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#1 ·
For now I'm gathering my thoughts

OK boys and girls or OK girls and boys This is my first attempt at a "blog". I don't even understand what it is. To start with, it is my first priority to be FUNNY. At my age, if you ask a woman or a man what is the most important thing in a marriage they will say a sense of humor. Those of you 40+ out there know what I mean.

So you want to start a business. This hopefully will be a series of do's and don'ts of starting your own woodworking (((or what ever ((for the Wife(her name is Sue))))) business. That's what happens when you try to be politically correct. Someone (or was it someones wife) mentioned the "wife" didn't think the wives liked being called the "wife" or… You get the idea don't you. Did you know (or remember) that there was a time when unknown gender was masculine. That was proper English as was a ship was feminine. Not "he or she" did this or did that.

This is going to be a recap of what I (we) have gone through, Thought about, wrestled with, or just plain did to get this business going. I (we) live in California where government thinks it should control your every move. The part that drives me crazy is so many think this is the way this state should be. That is, just as long as it does not apply to them. We adapt and learn to live with all of the regulations and the nosy neighbors that make you law abiding. Except for New York, you all should have an easer time with regulations than I did.

I will discuss business licenses, resale numbers, tax I.D.'s, permits, arts and crafts shows (and their fees), Wholesale selling, and the dreaded arts and craft show commissions. I am still gathering my thoughts as to how to organize this. Therefore the title … look up.
 
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#2 ·
Sounds like a good topic Odie - there are a bunch of the younger (and not so younger) guys and gals out there thinking about ways to make their love for woodworking pay for itself. My opinion is that once you start trying to sell your woodworking (at least at the level I am at, a hobbyist) it becomes a second job and I don't want another job - I want to retire and enjoy woodworking :)) Should be a good read though and will surely help somebody.
 
#8 ·
Business Plan or not to Business Plan

Shame on us, we don't have a business plan. Never did and never will have one. We knew what we wanted to accomplish. Banks and loan institutions insist on you having a business plan. All professional people (lawyers, accountants, and the like) will advise you to have one. I didn't need a loan to get started, but if you are one that does need a loan, start writing. A bank will want to know that you have all of your ducks in a row. This business plan will be put in front of loan and management people without you being present to explain unclear details. So, be very concise in your writings. Get some help with this if you need to. I know I would have to sweet talk the little woman. Maybe promise to do the laundry or something. I don't understand her demands, I got her a new mop for Christmas.

Here is a little common sense sermon to chew on. Think failure … you will fail. Think success … you will succeed. When you start thinking about this endeavor, get your information from those who have succeeded in a like business. You don't want advice from a failure. Just ask yourself, what will they teach me? That said, I can now get off of my bully pulpit.

In the later installments I will cover such exciting topics as: wholesale vs. retail, becoming legal, sole proprietorship vs. incorporating, paying your way, pricing structure, art galleries, and many many more to keep you wide awake. These will be common sense plus my very trying experiences with, promoters, governments, retailers, customers, and fellow artists.

It's still snowing out there. Three feet and still counting.

Shameless Promotion: http://www.dustnlint.com
 
#9 ·
Well I'm glad it's snowing that will keep you in the shop. Are you snowed in or snowed out. Whats the temp.

Great Start Odie.
 
#12 ·
Business Person vs Manufacturer

Along the way, we made a very conscience decision to offer our products at prices most people that visited arts and crafts shows could afford. We are both very capable of making the perfect art quality products. You know what I mean, cut around the imperfection instead of putting it on the inside out of sight. Using 10 coats of finish instead of 6. My personal favorite, and the one I use, is to make 10 boxes at once instead of only one. Over half of my time is spent setting up a machine to do a task rather than the task itself. If it takes 15 minutes to set up the table saw to cut four sides of a box, why not cut four sides of ten boxes? You have to pass the cost of the wood on to the customer, so buy wisely. If you decide to go the very artsy path, you can take more time, price your items higher, and sell fewer of them. It will be a personal choice like deciding on a high priced hooker or a quickie in an alley.

Another very big decision is to sell wholesale or retail. I have for the most part done both. In a perfect world, a retailer will come to your house and pay you what you want, and leave with your product. After five years of doing this, I have some bad news for the woodworker. If your product has a use (no matter how beautiful) it will demand a lower price than a piece of fine art that hangs on a wall. Sorry, It is a "REAL" fact of life in the real world. Understand, I am talking generalities here. Not all buyers think this way, and some will tell you your prices are too low. Back to my thought, this retailer is going to double (yes double) your price. He will want you to put your work on consignment. If you can sell it for less and avoid consignment, do it! If the retailer didn't buy it, what vested interest does he have in selling it or even taking care of it. I have had a lot of my work ruined because of uncaring retailers. So take less if you have to. After all, you incurred no expense trying to sell it.

