show, plaster local area. If you are going to pursue this avenue, consider doing a separate newsletter just for wholesale clients. That way you can keep them updated about future items and future shows. Now let's get onto how to contact these businesses through email. See you in the next lesson. 13. How to Email Your Potential Client: Hi everyone. It's Tanner here, and I'm going to present the next couple of lessons on contacting your potential customer. Welcome to the lesson on how to email your potential client. Now that you've found some businesses to contact, let's get started with the simplest way to contact your potential new client. We're going to go over some examples and simple scripts for you to use. But you will need to adjust anything presented to fit your brand, product and market. As these are basic scripts that are intended for you to customize and make them your own. My suggested homework for the next couple of chapters is to create your own email script. Okay, let's get started. And eye-catching subject is the first of interest. Only have a couple of seconds to make a good impression before someone will decide if they want to open your email or send it to spam. Start your e-mail with something short and concise that will pique their interest. Have you been looking for unique handmade items for your store? Are you interested in handmade items for your store high than their business name? I would love to show you my handmade crafts. The next three are assuming you visited the store or no, the feature handmade work ideas for your new handmade window display ideas for your new display case of handmade items. I stopped by her shop. I love your handmade selection. This one will work when you continue the topic in the e-mail on the first line, such as I stopped by and I love her handmade selection. Would you be interested in my items if you found their store on Facebook, instagram, or through a business association, mentioned it. For example, I found your store through Facebook and have a question for you. If you have visited their store before emailing and talk to a salesperson, make sure you get their name and include it, such as Jessica said, I should show you my handmade products and email is a low time commitment for the potential client. This means they can open the email on their own time or they may never open it. Which is also one of the big problems with sending e-mails because it's so passive and it can become easily lost in the clutter of their day-to-day operations. And email is an excellent way of communication when you have already met the person or someone has introduced your work to the business owner and for following up on our previous phone call or meeting. This type of e-mail is a cold call email, you may already be familiar with the term cold calling. Cold calling is where a salesperson, in this case, it's you because you are selling your handmade work contacts. A business that has not expressed any interest in either buying or selling their items. In traditional terms, it has been mainly used for phoning and for dropping in. But in this case, since the potential buyer is most likely not aware your product exists in this email is basically a cold call email, which is an introduction to your work. This email script is written in a way where we're assuming the buyer has never been introduced to your items. The purpose of this email is not to get a direct order from this message, although it can happen, its main aim is just to pique their interest. The exact purpose of this email is to pique their interest enough to get an in-person meeting or a phone call. So you can discuss in more detail ultimately why your product is a good fit for their store. If you want to solely stick to e-mail, which will be difficult, although not impossible. Make sure everything is very clear in your catalog. You have an easy way for your buyer to checkout on your website and you are highly responsive to their e-mails. Included in this unit is a PDF with a script and a sample of a fictional company. Start the e-mail off with a greeting including their name, if you know it. Otherwise, just greet them with their business name high, then enter their business name or contact name. I've been into your store or a customer of your store or on your website. And I love all the wonderful handmade items you have curated for your customers. I'm contacting you today because I'm a handmade artists and I think what I make would complement what you have in your store, boutique, museum, gift shop. I think your customers would also really enjoy my items, artwork pieces, et cetera. A little about my handmade items. They are. And now you fill in the blank about what it is and what inspired it or how it's made, if that's important to your story or to the store itself. For example, if they sell only organic and that's what you make, then mentioned, you only sell organically made items. I've included some photos in this e-mail as an introduction to my work based on what I noticed with what you currently sell from other handmade artists, I was thinking these products or these product types would be a good fit for your store, please let me know if you would like to arrange a meeting or a phone call so I can tell you more about my products. Provide you with a catalog or price list, make arrangements to see some of my items in person. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my email. Best regards. And you put your name, your business name, your website, and your phone number include probably two to five pictures, but make sure they are not large in size. Tried to stay under one to two megabytes at the same time, ensure they are appealing and accurate representations of your work. There is also a sample email that's already filled out and that's available in the downloads. This way you can see how you could potentially present your work and items in an e-mail if you are local or if there is something specific about your location that is a selling feature of your work, be sure to mention it. For example, if you make artwork that is inspired by the city or region you are both from. And it happens to be a gift or museum shop that caters to tourists. You can use that as a selling point, especially if they have other artists with the same theme of work, the best is to offer all three options, phone, e-mail, and in-person. So you can do whatever the customer wants and whatever makes it easiest for your potential client to make a decision. For the next two lessons, we're going to go into the more effective way to contact a business owner, which is either by calling them or dropping in. This is your optional project of customizing the scripts to fit you, your business and your brand. See you in the next lesson. 