Connections and Social Networking-The Buisness of Lampworking Extras

If you’re in business you’ve heard probably heard you need a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a Google+ account, be a member of forums, and possibly have a blog.

Okay, so you’ve gone out and signed up for all those things. You blog maybe once a month, you’ve head is pinning in circles at Google+, your twitter feed spits out random posts from Ashton Kutcher, The Pioneer Woman, and Sh*t My Dad Says, and Facebook changes its interface so often you can’t keep up. How is this helping your business?

It’s probably not helping at all. Unless you’re genuinely interacting with like-minded people. If you’re a gamer and the only people following you on Twitter are fellow gamers, your spam posts of what you listed on Etsy are mostly likely just a waste of time. If you only use Facebook to  keep up with your siblings and their children, that venue isn’t working for you either.

You need to be connecting with like-minded people on these sites in order for social networking to be of any use to your business. It seems an obvious thing to say right? Think about it. Are most of your friends on Facebook other lampworkers? Or are they jewelry designers? Do you have both? Are you open to your customers friending you?

When it comes to Facebook, I let anyone on my friend feed as long as they aren’t constantly sending me spam messages or arbitrarily adding me to groups I didn’t ask to belong to. On Twitter I will follow anyone interested in glass, beads, marbles, jewelry making, craft, whatever. Again as long as they aren’t spamming me direct messages.

Okay, now that we know who we should be interacting with, now what? Interact, connect, make friends. That’s the whole point. Just spamming new listings will not get you far. In fact it might get your dropped, blocked, and ignored. FYI-my lampworking Twitter feed has been sadly neglected. It currently only gets Etsy and blog updates. So don’t go looking at that feed as an example. If I was following me, I’d probably block me. I’m much more active over on Facebook.

Now, you’re friending and interacting with people who appreciate glass. Great. Now what? Nothing. That’s it. The thing with social networking and connections is you never know when someone you’ve met will post a link of yours to a private beader group, retweet a listing, think of you for a teaching gig, or ask you to write an article for a publication. All of these things are free advertising and all you did was chat with someone online.

I have a concrete example of what I mean. I’ve been a member of Lampwork Etc since Corri first opened the doors over there. One of the members, Barb, knew me from the online forums. She’s another lampworker and a few years ago at least she bought some beads from me (which totally made my day BTW). In August I met her in person by chance at Bead Fest Philly. It was great to chat with her in person. Being totally awesome, she bought some more beads and signed up for my email mailing list.

Last week I ran an after Labor Day sale and out my newsletter went. Barb, again being totally awesome, shared that newsletter with a bead group of hers online. Needless to say, my sale was a huge success and I’m pretty swamped with orders right now from a bunch of new customers who just heard about me due to Barb.

If I hadn’t been socially networking with Barb years ago, would this have come about? Hard to say. She could have stopped by my booth at Bead Fest and signed up for my newsletter. But without the personal connection would she have shared my link with her bead group? Certainly our personal connection helps tie it all together.

Social networking is about making connections. Many of the opportunities we’ve been given have been a direct result of connecting with people, through a friend of a friend, direct interactions with people on the internet, or just being part of the community.

You never know when a connection is going to lead to something or if it ever will. The trick is to put yourself out there enough so you’re part of the community. If you’re only online to just sell your work, people will notice and it’s likely to backfire. Just be yourself, make friends, and the rest will follow.

Too Many Pies, Not Enough Oven Space–Lampworking Business Extras

Don’t you just hate it when you set out to make a dozen pies and you run out of time and oven space? Then the apples start to turn brown and the chocolate filling ends up curdled?

 

What? Don’t tell me this has never happened to you before. Don’t you have family over for holidays and lose your mind cooking for five days before they come over? No? Me neither. I actually live out-of-state from my family. Holidays are usually very relaxing.

But I’m intimately familiar with taking on too many projects. Like five out-of-town events in six months (four of them shows), publishing a book and scheduling another one for December, and trying to run four successful online stores.