By going wholesale, you will avoid all sorts of head aches big and small. Here are just a few: sales tax, craft fairs and their promoters, Credit card companies, insurance companies (to insure you against the clumsy), and tent and display needs. Also there is one thing that is near and dear to my heart, setting up your tent and display then taking it all down again after you're done. It's a lot of work and wholesale avoids this. However, there is one thing you would surely miss by going wholesale. This is the feeling you get when people enter your booth and stand there with their mouths open in amazement. All of the back pains, blisters, saw dust lungs, and cuts and scrapes just melt away. The questions you get to answer that make you feel like a college professor in front of a lecture hall. These things I can not and will not give up. That word "praise" somehow sticks with me.

Oh, another foot of snow fell last night. That brings the total to around four feet so far. After this I will be outside. According to YAHOO! News is raining iguanas in Florida. I'll take the snow any day.

Shameless Promotion: http://www.dustnlint.com
 
#13 ·
Another great addition to your blog. You need to show a couple of pictures of your and your wifes item when you refer to them.

Otherwise - well you know the story.
 
#17 ·
Photos for Karson and Tom(mot)

O. K. you guys. You say you needed photographs. I really don't understand. Guys, one is white and one is green. I hope this helps you get a visual. We should get back on topic for #5.





I took this picture today.

Shameless Promotion: http://www.dustnlint.com
 
#18 ·
Now your are talking. Greenbacks that what we all want to hear.

What is black and white and red all over. Odie home.
 
#27 ·
Becoming Legal

Well, hell, let's get back to it. First off these entries will be coming sporadically. You need to know we do have a business to run. And it's tax time. I have started something here that could be way over my head. After all English is like a second language to me. No, no, no, it's because I attended Los Angeles City Schools, not because I'm an immigrant.
Hell, I took dumb bell English many times at Santa Monica City College. So it takes me a little longer to write these than most of you. Thank you Karson and Martin for telling me about "copy and paste" from my word processor. And thank "mac" for a very easy to use dictionary. As Dadoo "wood" say, "nuff said" …. ONWARD !

Becoming legal is the glue that will hold your business directions together. There are so many pit falls here waiting for you. Here is the order in which I handled these things. I got this advice from only one person, a CPA friend who does our taxes. He advised us to go with sole proprietorship rather than forming a corporation. It had something to do with having to file our corporation meeting minutes with the state. It does protect your personal property against law suites that are filed against your business. A lawyer will tell you to incorporate. This is one reason we carry a $1,000,000.00 liability insurance policy.

Number two was to get a business license from the county. Before they issued the license to me, I had to go to departments such as public safety and the county fire marshall (lacquer is very flammable). These were all in the same building complex, so it was a piece of cake. It took three hours tops. They waived the usual fee of $125.00 because of me being a Viet Nam veteran. I love Placer County. Oh, there is one question they asked me: " what about the noise and your neighbors "? I told the truth about only using the power tools between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm out of respect for my neighbors.

This is going to be a little longer than I wanted, but lets get this topic out of the way. For those of you that have been to our web site, you probably noticed we used our sir name as part of the name of the business. This was to avoid going through the fictitious name for businesses process. In California you post your fictitious name in a newspaper for three weeks. This way, anyone already using it can stop you, ha ha. Fat chance they're reading a Truckee newspaper. Anyway, this is why we are not just "Dust'n Lint". Our sir name isn't fictitious, and therefore no process to go through.

And last but not least the dreaded State of California resale number. This allows you to collect state, county, and city sales taxes … Oh Boy ! I was not looking forward to dealing with the state. Well, would you believe, they made it very simple to collect everyones money. I waited for ten minutes, then sat down at someone's desk, and answered his questions while he typed the form. I then looked it over, signed it, and then he gave me my copy. And then I was legal. I was free to go sell, sell, sell.



This is a sign in our booth that brings a lot of laughs.

The same shameless promotion: http://www.dustnlint.com
 
#32 ·
Paying Your Way

Well here we go again. Can you be a book keeper? Well, how about a good record keeper? When we started this little endeavor we asked, asked, and asked some more questions. Most of the questions, we asked our friend and tax accountant. He handles many businesses' taxes and accounting problems in the state of California. I need to point out something here, accountants speak a different language than woodworkers. He was asked such questions as: "what", "what did you say", and "what the hell does that mean"? The last I asked the most. The highlights of these stimulating conversations will follow.

