Books:

Discovered! 505
Odd Enterprises

Hidden Dollars

How to Make
Money at Home

Small Business
of Your Own

You Can Own
a Business

But honeymoons have an unfortunate habit of coming to an end and leaving the honeymooners with the stern realities of life staring them in the face and the carefree days of bliss behind them. In like manner, the hobbyist awakens one day to find his honeymoon over and his studio inundated with unsold pieces of pottery, wood, fabric, or leather which take up a lot of space needed for work. And he needs money to buy more materials, or perhaps he needs to make his hobby really profitable to meet other expenses.

He has learned to produce but not to sell. However, if he seeks to master the sales problem as ardently as he did the technique of his hobby, the honeymoon may develop into a successful "marriage" which can last forever and become even more rewarding as time goes on.

LIKE THE usual hobbyist, I was at first so in love with the art of making pottery that I had no time or thought for the problems of how or where to sell it. But it became necessary for me to build my hobby into a business, and I had to learn cold facts about merchandising and sales methods, which I believe can be used to advantage by other hobbyists.

Of course this did not happen all at once. Unwittingly, however, I stumbled on one of the best selling tricks early in the game: "free samples." In my pride and joy at my early efforts, I often pressed them upon my friends and neighbors as gifts. My good friends were the guinea pigs on which I tried my wares, and they have been kind enough to tell me what was the matter. So perhaps the first thing I learned about selling my work was not to sell it, at the outset. Better give it away, making no claims for its perfection. Try it out on friends who will tell you what is good about it, and what is not so good. In the long run, your success will depend on the quality of your product.

This may seem a hard way to start, because most hobbyists regard their work as something very precious, or even priceless. It has taken hard work, devotion and expense to produce that first creation. It has a personal value all out of proportion to its intrinsic worth. Something of the very soul of the artist has gone into his product and he may hate to part with it.

But, as soon as the object is removed from the workroom the craftsman can think of two more to take its place. His creative power is stimulated by sending out his product, regardless of whether it is sold or given away. On the other hand, if he clings to his wares, they will clutter up his place, and discourage further production. So, my first suggestion to the hobbyist who wants to progress is "get rid of it," and go on to the next thing.

My WIFE disagrees with this policy. She says give some, and keep some, for though early work may have technical imperfections, it has a sort of inspired charm like first love. Many of these early ideas should be kept, as an artist keeps a sketchbook, or an author keeps a note book, she says, But at any rate we both agree that these first pieces should not be sold.

When I first entered the pottery business, I violated this rule, and sold some of my first pitchers and bowls, instead of giving them away. My technical ability was not advanced far enough to turn out a pot which was as durable as it was attractive. As a result some very awkward situations resulted. When I was ready to sell, however, some of my best sales came through people who had received samples of my work as gifts.

This may seem like a costly approach to selling, and may not be practical for hobbies where the unit cost is very high, like jewelry or silverware, or large wooden things. But in the case of some crafts it works out very well.

And while we are on the subject of giving things away, let me suggest some typical instances which have helped me. People like to see their names or initials on an object. So when I make a gift, I do it right. I put the man's name on the cup, for instance. Using this method, I presented one of my jumbo cups and saucers to a man prominent in the shipping business. It bore his initials. He liked it so much that he ordered a large number of the same item for Christmas gifts to his clients. Each cup was specially initialled, gift wrapped and shipped direct from my studio to steamship officials. He paid me a generous price for this special work.

Another useful promotional gift was to a friend of mine who conducts a shopping column on television. Along with advertising standard products, she sometimes introduces the latest thing in home decoration. I presented her with one of my most modern and photogenic designs (to show up well on the TV screen!). She was so pleased with her bowl that she devoted several valuable minutes of her broadcast to it. Next day I met a man on the street who said, "I saw your pottery on TV yesterday. Can I buy some of those bowls?"

Following up the same line of attack, I often send an ash tray or other small article, with personal initials, to radio announcers, with a word of appreciation for their fine program. They are always grateful for fan mail, and usually give me a nice "plug," which sometimes has far reaching effects long afterwards. One such bit of publicity brought me a customer a year after she heard about my pottery on the air.