 

Thank the powers that be I don’t have kids. As it is the dogs think my butt is permanently attached to my office chair. If I go anywhere else in the house besides the kitchen or the studio they get seriously confused.

 

Tomorrow I leave for Bead Fest in Philadelphia. I have my good friend Susan Sheehan to thank for talking me into this show while we were at Bead and Button. It’s made for a crazy two months while I worked furiously to get my book Haunted on Bourbon Street published. I’m sad to say my online venues have suffered like the oldest child left to fend for herself. Oh, I still listed stuff, but not at my normal rate.

And the sales data really shows the hit. If you’ve been reading my The Business of Lampworking series, you should know by now the best thing you can do for your business is to constantly list new items. Of course, the last four weeks I have been focused on getting my table ready for the show and holding inventory back.

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure these shows are the best business strategy at this point because as hard as I work, I’m having trouble keeping all of my pie plates in the air. One was bound to splatter or at least wobble. Online sales for me are wobbling. Luckily Greg does this with me and since the shows don’t focus on his work, his stuff is selling at the usual rate.

I’ve always said which ever direction you’re looking is the direction you’ll go. I started looking at shows. The last few I did have been successful, but not successful enough to take away from my online business. I have two more shows not including Bead Fest Philly. After that I will need to run some numbers and do some evaluating.

Moral of the story? Don’t take on more than you can handle. Something will suffer. And in this case, it’s my bread and butter.

But I’m ready for Bead Fest. I’ve got the pictures to prove it.

Profitability of a Bead Show-Chapter 6 The Business of Lampworking

There are all kinds of reasons for selling at a bead show. Being part of the community, making contacts, building client base, picking up wholesale bead stores, hanging out with like-minded people. But when it comes to the business of lampworking, the main and most important reason should be to be profitable.

When deciding if you want to attend a certain show you need to know just how much money you have to make in order to be profitable. Be realistic with yourself and as always, remember shows are a gamble.

Here are a few examples:

Bead and Button (I’m using approximate numbers because I don’t have everything right in front of me, but they are close):

Table fee: $895
Electric fee: $150
Hotel (Shared a room): $200
Travel (gas, I drove from LA to WI): $300

Total fee not including food: $1545

$1545 before I’ve bought one display or sold one bead. Ouch! I’m not including display costs because those are business costs that are used for all my shows, not just one. But if you plan on only do one show, you for sure need to add that cost in. They can be as inexpensive or expensive as you like. Greg made my light bar. The materials cost $150. Plus bead trays, inserts, table cloths, a banner, risers, etc, etc. More on table displays later. But those costs can add up too.

Next I need to factor in how many days I will not be working at the torch. Bead and Button is a four day show. Plus I have four travel days. Two days up and two days back. Eight days. Plus I lose the day before I leave for packing and last minutes show prep. That’s nine days total. My goal when working at home and bringing in online sales is $100 a day. So I must make at least $900 at the show just to make up for my days of being away.

$1545
+900

=$2445

At Bead and Button I must make at least $2445 just to break even.

Let’s look at another show for comparison.

Houston Bead Society Show:

Table Fee: $275
Hotel Fee: $200
Gas fees: $100

Total fees: $575

Total days away from the studio is four with one prep day=5. My formula $100×5=$500.

Total needed to break even $1075.

It’s important to run the numbers and know what your expectations are for each show you are contemplating. Everyone will have different expenses so be sure to take into account your specific situation.

I’ll be honest, with the amount of work it takes to build inventory for a show and the cost factor I’m pretty sure I’d do better just selling everything at wholesale online. I don’t do that of course. The thing is I sell wholesale to bead stores and I have to maintain price integrity. Plus, with retail online prices I make more per piece so I don’t have to work as hard with lower prices. But when it’s crunch time (like right now) I dream about it. Bead Fest Philly is next weekend and I’m not ready.

No one is ever ready for a show.

You just do what you can and try not to spend too much time doing other things, like blogging.

eBay–Chapter 5 The Business of lampworking

Ten years ago eBay was the big game in town for lampwork beads. It really seemed to be list it and they will come. These days, not so much. But if you’re willing to be patient, it can pay off.