The first and most important is to save everything. Your saying, "easy", right? Not so fast my fellow woodworkers. How many times have you brought a bag home from the hardware store? Do you put it in the shop take out the receipt and walk it into the house? I never had before. A week later, who knows where that receipt is? So, Sue and I needed a common place to put these things. We do, and it works about 75% of the time.

Use the double receipt method. I charge it or write a check for it, then I have a paper trail of my purchases to fall back on. Also, these checking and charge accounts should be separate from your household accounts. Business is business, and household is household and keep it that way.

I have kept everything separate. My shop (garage) is household, and my tools are part of the business. We have done it this way all along. It is a personal choice that has to be made. If you start deducting the use of your house for business you will save a little on taxes each year. But, when you sell this house, it's a whole new ball game. I won't go into that anymore. Have a nice long talk with an accountant before you make this decision. It's a big one that can bite you down the road.

Both cars have tripmeters in them. This is a little thing you think. Mileage is a very large deduction at tax time. We do most of our shopping in Reno and we are religious about using our tripmeters. When we get home, we enter the results of the tripmeters on a calendar. This method works great, but do whatever works best for you.



These topics make it tough to think of the right pictures to post. The last topic I almost posted one of Raymond Burr playing Perry Mason.

Can you believe it's snowing again? And let's hear it for: http://www.dustnlint.com
 
#42 ·
Pinky Up You Artists

Let me explain this small delay. I work at an art gallery one day a month. You know these places don't you? People sip their tea with their pinky up in the air there. You lugs would never fit in there LIKE I DO. "You do my ass", you are to saying to yourself. What tipped you off? My stuff doesn't hang on a wall? If that doesn't mean anything to you, start at the beginning of this series. This is an artists' co-op.

Does your community have an artists' co-op? Admit it, do you even know? This is just like MsDebbieP and her newly found "wood place". I didn't know we had one until someone approached me at an arts and crafts show representing one. Thus, this was my introduction to the artsy-fartsy crowd of North Lake Tahoe and Truckee. We ( I am a member now) are a nonprofit for the arts known as North Tahoe Arts or just "NTA". My site has a page called "NTA" with a link dedicated to the North Tahoe Arts Gift Shop.

This is a great way (if you have to) to go wholesale. They take care of all the sales taxes and credit card stuff. With the NTA I have to pay a yearly dues of $80.00 for two of us. Then I have to pay $50.00 to be in the gift shop. I work one day a month, plus they keep 30% of any sale of my woodwork. So I raise my prices a little. You also get to talk to "your" customers.

My fellow artists take really good care of my work. There is never a worry about it not being taken care of. And when they sell something, they call me, so I can restock. Guys and Gals This is the best of both worlds. If you have such a place in your town … dive in. The artists (mostly women) will have such a profound respect for you because of your "common sense" (being a woodworker you have … you too Allison). It's just plain absent from their daily lives. Anyway being someone of common sense as a woodworker is, you will be looked at as a father figure knowing a great deal. Believe this or not, give it a try, you will see.

Oh, and at these places, you will be called an "artist". I always have scraped knuckles from dragging them on the ground, what do I know of art. I'm a skilled craftsmen who makes things of wood. Here we are artists and this is a great place to take us from our normal routine. So, when you drink that beer, put your pinky in the air, and call yourself an artist.



This is the NTA building on the lake at Lake Tahoe. It's also an historical landmark.



This is the inside of the gift shop at NTA. There are also two separate galleries, one downstairs and one up.

Take a look at the gift shop at : http://www.dustnlint.com
 
#43 ·
Looks like a fantastic place to showcase your work.
I'm a lug, a lug with a tiny bit of talent, but under
no circumstances am I an 'artist'.

Just last night I made an insert for my table saw
out of a scrap piece of Santana, can't imagine it
would ever be call an art piece ;) One mans junk…

How about some pictures of your showcased pieces?
 
#47 ·
I Are A Salesman

Wow, I can't believe we've covered this much ground already. I think I have said about everything I wanted to about wholesale. If any of you lugs have questions about my wholesale experiences ask or forever hold your piece. I will be heading toward the retail side of our business now. The first time I thought of doing retail sales I was very intimidated by the whole process. When you get used to it, it's a piece of cake.

When I speak of retail, I mean the customer (end user of our hard work), and I are eye to eye. I am responsible for the manufacturing, warehousing, and selling of a product to a person that wants to purchase it. I will be responsible for the place of the sale, the way the sale is transacted (cash, check, or credit card), the display by which the customer picked his purchase, and his safety while he is there. It really sounds worse than it is.

