Between the Tools Club Deals and the Buy Bulk Club, you should be set to run your own Make & Sell operation. You may already make things, but need a substantial sales outlet. If marketing and sales is an issue, join a Make & Sell group below to co-market with others or open a local Make & Sell Store or a Made In Trenton Store. Join as a club, grow into a business. It's smart to work out the details before going 'official'.
A general Make & Sell Store is like a country General Store. There's no need to imagine how this could work from scratch. Rent may be $1500, but split 10 ways you only have to sell $150 a month. You can do that in one sale, or it's only $5 a day. You can make that selling coffee! Some people will make & sell doors, tables, windows, furniture. Others grow & sell fresh greens, baked bread, pizza, cakes. Clothing & embroidery, glass work, metalwork, off-grid power tools, ebikes and other SEVs. You're the manufacturer. This general store is your sales outlet. If you're one of 30 manufacturers, you only have to be at the store to tend the till once a month. That's smart, to see how people respond to your product. In essence, you own a working share in the store. If you want out, sell your share to someone who wants in. Or the group can buy you out at a low cost per person. See Clubs Intro 1 and Clubs Intro 2 for various ways to do this fairly.
A Make & Sell store implies it is open to anyone wanting to make & sell. And it should be. A Made in Trenton Store is a lot like a showcase of what is made in the area. Some participants may already have a home based business or store, and this is an additional marketing/sale outlet. It may also consist of a cluster of related products, for example a sales outlet for woodworkers making a variety of products from craft items to tables, doors and windows. It may be closed to newcomers ... but they can get a start in a Make & Sell Store. These are the two main business models, but you can mix and modify the models as needed for the market.
Almost everything you buy is not that hard to make, but the cost is too high. Income extremists have added too much to the sticker price, and pushed down quality, making them vulnerable to anyone offer excellent quality at a good price. Compare, for example, the price of a ton of wheat to the price of a loaf of bread. There's a lot of profit! You can make bread, but the problem is finding a sales outlet. Sometimes you make things like solid wood panel doors that must be seen and touched in person to be bought. Too heavy to ship, and also requiring installation and service. One problem is finding a place to work. Another is finding a place to sell from. Life in Canada is ridiculous. Speculators have driven prices up so high that rents are unaffordable. Even a vacant lot costs a quarter-million. You want to work. You want to earn a living from working. But they don't want to work. They want income without labour. A lot of income. So much that you can't even begin to gain a foothold. Or you'll go into debt that you'll never get out of. And because these people want so much from what you do, and in advance, you have to escalate prices. Making your product unaffordable. So you have few customers. Leaving you in debt, in a pickle. This is a way out and up.
Add your name here if you want to find others to co-market with or open a local Make & Sell Store or a Made In Trenton Store:
Contact the group lead David Teertstra and use the Trenton News for free marketing.
