Vending and pricing and wholesale, oh my!

Well, just for the record, I did horribly at the farmer's market, however, I had a lot of fun, so I guess it all balances out! I met some very nice people, and, hey, I got out for the afternoon, so it's all good in the end.

My fears about the demographics were dead-on. There is next to no interest in anything beyond the normal or very cheap, however, I see potential in the whole market thing in general. I think in the near future I'll be doing some markets in downtown Milwaukee, because I think that is where I need to be just to at least get my pieces seen.

Beyond that, the other good thing that came out of the market was I re-evaluated my pricing on my kimono jewelry on Wednesday before the market, and I think it's for the best! So, if you have a moment, check it out - almost everything is half the price it was earlier!!

If you possibly can, try to find somewhere to order products in bulk - I was buying small quantities of jewelry findings before, and was paying significantly more than I needed to be. The bonus to this is that it is convenient - I can go to the local JoAnn's and get supplies to work on stuff right then and now, however, I was paying a huge premium for that convenience.

Due to a random search on behalf of my mother that I do not even remember the details of, only that it sunk about two hours of my time, I found (by accident, none the less) a place to buy the findings I use in the kimono jewelry in bulk for a significant discount!

Here are the pro's and con's of something like that, from my perspective, to maybe help some of you out, too:

+ Cost : Before, I was paying around $.45 per piece, while this ordering brings them down to around $.08 each. This was even in buying in bulk (30+ items) from sellers on Etsy that were highly competitive with places like JoAnn's!

+ Quantity : I shouldn't run out, at least! Before, they came in packages of either around 25 from sellers, or 6-8 from JoAnn's, so I would need to buy a lot of them! The total, too adds up rather fast - you kind of think "oh, that's only $2 a package, I might as well get all they have" and soon, you have a $40 order on check out :O

- Quantity : Most wholesale companies have minimum purchases, either in quantity or price. This can be a real set-back - this one place I found accidentally has a $100 minimum order, which can put a lot of people off from that initial drop of money, especially if this is a "new idea" that they're getting into. Most findings (for jewelry, at least I've noticed) come in a gross, or 144 of something (a dozen dozens).

- Shipping : Since this is directly from a warehouse, and most wholesale places are similar, shipping can be rather expensive, because of the amount of handling factored in, storage space, and shipping via their most convenient method (usually UPS, which I find to be horribly expensive, but from a business standpoint, you are paying for convenience). Not to mention, when ordering 400+ items (remember, they're usually by gross) it can get pricey if they work on a per-piece shipping calculation.

- Convenience : Okay, I will admit this here. I absolutely hate telephones. Ask anyone I'm friends with, and they'll tell you exactly how bad it is. But, every wholesale place I've found requires either catalog or phone orders, even if they are located within the US. Again, from their perspective, I can understand the convenience, but from my own, it's a real pain in the butt!

- Business Requirements : And, finally, most wholesale places to purchase from require you to be a registered business with the US Government in order to purchase from them. That requires you to file as either a Sole Proprietorship or LLC with the government, as well as acquiring a State Sales and Use Tax ID (I think they're called different things state to state, but basically, it says you'll agree to pay sales tax you collect on sales within the state to the state) This is a real pain in the ass, and has caused me many a headache dealing with the paperwork for it (not for filing, no, usually the yearly reporting that gets me in trouble!) You usually need to fax this information to the wholesale company before they'll even set up a merchant account with you, and it can indeed be quite a pain to get through.

So, as a business or even a small producer of goods for sale on the Internet, there are definite advantages and disadvantages to wholesale ordering! I truly recommend starting out with buying the materials locally, testing out your idea and seeing if it's valid, and then investigating further.

Also, save or bookmark anything that may be even remotely interesting to you - you honestly never know when, four years from then, that you come up with an idea and need to find where to start ordering from, or research ideas, or any of that good stuff!