Monthly Archives: April 2018

Pricing Your Work & Discounts

education, Export, news

Beetle Wing Pen

 Pricing your work and discounts….

What price do I charge for my handmade pen?  That is the number one question I always get.  My answer is, it depends on the show, and the location of the show. Also, how much did you pay for your exhibit space?  If you are only paying $35 for a six foot table at a church bazaar and the people are coming in for free you would have a difficult time charging $250 for a pen.  You have to understand your market.  If you are paying $1,200 for a 10×10 booth and the guests are being charged $15-$20 to get into the show, then yes a $250 pen will be sold. People coming into a craft show that costs money expect to pay more for handmade items. When you are pricing your item, take into consideration your time (it is worth something – what do you want to pay yourself?). How much did my material cost me and what about the cost of electric and all your tools. These are all factors which should come into effect when thinking about what to charge for YOUR one-of-a-kind masterpiece.

I frequently check out venues for future attendance, and I see other pen makers there charging low prices for pens – like $20 for a bolt action pen!!  The person selling the pen tells me they are retired and feels like $20 is a fair price. So, exactly what did it cost them? The pen kit costs approximately $14, he said he got the wood for free?  He had to drive over to the house where the tree was (gas money) he used a chainsaw, (how much did that cost?) then he had to come back to his shop and cut the wood up into pen blanks with a band saw (cost for band saw & time spent), then make the pen (time to make), how about the overhead of his electric,  tool cost and finishing supplies? All of those factor into his profitability but if they are happy getting $20 for a pen, I certainly cannot change their mind.
However, what this does is lower the value of all the other pen makers work.

I love this one.. “what if I buy two” can I get a discount?
My response was “thank you for asking but these are handmade, I do not buy these from China so when you purchase these I will have to make two by hand to replace them.” That usually politely tells them that you will not give them a discount. In the 42 days at the Grand Central Holiday Craft show, I only had one person tell me that “evidently YOU DO not want to sell anything” because I would not bargain with him, and he walked out.
I sold the pen he wanted the next day for my full price!
Your work is worth something so don’t let anyone intimidate you because they want a discount!

Happy Selling ,

Hiring The Right Help For Long Craft Shows

education, Events, Export, Marketing

 Hiring the Right help for a long, and very large Craft Fair can make or break you.

Hiring the right person, or persons, can be a daunting task especially when you are not familiar with how to do it.  

Before you begin your search, you first have to ask yourself exactly what are you looking for in finding the right person.  Not everyone you interview will ever know what a pen is, let alone how to sell it. So what do you look for? In my previous life as a sales manager (for thirty five years), I interviewed thousands of potential sales candidates. So, the first thing I look for is good communication skills.  Do they listen well and then clearly and concisely speak? Do they have good non-verbal skills? In other words do they observe people, and then take a cue from that? For example, a potential customer keeps looking at a particular pen then browses a different section but keeps coming back to a particular pen. Would they know enough to go over to them and explain that pen to then? Are they friendly and outgoing?  Do they display confidence when speaking? Most important are they honest and trustworthy?

These are all very good questions to ask yourself while you are speaking with a potential candidate.   So where do you start?  The best way is to ask other vendors if they know of anyone who is looking for part time sales help.  I found two sales associates that way for the Grand Central Terminal Show who were familiar with selling crafts, and they worked out very well.  You can also use a temporary agency, they will be more money but the candidates will be pre-screened for you. Of course you can use online services but the best way is word of mouth from other vendors and your own instincts.  If your “spidey” sense is telling you something is not right, chances are you will be correct.

The price for the help will vary depending on your location, how many hours they work, and what tasks you expect of them. The simplest task is just having another set of eyes to make sure you don’t let a potential customer slip away because you are selling to another customer (or making sure a pen doesn’t get stolen). The highest level is opening and closing your booth and being responsible for cash and securing your booth. Just remember, more responsibilities = more $$. I hope this will shed some light into the hiring practice for you.  

Happy Turning – more importantly happy selling!

Reader’s Choice Award Nominations

Export, news

Sea Shell Pen

I wanted to share some exciting news with my blog followers, I was just nominated for a Reader’s Choice Award (see below)  – By the way if you get Pen World Magazine please vote for me!

Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that Barry Gross has been nominated for an award in the 24th Annual Readers’ Choice Awards competition sponsored by PEN WORLD magazine:

Seashell – Best Artisan Pen: Hand Crafted

Established in 1994, the Readers’ Choice Awards is the only international awards program for the pen industry and is based on the votes of PEN WORLD readers. A panel of long-time PEN WORLD readers served as judges, carefully selecting the nominees from a long list of pens featured in the magazine during 2017. There are twelve different categories of recognition and five nominees within each category.

Readers cast their votes from the official ballot in the April 2018 issue of PEN WORLD, which was shipped recently. Voting continues through June 15, 2018. Winners will be notified in July and will be featured in the August issue of PW. The awards will be presented at the Washington D.C. Fountain Pen SuperShow, August 2-5, 2018 and the San Francisco International Pen Show, August 24-26, 2018 or as determined by the winner.

Pen Makers are artists, craftsmen, innovators, and even historians.  It is a privilege for PEN WORLD to applaud their accomplishments through the Readers’ Choice Awards. Congratulations and good luck!

Nicky Pessaroff  – Editor-in-Chief – Pen World Magazine

More Thoughts on Grand Central Holiday Fair – Talking Sales

Export, news

The Woodworking shows are over for this year and both Lenora and I want to thank all our friends that attended the shows and supported us throughout this winter.  It was great to see all the friendly faces again in all the cities that we visited. The schedule for 2019 is currently being worked on and will be released shortly, so we expect to see all of you again next year!

Cigar Pens

More thoughts from the 2017 Grand Central Holiday Fair.
The best sellers in dollar volume were my Cigar Label©, Watch Part©, Beetlewing & Sea Shell pens. .50 caliber pens were a hot item selling 48 pens which was a surprise for NYC. At the low end, we had Slimline pens made from colorgrain & rosewood selling over 80 pens. These items kept us busy. The Slimline pens sold for $45 each with a box.  I found that people wanted these in a box rather than a pouch because most of these were going to be given as gifts. These pens did sell well however, next year we will have other items at a slightly lower price point so we can capture the “secret Santa” market.  My Cigar label pens ranged from $175 to $695 depending how they were packaged with an engraved pen “cigar box” or a matching custom cigar box and label.  The watch part pens ranged from $250 to $1,400 depending on the watch dial and how many watch parts were actually placed on the pen and if the nib was an 18kt gold nib.  The Sea Shell pens are hard to turn because of all the seashells in the acrylic so they sold for $325 each as a rollerball or a fountain pen. The Beetlewing pens sold from $275 for a ballpoint to $695 as a FP or RB.  All of my more expensive pens came with a box, and was sold as a package.  It made a big difference having matching boxes for the pens, most people commented on how nice it was to have a matching box for a pen to give as a gift, or keep for themselves!

More to come later – Happy Turning – Barry