business

Hello :-)

I've been beading for some time, and have sold completed items, so my work
can't be all that bad. Due to a change in circumstance, I'm seriously
considering making beads more of an income generator for me. I don't
necessarily want to only sell completed items, but also want to sell beads,
tools etc. I figure my options are to open a shop (lot of expenses - rent,
rates, gas, etc, and very inflexible as far as having to be there most
days), open an eBay shop (flexible, affordable, but a lot of competition for
the items I want to sell), sell online (flexible, affordable but again lots
of competition, and also would need to drive traffic to my site, whereas
eBay has pretty high traffic on it's own), or market stalls ( affordable but
again would require a committment every week - I think it takes a few
appearances before people know you're there). There's also the option of
learning a skill such as lampwork or polymer clay, but it would take quite
some time to get skilled enough to have something of quality to sell. I'd
appreciate any other comments re my business options. Have you/do you sell
in such ways and are there any pros/cons that I'm not noticing? I guess if I
do this then I may end up in competition with some of you, but I feel the
bead market is huge, and there's enough business for all of us.

Thanks

Rose

OK, I'll bite.

Having been a 'resident' of some moderated business newsgroups for
a lot longer than having anything to do with beads, from that angle:

First of all, it may very much depend on where you are what your best
choice is. From you IP address I found that you're in Australia, but
that
doesn't tell me or any of us what kind of surroundings you're in.
Big town? Tourist resort? or, on the other end of the spectrum, in the

boonies? The direction that's best for you (other than personal
preference)
may depend on that.
If you start a business and want to make a living at it that takes
commitment,
and probably more than a 40 hour week, at least where I am.
I can also confirm that market stands take a while to catch on, and if
you're
not in an area where you have a lot of jewelry/bead customers you may
end
up selling a lot of something else - if you have something else, in my
case
plants, fruits and sometimes other produce and dried herbs.

And then, why beads/jewelry? Do you _want_ to turn what was a hobby
into a
60 hour/week committment?
We had a thread discussing when or whether to make that jump not too
long ago
here in r.c.b., you can look it up at google.

HTH,

Maren
full time low level programmer at a telescope in my day job as well as
Palms, Etc.: Tropical Plant Seeds - Hand-made Jewelry - Plants &
Lilikoi
http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/~maren/palms_etc/

rose wrote:
I've been beading for some time, and have sold completed items, so my work
can't be all that bad. Due to a change in circumstance, I'm seriously
considering making beads more of an income generator for me. I don't
necessarily want to only sell completed items, but also want to sell beads,
tools etc. I figure my options are to open a shop (lot of expenses - rent,
rates, gas, etc, and very inflexible as far as having to be there most
days), open an eBay shop (flexible, affordable, but a lot of competition for
the items I want to sell), sell online (flexible, affordable but again lots
of competition, and also would need to drive traffic to my site, whereas
eBay has pretty high traffic on it's own), or market stalls ( affordable but
again would require a committment every week - I think it takes a few
appearances before people know you're there). There's also the option of
learning a skill such as lampwork or polymer clay, but it would take quite
some time to get skilled enough to have something of quality to sell. I'd
appreciate any other comments re my business options. Have you/do you sell
in such ways and are there any pros/cons that I'm not noticing? I guess if I
do this then I may end up in competition with some of you, but I feel the
bead market is huge, and there's enough business for all of us.

Thanks

Rose

Thanks Maren. I'll have a search on Google for that thread. Just figured if
I'm going to be doing something to earn a dollar, it might as well be
something I enjoy.

Rose

wrote in message
ups.com...
OK, I'll bite.

Having been a 'resident' of some moderated business newsgroups for
a lot longer than having anything to do with beads, from that angle:

First of all, it may very much depend on where you are what your best
choice is. From you IP address I found that you're in Australia, but
that
doesn't tell me or any of us what kind of surroundings you're in.
Big town? Tourist resort? or, on the other end of the spectrum, in the

boonies? The direction that's best for you (other than personal
preference)
may depend on that.
If you start a business and want to make a living at it that takes
commitment,
and probably more than a 40 hour week, at least where I am.
I can also confirm that market stands take a while to catch on, and if
you're
not in an area where you have a lot of jewelry/bead customers you may
end
up selling a lot of something else - if you have something else, in my
case
plants, fruits and sometimes other produce and dried herbs.

And then, why beads/jewelry? Do you _want_ to turn what was a hobby
into a
60 hour/week committment?
We had a thread discussing when or whether to make that jump not too
long ago
here in r.c.b., you can look it up at google.