FREE SAMPLES on a larger scale may involve the hobbyist in putting on a show at an exhibition, contributing to a bazaar or demonstrating his craft for the benefit of a good cause. Such activity is well worth while, not only for the good cause, whatever it may be, but for the craftsman himself, whether it is a gift of time only, or some piece of work. There are other opportunities to exhibit where the purpose is educational. Some up-to-date banks and other institutions are glad to encourage hobbyists, and at the same time provide something of interest for the passerby. People always want to know how things are made. They will stand in crowds to look into an excavation for a new building to see the bulldozers digging or the masons at work. In the same way, they want to know how pottery is made, how a pewter bowl is formed, how cloth is woven, how an artist paints a picture and so on. If your hobby is something that can be arranged in such a working exhibit, you can probably find several show windows in your community.

Most hobbyists and craftsmen are too modest for their own good. They feel that if their work is good enough they will become known simply by that fact of quality. Alas, though the idea of the better mousetrap may have been all right 100 years ago, there are today so many good mousetraps, and so many highly paid advertising agencies to tell about them, that high merit alone is not enough to insure business success. The craftsman has to make a big noise about his work. He should keep in mind that his publicity will act as a constant producer of sales. He needs to make a constant effort to get known, because this is one of the foundations of his business. Don't be shy. It is not yourself that you are publicizing, it is your hobby or your craft, which may become as much fun for someone else as it is for you.

IF YOU live near a radio or television station, you may have a splendid opportunity to share your hobby with others in that way. Most stations are on the lookout for interviews with people who are doing interesting or picturesque things. The hobbyist whose work lends itself to the TV screen can usually find an opportunity to demonstrate his craft in that medium. I found no difficulty in arranging for an exhibition of my pottery work on a TV station.

If you should be engaged for such a show, I suggest that you visit the TV studio some days beforehand, and learn about the methods of producing such an exhibition. I neglected to do this on my first show over WNAC in Boston and made several mistakes. Just before we went on the air I arranged the properties for a demonstration on a table. While I had often given this performance on the stage, I had never done it on TV, and I had no time for rehearsal.

I laid out my materials and tools and stood ready to begin; but was then told to wait in the wings until called. I waited and waited for what seemed an endless time. Suddenly the director said, "Now take your place at the table. You will be on in a minute!"

When I got to the table I discovered that the TV lights were very hot. They had been beating down on my clay for about twenty minutes, causing it to dry out so it would not bend or perform as planned. Imagine my embarrassment when I began to talk about how to form a pot, and then my clay would not do my bidding. Fortunately, I was able to use this difficulty to my advantage, for I showed how you can soften the clay after it has become hard, and in that way I provided enough action to carry the show, even though I could not complete the demonstration exactly as I had planned it.

Another thing I did not know about TV is that you can see yourself reflected as though in a mirror in a small screen on the floor, out of range of the camera. If I had looked at myself on that set, I could have done a better job of exhibiting my hobby, like an actor performing in front of the mirror.

A third mistake that I made was to turn my head to the interviewer instead of talking directly into the camera.

However, on the way home from the telecast, I met a fireman who had seen the show on the screen at his fire station. He remembered every detail and seemed to have been much entertained by the exhibition; he asked me several questions, showing how closely he had followed it. So, my mistakes were probably not as bad as I thought. Anyway, the camera was focused on my hands and on my pottery, and was not concerned with my countenance, for which I was grateful.

Radio also offers excellent publicity for the hobbyist, and it is a much easier field to enter for an occasional interview. You can approach any local station and tell the manager about your hobby. If you can talk with enthusiasm and interest, often he will gladly arrange to give you an interview on one of his shows. Of course in radio you have to depend on your verbal descriptions, and probably the best angle is to tell how your hobby affects your life; how it helps you earn extra money, or in other ways. Tell of the meaning of your hobby, as well as how to do it.

And while we are on the subject of publicity, remember your local newspapers. They are always looking for human interest stories, and the hobbyist is an ideal subject because they can get both pictures of you and your work to help build up an interesting article. Just write to the editor of the paper, tell him what you are doing, and ask if he might wish to send a writer and a cameraman to your workshop. You will be surprised how quickly you get a response.

BUT NOW with all due respect to publicity, actual sales are something else again. Where to sell? How to sell? How much to charge?