Why should you use eBay when you’ve been told (or experienced in the past) other sites like Etsy and Artifre are so much cheaper to use? I’ve got secret for you. The final listings fees vs sold items in my eBay store is often cheaper than my Etsy stores. Last time I looked, sales to fees ratio on eBay was 8.5% and Etsy across both stores was 9%. That is because eBay is now offering fifty free auction listings a month. You only pay final value fees when the item sells. This seems to be a permanent deal, but you never know when eBay is going to change things.

Fifty free listings a month! That’s a huge bonus for someone trying to start a following there, because it takes a while to get noticed.

Greg and I have five different internet stores and eBay continues to dominate our sales numbers. We have over the years tried many different sales strategies, but the one thing we have never changed is listing new stuff consistently. If you can listing something every day, that will mean you will always have an item listed under newest and one under ending soonest in the search categories. And customers will always be able to find you because your store never goes dark.

Got that?

The number one way to drive business on eBay is to list new stuff consistently.

Now that we have that out of the way, here are some ways to be seen on eBay. Have a few items listed at over $50. Many people start their search in lampwork beads by highest price in order to weed out the imported stuff. Go take a look using that search feature. At what page do you burn out and stop looking? Now look at what price those beads are going for. Strive to always have something listed above that price.

Consider adding the Buy it Now feature. Some people really dislike the auction format. They see what they want and would rather just click through to buy it. On the other hand, some people get a high off of auctions. So have a mix of listings if you can.

Here is how I handle it. All of my beads have a set retail price. For eBay I set my BINs at the retail price and the auctions start at my designer wholesale price. Around 25% off.

Every once in a while if I have a new design I feel strongly about, I won’t set a BIN on the auction, just to see what the market thinks of them. If I get lots of bids, it helps me set the retail price.

We also use the Buy it Now feature (no auction format) with the or Best Offer. I set these all at my retail price and entertain offers when they come .  Some of them are ridiculously low. Like $22 for a marble listed at $100. At that point my options are to either accept the offer, counter offer, or decline. Usually when the offer isn’t even close I will just decline it. But most of the time I will counter and we play let’s make a deal. It’s kind of fun, but you have to be prepared that if you counter, the buyer may walk. And that is perfectly okay with us. We already know how much we will accept for something. If the offer is too low, it’s just too low. Try not be insulted by low ball offers. Everyone likes a great deal.

99 cent auctions. I confess, I’ve tried this and I hate it. If you’re going to run a 99 cent auction, be prepared you may very well end up selling your item for 99 cents. I always think of the 99 cent auction as an advertising expense. But I’m not sure it’s effective among the sea of hundreds of other 99 cent auctions. I’d try to use it in conjunction with some other kind of advertising. Something like a month-long ad on a jewelry makers forum, or a blog event like 99 cent Fridays where you run one every week. Something that can help you build a following around it.

Now, if you are constantly making one of a kind items 99 cent auctions may work for you. Or if you have a huge following. Or if you are brand new and trying to build a following. I know many beadmakers who have used this strategy and have had it work for them. It doesn’t work for me. I do a lot of production work and in order to preserve my pricing the 99 cent auction just doesn’t work.

Speaking of preserving pricing, if you sell wholesale to beads stores or galleries, they are not going to like it if you are undercutting their prices on eBay. This is why I go with my retail prices and a designer wholesale start price. If I listed everything at 99 cents, that would be a huge conflict.

Sets or focals? Everyone wants to know what sells better. I can’t answer that for you. I sell both and marbles. So I think it all depends on the work you put out there. I can tell you, often what sells online does not sell as well in person and vice versa. So try different things until you find your niche.

Pictures, pictures, pictures! eBay used to charge for added pictures. Now you can add a bunch for free. I’m not certain how many because I host my own on my website. I just like having sole control over my content in case an image is hot-linked somewhere. But that’s just a personal thing. Use up as many picture slots as possible. Most customers will not read your entire description, so try to get your pictures as clear and accurate as possible.