We are not salesmen. We, on the other hand, are designers, creators, and builders of something unique that is to be used by someone. When I am face to face with a customer, I am not selling, I'm educating. This is the beauty of an arts and crafts show. Most of the "artists" here are not salesmen, but people that have a unique knowledge about what they are selling. Most of the people that visit these shows realize this and cherish their encounter with the "artist".

So, in the later installments, I think we can break up this arts and crafts show topic into useable bites. So meantime I will leave you with photographs of our booth. I want you to take a close look at it. You will notice that there are two artists sharing this booth. It is very unusual and creates whole new challenges.



Both of these photographs were taken in Kings Beach at Lake Tahoe last summer.



More booth photos can be seen at http://www.dustnlint.com take a look at "booth"
 
#48 ·
Love the quilts, my wife is into making those…...........thats another story.

The bowls, at least from a distance look nice too…....I am a fan/collector.

I did one craft show once, my two girls were little back then and they made a small fortune. That said…..it was a disaster for this guy. Christmas tree fell over, one of the beach chairs I made snapped shut on a very wide lady, like a mouse trap. Took ten men and a boy to get her out and when she did get out she was flung like being stuck in a catapult….......she came up swinging and snorting and rutting like a bull.

Lucky I didnt get sued

20 years later…........and a little wiser
 
#55 ·
The Arts and Crafts Show

Ah, the arts and crafts (fair, show, exhibit, event) show. See we are already having a quandary. Some promoters are very choosy as to what you call their events. For this occasion we will call them shows. There are many things that determine which shows one participates in. New shows to you, it must be location and your calendar of events. You have heard the term, "location, location, location", haven't you? Believe it … live it.

Ask your self, "if I were well off, where would I live" ? That might be a good place to be in an arts and crafts show. One would think Beverly Hills would be a great place. From what I have read, it's very average. That's probably because we don't have known fancy labels on our products. Lake Tahoe is too small an area, right? Wrong, wrong, wrong, you with the reading skills. The one better, best, greatest group of people is the tourist. I know this (I are one sometimes) because 75% of my sales are to them. They always ask, "Why don't you do a show in San Francisco"? My answer is always, " because you are already here".

I don't know about you, but when we are on vacation we spend money more freely. It's just human nature I guess. I know when we do shows on the eastern side of the Sierra and near the flat lands, we bomb. Towns such as Reno and Bishop are what I am referring to. The tourists are there, but too spread out. And the locals all work for a living. We have done them both, and if you sell snow cones or s-- on a stick you will make thousands a day. If you sell art, the best way to put is, you won't.

But there are exceptions to this. Your promoter has the ability to break these rules. If your promoter has as much pride in what they do, as you do, stick to them like glue. They will have the ability to gather the right collection of talent to pull the right clientele to you from many miles around. There are also a few publications out there with very good reviews that are written by artists. In the west, one of these is "The Crafts Fair Guide". It is a pretty good source of what other artists are doing at other shows.



We seem to have the best of both worlds at Lake Tahoe and Truckee. We have location and we have very good promoters. That's why we are hesitant to travel and incur all of that added cost. After all, the bottom line is one of many reasons we do this. It's not the first though … the love of it is.

Let's hear it for the shameless promotion : http://www.dustnlint.com
 
#62 ·
The Promoter

There has been a lot going on here, so the blog was the one thing that had to be cut back on. We are reaching the end of this topic, so if you have any questions that I might answer, I can add a couple of entries. I have to start turning some bowls to get ready for next summers shows.

We touched on promoters in the last entry. Most promoters are frustrated artists that know they can put on a better show than the promoter they are currently with. I work a lot with one of these. But she came to this conclusion 25 years ago. The dynamics of this economy have changed so drastically since she started this, It's left her kind of thinking in the dust. She thinks if she puts up a sign, they will come. That's after a bypass was put in routing traffic away from the event. This used to be one of her best shows. She is going to lose her artists. The fee for this show has been going up every year, but sales have been going down. Five years ago it was $200.00 for Memorial Day Weekend. It is now $275.00 for the same weekend with less people and sales. She used to have a waiting list for her 70 booths. Now she is lucky if she can draw 30 booths.

A couple of years ago I suggested we move the event. We would team up with the home show at the high school. There is three times the traffic and a double draw. I was told I didn't know what I was talking about. Time is passing her by, and she doesn't know it. Someone will probably take over her shows in a couple of years.

