Crazy Daisy is thinking again. Uh-oh. I am a member of the Holistic Moms Network, a nation-wide group of, well, holistic minded moms. Every year, this group has a big conference in NJ. I have never been to it, but am very hopeful to be able to attend this fall. I have been receiving emails about it recently. One such email listed ways for people who sell items that might appeal to the holistically minded to advertise their businesses. There are a few ways, but one particular one got my brain moving. A person can pay ($75.00) to have certain items placed in the "goody" bags that each participant at the conference will receive. Now because these folks are environmentally minded, no paper (including business cards) is accepted. (How cool is that?) But people can put logo items in, such as pens, magnets, and so forth. And that got me thinking that I could do something like that with my shop's email address on them. And of course that would mean that I would have to stock the shop with something that such minded folks would be interested in. And THAT got me thinking about ideas such as........ a Go-Paperless Kit. I would, I figure, have to stock the shop with kits that cost something. I'm not going to be able to repay myself for the up-front costs if I'm selling individual items at a low cost. That would take a lot of sales. But if I put together kits that maybe cost $50.00 each, or a variety of kits, ranging from $25.00-$50.00 or more, perhaps I could make it work. Hm. Am I nuts? There is something to lose here. For one thing, money. I could lost the cost of having the items placed in the bags. I would have to order them, of course, and mail them, too. Then if I had any sales, it would take a few to break even, then start to earn. And so forth. So it's a bit of a risk. However, I also have the regular Etsy shoppers to market to. And I have ways of promoting my shop around too. I dunno. It's also a lot of time commitment, and history has definitely shown that I lose interest in making the same item over and over again. However, that is what I had planned to do with fleece hats for a fall craft show anyhow. So. Hm. Maybe the thing to do is to take a month or two, make up a couple of kits, and see how easy it would be to make a bunch up before October. Or maybe I'm overdoing it. Maybe I should make a kit or two and see how they fare in the shop, before I invest a bunch of money in advertising something that won't sell. That feels like the place to start. I've got time. If they do well, I can proceed from there.
It keeps me moving.
How to: sew a bento bag
5 years ago
Ok the helium has gone out of my head and I'm back down on earth. I think I'll try just making some cloth "un-paper" stuff, like napkins and wipes, and see how they do. If the world goes mad for them, (ha) I can consider the HMN advertising plan for next year. =)
ReplyDeleteIt still sounds like a good idea to me! I guess the trick is figuring out what people want to buy before investing a lot of funds in it. What would go into a Go-Paperless Kit?
ReplyDeleteWell, I was thinking that maybe one kit could consist of a reusable cloth bag with a pack of "un-paper" towels and a pack of cloth napkins... something like that. There could be kits that have just one kind of thing, and some that have a sample of different things..I dunno. I would need to try different things to see what gets attention. I still love the idea of advertising with HMN, I'm just not sure I could get it all together in time for this year. I'd really need to have a lot of kits in stock to make the cost of advertising worth it.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of maybe trying themed kits... i.e. cloth diapering kits (bag of cloth wipes, a thin changing blanket, etc.) and kitchen kits (un-paper towels and cloth napkins, etc.) Beach kits? And so forth. Just to see if that type of marketing works.