Crafting Groups + Cash

[NotQuiteCockney]

I just got off the phone with someone involved in organising a crafting group - one where you get together and do your crafts at the same time, IYSWIM.

We had a very nice chat. The craft group gets together for 2 hours, they serve tea and cakes. They charge £5 for this. They also sell craft equipment.

I somehow wasn't expecting there to be a charge involved (although I'm very glad they told me ahead of time). Realistically, they're providing the space, and cakes (I don't want cakes! Or tea! But that's another story.), they need to cover costs.

At any rate, is this normal? Is £5 a reasonable charge? (It's in a cheapish bit of London, in someone's house.)

Seems a lot.

Not if there's no hall rental to cover.

I suppose in the long run £5 for 2 hours isn't that bad...BUT.... what do you actually get for your money. Do they have equipment that you can use? How often do you get together? Does anyone offer "training?" Do you actually take along your own projects?

At the end of the day it might be worth your while attending, even only once, to get a taster of what it's like and then make your decision on whether it's value for money!

I must admit, I would love to attend something similar, it would be so good to have a face to face chat, swap ideas and such face to face.

Message withdrawn

No equipment. It's not a craft where you share equipment. Oh, I've looked online, it is a class, of sorts.

They hold it every week, maybe I'll go once and see. There are other people with babies, which makes it tempting.

sounds a bit much for someones house and no equipment to use, how many people are to atend? what quals has the leader got?

We've just started a group in our community hall and we are charging £2.50 each for 2 hours. We have to pay for the room, tea, coffee and orange and card. We've only done two sessions but we are hardly going to cover our outgoings, let alone make enough to buy supplies.
However at the moment we only have 6 members so its early days.

Sounds quite dear, but presumably they are running it as a business, mind my class which I go to is £9 for 2 1/2 hours and the teaching is quite basic, nothing really you couldn't learn from a book.

kkgirl -- as you hire out a hall, I'm sure you can get away with charging more as your members will appreciate that you have hire costs to make back. also you could provide the use of some tools and that will make the extra cost worth it to members.

£2.50 for 2 hours doesn't seem expensive, especially with space rental.

I don't know, it looks like the space is fairly nice, maybe a loft? And with cake, £5 isn't that outrageous, I guess. (And at least they told me on the phone!)

I should just set up my own craft group in my house, without lessons (although I do have someone who teaches this craft at St Martin's College among my aquaintances!), and not charge. But I'm meant to be setting up a French language group for kids, and have as of yet failed to, so planning a different group seems unreasonable ...

I do wish we had started charging a little bit more, but we aren't really teaching, just two mums who have been crafting for about a year, so we aren't looking to make a profit, just try to cover costs and buy some equipment. At the moment we are using our own, but the first week, someone put black ink in one of my pastel ink pads, so we do need extra money to buy equipment for the club so that our stuff doesn't get ruined.
We can apparently apply for a grant, but we need more than 6 people coming along, we are going to try running it in the evening as well, hopefully more people can come.

Wish you were nearer kkgirl!!!

I am sure your members will appreciate your honesty and say that as a new group, if your membership size does not increase soon, you will have to raise the price to cover the outgoing costs and increase your equipment supplies.

At the end of the day, they are going to continue to want to try out new goodies aren't they!

We used to charge £1.50 for the one we ran in Bridgwater, that included refreshments, if there were major extra costs involved- eg, the week we provided the quilling sets- then they were charged extra, at cost.

That covered £15 hall rental for two hours, as well.

So yes, it's a bit much.

The lady who I used to run the club with (she still does, I moved) is setting up an e-mail club (no fees!), to join visit

www.artsandcraftsdirect.co.uk/art-and-crafts-direct.html

and post a message for Lorraine Owens-Cox.

What does the email club involve Peachy?? Sounds like it could be fun!

Well, coffee and a chat when you get there, then a show and tell with a card theme set at the previous meeting, then a technique- eg I did triple embossing (my 'thang', loads of info sheets if anyone wants one e-mailed), we had somebody from the quilling guild to do quilling, they did recycled cards (ie cards made with leftovers- fabric, etc). The members get a say on what happens too. it's a good club, Lorraine who runs it now is great- she has a degree in art
fashion and is hyper friendly. There's a lady too who has her own internet craft shop (cheddar stampers), and lots of 'normal' people too. And Shirley. But we don't discuss Shirley!!! PMSL

I'm getting so disappointed about our craft club.
We are running it on Wed am and Wed pm alternately, so its twice a month in the day and twice a month in the evening.
We are really struggling with numbers, the daytime one started off with 6 people, and now we're getting just 2 each time, I know its school holidays but .... and although I rang around the people who showed interest, and they all said that they would come, just 1 lady turned up on the night. It costs us £11 for the room, and we have been supplying the materials for whatever we make, so are not covering our rent let alone the materials. My friend and I were prepared to subsidise it to start with and were hoping then that we would have enough people coming to be able to buy equipment and materials, we're not looking to make a profit, just use whatever we make to buy more stuff. I feel so disappointed, we've worked hard to advertise it, and I've had quite a few enquiries, but then the people haven't come along, I feel as if I've put them off, what are we doing wrong?

You're probably not doing anything wrong tbh. We had exactly the same problem with the toddler group I ran with a friend. Eventually we built it up to a steady 5 families but it was a struggle to keep going and we never worked out where we were going wrong.

Are you advertising in the right place?
Can you think of a "gimmick" to lure people in?
Maybe consider charging up front for the month?
Maybe consider selling "5 sessions for the price of 4" season ticket?

SD
Thanks for your suggestions. Trouble is money is so tight until we can pay the rent, we need every penny, my friend and I are already subsidising the materials which is costing quite a bit.
I think from September we will either have to ask for £3.50 or charge for materials on top, we're both too soft really.

With the 5 for the price of 4 type thing, you'd increase the charge beforehand so that it actually covers the cost of 5 sessions. They still get a bargain because the individual sesion cost will have increased and they are more likely to come along if they've paid - meaning that they will get more involved and (hopefully!) spread the word.

Re gimmick - is there space for children to play on the day time sessions? Homemade cake/biscuits? "How To Do... " sessions?

Where do you advertise - I notice that one or two of the card making magazines have a "club round up" type thing in that back - don't know if it costs.

Can you change the venue until the group builds up, perhaps even hold it in one of your homes!

Are you advertising?Have you though of WI groups, mum and toddler groups, libraries, even the odd postcard in local shop windows.

I am sorry things aren't running smoothly for you, but I am sure they will- given time!

From one extreme to the other. We had 11 of us at the group today, and have realised that we don't have enough room to work now, its too cramped, but we were very pleased to have a lot more people and they really enjoyed it, so it makes it worthwhile.

great new kkgirl.Well done.

Notquitecockney- where are you i'm in Romford- havering borough (essex/east london) Have a baby and love crafting!!!! Mybe we could meet and craft!