Diversification: Everybody's Doing It.

Once upon a time I thought it was funny to walk into a Music/Vacuum Cleaner Repair shop, and look at CDs while surrounded by broken vacuum cleaners.  I guess the owner had a talent, and a love for music, and couldn't decide which to follow.  Today, you walk into a bookstore, and there are toys, coffee, CDs and DVDs, etc.  Walk into a coffee shop and there's assorted snacks, CDs, mugs and other stuff.  In today's economy, it makes sense to have a variety of items to sell, since once you get the customer in the shop, you want him or her to buy something, anything.  Every store is a variety store these days.

The same applies to online stores.  Amazon and Target have thousands of items to buy, from food to clothing to books, so you can do a lot of shopping with them.  This blog is all about running a small business, though, and we especially need to think about diversifying.  But how much, and when are just two of many questions.  I've talked about Cost of Goods Sold before, and inventory, and these require a lot of thought before you go buying stuff with intent to sell.  And don't forget shipping.  The big stores can afford to offer free or discounted shipping, where such an offer from a small business can kill any thought of a profit.

Every cartoonist out there wants to sell not only their books, but t-shirts, mugs etc.  Merchandising is where the bucks are, even for the big name cartoonists. This is where Bill Watterson of Calvin & Hobbes fame had his biggest disagreement with the Syndicates, who wanted to merchandise his strip, but he felt it would compromise the strip's integrity and charm.  Which leads us to our Hot Topics for today:
Should we diversify?
If so, when?
And how much?

So should you?  Probably. Eventually.  If you've just started putting cartoons on the web, it's a bit too soon to try selling t-shirts.  Wait until you build a loyal audience, and you have some genuine interest in your stuff.  If you're running your business as a real business, and not a hobby, then those t-shirts will sit around a while, and you cannot deduct the price of them until you actually sell them.  Please read my earlier posts about Cost of Goods Sold, Pricing, and Inventory.

Print on Demand online shops allow you to put your image on just about anything these days, but I would choose a few items wisely, and focus on them.  Quality over quantity, without exhausting your audience with too much to see.

Which brings us to a point that I've discussed before about publishing, that applies to merchandise. Print on Demand is expensive.  If you price your merchandise too high, you won't likely sell it.  Price competitively, and you make no profit.   This brings us back to that earlier point about quality over quantity.  Choose an item, like a t-shirt, and look around for quality shirts at a good price.  More than likely you can even save by buying in bulk, but again, watch out how much you buy, because you may have them awhile.  You can do this with anything, of course, although to get truly competitive prices, you really need to order a lot.  Be sure you have that supportive audience.

Finally, don't forget the bottom line.  You cannot deduct the cost of items you buy to sell until you actually sell them.  The more you offer, the more inventory you have, which takes up space, and costs money that you do not get back until the merchandise is sold.  And to sell it takes time to set up a shop, to get the word out, and requires advertising.

So make sure you're really ready to take that next step into diversifying your online shop.  If you want to become a retail type store, that could work for some people, but make that your business plan.  If you're an artist, cartoonist, writer, or other creative, then it may be easier to sell your books or art through a place like Lulu, or set yourself up with a printer, get a few thousand copies of your book, and really focus on selling it.  It's simple to have a link or two on a blog or website.  It's a whole other enchilada to actually have an online shop with changing and growing merchandise.

For the right person or group, though, that online shop can keep customer interest, spread sales out throughout the year, and create focus for your advertising.

With that in mind, please consider visiting my online shop where we now offer many fine things, from books to t-shirts, and artwork and more. :0)

And did I mention that we're currently offering FREE SHIPPING for the next week or so?

Happy Holidays!    JOHN :0)

Pricing

One of the most challenging tasks as an artist running a business is to set the right price, whether it be for a service, or an item for sale. Let's take this from the top, shall we?

As an artist, you have the choice to either create work for the pure pleasure of it, or to create work for profit as well as the (hopefully) pure pleasure of it.  Let's face it... in this day and age, we find ourselves short on time, so creating art for fun is something I for one can't find the time for... I have a hard enough time finding the time to do my paying work!  I have dozens of projects just waiting in the wings for some free time to show up... projects that I know I would enjoy doing, but, with bills to pay, simply can't justify spending the time on.  So I find artistic projects that I can enjoy doing and get paid for, from my freelancing work to my comics and artwork.

I've been fortunate enough to be able to brand myself as HappyGlyphs Comics, and somehow keep everything under one roof.  This leads to trouble, though, since branding becomes a business and business comes with lots of paperwork.  The good news is that if you truly have a business, many of your expenses are tax deductible, which helps justify doing that artwork we enjoy doing.

