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Sam (crazy candle person) ✦
@samantha
Looking for more advice please! The shop that I'm at offered to rent me space to do candlemaking workshops. The unfortunate thing about candlemaking is that it costs a lot to set up, so for my first workshop (the owner agreed for me to do 4 of them) I will barely break even or be at a slight loss. Should I do it anyway? I feel like I need a stronger local presence, but one of my values is money out money in (spending money should lead to X% more money). The margins are thin compared to what I'm comfortable with. I'm nervous I can't sell enough tickets too. My biases tell me it doesn't scale well but I need to increase my luck surface area..
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shazow
@shazow.eth
Stack rank the variety of different kinds of things you can do instead. If it's too low on the list, put it off until later? Can you start with a wait-list of people who want to do the workshop so you can be more confident that you'll sell out? Can you charge more? What would reduce the risk/make it worth it?
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Sam (crazy candle person) ✦
@samantha
Essentially the thing I can do instead is stand outside the shop and sell 1o1 to people. I would profit more selling 3 candles in 5 hours than I would having a workshop for 8 people. And a lot less work too.
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shazow
@shazow.eth
Are you restricted how much you can charge for the workshop?
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Sam (crazy candle person) ✦
@samantha
No, but I’m paying the owner rent for her space ($80) and a 10% commission on each ticket I sell. I think it’s too much. She told me I could charge whatever I want
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shazow
@shazow.eth
Another perspective: What can you do to build long-term recurring customer bases? If this shop is a gold mine of The Correct Demographic (determine this first?), is it worth doing 1on1 or workshops just to funnel people more into a mailing list, subscriptions, or other longer term relationships?
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Sam (crazy candle person) ✦
@samantha
I am not sure if this is The Correct Demographic - haven’t spent enough time selling in person yet. I question whether the demographic of candle makers is the same as candle buyers. The reason why is because you explicitly told me that you would prefer a workshop over purchasing. If I think about other mid range luxury goods I can imagine that those buyers want customization (adding their name/initials) to the candles but I find it hard to believe they’d want to make their own candles. That’s a guess, I don’t have data to confirm that.
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Sam (crazy candle person) ✦
@samantha
Lots of I don’t knows 🤣😭😛
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