HTH,

Maren
full time low level programmer at a telescope in my day job as well as
Palms, Etc.: Tropical Plant Seeds - Hand-made Jewelry - Plants &
Lilikoi
http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/~maren/palms_etc/

rose wrote:
I've been beading for some time, and have sold completed items, so my
work
can't be all that bad. Due to a change in circumstance, I'm seriously
considering making beads more of an income generator for me. I don't
necessarily want to only sell completed items, but also want to sell
beads,
tools etc. I figure my options are to open a shop (lot of expenses -
rent,
rates, gas, etc, and very inflexible as far as having to be there most
days), open an eBay shop (flexible, affordable, but a lot of competition
for
the items I want to sell), sell online (flexible, affordable but again
lots
of competition, and also would need to drive traffic to my site, whereas
eBay has pretty high traffic on it's own), or market stalls ( affordable
but
again would require a committment every week - I think it takes a few
appearances before people know you're there). There's also the option of
learning a skill such as lampwork or polymer clay, but it would take
quite
some time to get skilled enough to have something of quality to sell. I'd
appreciate any other comments re my business options. Have you/do you
sell
in such ways and are there any pros/cons that I'm not noticing? I guess
if I
do this then I may end up in competition with some of you, but I feel the
bead market is huge, and there's enough business for all of us.

Thanks

Rose

Word of caution: you probably know that there's a lot more to business
than production. I don't know how these things work in Australia, but
I assume that record keeping and tax issues, while different in detail,
are in principle the same as in other places. I just got through filing
excise tax returns here in Hawaii (our form of sales tax), and while it
really isn't a lot of work and fairly straightforward I still hate it.

- and there's upsides and downsides to each way of conducting
business. I sat (under a tent) in the pouring rain for 6 hours last
Sunday
at my Farmer's Market stand, and there were more vendors than
customers (of course just about everybody who had actually made
it to the market of the customers bought at least something from
somebody. You don't get browsers in bad weather). If you do eBay
or a web site you won't have to sit in the rain but you'll have to
do packing and shipping. -

I for one would be interested to know what you decide and how
it works out for you.

Aloha,

Maren
Palms, Etc.: Tropical Plant Seeds - Hand-made Jewelry - Plants &
Lilikoi
http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/~maren/palms_etc/

rose wrote:
Thanks Maren. I'll have a search on Google for that thread. Just figured if
I'm going to be doing something to earn a dollar, it might as well be
something I enjoy.

Rose

wrote in message
ups.com...
OK, I'll bite.

Having been a 'resident' of some moderated business newsgroups for
a lot longer than having anything to do with beads, from that angle:

First of all, it may very much depend on where you are what your best
choice is. From you IP address I found that you're in Australia, but
that
doesn't tell me or any of us what kind of surroundings you're in.
Big town? Tourist resort? or, on the other end of the spectrum, in the

boonies? The direction that's best for you (other than personal
preference)
may depend on that.
If you start a business and want to make a living at it that takes
commitment,
and probably more than a 40 hour week, at least where I am.
I can also confirm that market stands take a while to catch on, and if
you're
not in an area where you have a lot of jewelry/bead customers you may
end
up selling a lot of something else - if you have something else, in my
case
plants, fruits and sometimes other produce and dried herbs.

And then, why beads/jewelry? Do you _want_ to turn what was a hobby
into a
60 hour/week committment?
We had a thread discussing when or whether to make that jump not too
long ago
here in r.c.b., you can look it up at google.

HTH,

Maren
full time low level programmer at a telescope in my day job as well as
Palms, Etc.: Tropical Plant Seeds - Hand-made Jewelry - Plants &
Lilikoi
http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/~maren/palms_etc/

rose wrote:
I've been beading for some time, and have sold completed items, so my
work
can't be all that bad. Due to a change in circumstance, I'm seriously
considering making beads more of an income generator for me. I don't
necessarily want to only sell completed items, but also want to sell
beads,
tools etc. I figure my options are to open a shop (lot of expenses -
rent,
rates, gas, etc, and very inflexible as far as having to be there most
days), open an eBay shop (flexible, affordable, but a lot of competition
for
the items I want to sell), sell online (flexible, affordable but again
lots
of competition, and also would need to drive traffic to my site, whereas
eBay has pretty high traffic on it's own), or market stalls ( affordable
but
again would require a committment every week - I think it takes a few
appearances before people know you're there). There's also the option of
learning a skill such as lampwork or polymer clay, but it would take
quite
some time to get skilled enough to have something of quality to sell. I'd
appreciate any other comments re my business options. Have you/do you
sell
in such ways and are there any pros/cons that I'm not noticing? I guess
if I
do this then I may end up in competition with some of you, but I feel the
bead market is huge, and there's enough business for all of us.

Thanks

Rose