However, as I've discussed in an earlier post, you can't deduct the cost of your goods (artwork, books, etc) until you actually sell them.  So, we have a couple of things to address: the initial price of goods, and a later discount on those goods.

First of all, you technically sell things to make a profit.  Any artist out there who has tried this is smirking right now, because let's face it... to get anywhere in this biz, many of us have had to work for free, or give stuff away, to get our names out there.  Once established, you can then try for that 'profit' stuff we've all heard about.  Selling services is one thing we can do, and selling stuff is the other.  But selling stuff usually involves an initial buying of stuff, such as paying for our art to be made as prints or into books or on t-shirts.  "How hard can this be?" you ask me.  "Just add a little extra to what you paid for the t-shirts, and that's your profit."

Not that easy.  You have to remember that your audience has an idea of what things should cost. They are not going to pay ten dollars for your comic book, or thirty dollars for your t-shirt.  You have to price competitively, which is why it is very difficult to run a small business using sites like Cafe Press or Lulu, two of the sites that I like, or the many other similar companies out there.

Your first problem is that, unless you are buying hundreds or thousands of items, you are going to be paying premium prices, prices that may already rival what your competition is selling.  For example, have you priced out the cost of a color comic book? If you are going Print on Demand, the cost of a small comic can be 3 or 4 dollars, the price that Marvel sells Spiderman for.  (and yes, Marvel is your competitor!) To make a profit, you are now asking your audience to pay more for your comic than they would for an established favorite like Spiderman.  This can work if you have lots of people out there that love your work, but remember, they have to find it first, and if it's on the web, they may have to pay shipping on top of that.  You're off to a rocky start already.

Now let's say that you've gone to a real printer, and printed a hundred comics all at a decent price so that you can make a profit and keep your audience happy.  A year goes by and you have a box of 80 comics sitting around, and you can't even deduct the price of those books yet, since they haven't sold.  Now you have to think about a sale.

At which point do you decide to sacrifice a profit just to reduce inventory and get that Cost of Goods Sold back? Well, that's up to you.  If you have new books coming out, then selling the old one at discount may be a good way to build up an audience.  If those books have been in your closet a few years now, then it's definitely time to reduce the price.  It's painful, but that's reality.  Even Disney has bargain bins, and remember... people love a bargain.  You may go a long way to improving customer satisfaction if that customer feels good about getting a bargain from you.

If you're just starting out in a small business, or considering it, this post may be disturbing.  And that's the best gift I can give you.  I don't want to discourage anyone, and frankly, us artistic types do what we have to, not what people tell us, but I promise you that unless you are some kind of world wonder, you will not succeed if you don't work smart.  Think before you act, and research, and most of all, start small.  Build up that audience before you go and try selling stuff. Show us what you got, first, and if we like it, we'll ask for merchandise.

There's a lot more we can discuss on this topic, so if I haven't covered something, please ask.  I'm always happy to answer (most) questions. :0)

And since we're on the subject, have I mentioned that I've upgraded the shop, and have many fine items for sale?

Take care,    JOHN :0)

New stuffs!

I haven't posted in a while because I have been extremely busy creating a lot of new material, preparing for the convention season, and arranging for tons of new merchandise and art for all of us HappyGlyphs Comics fans! In this blog post, we'll try to catch up on these things.

First off, for upcoming conventions I have a new comic book, and some awesome collectible pins!

The Inquiring Minds "Funny Pages" is a full color comic strip collection in standard comic book format. Like The Inquiring Minds #1, this book collects some of the best of The Inquiring Minds Sunday and daily strips, all in full color. The new book has a lot of the same material as the first book (which is being phased out... no new copies will be printed). The standard comic book format allows for a lot more comics in fewer pages, and also some taller strips and artwork.

The collectible pins speak for themselves! If you collect pins at Disney parks, then you'll know exactly what you're getting here; cool pins you can stick to your hat, your jacket, or even a comic con lanyard. And best of all, they're pretty cheap. :0)

I am also expanding to a new range of artwork that is more affordable, but just as nice. The new art prints are decent quality, but cheaper than our Fine Art prints. Sales will determine which direction we will pursue in the future, or perhaps we'll continue to offer both options as well as original art.

So a new book, new art, and new collectible pins! A nice start, eh?

All of these will be available at the Baltimore Comic Con, the Columbus Comic Con, and hopefully others soon. We will also offer these at the HappyGlyphs Comics Shop at HappyGlyphs.com after the next site upgrade.

Now, I'm off to put all these new items into inventory! Paperwork never ends, does it? :0)

All the best, JOHN :0)

PS And don't think I'm riding high on past laurels!  Check out HappyGlyphs.com for lots of new Knight and Day strips, including color Sunday strips. :0)