good elephant pottery
  • blog
  • recent work
  • where to buy
  • the potter
  • contact
  • mailing list
  • school

My Plan Worked

3/12/2012

5 Comments

 
Picture
a large wholesale order waiting to be packed
And I'm feeling a little devilish about it. But mostly I'm feeling triumphant. And relieved. 

This was my plan: to skip the Buyers Market of American Craft (BMAC) this year, but still get all the wholesale orders I want. I should start by explaining that I wanted to reduce my wholesale workload, down to an amount that made the high cost of the trade show hard to justify. For those of you who want to know, the minimum cost to do this trade show is about $3000. And that is for people like me, who can fit my display into my car, and drive myself to Philadelphia. For artists who need to travel on airplanes, while shipping their display and products, the total costs are closer to $5000. My goal was to reduce the size of my wholesale business to somewhere around $9000 this year (roughly half of last year's wholesale gross). And it just didn't make sense to spend $3000 in order to make $9000. 

But could I get enough galleries to order from me anyways? 

I started laying the groundwork for the plan at last year's BMAC, where I told all of my buyers that I would not be attending the trade show in 2012, instead I would be in touch if they wanted to order from me. In January of this year, I produced a simple catalog for my 2012 wholesale line, and mailed it to my active wholesale accounts, then followed up with emails every few weeks. I have to admit, the first week after I mailed the catalog was very long. Was I being overconfident? Did I just screw myself? Then, I got an email from one of my largest accounts "We got your lovely brochure and will be sending an order soon." I exhaled. The orders arrived over the following weeks. And as of now, I am right on pace to reach my goal by the end of the year.

It worked!

My motivation behind the plan is not just about wholesaling. It is about my complicated relationship with workaholism. The self-employed workaholic's dilemma goes something like this: we complain a lot about how much we work, but we're terrified that the work will go away. Being self-employed can feel like sitting in a canoe in the middle of the ocean. Burying yourself under a pile of work makes you feel less adrift. Less insecure about money. But it has a price ... exhaustion and burnout. 

Lucky for me this isn't new ... years ago, I went through this same transition in my design practice when I started saying "no" to work. And now I think my pottery business has reached the same point. It's not easy. Saying "no" takes an awful lot of strength. My "pile of work" security blanket is gone, and I have to battle the doubt that creeps in and out of my head. 

But now it's mid-March ... I've settled into my timeframe and workload for the next few months. And guess what ... I like it. I work on wholesale orders way ahead of deadline, so I never feel rushed. In fact, when someone orders two casseroles, I make three. Now I don't worry about those pots that don't survive the pottery process. I have extras, what a concept! 

And those extras will come in handy. In between working on wholesale orders, I am stockpiling inventory for art festivals later this year. This is how I plan to make up for the forgone wholesale income. I'm adding a few more retails art festivals to my year, and bringing more inventory for all of them. Last year, I had two art festivals where I nearly ran out of pots with one more day to go. I only made a few hundred dollars on those last days, because I didn't have much to sell. Those were boring days, plenty of time to think about how to change the way I work. And to make myself queasy on fried festival food. I probably shouldn't do that either. 

Once again, I am referring to The Hourly Earnings Project to guide my business plans. The project revealed that wholesaling was the least profitable segment of my business. So whenever I felt exhausted by work, it was clear where I needed to cut back. My plan for wholesale going forward is, if possible, to attend the BMAC every three or four years. If I can amortize the cost of the trade show over a few years, then it will make sense for me. In the meantime I will shift my focus towards retail art festivals, my annual open house, and my online store.

5 Comments
Sara Knox link
3/31/2012 11:35:57 pm

Hi Mea,
I don't know if I have told you this before, but love your blog! It is so relevant ti issues in the clay world and is honest. Thanks for writing,
Sara

Reply
Sara Knox
3/31/2012 11:37:44 pm

Sorry that had a few typos, Sunday morning sleepiness

Reply
DAY link
6/24/2012 11:05:18 pm

Now that Feb and BMAC is 6 months gone, how is the wholesale going?
Every year I swear that it will be my last, and every Presidents Day Weekend I find myself in Philly!
No more- I will start NOW to prepare my accounts for my absence.

Reply
Mea Rhee
6/25/2012 01:04:18 am

DAY, the wholesale orders are steadily coming in. Now I think I might even surpass my wholesale goal for this year. And here's a tasty fact ... by doing two additional festivals this spring that I normally wouldn't have done ... combined with the $3000 I saved by skipping the BMAC ... I have already replaced the income I was expecting to lose. And it took a lot fewer pots to do it! My workload is so much more reasonable. I even took a vacation this month. Make no mistake, my wholesale income will go down by a lot this year, but again wholesale was not my entire income, I never intended for it to take over my business the way it did, and I had a plan for replacing the income. So as long as you have a similar plan, yes start preparing your galleries now. For me it has worked out great. I don't want to sound like I'm criticizing BMAC, I recognize that this trade show is what pushed my pottery studio into a full-time business. But at the same time, for a one-person pottery studio, the cost of attending the show annually doesn't make sense.

Reply
Stæven link
7/25/2013 04:10:45 pm

Love this post and your work ethics. Reminds me of someone I know…lol. I relate!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    author

    Mea Rhee (mee-uh ree),
    ​the potter behind
    ​Good Elephant Pottery


    upcoming shows

    2023 show schedule is TBD.

    join the herd

    Receive email notices about upcoming shows/events.


    Follow me on
    ​Facebook and
    Instagram

    RSS Feed


    categories

    All
    Classes
    In The Studio
    Running A Business
    Shows
    The Art Festival Plan
    The Hourly Earnings Project

    archives

    December 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.