There is another promoter up here that is one class act. She has very strict rules and gathers the greatest talent I have ever seen in one place. Three times during the summer she puts us in a ski area parking lot on the west shore of Lake Tahoe. She charges us $150.00 for three days, but she adds a 10% commission on top of this. At first I said I would never do a show that charges a commission. Now I realize that if I don't do well, she doesn't do well. If I have a great weekend, so does she.

These three shows are so much fun to do. We take our motor home to the event and turn it into a mini-vacation. A lot of people think this is silly because we live a half hour away. I just tell them the motor home cost a lot of money and it seems silly to leave it in the driveway.

So, anyway, here are two very different promoters. I could write a book on all the different promoters. Like so many different groups that we will discuss, they all would like to get rich off of OUR hard work.



Here is another Arts and Crafts Show publication.
And don't forget : http://www.dustnlint.com
 
#66 ·
Ah Gypsies in the Air ?

If you have ever paid close attention to the way an arts and craft show looks, you have to be thinking what a bunch of gypsies. You don't see the half of it. You should see us when we set up and tear down. I fondly call everyone there a bunch of gypsies and it's catching on. I will tell you, I have never run across a greater bunch of people in my life. There isn't any of them that wouldn't give you the shirt off their backs to help you succeed. But at the same time, I have never run across a group of people so void of common sense.

YOU MUST weight your tent down to keep the wind from carrying it away. Worst yet it could hit someone else's booth or hit a customer and hurt them. But yet there are still artists that try to get away with this. Most promoters have this in there rules. Some of them are now just starting to enforce these rules though. I have witnessed many a tent lifting off the ground like a kite. And these shows are in Lake Tahoe where the wind almost never stops. There used to be a tent 50 feet up, in a tree, in the park, in Truckee. It was an arts and crafts show tent. It was in this tree for 15 years. The promoter used to point it out if someone didn't think weights were important.

These were the same people that tried to save money by not carrying insurance. So, take an unweighted tent, a strong wind, and some innocent visitors to the show. If the artist has a home, he could lose it. If I see an unweighted tent I suggest the artist take care of it. If they refuse to obey the promoter's rules, I tell the promoter. Then the promoter knows he is responsible for damage to my setup. That gets the problem taken care of quickly. So, be nice and know your rights. Don't let someone's stupidity ruin your weekend.

Below is what we use to wait our tent. These buckets have 40 pounds of concrete in each of them. There is a bolt stuck into the concrete that we attach each tent foot to with a wing nut. There is also a ring in the concrete that we tie a rope coming down from the top corner to. This forms a triangle of sorts and nothing moves.





Ah, go ahead, take a look : http://www.dustnlint.com
 
#70 ·
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.
 
#74 ·
"The Price is Right" ?

Well, one more bowl turned and one more blog entry to write. And believe me, this is a good time to write this. It's 4 degrees outside and 34 degrees in the shop. This topic is coming to a close. There are only a couple left to do I can think of, unless you have questions. Hell, there must be a couple of questions in Turlock. This is a tough topic to tackle. Say that 5 times really quick. Your pricing structure is this entries topic.

The first component of any price structure is the cost. What raw goods do you have in this work of art? You have wood plus 10% to 20% waste. Don't forget your waste. 20% is a good figure. I give my customers a little break and charge 10% because I turn pens and make very small boxes with a lot of the waste. And don't forget ALL of your materials that went into that, let's say, "box". Things like hinges, felt, felt dots on the bottom, finish, and glue are included. You will have other costs such as sandpaper you used.

With wood I have a little bit of a quandary. I use about 20 different wood species in my boxes. Some boxes, I make about one hundred a year. Each specie has a different price. I charge the same price for the same box with different woods (except for a few $$$). So, what do I do? I average the costs of the woods with a little twist. I use maple about 20% of the time, so the price of the maple counts for 20% of the average. And I do this with all of the species, and I came up with $7.52 per board foot. So, figure out your board feet used ( +20% ) x $7.52 and that's your wood cost. And the disclaimer … your cost of wood may differ.



For my big jewelry boxes I use Beall round hinges. They're $27.00 at Woodcraft. I buy mine directly from Beall at $16.00 each plus $8.00 for shipping 10 of them. If you are keeping score, that's $16.80 spent for hinges for each jewelry box. I just saved my customer $10.20 on his purchase. I also save like gangbusters on sandpaper. At the hardware store sandpaper is about $1.00 per sheet any more. That's F--ing ridiculous to charge that much for sandpaper. I buy mine from Econ Abrasives at about $.17 per sheet if I buy 50 or 100 sheets. Look around, you can save big bucks if you try. And open a wholesale account with your wood supplier and don't pay sales tax. Your customer pays the sales tax not you. On my large jewelry boxes I use 6 coats of spayed on lacquer. I pay about $27.00 for a gallon of lacquer and about $13.00 for a gallon of thinner. I can put six coats (mixed 50/50) on eight boxes with that at $5.00 per box. And so on, and on, and on.