14. How to Contact a Business by Phone: Welcome to the lesson on how to contact a business by phone. Often, even professional salespeople struggle with phone calls and drop-ins, but they are typically much more effective sales tools for your work. Initially, I found this to be one of the most stressful parts of selling when we first started working with our wholesale customers, before each call, I made a few short notes by hand and underlying my key points for each call off to my notes. And key points would differ as I would be talking to a variety of different types of businesses. So I would try to assess what I thought their main interest in our work would be I also created and practice basic scripts so I can have an easier and less nerve wracking time navigating the call. After doing this for a number of years, I came to the realization that most people are going to answer their phone, hoping that the person on the other end is going to help them. In some way. A customer helps them make sales. A business associate gives them a valuable lead. A banker gives some good news about their loan, etc. You can give them a chance to connect with new customers or increase sales of handmade goods and their store with your fantastic eye-catching pieces and displays. Next, I'm going to go through an example script for a phone call. And this section is your optional project for customizing this script to fit your business and brand. Hello, I am, and then introduce your name and business. And I was wondering if the manager or shop owner is available for a quick conversation regarding my handmade art or if you happen to get the manager on the phone, you can just continue from here. However, if someone has to go and get them, you will need to re-introduce yourself when you're passed off to the owner, manager or buyer, I would like to talk to you about carrying my handmade items in your store is now dead time. Talking about the research you've done on their business from your class project, you will need to personalize each goal depending on what each business sells. Next, providing they say yes to the above question briefly in a couple of sentences, tell them about your product and yourself just enough to get them interested. You can use the same introduction to your work from what you wrote in your email example. Remember that you're not calling to directly make a sale. You are calling to make an appointment, or if you prefer, sell them on the idea of meeting with you. For this reason, don't focus on pricing or shipping timelines or production information, et cetera. Instead, try saying something like, I'm wondering if I can set up an appointment to meet with you so I can show you some of my work, my catalog, and further discuss how the items I make would be a good addition to your store. Would you be interested to meet with me, say next Monday at 3PM? You can of course, pick any time or day that would work for you and then wait for them to counter with a date and time that will work better for them. But whatever date you initially pick, Be sure you're actually available just in case they say yes right away. Now let me show you an example between Amy and myself. Hello, I'm Tanner. From joules by Tanner, I'd like to talk to you about carrying my handmade items in your store. Is now a good time? Yes. I have a couple of minutes right now. Thank you for your time. Are you Martha? I came across your name on the website. Now I am an Martha is the other owner, but I'm actually the buyer for the company. It's great to meet you. I've been on your website and they love the beach inspired scented candles and a curated collection of handmade jewelry you carry and forming today because I think my handmade items with fit in nicely with the selection you have to offer. I notice you carry a lot of natural inspired pieces with some semi-precious stones. My atoms are slightly different. We use the same quality of findings and stones as what you currently carry, but incorporates see glass I find from our local beaches. Would you be interested in seeing some of my atoms in person? That sounds nice. I'm currently buying for our spring season. Can you stop by in two or three weeks or I can call you back later. Hello. Next Monday at 05:00 PM. Will that work for you in Often business owners have a lot on their plate, especially during the buying season. So have in mind a couple of dates that will work for you right away. So you don't have to go and check your calendar or even worse, have to cancel and reschedule? Yes. Okay. That's a good time for me as we are usually not busy then. Thank you again for taking my call. I'll see you next Monday at five. If you have to leave a voicemail or message, remember, less is more. You can leave something like hello, this is Tanner from tanners joules. I love your business and I wanted to see if you might be interested in carrying some of my handmade work I think would appeal to your customers. Please reach out to me at, and then just leave your phone number. Some final tips for phoning. If you're normally a shy person, like I am, rehearse your script several times, either by recording yourself with your phone or try role-playing with someone. Also try adding a couple of alternative replies and answers the business owner may ask or respond with. I find being over-prepared makes it a lot easier to become more comfortable when phoning people. 