Selling Alone
**** This post is the same as the one posted on "note" ****
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I make the products myself, and I also handle sales myself.
My only sales channels are my own website, handmade marketplaces, and my independent studio shop.
I don't do wholesale, so I don't have any wholesale partners.
Selling by myself is honestly tough.
This is also a follow-up to my previous post, but I also believe that I shouldn't be stubborn about doing everything by myself.
There's only so much one person can do.
Ideally, it's better to have people with whom you can cooperate.
And unfortunately, I don't have such partners.
The loneliest part of being a sole manufacturer is that I'm also the only one promoting the products. Emotionally, I feel like I have no allies.
No matter how much I promote my products, they lack persuasiveness because I'm the one who made them.
People might want me to honestly point out the flaws in my products, but I wouldn't bother making something by hand if I thought it was flawed.
I make them because I think they're good.
What if I had wholesale partners?
The artist makes something they think is good, and the store owner sees it and also thinks it's good, so they stock it.
Then there would be at least two people who recognize the product's quality.
I believe there's a difference in persuasiveness between my own product promotion and a wholesale store's product promotion.
And when an artist promotes their own product, it's like praising themselves, which can be a bit embarrassing.
I've been promoting my products by myself all this time, so I can only imagine how happy I'd be if someone else promoted my products on social media or elsewhere.
Was it really a good idea to handle sales by myself for 10 years?
I decided not to do wholesale from the beginning of my business.
At the time, online shopping was just starting to become common, and I thought I could handle sales myself.
I wanted to have a pleasant business where I could deliver products directly to customers, person-to-person.
Direct sales allow me to set lower prices, which is an appealing point, and I can interact directly with customers, gaining a lot of feedback.
Moreover, as I wrote previously, if a product didn't sell at a wholesale partner, given my personality, I might fall into the trap of thinking there was a problem with the partner.
Those were the reasons I decided to sell by myself.
And after 10 years of only direct sales, my impression is that selling by myself was much harder than I expected.
If I were to wholesale products, I think it would be at about 60% of the retail price.
In other words, 60% for production, 40% for sales.
10 years ago, I thought, "Will sales really take 40%?" But now, it seems like a reasonable condition.
That's how hard selling is.
If I could pay 40% and concentrate solely on production, it might be a small price to pay.
For 10 years, I somehow managed to handle sales by myself.
I wanted to become a store with a strong foundation, not relying on wholesale partners.
However, unfortunately, I can't say I'm a store with a strong foundation at the moment.
I will continue to do things by myself, but I intend to not be stubborn and allow myself to rely on others where I can.