to get a bit depressed at the 'woman beats recession' stories that are about really shit businesses that haven't even started

[Heroine]

I an getting a bit bored of the 'I was made reduntant and now I am starting my own recession beating bead-selling/ironing/wardrobe consultancy/dating agency business that hasn't even started, is doomed to fail and only possible because a) I can pump my large redundancy payout into it and b) because my husband is not redundant, but somehow I providing hope for any women who is not a lazy arse to make a fortune out of 'doing something she loves'

They really are patronising in the extreme and I am sure only there because you can get a nice pretty made-up shot of someone runnning a crap home-made dreamweaver business.

Ihate the way these articles are written as though any daft woman silly enough to work in something as unfeminine as a real job is a silly thing who just isn't as clever as the golddigging sponge and her fantasy business..
oh it makes me fume there are so many at this time of the year... nhmph

when my shop first started getting inundated about 2 yrs back, i almost welcomed all the lavender bags and bath salts etc as it was quite nostalgic and reminded me of my Nan making stuff when i was little eg WI, village fete etc!. However ..these things are not selling. At all. They are just gathering dust. What DOES sell well, is the really unique stuff that no one else makes..eg Goddess sculptures (of someone's own design..not from moulds) Something that looks totally different from anything you could find in an average gift shop. I think the 'childhood nostalgia' thing is on its way out. I went through it myself..buying all the vintage florals, kitsch boden-esque prints etc...but it became mass market. Even Primark started doing Kidston-esque bedding.
My advice..find something to make that is pretty/aesthetically appealing, well made and completely different. Can be pretty, can be practical, can be both..but don't look to what the other shops are selling.Stand out a bit.
But i still think people will always love cake

How do you clear out, then, lololizzy? Do you contact the "traders" to collect their things, or just dump them?

They are on e-bay on a shop called 'la maison tres dangeroux' that stocks whimsy from nazi-occupied France...[bgrin]

everyone's trying to sell stuff - even here - i have non-book stuff from a company who's rep i got to know when i worked for a chain bookstore.
recently, I keep getting calls from another company, who sent me a catalogue, and they're selling the same stuff. (made by someone else obv...)
I don't think people/suppliers really appreciate how small some independents can be...

i'd never dump them. sometimes they get collected and sometimes the women get disheartened and disappear off the face of the earth or ask if they can leave it longer..thing is we're now bogged under..have had to take some off and put in storeroom..we are not even a gift shop but that's all it's really resembling now..going to have to toughen up i think and just display what is really selling or have time limits on all new stuff. I mean we're doing people a favour as they approached us with their stuff. We only take a third..my boss lets them take 2/3 of profit. 50/50 would be fairer in some cases i think, for the space taken. eg bulky/sizeable bits such as jars, pictures etc. Not up to me though and i've witnessed my boss being bullied by some really quite aggressive 'crafty' (literally!) types!! ah well, his business not mine.

what are you normally, lolo? I mean what do you sell?

i don't really want to say (sorry nothing personal) as it's very specialist type of shop and not so many of them around now (lots closed recently in my area well surrounding counties) and don't want anyone to recognise me for criticising some of the gift ware! the gift ware has detracted from what we specialise in.It has spread like some out of control kitschy floral printed fungi.. Boss was just trying to make a bit of money from other sources ie 'every little helps'..but we havent really and have lost a lot of display area and therefore cut down on our own stock..think am going ot have to have word with him, he's not v business minded!
The shop started as a hobby business for him too. But then became his only business..therefore i think he needs to rethink..have nearly gone under several times..

There, you see, a man with a hobby business: they can do it, too! Only no glossy will write admiring pieces about how "Looking charmingly rumpled, Charles gestures to the expanse of the shop, now teeming with jars of scented salts and pastel bows: 'We are a focal point for so many people,' he says."

If anyone does try to write such an article, do sit on him, lololizzy, as such publicity will just knock more crap off the avalanche slope!

Please don't tell us where you are, so you can give more detail about what really matters : what you see through your window into the Hobbyts' world!

Perhaps you could offer to take this bullshit in hand, have a plan for winning the business back, and have a promotion while you are at it; it sounds as though that is what's needed!

he started it with his wife, and admitted it was for her.and also admits bit off far more than they could chew.Lost his lifesavings, in fact. Had 3 shops now only one. However..through some very bad times, have managed to hang on in there for nearly a decade..got to give them credit for that.
lol Plupervert if only i could read that to him but he's stressed enough by the persuasions of gingham wielding dominatrixes (of the cutesy tat world, that is!)

he's a man of few words but a certain phrase is reoccuring..(of newly acquired tat goods) 'this is a bit grim, isn't it..'

Then there needs to be a contract. He needs to pull himself back - and needs to understand that his weakness is threatening your livelihood, too.

When Mrs X approaches, have impromptu business meeting, ask for her pitch. You/boss don't have to listen to it, just giev her five mins, then question on:

• pricing : no, sorry, that's too expensive to sell, and we need faster turnover if we're going to give it room/ no, sorry, 50% of that is too little for us to be able to justify giving it room.
• time frame - sale or return, within X days.
• what happens next : you collect at your expense, or we dispose of it.
• you may replace with other stock up to a period of x months/weeks with no sales.

"It's all here in the contract.... " tap it and smile. She will lose face massively if she admits she doesn't do contracts.