Hot damn here we go … what is your time worth? This is the toughest question of all. When I worked for the telephone company five years ago I was worth over $25.00 plus benefits per hour. Now I live in the business owner world. Things sure have changed. This hourly figure will be different for everyone. I add $9.00 per hour to everything I make. That is the minimum that I work with. Somethings I make $20.00 an hour. Remember my little trick of not making only one of anything in my inventory? It takes me 60 hours to make my bigger jewelry boxes. If I make four of them it takes me sixteen hours each … see how I can save time? I hope this helps you.

for a good time ... click here
 
#75 ·
Great Odie.

I'm having a good time. Are you. Did all of the snow melt. It's 42 here today. It snowed about 45 million flakes, and they are all gone.

Great blog. Thanks.
 
#78 ·
The Customer ... Nuff Said

Well, we can't stop giving shop weather reports can we? It's 8 degrees outside and it's 36 degrees in the shop. Damn, it's a heat wave over yesterday. I do have one more bowl to turn in this round and then it's on to something else. Just like this blog is about to end unless something pops up that might be interesting to write about. Hey, Bill in Turlock, any questions?

Ah, the customer, he is always right you know. At least that's what we have to keep telling ourselves, over, and over, and over (to a point). The point being when we have lost the sale and nothing we say will ever change that. Then we can let them have it, just kidding. They or their friends just might want to come back. Someone near by might hear you admonish them and change their minds about visiting your booth. But, feel free to give it to the parents of the little bastards that are racing their toy cars across your jewelry boxes. That really happened, you know.

My favorite customer is the wheeler dealer that's not happy with your very fair prices. It doesn't matter where they go, they assume they're at a garage sale. Our first couple of years at this, we would give in just to make a sale. Now, I ask these customers if they would work for $5.00 an hour. Then when they say they would not, that's when I tell them they are asking me to work for less. Sue gives into this with her quilts at times, and it drives me crazy. She sells them for too little now. If someone wants several items for cash, I might eat the sales tax. But, for the most part I hold firm. I don't think I have lost much business because of this. I think I've gained respect. As for you, you'll work it out for yourselves.

This has been fun and challenging. I hope I may have shortened the road of hard knocks for some of you. If you have questions, we can revisit this again. TA TA for now.



And for a Really GOOD Time ... Click Here.
 
#86 ·
Ah, the World Wide Web

This topic was a request by daltxguy, and it will probably disappoint him. We left off with the customer the last time around. Well this is sort of related. It's just a different way to go find that allusive person. Ah yes, the all powerful "web site". With our web site it's a work in progress.

We use a Mac and a program called "iweb", designed to enable one to design and publish their own web site. So that's exactly what we have done. Apple publishes it to the web for $100.00 a year. It has a strange address = http://web.mac.com/johnorsue . And along the way I got the domain name, http://www.dustnlint.com , from YAHOO! for only $10.00 a year. When "you" go to the domain address it just transfers you to that crazy mac address. When you go to dustnlint you will see the other address on your browser. Every word I typed, every picture I took, and every page I designed then published it on the web. The greatest thing about it, I can change it every few minutes if I want to. I don't have to wait for some computer geek to do these things for me.

Now, your question I believe, how is it to sell on the inter net? Damned if I know. Do my customers find me on the World Wide Web ? We have only had our web site for about 9 months, and answer to that question is: "not yet". If you were to pay Google or YAHOO! a fee to advertise your site, that answer could be different. We are contacted by previous customers and people who have picked up our business cards at arts and crafts shows with our web address on them. People usually call us with questions about our products and I have them look at our web site. They will see what they like and place an order over the phone. It's also great to talk to them over the phone while we both look at the web site. Sorry, as far as someone finding the web site then placing an order, it hasn't happened yet.

All this being said, this has been great for people seeing us at a show and showing their friends, via our site, what our booth and products looked like. I believe we have gotten a few orders this way. There is also a guy 3000 miles away in Washington D. C. that purchased a jewelry box from the North Tahoe Arts gallery. He keeps placing orders from our web site. There is also a couple in Los Angeles that keeps placing orders for Sue's quilts they see on the site.