And as always, link up your auctions on Facebook, Twitter, Lampworketc. Let people know your auctions exist. Put your link in your email signature. Send a newsletter letting your customer know you’ve started a new venue. Don’t have one yet? Time to start. Spread the word, but don’t be obnoxious about it. One post in each place is enough.

Surviving the Lean Months-The Business of Lampworking Extras

Every year there’s at least one month when I look around and start thinking: Whoa! What is going on? Sales are so slow it’s easy to start to panic. When you’re looking at having to dip into savings to pay the bills, that’s when things get scary.

Which means if you’re planning to lampwork full time as your sole source of income, you really need to have a savings account set up for just these times. Never assume when you’re having a good month, that you can and will be able to sustain your sales volume. Put some of that cash away for when things dry up.

Since we’ve been at this full time for over six years, we can see some patterns of when sales will dip. Usually between June and August sales can be inconsistent and then there’s October. I’m not sure what it is about October, but it’s usually pretty touch and go.

So, how do we survive without throwing in the towel and searching the online want ads? First of all, we realize the savings is there for just this reason. Resist the temptation to check your online sales venues every five minutes and get your butt out to the torch. Work on building up inventory, work on new designs, try new things. Think about adding something different to your product line. Put your energy into creating. Do not spend your time worrying and complaining about how slow it is. Remember my post on Looking in the direction you want to go? Creating new items and hopefully building some excitement about those pieces is a perfect example of how to implement that advice.

Keep listing items. Do not decide to just take the month off and stop listing anything new. The worst thing you can do is disappear  from your online venues. Think about it. If you go to someone’s shop and they’re closed or have stopped listing stuff, what do you do? You go shop elsewhere.  Maybe you even become a loyal customer to the new shop and you forget all about the first shop you went looking for.

Look. I know it is hard. It’s easy to get discouraged. I’ve been there myself. Spend an afternoon commiserating with your lampworking friends. Go have a margarita. Spend a day relaxing at the beach. Take a few days off.

Then get yourself back into your studio. Take this opportunity to work on all the designs you’ve been thinking about, but haven’t had the time to develop. Have fun! Remember why you started lampworking in the first place. Because dang it, it’s fun to melt stuff.

 

Online Feedback-Lampworking Business Extras

If you’ve ever bought or sold anything online you know each seller and buyer has a feedback rating. It’s expected once the transaction is completed, both parties leave feedback.

I’ve seen sellers ask when they should leave feedback. Right after the customer pays? After they receive the item? After the buyer leaves feedback for the seller?

In my opinion, after the customer pays, they have completed the transaction. Anytime after that, I will leave feedback. To me, it doesn’t matter if a situation arises later. I worry about it then, and because my policy is I will accept a return for any reason within a certain amount of time, it just doesn’t matter. Problems arise so seldom it isn’t something I worry about. Plus, it’s rude to hold feedback hostage.

As a buyer, I think it is important that if a situation arises, to give the seller a chance to make it right. Feedback is usually the first indicator of a seller’s reputation. Most professional sellers I know will happily address any problems. Just please don’t leave feedback as a way to get their attention without an email first. That said, if they don’t acknowledge you or handle the situation to your satisfaction, you have every right to leave an honest account of your experience.

On another note, leaving feedback is optional. Hounding buyers or sellers to leave it is annoying. Sellers, I strongly recommend not asking your buyers to leave you feedback. If you must, put it in your thank you email and word it something like this: If you’re happy with your purchase, please consider leaving me feedback (insert link to online retailer’s feedback page). Then leave it alone. Hounding them will only result in an annoyed customer.

Personally, I leave feedback once a month for all my online venues. It’s more time efficient for me. So if you buy something and I don’t leave feedback right away, it’s only because I haven’t gotten to it. But I will, don’t worry.

Online vs Shows–Ch 3 part 2 The Business of Lampworking

The big question online sales verses shows. You look around and everyone who’s anyone has an Etsy store, a website, and eBay account. They talk about the Best Bead show or Bead and Button or the selling at the ISGB Bead Bazaar, and you think to yourself, man I need to be doing that.