When a craftsman begins to work, there are a certain number of sales which just come naturally: to friends and neighbors and friends of friends, and so on. While this is pleasant and profitable, it is not nearly enough, and in my own experience I learned that I must think of my market in much larger terms, to cover a wider field in every way, both geographically and in the broader range of articles to be produced. This meant, for instance, that I could not limit my output to just a few beautiful, expensive things, but must be willing to make popular priced articles, to meet the taste of the general public. This did not mean that I need to give up all individuality, but it meant that I must readapt my ideas to what the average person will buy; in short, to compromise.

To reach this wider market, I planned an attack on the problem of sales on as many fronts as possible.

Like many craftsmen, when I opened my little studio in a remodeled garage, in East Gloucester, Massachusetts, I assumed that I could sell my wares to the public direct from my front door. My place is, however, not on a busy street and my large sign at the entrance did not bring in many people, at least not enough to buy my whole output. Even if I had been located on a busier thoroughfare, I do not think it possible to sell enough pottery to make a fair living, direct from the studio. There simply is not enough demand for any one article, be it pottery, or jewelery, or anything else, to reach a big enough volume of retail sales on a single kind of article. If you want to sell direct, you probably have to include many other things with your own product. For instance, I know a craftsman who made pewter articles. He had a good location, and many people came into his shop every day; but he could not make a good living until he included many other gifts with his pewter, so he would have something to meet all tastes. He even sold neckties, handwoven, alongside pewter plates.

The disadvantage of a retail store with your production studio is that it takes a lot of time to attend to customers. You have to drop your work to talk to them, and often they are "just looking, thank you." However much you may enjoy the contact, it uses up a lot of valuable production time. For that reason I do not advocate retail selling from the workshop as a major activity, though I do maintain a small show room at one end of my shop, and make a fair number of sales, just incidentally.

THE THOUGHT of seeing his things for sale in large, well-known shops is very attractive to many a hobbyist. I originally felt that if my pottery were for sale in a big shop, where many people saw it on display, I would make money and acquire a reputation.

I quickly found the heartbreaking fact about wholesale marketing to be a matter of wholesale prices. In the case of pottery, and other gift items, the markup is 100 percent, which means that the article which you yourself have been selling directly to the public at retail for $1 must be sold to the wholesale buyer for 50 cents, less the 15 percent cost of selling to the said shop. That 15 percent goes to an agent who makes the sale, unless you act as your own sales agent. This means that your $1 article brings you only about 42½ cents net.

Of course, in the latter instance, there is a greater volume of sales at wholesale than at retail. The shop would probably buy a dozen or more of a particular article, while a retail customer who came to your studio might buy only one. Your problem is whether to sell a dozen things at a small profit on each or to sell a single one, and make a full profit. Even on a small scale the hobbyist is confronted with that tantalizing question of mass production versus individual pieces.

In my own case I made a compromise, and produced a line of things that I could sell at a wholesale price, and still make a fair profit. At the same time, I continued making a few higher priced ones.

AN ALLURING market for the hobbyist is the mail order field. In this market he can sell at the maximum retail price direct from his studio, with no personal customers to come in, and take up his time, and no agents to deduct commissions. But, as in everything, there is a catch in it. The trouble lies in the expense of mail order advertising, and in finding an article which will sell in this field, which is a very competitive one.

While there is an element of gamble in this type of advertising, there are ways in which the craftsman can take some of the hazard out of it. For instance, he should be sure that his article has been well tested and is proving saleable directly from his studio. Try out any mail order item thoroughly on your own customers.

Produce an article which is easy to pack, and will arrive safely, unbroken, at minimum postage. It is a good plan to pay the postage, and include it in your costs, because it makes selling easier. Customers prefer to order prepaid things.

One way to test your article is to submit it to several magazines in which there is a shopping column. Sometimes the editor will give you free, editorial mention to help you get started. This is an ideal way to begin if you can manage to produce something which has enough distinction to interest the editors.

If this editorial mention results in a considerable number of orders, you will be encouraged to go farther, either by paid magazine advertising, of which I will speak later, or by direct mailing of circulars, printed matter, or letters, to selected lists of customers.

