Thursday, May 3, 2012

To sell or not to sell?

So. A funny thing happened to me yesterday.
Our neighbor had stopped by, so I brought my round bottom bag out to show her and she said:
"Oh my gosh! I love this! Can I have it?"
and I said:
"Of course!"
Then she asked me why I wasn't selling my stuff.

I looked her in the eye and told her it was because I usually wound up giving them away.

She proceeded to tell me about a shop where she works and how people would pay $125 for a bag like that. I cried bull* on that one, but my husband was over there shaking his head and agreeing with her.
He explained to her that I would never pay that much because I knew how to make my own.

So what am I getting at here? There are a lot of reasons why I have not taken more steps to try to make a business out of my knitting:

First and foremost: Lack of confidence. What if I start a webstore or go to a craft show and nobody likes my stuff? That would suck. Whenever someone says they like something I've made, I'm thrilled.
Then I wonder if they are just being polite. It devolves from there.

Second: I'd have to put a price on it. I've been told (in some cases yelled at) for devalueing my stuff. When I try to put a price on something it is usually based on what they yarn cost me, or what it would have cost me if I had paid full price, which I rarely do.  I have a hard time putting a price on the time I took to make the item for a couple reasons- I am usually doing it while doing something else, like watching TV or being a passenger in the car or waiting for calls (my "real" job). It isn't work if you are doing something else, right? And what if it is yarn from my stash that I either inherited or is left from other projects?

Third: It would become a job. The picture above is of some projects I've got going on right now. I'm doing them because I want to, not because they need to be done by such and such a date. I can put down the blanket and pick something else up when ever I feel like it. I enjoyed making the round bottom bag. Would I enjoy it as much if I was making 2 a  week to keep them in stock? NO! I don't mind doing stuff on commision, in fact, it is a huge ego boost, but I don't want to get sucked into churning out blankets or bags like an assembly line. Much.

To boil it down:
Could I sell my stuff? Yes.
Should I sell my stuff? Probably.
Will I sell my stuff? Sometimes when I feel like it.
Ask me to make something? Please do.
Thanks for reading;-)

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