My wife and I have a small woodworking side business that we've been doing for almost a year now. While we're in the process of getting our business online with a personal website, at the moment we have most of our pieces in two local consignment shops. For any of you who live in smaller towns who do similar, you can probably relate to what I'm about to say next...
Our town is about 20,000 people in middle Georgia. I wouldn't say that there is a wide gap between lower income and middle income, but one thing that's been said by other woodworkers in the area is that "the people around here don't appreciate the time it takes to make these products". We do a lot of comparison "shopping", looking on Etsy, eBay, and retailer stores to try and price our products similarly and we've created a pricing calculator that can price our products in the ballpark of comparable places. The big issue is that I'm afraid that, due to the lack of sales, we're still priced higher than what most people would pay based on the lack of sales.
That being said, I'm curious how you all make your wood go farther? For example, if I buy a "salad bowl" blank (10x4) and it costs me around $50 in materials alone, it would be difficult to sell it in our market for much above that. While I'm certain that selling online will do better than selling in our community, I do want to produce products here for the local market that may lead to higher priced sales in the long term. I'm wondering how you all do it, for those of you who are in similar markets where $80+ bowls don't fly off the shelves. I've thought about laminating woods like walnut and maple together in hopes that this would be a way to both create some unique looking bowls but also keep costs down. Any thoughts?
Our town is about 20,000 people in middle Georgia. I wouldn't say that there is a wide gap between lower income and middle income, but one thing that's been said by other woodworkers in the area is that "the people around here don't appreciate the time it takes to make these products". We do a lot of comparison "shopping", looking on Etsy, eBay, and retailer stores to try and price our products similarly and we've created a pricing calculator that can price our products in the ballpark of comparable places. The big issue is that I'm afraid that, due to the lack of sales, we're still priced higher than what most people would pay based on the lack of sales.
That being said, I'm curious how you all make your wood go farther? For example, if I buy a "salad bowl" blank (10x4) and it costs me around $50 in materials alone, it would be difficult to sell it in our market for much above that. While I'm certain that selling online will do better than selling in our community, I do want to produce products here for the local market that may lead to higher priced sales in the long term. I'm wondering how you all do it, for those of you who are in similar markets where $80+ bowls don't fly off the shelves. I've thought about laminating woods like walnut and maple together in hopes that this would be a way to both create some unique looking bowls but also keep costs down. Any thoughts?