selling

Empower Others To Sell your work

It can be emotionally difficult to talk yourself up and sell your own work directly to a customer. But it’s easy for other people who like and believe in what you do to tell customers how great your art is.

Give family and friends a portfolio of your work and make it easy for them to sell your work for you, including handling payment. Give them order forms, show them how to buy your work from RedBubble, give them information on you and your art to give away, make sure they have really good photos of what the products look like or physical samples.

Remember, these people are doing you a favor so make sure they are not under pressure to sell. Of course a financial incentive to close a sale never goes astray and gives people an incentive.

LayBy / LayAway

There are many customers out there who really want to make a purchase but are still a few days away from pay day or need some time to save up enough money. Offering to LayAway your work means that these people are not excluded from buying.

Always always always document your layaway terms and conditions and make sure a copy is signed. Most countries have rules about layaway/layby so make sure you are abiding by them. For example, almost all layaways will require a cancellation agreement.

Tip: Order the print once the base price has been paid for so you are never out of pocket.

Deposit + Balance

Probably one of the more common methods for accepting payment. A customer pays a deposit to secure the product and then pays the balance upon collecting the item.

Deposits can range from 10% to 50% of the total cost. Make sure you give receipts with outstanding balances recorded (and always keep a copy for yourself). If you can cover your expenses in the deposit amount, that is great. If not, why not include a 3 week production and delivery time so you are never out of pocket. (you can order the print after being paid)

Accept Different Payment Methods

RedBubble has the advantage of an online checkout where credit cards and paypal can be used. Of course when you are selling your work face to face, sending someone to a website doesn’t really make sense when they have their wallet right now.

1. Creditcards, Debit Cards & Eftpos: Most banks will allow you to accept credit or debit transaction into a business account. Depending on the frequency of these transactions, you may use the telephone to authorize payments, or a machine.
2. Cash: Many people like to use cash. Just make sure you keep it somewhere safe until you can deposit it, and always keep copies of receipts.

A Way Out
Give people a cooling off period in which to cancel a sale, have an exit clause in your layaway agreements, and document a returns policy. A customer who doesn’t feel locked in is more likely to buy from you, and a customer who has a good experience when returning something is more likely to buy from you in the future.

It’s relatively common practice for deposits to be not refundable, or for canceled layaways to have a cancellation fee. These measures protect you, but still give your customer freedom to back out without feeling like they have lost everything.

Offering to exchange items means you still get the sale, and the appreciation of the customer.

Jo

^{Images used with permission. Thank you Helen, James, John and Rebecca}

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