Success of such a direct mail campaign will depend on your product, of course, plus the quality and appeal of your circular or letter, plus the value of your list of names.

It is a good plan to keep a file of attractive circulars which come to you from others; then when you are ready to create one of your own, you will be stimulated to get up a good approach. We use an inexpensive circular for our pottery, printed by the offset process, which is a low cost method of reproducing any kind of black and white drawings or lettering, without the necessity of making a zinc printing plate, such as most printers use. These are some excerpts from our circular. You note that we use the personal or folksy style which is well suited to hobby articles.

Beside a drawing of one of our pitchers this copy appears: "This is the Gloucester Pitcher, tried and true. The shape is homey and earthy. It was designed on the wheel, the kind you push with your foot. The decoration shows ships and waves. Cape Ann, you know, is a broad neck of land which extends about nine miles out into the Atlantic Ocean. A mighty nice place to spend the summer. No. 4 holds 1½ cups. Gloucester Green pattern, $2."

By a drawing of a batter bowl: "Originally made for a very practical and ingenious good neighbor, Alice Dean, who said, 'Make me a bowl for mixing and pouring waffle batter.' We made one and it was too small. We made another and it was too large. But then we made this one and it was just right. Homemakers in every state in the Union have been ordering it for years for themselves and their friends. No. 29 Holds 1½ qt. Yellow and brown, $4."

You may wish to design and produce your own circular. (If you are a hobbyist you presumably have clever fingers and ideas. And you can buy lists of suitable names from some company which specializes in direct mail selling. Look in the classified telephone directory of your nearest large city for names of such companies. They will also produce your literature if you so desire.)

Armed with your lists, go to your post office and ask for the rates for bulk mailing, which may save you money if you put on a large mail campaign. But it is a good plan to start with test mailings, using a small number of sections of the list or lists. Trial and error is the ideal method of developing a direct mail approach. Do not plunge. Go easy!

ANOTHER KIND of direct mail selling which has produced good results for me is the short, direct sales letter, individually written, not mimeographed or done by any mass process. Ten such letters are worth 100 of the processed kind. These names are also to be found in that handy reference, the classified telephone book, taking some category such as florists, or toy shops, or any other which might handle your product.

You can expect a high percentage of returns from such letters in which you describe your product or services in very personal terms. If, for example, I can assemble a list of women who are likely prospects whom I may have met at a lecture or some social event or whose names have been given to me by mutual friends, I may write as follows:

Dear Mrs. Blank,

I am writing just a line at the suggestion of Mrs. Mary Jones to tell you about a new product from our kilns. Mrs. Jones thought you would like to hear about it. It is called the Better Batter Bowl. Enclosed is a picture of the bowl, with full information. I would be pleased to send you one of the bowls on approval if you will let me know the desired color. Mrs. Jones bought the yellow one which is the most popular; however, there are other colors, as you can see in the circular. I can send it promptly if you will let me know soon.

Yours very truly

In this case, I offer to send the bowl on approval, because the buyer is known to me, and of course include a circular with full information and pictures, describing the product.

A little thought and ingenuity will enable you to bring your product to the attention of suitable groups of people, especially if you watch your local newspapers—your lawn markers to people who have bought new homes, your personalized porringers to families with new babies, etc.

A POT boiler is a useful item in any hobby shop. By that I mean something you can make easily, quickly and cheaply for some large industrial user. One such thing is a jug to hold maple syrup and another is a pitcher for honey. I can produce these things at any time during the slack seasons. They will not bring me fame or fortune, but they help to keep the pot boiling, and even bubbling in very lively fashion at times! I sell them to a large company which fills them with honey or syrup, seals them with corks and wax and distributes them to the higher priced food shops, and to some gift shops.

Many a hobbyist can find such a market for some of his wares. A weaver may not often sell a large cloth; but she can keep running off an endless number of guest towels. A woodworker may not sell a large Welch dresser every day; but salt boxes or other small items move faster.

If you can develop an article which someone else uses to sell his product, you will reap benefit from his promotion. For instance, you might make tricky doll caps for a doll maker, or lamp shades for a producer of pin-up lamps.

Once you have found a tie-up with an industrial user of your product you will have a steady, though low priced market, for your surplus labors, and as I said before, it will help keep the pot boiling.

