Since I have to go fishing today, let’s talk about my recent state briefly.
Start of sales at a local souvenir shop
As the title suggests, my bags are now available for sale at a local souvenir shop.
- Fureai-dokoro 437, located in Yanai City, Japan (View on Google Maps)
It is a rural facility for travelers. It hosted the autumn festival I participated in and sold my bags weeks ago. The facility consisted of a souvenir shop, a restaurant, a fitness room, and multiple meeting rooms.
My bags are sold in the souvenir shop. They are the 8 leftover ones from the last exhibition sales.
To my surprise, 3 bags were sold soon after I started selling several days ago.
However, I don’t know which bags were sold. The shop notifies producers of only the number of items sold and the price. Since I set many bags at similar prices, I could not tell which one sold. Additionally, the shop is too far away for me to reach by bicycle.
It will take some time to identify which ones sold. I will consider the next strategy based on that result.
Creating the first sales channel
By the way, creating the first sales channel, which is a way to sell our products constantly, tends to take time.
Creators who lack credibility have to build connections with business partners. We first usually sell in small places, such as exhibition sales. In those places, people who are running businesses locally will approach us as we repeatedly participate in such events. That naturally creates connections with the places of sale for us. (I will explain it at some point.)
However, utilizing existing businesses saves that effort. In my case, I used my parents’ sales channel. When we want to sell something tangible locally, using small personal connections is more efficient than relying on many strangers on the internet.
Now, many people are trying to build connections on the internet, such as on social media. That makes it easier for us to establish relationships with local opportunities.
Conclusion
Anyway, I started to sell my bags in a souvenir shop.
This is one big change for me. My hobby turned into a source of income, although it is small scale.
Let’s move on to the next stage of creative life.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