For the most part, our art needs to be seen, felt, and smelled in person to really appreciate it. The web site has been more of a tool for us then a selling blitz. That could change in the future … only time will tell. Thank you for your question, sorry I couldn't be more help.



Shameless Promotion - click here
 
#98 ·
MORE WEB NEWS

I forgot to bring you all up to date. How you get noticed by Google and Yahoo is called "meta names". These names are embedded in code in your web site on each page. Google and Yahoo! use crawlers to find and read these meta "tags". They use them to pick where and in what categories your site is listed.

I now have a program that lets me go in and change and add to my "meta names". The problem, I found out, is that .mac doesn't allow for this. There is no way to add and transfer these meta names in iweb and in .mac. I will be emailing the .mac people to see if there is a way around this or they can add this ability later.

There is one way "in the mac world" to do this. Save iweb to a file. Then publish it to another web host like Yahoo! While it is in your file change the meta names to suit you. Then publish it to the host.

I could get around this by having my home page with Yahoo! (with the meta names). Then when you click on the menu of pages it would transfer you to my .mac site. I am looking into that also. I now have an account with Yahoo! (domain name and AT&T/Yahoo! DSL), so it would be easy to add my home page to the account. I'm just afraid it's more money out of the good old pockets of DUST'N LINT

For you MAC users, the program I'm referring to is "Wrangler". It is a free program and down loadable from apple Once you get to their site go to "downloads".

For a really GREAT time CLICK here

PS. I forgot to tell you all … I did get a call yesterday from a former customer. He was a customer before we had a web site. He was interested in a jewelry box for his son's girlfriend. He wanted me to describe what I had. I asked if he was near a computer and he said it was on and in front of him. I gave him the site address and we were both able to look at it together while on the phone. He then gave me an order that I'm sending this morning.
 
#99 ·
I'm not sure that the search engines use meta data any longer for indexing web sites because the meta data tags have been abused. I believe page content is now indexed and assigned a relevance score. Also, the page last update date/time is used in the ranking. The search engines show the most recent pages first that have the most hits in content for the search phrase entered.

See The Anotomy of a Search Engine for more info.
 
#101 ·
Ahh ... Steps in the Fool

Hi …. O, an "artist's" story unfolds ….......

Hell done broke loose at North Tahoe Arts. Remember, I told you about that place earlier. It is a non-profit artists association, I'm afraid, run by artists. If you put 20 of them in one room together, they will do nothing but disagree until they are all unconscious from bitch slapping each other. I'm a Tim Taylor Tool Man kind of guy. These people are unreal. Remember my phrase "common sense isn't so common"? Well it really applies in this case.

Also, remember when I said they all look to the one that has his head on straight. It's true and that one was me. What a guy, what a guy, what a guy …. There was an election to elect a chairman in which I ran (why I don't know) for the position. Sue, my wife, was really pissed. The place really needed direction and leadership. They asked for people that wanted to run for (voted upon) chairman. I was in a weird mood and put my name in. I was the only one for two weeks. So, that meant ….. no you're wrong and so was I.
For some reason when "odie" is the only one willing to do the job, panic is the name of the game. Common sense … "we can't deal with that".



When the true artist ran, she won. There is much, much more to that little story, but I try to be a gentleman. That was just fine with me after I gained my senses. So, we all lived happily ever after, right? This artist and her partner in crime ran everything with an Iron fist. No decisions were made as a group. She made them all for us. Many enemies were made, including the main board of directors. After turning that place into her dream and pounding on too many desks, she was asked (told) to leave.

Now, in steps the fool. There was a quarterly gift shop meeting coming up, the work schedule was a mess, and we were down to 20 artists instead of the 26 we should have. Our reputation in the community was, to say the least, not too good. I told everyone I would chair the next meeting, emailed an agenda, and took over our schedule on Google calendar. I told everyone they will need a new chairman after the minutes were mailed out about a week after the meeting. That added up to about three weeks of hell. It was something that needed to be done, and everyone really appreciated me stepping forward and taking the reins.

The conclusion to this little "artists dilemma" next time …......

Web site with held due to popular demand
 
#102 ·
That's sounds like it was a good time, NOT! You gotta love those folks who don't want to do the job, but don't want you to do it either. And yet, they still want the job done. Makes my head spin just thinking about it. Geld the horse and put him out for stud … sounds almost corporate. I'll be waiting for next time to see how this story continues.
 