15. How To Do the Drop In: Welcome to the lesson on dropping into a business to sell your work. The initial dropping is purely to get an appointment with the owner, manager or buyer. Often the employees and owners are already busy and not available to see your work when you stop in. But sometimes they do have a free moment. So be prepared in case they want to have a look right now and have a catalog, a selection of your items from the catalog and your order form with you. All of this doesn't really happen all that often. It is good to be prepared just in case you can land that initial meeting with the manager right off the bat if you want to meet them in person, preliminarily, look on Google and see what their peak and slow times are. So you can try to avoid showing up in the middle of a rush when you arrive at the store, look for the first available employee and politely ask them if the owner is working and if they can spare a few minutes to speak to you about your work, the following script is a template you can modify it to use when you first meet with the boss. This is another optional project for customizing the scripts to fit you, your business and your brand. Start off by introducing yourself and your brands such as Hello, I'm Tanner from joules by Tanner. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I'm a Fannius shop. I notice you carry a variety of handmade and local made items. The reason I stopped by today is because I had make my own jewelry, for example, and I thought they would be a really nice addition to your current product offerings for your customers. I was wondering if you'd be interested to meet with me in the next week or so. So I could share some of my customers favorites, My Catalog, and what I can offer your business. If the boss is not in when you stop by asking an employee for the boss's business card with their phone number, extension, et cetera, and what days and shifts there working, as well as when is a good time to call. This way you can make a follow-up call on the next day, they will be in the office, or you can try stopping by during that time and date to meet with them. Also, make sure you leave your own business card for them. That's all for this one. We'll see you in the next lesson. 16. How to Follow Up: Welcome to the lesson on following up with your potential clients. In this lesson, we'll cover why it's important to follow up with e-mail, phone calls, and drop hints. How to follow up when one you didn't get a meeting, but you did get to speak to them too. He tried to contact them, but we haven't heard back yet three, checking in for replenishment orders and for when the customer tells you they're not interested right now, but you can come back later. One of the secrets to this type of business model is to follow up with your potential clients. This can be with a phone call, a drop-in, or even an e-mail providing you've been communicating back and forth with email, phone calls, and drop-ins are preferable as you can easily end up in the client spam folder by accident, if you've not been communicating with them via email up to this point, most sellers never do this step and just move on to the next potential customer. But this is a big mistake. Often the business owner is just so busy that your information gets lost in the shuffle. So a quick follow-up can make a big difference in getting your items onto their shelves. Following are for phone call scripts you can customize for your next optional project. Script one, you didn't get immediate, but you did get to speak to them or meet with them. Hello, business owner, this is Tanner from joules by Tanner. And I just thought I would check in to see if you have any further questions for me regarding the handmade jewelry we were discussing last week, recently, et cetera. Taking this approach will help you identify if they're actually interested, but they're just too busy or forgot, or if they are stalling because they didn't know how to tell you no. If they say, Oh, no, I'm sorry, I just forgot. You can say something like, Oh, that's no problem at all. I know how busy your shop is. I was wondering if I could stop by with my materials next week. So you can take a closer look at my work. On the other hand, if they say no, I'm sorry, we're not interested at this time. You can say something like I completely understand. Would it be okay if I call you back or stop by in six months? Often, they'll say sure. And then you can use that as an excuse to stop on a few months, even just three months later to see if they might be interested at that time. Script to you tried to contact them, but you haven't heard back. Hello, manager. This is Tanner from tannins joules. I stopped by or cold last week but I missed you. So I thought it would check in to see if you had received my message regarding the Hamad work. I have the new products I wanted to show you, et cetera. If you have a few minutes, I would love the opportunity to go over my work and more detail with you to see if you'd be a good fit for your store, gallery, boutique, et cetera. Generally, you would make a follow-up call to a cold lead like this around a week after the first call or drop in, I wouldn't recommend calling too many times too close together or stopping by to frequently, because this can quickly put off a client who was potentially just too busy to give you a call back, you can try calling them once a week for a few weeks. However, that being said, I would not continue to call for too long unless you feel this account would be very valuable as a non-responsive small account is probably just not worth your time. Being respectfully persistent can often show that you are dedicated and reliable. It also shows that you're taking your work, your business, and your relationship with the store seriously, script three, replenishment order. Hello manager, this is Tanner from joules by Tanner. I thought I would check to see how everything was going with the handmade jewelry, handmade items, new pieces I dropped off, et cetera. If they say things are going well, ask them if they would to order a few more, or perhaps some variations. You can say something like, I have some new designs are items that I thought would