ANOTHER VITAL factor in your selling problem is your selling price, and that selling price, in turn, depends on how you figure your costs. Probably the hardest thing to overcome in estimating your cost is your personal feelings. In other words, you are selling something that you love to make and usually dislike to part with. For that reason it is easy to make the mistake of charging for your feelings, instead of being impersonal and fixing a price without basing it on emotion.

For instance, the first large pitcher I made, I priced at what now seems a ridiculously high figure. I remembered how I had struggled to form it and smooth it, and color it and glaze it, and all the time and uncertainty that went into the making of that pitcher. Well, finally it was completed, and there it stood on my workbench my first reasonable perfect piece. I had not the least intention of selling it or in fact of selling any of my pottery at that time, when it was all a pleasant hobby, and I had no commercial objective.

Nevertheless a siren entered my studio one day, in the person of a very well-to-do summer visitor. She saw the pitcher and fell in love with it at once. It was just what she had been looking for, and she didn't mind saying so. The color was right, the size was right, and, would I sell it?

"Er, well, yes, I suppose so," I said, with hesitation.

"How much?"

The price which popped into my head was not based on anything but emotion. I remembered my labor, and how much the pitcher meant to me, so I named a price that seemed high to the siren, but sounded low enough to me, namely $10.

Being a frank, though wealthy lady, she did not hesitate to say she thought the price too high, and would I take less? She enjoyed a bit of bargaining, as is the wont of many prosperous people. In the end I sold it for $8.

A few years later I was selling better pitchers for $1.50 and realizing a good profit with no emotional disturbance. I learned to figure costs in realistic terms, without losing my love of the work. No longer do I fix my affection on a particular piece, but rather on the whole business. In each pitcher I try to express the same devotion to art, without adding anything extra to the price!

SO THEN, you may ask, how do I now figure what to charge for my products?

It sounds simple. You should charge enough to cover all costs, and a fair percentage for profit. Here are the main cost items to remember, and keep track of in your cost accounting book: materials, labor, rent, power and light, depreciation of equipment, interest on your investment, and taxes.

And don't forget the cost of packing and shipping.

Your materials costs seem to be easy to determine, in the case of pottery, I thought, because you can weigh a pitcher and find out how much clay is used and how much glaze, etc. These things cost so much per pound, or per ounce, and you merely multiply the number of ounces by the cost per ounce, to find the cost. of materials in that piece. But after a year I realized what a large margin you must allow for things you never anticipated at first, such as the unavoidable waste, the failures, the amount of time and materials spent in experimentation, and so on. You must learn to estimate an average cost per piece to take into account these factors. Only experience will give you this figure.

The labor cost I determine by deciding how much per hour my time is worth and dividing that amount by the number of pitchers, for instance, which I can produce in an hour. If, for example, I consider I am worth $2, per hour, and if I spend a total of an hour in the production of twenty pitchers, then the labor cost on each one is 10 cents. Remember, however, to include every step in the process—the time spent in setting up equipment and materials right through to the trip to the post office to mail the finished product; on special jobs, count in the conference and planning time which may be far more than the manufacturing time.

The same principle applies to other costs. For example, you receive a light and power bill for $30 at the end of the month. If during that month you produced 300 turned wooden pieces of pottery pitchers, the cost of electricity for each piece would be 10 cents. In packing, divide the cost by the number of pieces packed, and the same for shipping costs. Of course this gives an average figure which may not apply to very large or small pieces. Sometimes packing cost is too large in proportion to intrinsic value of an item, in which event it may be wise to eliminate such an item.

Depreciation is another cost factor which is sometimes overlooked. For instance, if you use a piece of machinery whose life is limited, you should charge up a certain number of cents on each piece which that machine produces to allow for later replacement. In the case of pottery molds, for example, we estimate that mold is good for about 400 times usage, when it must be replaced at a cost of, say, $4. Thus the average charge for depreciation on each piece would be about 1 cent.

There are some general costs, such as rent, taxes, interest on the investment, especially if you are using borrowed money. You can take the total amount of these items and divide by the number of articles. If your overhead amounts to say $50 per month, and your total output of articles is 500 items, then the general overhead cost which will apply to each thing is 10 cents. I have expressed these estimates in the same decimal for simplicity.

