So you want to go pro #12: You Wanna a Piece of Me ?

I eluded to this earlier. Everyone wants to get rich off of your hard work. You get the raw materials. You create something from the raw materials. A tent and display is bought and set up every time you wish to sell your product. So where does 30% go every time, and right off the top. This 30% is a figure that was arrived at by 5 years of averaging. And more times than not this figure is higher. This amount comes off of your gross sales amount and not your profit.

We have always figured that a good show for us is a $500.00 a day average. A three day show would be a $1500.00 in gross sales. That is a figure we would be happy with. It doesn’t happen that way often enough, but it does happen. If the yearly average worked out to this $500.00 per day average we would be very happy. We have come very close, but never hit it as yet. This a lot more information than I wanted to give out, but what the hell. That 30% is $150.00 per day of our goal if we hit it.

This 30% is not the cost of wood, or display, or tent, or gas, but everyone else’s god given right to have part of you. I wouldn’t make such a big deal out of this if they didn’t raise their fees without notice, but your customer screams bloody murder if you hold firm on your prices. This 30% is the combination of promoters and credit card company fees. If you sell wholesale, you can get rid of this 30% right off of the top. Do you see where this is going. One of you thought “wholesale” was a dirty word.

Credit card companies want 5% on average. Many charge less in the beginning, but add on other fees at billing time. So, if you buy a $100.00 box from me 5% of the price goes to someone who had nothing to do with the producing of it. That is of course if you use a credit card. Another dirty little secret is if you have a rewards card, guess who gets billed for your reward? Please do not use a rewards card at an arts and crafts show. These fees are necessary evils I’m afraid. Remember I mentioned “tourists” and what a large part of my sales they are. They carry credit cards for emergences. Their unexpected purchase in my booth just became an emergency to them. Is this a great country or what?

We could have gone into this much deeper, but this is not a book and I’m not making any money on it. I do have another bowl to turn.

-- Odie, Confucius say, "He who laughs at one's self is BUTT of joke".