I am sorry for suddenly getting all cross and bossy, and hope you fdon't take offence, but this is madness, I really can't believe he is willing to let this bullshit send him (and you under). It may not seem like the end of the world each time he says yes, but each yes is a "no" to proper business.

In one magazine I worked for, I did the market research on getting us into WHS, and it was HUGELY EXPENSIVE, as WHS know this is an additional revenue stream for them.

Come to think of it, that was my (male) boss's "hobby" business: he enjoyed being a managing director, but didn't want to do the selling graft. Even hiring me was an expensive and empty gesture, as he needed a salesperson, not a deputy editor. So I ended up with a low-paid, late-paid job. which I had to leave.

OR you could tell them their grim tat has been shoplifted, and either:
(a) suggest they sell it for less, as it is clearly too expensive to be sold at that level,
or
(b) suggest they move their business "to a more secure location".

lolo I'd love to see the sort of stuff you are talking baout...sounds...er...fascinating!

Grendalsmum but how does anyone know that a business is not functioning? - the portrayal in the articles discussed is certainly that they are.

Why do other woman then take it upon themselves, contrary to what they have been told, to assume that because the woman happens to be doing something "cutesy" (shock horror!) and (and this seems to be crucial) also have a husband who is sucessful(double shock horror!) then she is, amongst other insults, a "gold digging sponge" who couldn't possibly have made a sucess out of something without her husband throwing money at her. It all seems a bit anti female TBH.

too right, plupervert. However, he takes advice very very badly from anyone(even when knows it is correct) and gets extremely defensive..and i know he hates himself when he gets 'bullied' into taking stuff he doesnt want.
Am going to think carefully about how to approach this...also it distracts from the really excellent handcrafty stuff that does sell..it's not doing those women any favours, need to highlight their items better AND of course, our own merch...

What if he makes you the "specialist", whose "eye" and "touch" are needed to ensure correct placement? That flatters them, and gives you a free hand.

I just hate the commercials that have a mom talking about some online business they are doing, making $5000 a month and because they are mom, then any of us can do it and they get to be at home and still be a 'mom', cue kid running in for a big, smiley hug for mom.

NancyDrew - how do we know that the finances of some of the businesses in these articles don't stack up? I'm sorry to say that there was one a few months ago where the fianncial claims were quite startling, quite a lot of detail was given in the article, and so some of us, with help from a couple of people who ran bakery businesses, totted up the numbers. They were so far out that we concluded that either the journalist or the business-owner had confused profit and turnover - there was some feeling it was more likely to be the journalist, but we couldn't tell.

However, the issue in point is not whether someone runs a business or not - it's that I feel when women's businesses are featured, the vast majority of the time they are portrayed as 'cutesy' businesses, with women making unnecessary objects. When men's businesses are portrayed, they are shown as innovative, daring, visionary, etc. e.g. this photo here is the first I found on a SME www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/7770520/Red-Gate-Software-woos-geeks-with-free-iPads.html

If you look at this article www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/people/7078812/Cornish-Crabbers-boat-builders-turn-around-their-business-Business-Club.html for example, it's a bit of a 'bunting-cupcake business' in many ways. But notice how there's far more attention to the advertising strategy, the funding, the sealed bid, diversifying v. focusing on core customers, etc. It's still superficial, but it looks slightly at the actual nuts and bolts of running a business.

I know a highly qualified scientist who's business was portrayed as 'attractive woman wafts around making beauty products from her 17th century cottage'. I think that if a male scientist had set up the same business, the paper would have focused more on the finances, the technical details, and how he went about adapating his chemistry to create the new products.

Lolo - have you tried saying to him 'you know, Bob, I was thinking it over, and I think you're right about creating a contract for people that want to sell via our shop - I'll draw up a draft if you like?' Very few people turn down the opportunity to have someone agree with them on a good idea. (You can previously have a brainstorm in which you push him towards suggesting a contract if you think that's necessary, but you'd be surprised how little people remember of what they say.)

Grendelsmum, did you contact the paper about that? It would have been really interesting to see the reply. If the journalist got it wrong, that's dreadful, but even if s/he didn't pick up on the mistake, that's still pretty bad. It's very embarassing for a paper to have to admit publicly such an ignorant mistake, but that's tough for them!

I guess it's a win-win situation for both the magazine and the business. The mag gets a story, the business gets some press/ advertisment. That's why they do it when they are just setting up - to get the name out there.

Lolo, definitely go with the contract so you can say to all the tat peddlers - Yes, we'll take it at this price, sale or return only, for 1 month only, those are our terms.
I am about to start proactively taking my bunting&cupcakes to shops but I will be starting with an offer of sale or return/30 days which seems reasonable to me.

yes Stuffing' that seems fair..good luck with your goods..
boss can be very 'touchy' but he does need some help in this matter!

Any update, lololizzy or SGB?

actually no as recently nothing has been pushed on us! how boring! Am almost missing the gingham, ribbons and homemade cards coloured in with scratchy felt tips bath salts.. perhaps they will all flock back now it's a new month, to see if anything's sold..will keep you posted!

From a positive point of view, even though January is usually dire, ours has been ok and i sold quite a bit of the very decent homemade stuff. None of the tat at all! Which does make me happy for the talented ladies who make gorgeous bits that i would want to own myself.

Do! This has been a very interesting thread, and I've been sad to have it dormant.

Are you having a good cleanout, then?