#111 ·
Artistic Melodrama

I thought this topic was exhausted many moons ago. As a "pro", little things pop up, that need our attention from time to time. Now that my life is, for the most part, mine again, I have time to conclude our little melodrama. We left off with me as acting, temporary, until the job was done … chairman of the North Tahoe Arts Artisan's Gift Shop. That's a mouth full.

For the two weeks proceeding the meeting I organized the agenda from the last meeting. I shortened it from 14 pages to 2 pages and emailed it to everyone. They were told to give me any added items they wanted discussed. I had also taken over the scheduling of gift shop work days. I still have that job today, and I'm happy to do it for them. We had a few "unauthorized" email blasts to the group by some know-it-alls. This was nipped in the bud by me with some "red neck" photos gathered from my forum topic, "LumberJocks is going to the Dogs". These plus the phrase, "lighten up, my eyes hurt from all the emails", really worked. All the emails just stopped dead about three days before the meeting.



This is my *********************************** mansion



This is my *********************************** lawn mower. (Mr. Trim says they're *********************************** hookers)



When all the work is done, my friends and I goes swimmin' in my swimmin' pool.

The meeting started at 10:00 on June 3rd. I got there attention, and laid the ground rules for the meeting. I would read a topic, tell them what I thought, and then we would discuss it. We would then vote on it. There would be nothing put off until the next meeting. I found out "artists" love firm but fair. I must point out, at this point, that quite a few of you were right. We got lots of two cents worth, but no one was willing to follow it through. Everything was settled and voted on by the end of the meeting.

During this meeting, I announced that someone had mentioned to me a group blog would be great. I told them that I looked into it and I would be glad to set one up with Google. I told them my effort has its price. I wanted 100% participation. A few of them, to say the least, are not computer literate. Just about all have tried to get to it and log on. About 2/3s have made it and are contributing as I write this. The rest are contacting me, one by one, by telephone. Then at this point I walk them through the process of logging into our super secret blog. It's a long story that might be number 19 in this series.

Ah,but I have lots of good news to report. After the meeting we went downstairs to the gift shop and rotated and rehung everyones art. This gives everyone a different location every three months and usually takes three days to finish. We got it accomplished in under two hours. There was laughter, joking, and a lot of mischief. The director and president of North Tahoe Arts commented that it was so nice to hear laughter again. We are now 27 artists strong and at about our capacity. A few days ago the minutes were emailed ( my last duty as chairman) and there seems to be piece in the North Tahoe artistic community.

This was really not a "pat myself on the back piece". This was meant to show the reader what common sense in the artistic world can accomplish. The moral of this story is, when an artist is in trouble call a LumberJock …............

Don't click this Internet Explorer friendly blue thing
 
#112 ·
WEll I can not believe that I am going to be the first one who comments but I sure don't mind!
I think your moral of the story is pure class, with a Capitol C!!!
Go get em"
I just have this feeling that when you are in a room full of people no matter who they are there would be laughter, jokes and mischief. I can not imagine it being any other way!
PEACE!!!
sounds like you did just that at that place!
 
#116 ·
Did I Mention Home Sales are Great ?

First I'll have to give an update about the "artistic melodrama". There is no more melodrama, at least in my life. I'm gone … I quit … walked out … packed up my art (boxes) and left ! It got so bad last November dealing with all those artists, not even an accomplished LumberJock could handle it. At least not this one. As soon as they got comfortable with me as their leader, things went all wrong. I had a few people trying to get away with breaking the rules behind my back, and these were some of my closest friends … nuff said !

Remember, I said in a perfect world, "Your customers would come to your house and pay whatever you asked"? It seems to happen more and more now. It just happened yesterday with a man that discovered my work in the before mentioned art gallery / gift shop. That won't happen there any more. He had bought a few boxes at the gallery and then started ordering over the phone when he couldn't find what he really wanted there. The last couple of years he has had me send him different boxes on many occasions.

A couple of months ago his was going to come to my house/shop. He was a no-show and didn't even call … oh well I thought. I guess I'll never meet my, hopefully, new benefactor I thought again. Well, damned if that guy didn't call yesterday out of the blue. He was like a kid in a candy store and left my shop almost a $1000.00 lighter.

What this getting to is … if you sell out of your house as apposed to selling at a show … give a discount. At an arts and crafts show, remember, your costs are at least 30% of your gross sales. It has been Sue's and my policy to not include the sales tax, but to back it out of the total. In other words, we pay it out of our gross sale and not the customer. Since Arnold raised the sales taxes to 8.25% in our county, the customer got that as a discount. He was happy and we saved 21.75% ourselves. Like I said before, "It's the best of both worlds".
 
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