You make things but need a place to sell? Join our Trenton Make & Sell Store.  You can’t be in your workshop and at a store at the same time. And it’s not easy to start a store. There are a lot of upfront expenses, and it takes time to find customers. There’s so much to do, you’d need a team to do it all.

We’re now gathering people who make & bake things to open a Trenton Make & Sell store. It’s like this. If rent $1000 to $2000, split between 10 to 20 sellers that’s at most $200 a month. At most, you’ll need to sell about $50 a week, clear about $10 a day. You can do that by coffee alone! You’d have to be there about 2 days a month.

Suppose you build solid wood panel doors. Once set up, you can finish one a day. Materials cost about $30 to $50 and they sell for $200 to $250. Your co-owned sales outlet is cost-minimized. You’d need to sell one, maybe two a month to break even. But if the quality and price is right, you’ll sell far more than that. If you do, you can grow to have your own store. But the issue is scalable growth. Getting a chance to start somewhere, and a chance to avoid debt along the way. That’s important.

The advantage of a group is co-marketing. The store is intended to be a showcase of everything made in Trenton. You’ve seen flea markets with vendor booths? Like that, but better. You can work with others to buy bulk, run workshops and manufacture all sorts of things. We know the best ways for people to work together is in fun teams to get great projects done. Teams ensure individual success. Everyone comes with a variety of skills. That’s what makes groups powerful and companies successful.

Here, we’re laying out opportunities openly because we need to go green fast. We know how businesses work. We know how to solve problems. One person works out the details, writes up the plan, hands it to others for instant use. We’ve done this. All the details, time and materials, suppliers and prices, done for a variety of ventures. If it’s not fair, fix it. If it’s not selling, make something else. You tune your plan your way.

If you want in on this group, add your name here. Add some details about what you make. Connect with others in the group. The lead contact (for now) is David Teertstra. He makes solid wood panel doors and is fully conversant with tools and equipment of all sorts, CNC milling, machining and design, welding and metalworking etcetera, and has 40 new green manufacturing groups you can join with many new products. We have a full description of how a Made in Trenton Store works, along with well-developed business and marketing plans.