How The Business Will Work
Date Posted: September 8th, 2010
In my last post I introduced “The Business Project“, but I didn’t go into much detail about the business itself. I’ll go into a bit more detail now.
What kind of stuff will I be selling?
To start, it’ll be “stuff SCA people might like”. Which is to say, stuff I like and my friends would probably like. Also, at least in the beginning, I’ll be making things I have a hunch people will be willing to pay full price for.
My very first products will be medieval hoods for cats, and girdle books. If I saw either of those, I’d probably buy them, especially if the hoods were made of good material (like linen) and I could easily replace the notebook in the girdle book.
Notice they’re both small items. That means shipping is simple, they’re easy to put together, and I can price them at around $20 and still be well paid for my time.
After that I’ll probably start making sewing patterns since I have ideas on how to make patterns that are better than conventional ones and because they’re a passive source of income. I make them once and I keep getting money from them for years afterward.
How will I sell?
I’m going to create a shop on Etsy.com and I’m going to sell to people in my network. (Network meaning family and friends who have cats.) I may give away a few promotional hats too to get the word out. The selling to friends and family is a bit scary, since that can get into socially awkward territory. However, these people are actually in my niche, they’d probably want to support my efforts, and the amount of money they’d have to part with is small. And if they don’t want to buy a hood for their kitty that’s alright too. I won’t take it personally.
Eventually I’ll get my own site, separate from Etsy, but to get started Etsy seems to be the path of least resistance.
What will the business be called?
After several weeks of thinking and talking to friends I’ve settled on “Dragon Dormant”. The logo will be a shield with my cat, Rorschach, in the center in a dragon’s costume sleeping. (One of my housemates is making the logo for me.) “Dragon Dormant” is a heraldic term for a dragon in a sleeping position. Most SCA geeks will get it. Everyone else will just think the logo is cute, which is good enough for me.
I’d like people to be thinking cute, happy thoughts when visiting my site. Methinks think the name and the logo help with that. Also, all of the ad copy is going to be from the perspective of my cat–who will be going by the name Smok since he fancies himself a fearsome dragon–because it entertains me and because it ads to the happy/cute/silly feeling of the shop.
“Dragon Dormant” doesn’t say anything about what I’m selling which is both good and bad. Good in that I’m not tied to selling any one thing. Bad because the name can’t be used as a way for people to know immediately what I’m selling. I want flexibility in the business, so that’s why I went with a name tied more to feeling than to product. It’s far more likely I’ll still want the same feeling 5 years from now than the product line.
How is the business in line with my values?
I tend to be anti-stuff, so it may seem a little strange that I’m starting a business where I make and sell stuff. And not just stuff, but stuff most people would consider clutter.
Here’s the rationalization. When people throw away my linen cat hats, it’s alright. They’re bio-degradable. Any other physical thing would be bio-degradable too. The important thing is that the stuff makes people happy for a while, not that they keep it forever and ever.
The thing I have a harder time rationalizing is importing the materials and shipping the stuff. To deal with that, once the business reaches sustainability, I’ll allocate a part of the profit toward institutions that do research on eco-friendly transportation. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s something.
And, of course, the big thing that puts this business fully in line with my values, is blogging about the experience. This kind of business is easy to understand, doesn’t depend on luck, and something I think most people should be capable of building, even in their spare time. A “how it was done, mistakes and all” kind of guide will be really useful and gives Dragon Dormant a lot of meaning for me.
Won’t I get bored?
If I was making cat hats all day every day for the rest of my life, yes I’d get bored. But I don’t have to do that. If the demand for cat hats is too high I have options. I can raise the price. I can hire people to make them for me. I can offer a pattern so people can make them themselves. I’m sure I could think of other solutions.
Also, I can make other things besides cat hoods and girdle books. Jewelry, natural dye kits, kids clothes, different styles of cat hats, patterns, instructional books, hand-spun yarn, cat-nip toys and many other things I haven’t thought of yet could all be sold at Dragon Dormant. I don’t see myself getting bored for quite a while.
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