[TheForge] Advertising your craft

Wed Mar 5 19:11:00 2003

First of all, I would estimate converting my 6 month backlog into a 
full time schedule I would have about 4 to 6 weeks of work. I had a 
sort of attempt at being full time this Summer. I am an engineer by 
vocation and education. I was laid of last April and was not gainfully 
re-employed until September. During the interim months I spend a 
respectable amount of time in the hunt for a new job, but also spent on 
average about 6 hours a day in the shop. The biggest challenges for me 
to have been successful:

	CHILD SUPPORT!!!
	Slow paying customers
	Builders who refuse to pay 50% deposits and then take months to pay
	Clients who take forever to make up their minds on what they like
	and did I mention CHILD SUPPORT!!!

A perfect example:
	During that Summer I completed a set of railings, a fireplace 
surround, and architectural details for a builder of Homearama, 
Cincinnati's Home Builder's show.

I spent 3 solid weeks on the projects, billed out over $7500 and didn't 
get paid for three months. As I really didn't have time to work on much 
else that could generate cash I was very cash poor. Then being the 
responsible citizen I am I reported the work to unemployment. Even 
though I was not paid had to wait another three weeks after reporting 
it and not doing any other work to be eligible for unemployment and 
GE's severance money again. So it was a VERY tough time financially and 
gave me SERIOUS pause at being a full time metal mangler.

(My current position augments my metal mangling. I am supervising the 
construction of a 50 MW power plant along with 18,000 tons of chillers, 
and 160,000 pounds per hour of steam boilers. FUN TOYS to play with 
when I am not in the shop!!)

Ray Miller
Cincinnati

On Wednesday, March 5, 2003, at 04:08 PM, John Chobrda wrote:

> Ray, just a quick, question how would a 6 mo. backlog for a part 
> timer, translate for a full time metal worker? and do you feel this 
> type of exposure would generate enough work to keep a full time shop 
> busy? Also, with railings, do you do the installations, or do you sub 
> out that work.
> John C.
>
> [email protected] wrote:
>
>> I do NO advertising, not even the yellow pages. I keep a solid 
>> backlog, as a part timer, by having a group of interior design firms 
>> that know what I can do for them, and periodically I show my face to 
>> remind them, OH, yea we have something we need for you to do.
>>
>> I have also passed on the Home and Garden shows, unless I want to be 
>> in the $20 a pop garden stake business, I have done work for builders 
>> and interior designers for the homebuilders association home show for 
>> the past several years and that has generated a ton of work year 
>> after year, but only railings, for the most part. And as I work 
>> mostly alone, and mostly "part - time" I had a 6 month backlog and 
>> way more stress than there should be in a "hobby".
>>
>> I have no plans to participate in future shows. I believe my time and 
>> money would be better spent cultivating good relationships with more 
>> interior designers and starting to work with more architects. (I have 
>> a couple of them that always specify me for railings whenever their 
>> designs call for iron).
>>
>> Ray Miller
>> Cincinnati
>>
>>>
>>> From: "R.C.Mundt" <[email protected]>
>>> Date: 2003/03/05 Wed AM 08:10:06 EST
>>> To: <[email protected]>
>>> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Advertising your craft
>>>
>>> My whole deal started w/ an ad in a local advertising paper, I ran 
>>> an ad
>>> pretty much continually for 3-4 years.  It's pretty hard to keep 
>>> paying for
>>> an ad when you only get a ocasional call and only a small percent of 
>>> them
>>> actually buy any thing. I read somewhere that the average person 
>>> will read
>>> an ad 7 times before responding to it. I rented a booth at our local 
>>> hom and
>>> garden show 2 years in a row , first was good , second  year was a 
>>> waste of
>>> time.   The local newspaper did a story on me  about 3 years ago, 
>>> got a few
>>> calls no work, atleast not imediatly.  I ran an ad in a paper in a
>>> neighboring city for several wks. w/ no response so stopped the ad. 
>>> a yr.
>>> latter I got a job from that ad. Right now I'm in the yellow pages 
>>> and thats
>>> all  its an easy way for people to find me.  People  who want iron 
>>> seem to
>>> know I'm around now just wish more people wanted iron.  I dont have 
>>> a web
>>> page, the business's I know w/ web pages don't seem to think they 
>>> get any
>>> business from them.  I think it would be a good plkace to send 
>>> customers to
>>> view your wares once they found you some place else.
>>> What do you guys w/ web pages think , do they bring in any work?
>>> Randy Mundt
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Shannell Sugrue" <[email protected]>
>>> To: <[email protected]>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 1:05 AM
>>> Subject: [TheForge] Advertising your craft
>>>
>>>
>>>> Just wondering how most of the professional smiths here advertise 
>>>> their
>>>> wares and abilities? Im in the yellow pages of course with a link 
>>>> to my
>>>> website but am now looking at promoting a showroom Ive just 
>>>> completed via
>>>> local media. My goal is to get people to visit my real world 
>>>> "gallery" and
>>>> see the sort of stuff I can do. Ive got a quarter page coming up in 
>>>> a
>>>> national "lifestyle" magazine, that cost a heap, but am interested 
>>>> in how
>>>> anyone else does it.
>>>>
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>>
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