OMITTING, FOR the moment, the cost of selling the article, you come to the ticklish question of profit. Let us suppose that your typical piece costs 10 cents for materials, 10 cents for labor; 10 cents for power and 10 cents for general overhead, a total of 40 cents. What shall be the final selling price?

You can ask yourself such questions as, what are similar articles selling for in other places? How much will the traffic bear? Shall I charge a higher price and sell fewer, or a lower price, and sell more?

The best answer to these questions seems to me to be found in a fixed formula or percentage of profit. Decide to add a definite percentage to the total cost which seems fair to you, and allows you a chance to build up your business, and at the same time, is not too high to hinder sales. If that percentage is, say, 40 per cent of the cost, then you add that to each piece, and that is your net selling price. So, if your cost is 40 cents, then add 16 cents profit, making a total of 56 cents.

This price, however, does not include the cost of selling. If for example, you plan to sell your product through a commission agent, you will have to add his commission of, say, 15 per cent to your price of 56 cents. Or, if you spend money on advertising, travel, or other sales expense, you should add that also to your cost.

In case of mail order advertising, your sales costs will be based on the total number of sales per month or per year. For example, if you spend $10 on a small advertisement, and if you sell twenty articles as a result of it, then the sales cost per article is 50 cents each.

It is obviously impossible to anticipate the cost of selling an article unless you have accumulated much experience. This is especially true of mail orders. However, once you have learned how many orders to expect for each dollar spent, you can build a solid business in this field, by making due allowance for the sales cost in fixing your sales price.

THERE IS truth in that adage, "It pays to advertise," which might be reworded, "It pays to pay to advertise," instead of depending too much on free publicity which you do not fully control. You can't get anything for nothing in advertising or any other field. The right advertisements in the right place, with the right copy, is the best investment a hobbyist can make. It is business insurance, and will enable you to build your hobby into a paying proposition.

The hobbyist should plan his advertising program with some definite facts in mind. He should approach advertising, not as though he were going to the race track to bet on any horse that caught his fancy; but rather, he should compare it to buying stones and cement for the foundation of his house. Good advertising should follow a long range plan rather than occasional, ill considered attempts to attract business at odd times with no method of follow up. A small amount of regular monthly advertising is better than a single splurge, generally speaking. Here are some of the things to ask yourself when you decide to advertise your product:

How much, or how many can I produce during the coming year?

How much money can I afford to spend on advertising to assist me in selling my output for that period of time?

If for example I can produce $200 worth of my product every week, that would total about $10,000 in one year. I may decide it is possible to allot 25 cents on every dollar of sales for advertising, or say, $2,500 for the year.

If your output is that large, it would be well to find an advertising agent to handle the writing and placing of your copy in the various magazines, newspapers or other media. Such an agent receives fifteen per cent commission, paid to him by the publication. You are paying this fee, regardless of whether you use an agent or not, so you might as well have the services of an expert if you can find one conveniently. Look in the classified pages of the telephone book under the heading "Advertising Agencies." An agency can guide your advertising program in the most efficient and productive direction.

However, if you wish to write and place your advertisement directly with the publication, you can write to them, and ask for full information about their rates, how far in advance of publication must the advertisement be ready, an analysis of their circulation, telling you the kinds of people who read the periodical, and other facts to guide you in preparing the copy. They will send you plenty of helpful data.

If you have a budget of $2,500 for the year you can carry out a fairly extensive program. Your first big decision is what market you wish to sell in; that is, wholesale, or retail. Do you wish to sell to gift shops, or direct to the public? If you seek only the wholesale outlets, probably you will concentrate your advertising on the trade journals which reach just the shops that you want to sell. On the other hand, if you want to sell direct to the general public, you will want to use popular publications that are as widely read as possible. In other words, you will be interested in the size of the circulation, or the total number of readers who will see your advertisement.

If you are still a hobbyist, however, you may not have reached this point.

IN MAKING your plans bear in mind that it is better to creep before you walk, and better to learn to walk before you try to run. Classified advertising is probably the best type for the hobbyist who is just beginning to feel his way forward from hobby to business. A small advertisement in the classified section of such a magazine as Profitable Hobbies enables you to start your program for as little as $2.50 per month, or thereabouts. You need to make only a few sales to break even and you always have a good chance to do very much better than that, because magazine readers give as much time to reading a small classified advertisement or section, if it happens to concern a subject that interests them, as they would give to large space advertising.