Some people spout how well they are doing, others say sales are dead. Now what? Where to start? My best advice is to pick one direction and give it your all. But which direction?

Pros of online venues:

Work from home.
Low cost.
Instant feedback.
Can sell work for less than you can doing shows.
Don’t have to take time off work (if you have another job) to hock your wares.
Your customer base is worldwide.

Cons of online sales:

Have to learn photography skills.
Need to learn to navigate online sales venues (though this is much easier now than it ever has been before).
Don’t get to interact with the community in person (It is certainly possible to make connections online, but there is nothing comparable to the in person connection).
Customers do not get to see work in person before buying. Each monitor is different , making it impossible to accurately portray the color of your work 100% of the time.
Have to deal with shipping. Packaging, lost mail, possible broken product, returns, and customs.
Have to build a following in a worldwide sea of other venders.

Shows Pros:

Built in customer base.
Get to see customers reaction to your work.
Can make connections you wouldn’t online for publications, teaching, demos, etc.
Get to see and interact with other artists.
Get to travel.

Show cons:

Shows are expensive. Every show you do there is a risk you won’t even cover expenses.
You need to work out a table display.
You need to travel.
May need to take time off work.
Can be discouraging watching everyone else make sales if your table isn’t getting much attention.
Need to build a large inventory.
Don’t know what customers respond to until you’re at the show.
Have to sell work for retail to cover show costs.
You lose studio time while traveling and working the show.

Our main focus for our business is online sales. It keeps us consistent with cash flow, and  the overhead is low cost. We’ve recently in the last few years started adding in shows, but that is an addition, not the focus. Also, for each show I sign up for I am prepared to accept the money put out many not be returned.

As I said earlier, my best advice is to pick one direction and give it your best effort, then worry about whether you want to expand in another area. Be prepared that either direction you go, it will take months to build a following. That means your first shows may not make you any money. It takes time to get noticed. There isn’t a magic wand.

My next few posts will focus on how to be successful with both online sales and shows. Stay tuned.

Custom Orders–Lampworking Business Extras

You fire up the computer, take a look at your email and there it is in the subject line: Custom order.

Now what?

When I say custom, I mean custom. Something totally new, that isn’t just a small variation on something you already know how to do. If someone asks me to make a peacock bead in pink instead of blue, that is not custom. That’s just a made to order item. Okay now that we have that straight on with the post.

I’m going to be totally honest. Most lampworkers I know hate doing custom orders. Sure, there are a few out there that like it. I can only assume they enjoy the challenge or the opportunity to work on something they hadn’t thought of doing before. But from a purely profit standpoint, we almost always lose money on custom orders. At least on that particular order.

Here is how I handle the custom order question:

If the item in question is something I think I can do and I want to do it, then I tell the customer to give me a few days (a week or whatever) to come up with something. Once I have something I like, I email a picture to the customer. At that time we talk pricing.

If it isn’t something I think I can do, or if I just plain don’t want to then I politely decline. If I know of another artist who I think can do it or likes custom orders, I will point the client to them.

Notice how I don’t ask for a deposit or even give a price until I complete the piece. This is because if it’s truly custom, I often don’t even know if I can make whatever it is the customer is asking for.

I also will only consent to trying a custom order if I think it’s something I can sell if the original buyer backs out. Or if it’s a design I might want to add to my bead line.

Look, custom orders usually take ten times the amount of time to complete than something I already know how to do. Usually it takes anywhere from five to ten beads to get the design right and that’s if I started out on the right track. So if someone wants me to make something for ten bucks that I have no idea how to do and it’s going to take me three torch sessions to figure out, it isn’t exactly the best short term business move as far as profit goes.

Now, if I want to spend some time learning and it’s a design I’m excited about, then there are more benefits than that first initial custom order. You can’t put a price on development. A few of my beads came about because I explored ideas brought to me by customers. My peacock beads are one of them.

