My Store Experience - Chap't. 1

Greetings, all - I'm delighted to be joining you. I'll be sharing what I can sensibly assemble of my experience, updating at appropriate intervals. My purpose is to allow anyone who so wishes to learn from my experiences, and also to recieve feedback from readers.

About me - I'm a 24-year-old Rastafarian farmer/artisan hiding within the body of a wide-bodied 52-year-old white guy in Memphis, TN. I was interested in jewelry-making and metalwork 28 years ago, but family and other stuff intervened. When our daughters moved out 4 years ago, I resurrected the interest and began learning lost-wax casting, fabrication, about stones and beads, etc. I am currently in flight from the corporate world, having quit my high-paying job as a corporate sales dude in Feb.

I originally had no interest in retail, but an opportunity presented itself in May, in the guise of a small building for lease in a very favorable location. I am in Midtown, which is the  beautiful-old-home, artist/studentgroovy restaurant part of town. A little more specifically, I am at the heart of the Cooper-Young intersection, which is the hub of an area of 11 restaurants/bars, several liberal churches, and a half dozen galleries/boutiques. One of my observations was that the restaurants draw up to $100k of discretionary spending on a weekend night, but that all the other retailers closed up at normal hours - usually by 6:00 PM.

I adopted several strategies:
1) Try to be open when women are drinking within walking distance - which means 10 PM Thurs - Sat. (soon to be extended to midnight),
2) focus as much as possible on handmade products only - my inventory is my jewelry, handmade soaps and candles, fused/slumped glassware, rope sandals (small factory) and fair-trade artisanate products from developing nations.
3) Create an ambience such that just being in the store will provide a unique sensory experience. To that end, I built all the fixtures myself. First a three-color Jackson-Pollock-looking paint job on the floor.  Next were abstract shapes of natural-grain wood on the walls, to which shelves were affixed.  I covered the majority of the walls and all of the ceiling with panels of chambray fabric, interspersed with shapes of fabric that had been tie-dyed. Last was to wrap the overhead flourescent lights with colored shades that softened the light, assisted by small directed spotlights.

I qualify the demographic I'm looking for as follows:
1) The nature of the neighborhood qualifies most residents.
2) The restaurants in the neighborhood are diverse, from pub grub to Pacific Rim, to upscale tappas to sushi to NuevoMex - guest checks run up to $65 per diner. The majority of customers come from other areas in the city, who choose Cooper-Young as a dining destination area. By definition, anyone who drives from 15 miles away to eat sushi in Cooper-Young is my target demo.
3) Women age 25-50, college-educated, who have within the last two years purchased original contemporary art for their personal space are probably at the heart of my target market.

As for advertising and publicity - I started up right away with 1/6th page ads every other week in the local "alternative" paper. Starting this coming Monday, I'll be running 20 60-second spots weekly on the local Air America outlet, for a period of three weeks. Beginning in Oct., I'll be doing monthly 1/4 page ads in a local  magazine which focuses on professional and business women. The local mainstream paper has a website that gets 1.8 million hits per month. they are going to put up an online mall, with links throughout the site. For $39 a month, I can get a link on the front page. My website will be commerce-enabled within a few weeks. I'm hoping particularly to target tourists who are looking for what-to-do info, as my experience has been that I have almost a 100% sell-through with folks from out of town. There is a local late-night call-in radio show that covers New Age topics, primarily UFOs and paranormal experiences, whose website got 315,000 hits in August. For $50 monthly, I can get a skyscraper ad that will appear on one side of the screen on all pages on the site, again with a link to my website.

I'll continue to look for opportunities to broaden my product line. I've recently begun doing three-color enamel-over-copper pendants, and they are doing well. Lost wax casting will begin as soon as I have a good selection of molds. I've recently also started offering tie-dyed, handpainted denim shoulder bags, made from leftover fabric from the walls. I intend to resume painting soon, and have plans for some abstract/organic wall sculptures.

Results? -OK, the first thirty days I broke even. The second 30 days (which I'm halfway through) are on pace to do the same. Note that break-even means that I cover my expenses, I'm not taking any salary. Actually, as I continue to increase inventory, cash flow is negative, but an accrual-based P&L  that reflected growth in inventory valuation would probably support the break-even analysis.

The corner to turn will probably be Sep't. 17, when the 13th annual Cooper-Young festival happens. Projections are for at least 40,000 people in the area on that day. They rope off 6 city blocks, and there will be 300 vendors. That means I'll have a shot at face-toface exposure to at least 4,000. With a 10% sell-through rate, and an average sale of $20,  that makes for an $8,000 dollar day.

That, friends and neighbors, is my story to date. Please feel free to post any observations, comments, suggestions, or humorous remarks. I'll try to get back to you with an update before the end of the month. 

Yours in whimsy,

John the wonder dog

 

Comments

[Laura Kramarsky]

Wow, John, thanks!! It sounds like you've done all the research and are going to reap many rewards!

[Goldie]

Hi John! Your comment about creating an "ambience" reminds me of a crystal shop that was my haven when I worked in Tallahassee. Whenever I was having a bad day, I'd spend my lunch hour there. It never failed to restore my spirit. They played peaceful, relaxing music and burned incense continuously. Everything in the store was permeated with that smell – I used to keep their shopping bags with my lingerie. Every time I opened the drawer, I was transported back to that peaceful, relaxed state. They also had their lights covered, they used a parachute to create a lofty cloud effect. They had dozens of hand painted butterfly kites hanging from the ceiling. I went there to soak up the atmosphere, but I never failed to buy something. They made a ton of money off of me, and a lot of other people, just because of the ambience so I definitely think you’re on the right track.

If you decide you want to add crystals & stones to your line, let me know – I’ve met a wholesaler that can help you out.

Good luck and continued success!

goldie

[Lois]

From my past experience of having a shop in Occoquan VA during the big Occoquan days craft show ..people come to spend money with the visiting artists not the shopowners they can visit anytime they want ....so they don't spend money with them then ...hope this is NOT TRUE for you

HAGD and enjoy the shop experience

[Lisa]

John, I really appreciate all of the information that you provided! You missed one thing though, your picture. Most of us know you from forums, yet none of us have seen you. Com-mon!!
Lisa