be a good fit for your store, gallery, boutique, et cetera. And I was wondering if you would have a few minutes for me to stop by and show you some examples. This can be a great way to get a follow-up order. It is also a good reminder for a busy store owner about you and your work, even if they don't need anything yet. You may also be surprised how often your items sell out and the store owner forgets to call you to ask for more script for the customer is not interested, but asks you to check again later. There is a chance the customer has already made their seasonal order and they're not looking to purchase from anyone else at this moment. This doesn't mean you can't ask them when they will be making their next seasonal order and then ask for an appointment during that time. Phone call, script, hello manager. This is Tanner from tannins joules and it just started with check to see if you hit any further questions for me regarding the handmade items, et cetera, we were discussing last week recently. So on the customer may say, Well, I'm sorry, but I've already bought and I'm not looking to add anything right now, perhaps in the future, you can respond with something such as, I totally understand. When would you be looking to make your next intake for new handmade suppliers? The client may say, I make orders seasonally. The next time I'll be making an order is for the Christmas season, which is in three months. Then you can say, Great, can I make an appointment to see you in three months so I can show you all of my new pieces for the Christmas season. Often the client will say Sure, that sounds good. And you can set something up right then to make sure you get in on the next intake. As you can see, a follow-up is just a reminder to the customer that you are there and ready to do business with them. Any of these follow-up phone calls can be written as emails instead, if that is their preferred form of contact. Now that you've had a couple of examples, Let's return to Amy for the next lesson. 17. Delivering Your Items and Providing Future Updates: Welcome to the final lesson of the course, delivering your items and providing future updates for your customers. Now that you have got the order and are ready to deliver your pieces, include a printed off invoice for your client, so both of you can ensure all inventory is accounted for. This is good practice in case either view or your customer makes a mistake, an item appears to go missing. We once did a large order of multiples. At the same time we were filling online orders. One of the items got mixed up with the online order, happened to have the exact same packaging, that one went to the wholesale client. The client didn't individually check the order and we didn't check either. So we assumed everything was good until the next day when we went to add care cards to the online order, opened the box and Siena had the wrong pendant. So we corrected the problem before sending it out, before we had to replace two pendants, which would have been a costly mistake. If you are shipping the order, double-check it, and if you have to print off the invoice, check-off the items and put a signature to show you have checked all the items as you add them to the box. Also, if you are shipping the items, make sure your packages are insured through the postal system or through your business insurance. One shipping tip is to use a 200 pound crash rate shipping box to ship your work and line the inside with smaller boxes and fill any empty spaces with crush paper or packing bubbles. This will protect the packaging and presentation of your items and nothing will move or shift during transport, avoiding any unnecessary shelf where checking over the items at the store also shows the buyer that there are no defects, missing pieces, or other problems you may have not noticed before delivering the items. If you are delivering the items, make sure you send the invoice before you meet and bring your card reader to accept credit cards and provide them with the receipt, either e-mail or printed off afterwards. Also, when you drop off your items or send your items, let your buyer know you will update them when you add new items to your catalog, you can update your customers seasonally, three times a year, twice a year, or even once a year, whatever you decide, make sure it's something you're able to do consistently. Now that we have covered delivery. Let's wrap everything up in the conclusion. 18. Conclusion: Welcome to the conclusion. Thank you for joining us on wholesale and consigning your handmade arts and crafts. In the last hour, you have learned about wholesaling and consignment. How to choose items you think would be great for wholesale. Made a basic catalog. Learn the benefits of making a combination price and order sheet for your customers. Learn how to research stores and ways to contact them. And what you can say if you get stuck and how to follow up. If you've been working on your class project or finish your class project, I invite you to share what you feel comfortable with. And if you haven't started your class project, now is a perfect time to start. Start with the items you'd like to offer wholesale. Take their pictures. Don't forget about the included guides from the photo unit. And then write all your important information from the unit on what to include and how to layout your catalog, and then make your price and order form. Once you've done that, print off the PDF from how to research businesses that may buy your work to begin the process of finding businesses to contact also have the optional project of customizing the scripts from contacting customers over e-mail, phone and in person to fit you and your business. If you're uncomfortable, please share any of your project. I love to see how you use the techniques and processes from this class. If you have any question, feel free to contact me and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can. I'd love to hear about your future wholesale and consignment order so we can celebrate them together. Good luck on your hand-made business and thank you for joining this class.