You can continue this low-cost classified advertising, month after month, and in the course of time, it will give you a solid foundation flow of regular orders; persistent publicity pays off!

This inexpensive advertising also enables you to make improvements in your product, and in your method of presenting it, at minimum expense, avoiding costly mistakes on larger scale. For instance, you can test the all important question of price; is your price too high or too low, or just right? You can find the answer to whether to ship C.O.D., or request cash with order. Shall it be postpaid or should you ask extra payment for postage? What carrier is best for your product: Express? Motor transport? Freight? Parcel Post? Is the method of packing satisfactory, or do the things arrive broken or damaged in transit. The gradual approach, through classified advertising, will produce enough orders to give you a fair profit, and plenty of experience which you can apply to larger display advertising when you know your way around.

Perhaps the most popular media for hobby products are the so called "slick" magazines; that is the ones printed on glossy paper, with plenty of illustrations; they often devote a section to gifts, gadgets and articles for the home, which are often hand made, and which many hobbyists can produce successfully for this market.

They sell a standard size space which is usually about one-twelfth page. The cost is in the neighborhood of $175. For this sum you can tell your story to about 2,501,000 readers of a magazine which sells for 50 cents. These figures are approximate, and vary considerably from one magazine to another.

If you advertise in such a magazine you must be prepared to make prompt shipments of your product, and should have a supply on hand to meet the demand, before the advertisement appears. Do not wait for orders to come in, before you begin to produce your article, because this means delay, and your customers want prompt shipments.

You may ask, how can I estimate in advance the number of orders to expect from such an advertisement? Nobody can give you a certain formula, but for myself, I have found that I can expect one order for every 1,000 circulation if I use one-twelfth of a page space in a good magazine, with an article which has been tested as to saleability. For example, if the circulation is 250,000, I can expect about 250 orders; although, I must admit, that the figure may drop below that number; and, it can go much higher.

Take every opportunity to look at all the magazines you can, not only the large well-known ones, but also the less familiar, less pretentious publications, especially if you want to place a small classified advertisement. If your public library has a copy of the N. W. Ayer list of publications, you can look up the circulation of any magazine, and be guided accordingly. You may find a number of magazines catering to an audience which would have some special use for the article you make. They will be glad to send you their advertising rates and full information.

AS FOR newspaper advertising, it is not usually very good for a hobby product, because it calls for a quick decision on the part of a reader. In other words, a newspaper is read once and then thrown away, to make way for the next paper. Now most hobby items are in the nature of gifts which require the buyer to spend time and consideration before making up his mind. It is customary for people to ponder the purchase of a gift or an art product for quite a while before the actual purchase. The buyer of a monthly magazine keeps it for at least a month and may pass it on to another person, thus producing new readers and more orders. I often receive orders for an ash tray that was advertised in magazines as long ago as four years! A Sunday magazine section of a newspaper is, however, worth considering.

If your hobby is in the nature of a service, where there is a continuing demand, newspaper advertising would be excellent. In a small local paper, an advertisement may be kept running continuously at a very low cost, Or if you live in a vacation or resort area, there will be enough turnover in population to absorb your product if it is kept before the public in some original way.

THOUGH I said at the outset that you need something more than a better mousetrap to attract the world to your door, I do not mean to imply any old mousetrap will do. On the contrary, you need a better mousetrap or a better piece of pottery, or a better lamp shade, or a better anything to make a success. I am sure that high quality is more important than ever, because of the greater competition today. So, while you are seeking ways and means of telling the world about your hobby product, do not overlook the fact that the world will expect you to turn to something which is either better, or more useful, or more original or more interesting or more distinctive, or more beautiful than any one other.

In a sense, every hobbyist needs two hobbies; the first is the making of a good article; and the second is the selling of it. He can learn to find just as much pleasure in solving the human problems involved in making sales as in working out the technical ones in creating and producing. There is just as much satisfaction to be found in placing his wares before the public and causing them to buy, as in working at his bench or his wheel in his shop.