Diapers Q&A

I'm a musician. I design handbags & diaper bags. I paint & sculpt. No car. No scanner. How do I market my work

Public Comments

1. Buy a digital camera and sell your stuff on ebay. Once you make enough money from selling on ebay, you can have a wesite designed and sell your art from there.
2. Community yard sales and word of mouth.
3. Hi there. You didn't mention where you live. If you live near (or ideally in) a city, recruit a friend and cold call small boutiques and specialty stores such as baby goods stores and fashion (independent) shops. Some might take your work on consignment, meaning that as they sell your goods, they will cut you checks for your share of the profits. Also city festivals and maybe even ren. fairs or college events might offer inexpensive booth rentals so you can hawk your goods. All you need is a table and ambition. Good luck to you!
4. Put your items in a consignment store- or somewhere that sells art- or possibly someones art gallery- get a friend w a car to help you tote the stuff over there- possibly a baby store for the diaper bags or spread the word amongst your friends and those going to baby showers. Good luck- If you want really good exposure - and you sculpy well- do a gorgeous sculptor for the city and wind up in the paper- great free advertising! D
5. Flea markets and busking/sale.. You can sing and sell at the same time!! Better still, sing out your wares!!
6. I think it sounds like you've got a lot you can do, but in your head you're putting them all in the one basket of "stuff I can make money from". Each of the things you mentioned has a vastly different market. Musician- most musician make money from either teaching music or performance. Teaching pays better but is not as fulfilling. Performing is great, but you'd be lucky if you make enough to pay the rent. There is a good market for digital musicians who do commercial work and composition, but you need to work towards that, get the hardware and probably do a diploma. Handbags- best market would be boutique fashion shops. Don't be afraid to charge high prices, especially if your work has a lot of character. If you retail through stores you will be taking on a big responsability and need to dedicate yourself to it. Retailers don't like inconsistent supply. If you sell at markets you will make a quater of the value on sales, have transport costs (and you have no car) as well as the cost of the site, not to mention the time wasted setting up, selling, and pulling down your stall. Diaper bags- Good low key business idea. Sell to mother's groups, early childhood centers, natural health care centers, maybe even chemists. Some responsablility to the retailers, but if you find business booming, you can easily bring someone else in to help you keep up with demand. Art- If you just want to make some cash, you can sell your work in cafes or during peak times at markets. Quite difficult if you have no car though. Probably best would be to exhibit your work and sell through galleries. If you find it difficult to get gallery space, start working in some communtiy exhibitions, or charity exhibitions to build a name, then go from there. Going through a gallery will get you a higher price for less work. You will have to pay the gallery a 30 to 50 % commission but you'll end up with more money and satisfaction at the end of the day. If you want to take the last option, you'll need cashflow, so have to either work part time or maybe the diaper idea could get some money coming in? If you want to follow any of these ideas I suggest you embrace the internet in a big way, not only for sales but as a great source of information. When you do, you'll wonder how you did without it. Good luck!
7. if you have a digital camera, you could try eBay.
8. Handbags and Diaper bags are great to get started with. Try it out with local stores! Manufacture the product in-house by doing it yourself, pay the store to manufacture for you and you will get roughly 40% of profits for a start. License your ideas to a third party manufacturer for a percentage of royalties. Though, licensing deals aren't likely unless you have got a good brand name. Being a musician, go to local pubs, bars, coffee shops, musician halls.... Music lounges have new music all the time with local bands and/or artists. You don't need money. Just play your stuff and try it out. You could also teach, or try out for theatre or musicals, often they have music. Or become a part of an orchestra, whatever kind of music you do, they need a band for live music. Painting and sculpting, you should find an art school to put those to real use and get your work out there. Any artists will come to college art shows to view work and pick few that can be used for greater art shows.