DSF

When I started over a year ago my main reason was dye sublimation, especially mugs and iPhone covers, I have a web site and Facebook page etc but nowadays I struggle to sell a single mug, I find tshirts have taken over 99% of my time. I'm not sure if this is a good thing but I use to enjoy selling mugs and gifts, I don't have a shop or anything as I work from home, I really like Purpledragons set up where he sells a lot of gifts etc and is not just your average t-shirt shop.
so my problem is what to do in the future, do I stay at home and hope the work finds me, do I go out and get a shed or unit somewhere or even a shop, do I just do tshirts or try and wangle my way back into gifts and mugs but I find marketing to be another big problem.
anyone else fancy discussing there route to success? Not after secrets or the old saying you have to work hard because I will work 24/7 if I had the sales,

Dave....

I take my mugs etc to local shows, usually on a Saturday!

So what type of shows and what type of mugs, do you get many sales.?
we have a boot sale locally and I was tempted to pay the £4 and just have a table with some examples on and a load of flyers. Not sure how much work this would bring In.

Craft shows, county shows. Some of them want megga bucks for pitches, you also need to consider the type of table you are going to set up on, so it will take the weight. I managed to wreck a 6mtr x 3mtr gazebo the other weekend, and it was properly tied down etc. Mind you 20 other gazebos were wrecked at th esame event, and one of them cost over £1000.

I have just bought a custom designed stall, which has built in tables, and that will not move in the wind.

I have some bog standard mugs which I sell, and advertise the making of mugs. Bring in th ework.

For example one of the shows I went to brought in £600.00 of orders etc.

There is a lot of work on everyone's doorstep, it's just tapping into that market and getting your pricing correct. The rest is then leg work and a good set of samples to show what you can produce.

Take the sports type of sectors. Football and rudgy clubs are everywhere all around us and have upto 15 teams running throughout the age groups usually. Then you have dance schools and other more niche sports and clubs and all of these spend money at various times throughout the year. It can get complicated in how to get into some of these but once you start then word of mouth will then kick in as well. In football someone controls and posts out fixtures etc so leaflets can be included through that route. The different age groups often play on the all weather pitches where there might be 20 teams of and age group with several age groups over a given time period. Handing out flyers to the coaches on these days can see you cover upto 100 teams on a weekend. You could go to a rugby club who often have the clubhouses and create some samples to put in their display cabinet along with a poster/flyers of the range they can have.

Largely with these things it's about preperation and creating a package targetted toward your intended market. Get it right at this level and it virtually selles itself. Actual finished samples of a clubs colours and badges go a long way as everyone loves to see their own images on a finished product.

Agree totally with Andrew ... started as a noobie just over a year ago, now supplying all these to a local club http://feathers.rlstore.co.uk/category/2011Mugs

The mugs look ace Lorne. I quite fancy a Rovers jersey, but they're a bit pricey!

... and then there are small local businesses...for example: your local hairdresser: how about taking a mug with their name or photo on it to whoever does your/wife's/daughter's/significant other's hair , then suggesting that all staff members have their own mug? Make's tea-time more personal - then show them a mug with the salon's name on it - many hairdressers these days offer tea or coffee to clients. Is there a tea-shop or coffee-shop near you? Why not talk to them?
Local estate agents are a great target for name plaques, badges and even give-aways to clients - all these blanks are readily obtainable and get you out of the mug/mousemat circuit.
Start to look around you and you will see sales opportunities everywhere!

Scotty@BMS;73358 wrote:The mugs look ace Lorne. I quite fancy a Rovers jersey, but they're a bit pricey!

What size are you ? might be able to sort one of last seasons out

Hi Dave

In short, work is not going to find you. You have to find it.

Mugs are generally a hard sell, especially the one offs and for some reason I have always found garments easier. Although I do not sell D2C I can see how easy it is to sell a garment but not necessarily a mug.

You need to think about your position in terms of your target audience. You have already started to get a name around the clubs so why not build on that? Perhaps find things suitable to the industry you are supplying. Whether this be keyrings, mugs or anything else. Build your items around what you think they would use and then you will find that recommendations will start rolling in.

I know that you are already upselling and this is something that you need to also focus on. As an example, I did those window signs for you, it could have been worth trying to sell them some vinyl stickers with the contact details on which could be stuck on every bike that is repaired.

Think about your market, then source items based on that and you will soon see an increase in the sales.