Selling your crappie jigs made "not so" easy
I'd like to put this up because I searched for sites or forums when I started to sell and everyone said the same thing. Plus most were pretty vague on their tips. I don't know if its because of the competitor in them or if most people don't sell them but here's what I learned.
First make sure you want to do this. Seriously it can turn a relaxing hobby into something like work really fast. Especially if you do good work. I learned I can do about 6 packs of 3 or 36 in about a hour of straight tying without letting my quality slip to much. So if your up to it here's what I did.
First ill start out with the selling part. I assume you have a tackle shop in mind or know of one. I picked the largest in the area and kept hounding them, giving free samples with my name on them, emailing with pictures, and just being persistent. (Not a pest though). Finally after a year and a half he said that they were thinking of doing a local area. So I jumped on it. Knowing I wanted to sell I had my stuff ready to bring in and put up. all they had to do was put a price on it.
Which brings me to the next important thing. Your not going to make a bunch of money unless you have a factory. Not many people will buy your jigs no matter how good they are for $3.00 each. Well maybe a couple people. I sell mine in packs of 3 for 1.50 and he gets 3.00 or $1.00 each. That's a basic jig. I have seen packs of 3 sell upwards of $5 dollars retail which means he probably sold them to the shop for $2.50. All I'm saying here is be realistic in your price. You'll sell more and in the end make more.
Ok so you got a place to sell and they are stocked up. Every time your not fishing and sitting in front of the tv or have spare time. Tie more. Have at least enough to restock the whole display up again on hand then take a break.
Have enough materials to do a whole display sitting there too. Why? Because when one style is selling like hot cakes. That's when you won't be able to find the one thing you need. It happens to me. I buy my jigheads in bulk and when you run out its all stop everything.
I guess before I get too far ill talk about packaging. I learned that most places don't care for the carded jigs. I used to do it but no more. They fall apart before they are finished and what they told me was that once you tear half off the card is just taking up space looking like crap. If you still want to use one here's a tip. Buy card stock, print or put your logo on it, then put clear packing tape on the top before you punch a hang hole. It is cheap and will last longer. Anyway card stock is great for bagged jigs too. I bought a cheap paper slicer, like a guillotine style, that can cut a few slices at a time and make my hang cards up with it. You will be surprised how many hang tags you can get from a few slices of paper. Anyway I slice me a bunch up alittle smaller than a business card or whatever size your bags are and staple them to the bags of jigs. I bought me a ink stamper online for $15 with color ink and a custom logo and put handmade in "your hometown". I just ordered a second stamper for the back of the card with hook sizes, weights, materials, that I can circle after I put the jigs into it. And don't forget to put a hang hole. Lastly bags. You can buy bags cheap about any hobby or bead store that are great. If your in it for the long haul buy a heat sealer. I bought mine on eBay for $23. It's small and simple. Just stick the top of the bag in and push the handle down, wala its sealed. Plus instead of $3-5 for 100 ziplock style it's $6 for 1000. I think it looks more factory too. Now your jigs are in your bags (don't forget to ask how many the shop wants per pack) and you got your stamp on them ready to hang. Place a piece of card stock with the item on the hanger under the jigs so you know what your sold out of when it gets to it. Lastly for this part of what's becoming a 2 part series is to make up a sign to hang above your stuff telling people why yours are different. Put "see the UV difference" or "we seal our threads so no unraveling" or "tough powder painted heads". You get the point. It also might help to photoshop the 7# crappie with one of your jigs in its mouth too but that's up to you.
Ps. Take a picture of each jig you tie with the materials by it so when your trying to figure out what the heck you sold out of you can look back.
These are just some of my opinions and they probably will change.
Thanks for reading. Take it easy.
I'd like to put this up because I searched for sites or forums when I started to sell and everyone said the same thing. Plus most were pretty vague on their tips. I don't know if its because of the competitor in them or if most people don't sell them but here's what I learned.
First make sure you want to do this. Seriously it can turn a relaxing hobby into something like work really fast. Especially if you do good work. I learned I can do about 6 packs of 3 or 36 in about a hour of straight tying without letting my quality slip to much. So if your up to it here's what I did.
First ill start out with the selling part. I assume you have a tackle shop in mind or know of one. I picked the largest in the area and kept hounding them, giving free samples with my name on them, emailing with pictures, and just being persistent. (Not a pest though). Finally after a year and a half he said that they were thinking of doing a local area. So I jumped on it. Knowing I wanted to sell I had my stuff ready to bring in and put up. all they had to do was put a price on it.
Which brings me to the next important thing. Your not going to make a bunch of money unless you have a factory. Not many people will buy your jigs no matter how good they are for $3.00 each. Well maybe a couple people. I sell mine in packs of 3 for 1.50 and he gets 3.00 or $1.00 each. That's a basic jig. I have seen packs of 3 sell upwards of $5 dollars retail which means he probably sold them to the shop for $2.50. All I'm saying here is be realistic in your price. You'll sell more and in the end make more.
Ok so you got a place to sell and they are stocked up. Every time your not fishing and sitting in front of the tv or have spare time. Tie more. Have at least enough to restock the whole display up again on hand then take a break.
Have enough materials to do a whole display sitting there too. Why? Because when one style is selling like hot cakes. That's when you won't be able to find the one thing you need. It happens to me. I buy my jigheads in bulk and when you run out its all stop everything.
I guess before I get too far ill talk about packaging. I learned that most places don't care for the carded jigs. I used to do it but no more. They fall apart before they are finished and what they told me was that once you tear half off the card is just taking up space looking like crap. If you still want to use one here's a tip. Buy card stock, print or put your logo on it, then put clear packing tape on the top before you punch a hang hole. It is cheap and will last longer. Anyway card stock is great for bagged jigs too. I bought a cheap paper slicer, like a guillotine style, that can cut a few slices at a time and make my hang cards up with it. You will be surprised how many hang tags you can get from a few slices of paper. Anyway I slice me a bunch up alittle smaller than a business card or whatever size your bags are and staple them to the bags of jigs. I bought me a ink stamper online for $15 with color ink and a custom logo and put handmade in "your hometown". I just ordered a second stamper for the back of the card with hook sizes, weights, materials, that I can circle after I put the jigs into it. And don't forget to put a hang hole. Lastly bags. You can buy bags cheap about any hobby or bead store that are great. If your in it for the long haul buy a heat sealer. I bought mine on eBay for $23. It's small and simple. Just stick the top of the bag in and push the handle down, wala its sealed. Plus instead of $3-5 for 100 ziplock style it's $6 for 1000. I think it looks more factory too. Now your jigs are in your bags (don't forget to ask how many the shop wants per pack) and you got your stamp on them ready to hang. Place a piece of card stock with the item on the hanger under the jigs so you know what your sold out of when it gets to it. Lastly for this part of what's becoming a 2 part series is to make up a sign to hang above your stuff telling people why yours are different. Put "see the UV difference" or "we seal our threads so no unraveling" or "tough powder painted heads". You get the point. It also might help to photoshop the 7# crappie with one of your jigs in its mouth too but that's up to you.
Ps. Take a picture of each jig you tie with the materials by it so when your trying to figure out what the heck you sold out of you can look back.
These are just some of my opinions and they probably will change.
Thanks for reading. Take it easy.