There are lampworkers out there that require a deposit to do custom  orders. It’s a sound business move. But for me, if I don’t know if I can fill the order, I’m not comfortable taking any money in.

For my made to order stuff, items I know I can make over and over again, if a customer places an order, I do require payment up front. In full.The customer pays. I make it, then I send it out. Usually within a few days.

Custom work can be fun if it’s the right project. Greg once had a request from the adult children of one of our long time marble buyers. It was a custom marble for their parents fiftieth wedding anniversary. The style was one Greg felt comfortable with and he went ahead and took on the order. The marble came out beautiful and the family was very pleased. Greg got a lot of joy out of making that piece and I know he felt honored to have been asked to make it.

I’ve heard many lampworkers groan over custom work. I’ve done it myself. But since I started picking and choosing what I want to do and politely declining those I don’t think I can successfully pull off, I no longer cringe at the ‘Do you do custom work?’ email.

Choosing Your Venue–Chapter 3 part 1 The Business of Lampworking

Have you defined success and gotten legal? Are you ready to start selling your lampwork creations? If so, you have some decisions to make. Where do you sell your work?

Online venues:

eBay
Etsy
Artfire
Personal Website
Wholesalecrafts.com

FYI: These are the ones I am most familiar with and the ones I have personally used. And the ones I know other sellers have used successfully. If you know of other successful online markets, please let me know.

Major Bead Shows:

Whole Bead
Best Bead
Bead Fest
Bead and Button
Bay Area Bead Extravaganza

Regional Bead Society Shows

Often areas have a regional bead society and once a year those groups will hold a show. I know there is one in Houston, Denver, Oakland and many more. These local shows usually cost less to do (lower table fees and no travel if you’re lucky) and are very friendly. Check your own area for more opportunities.

Local Craft shows:

Almost everyone has local craft show opportunities to them to sell their work. I personally do not do any of these shows even though there are many, many opportunities available to us. New Orleans has an Arts in the Park program that runs three weekends a month at three different parks in the city. On top of that, there is a festival almost every weekend somewhere around here and a happening Farmers Market in Baton Rouge.

You see, other than the marbles, we do not sell finished work. I can, but do not enjoy making jewelry. I prefer to make the beads and leave that task to my talented jewelry designer customers. As for the marbles, well, that is  a specialized market and not quite right for craft/art shows.

However, if you do sell a finished product, these types of shows can be advantageous. Just be sure to check out the venue first and get a feel for what sells well there.  If you make one-hundred dollar bracelets and the gal next to you is selling two dollar import, base metal earrings, it may not be the best fit.  Use your judgement or you could end up in ninety degree heat for two days with nothing to show for it but a sunburn.

Galleries:

Again for galleries, you are going to need a finished product. You are also going to need to sell wholesale or on consignment or both.

Bead Stores:

Bead stores are great if you can find ones that want to carry artisan lampwork beads. A lot of them do carry imports, but don’t let that scare you off. There is a market for both (more on this later). Again, for bead stores be prepared for wholesale and/or consignment.

Home Parties:

We’ve all been to them. Creative Memories, The Pampered Chef, Tubberware, Naughty lady parties, Mary Kay, etc. Why not one for your beads and jewelry? Work it the same way you would one of those Creative Memory parties. Set everyone up to make a simple piece of jewelry, designate a reward program for the hostess, bring some wine, and lay out your wonderful creations for sale.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be going over the pros and cons for each selling model and give you some tips on how to be most successful for which ever direction you choose. In the mean time, be asking yourself these questions:

Do I like engaging with customers?

Do I want to travel  once or twice a month?

Can I take decent photos or am I willing to learn?

Do I have the confidence to approach bead stores/gallery owners?

Do I have the technical skills to run a website or other online venue? Am I willing to learn?

And finally the most import question: Do I have the  motivation to stick with whatever direction I plan to go?

Getting Legal–Chapter 2 The Business of Lampworking

Now that you have defined your success and hopefully worked out your goals, it’s time to get legal. Before you offer anything up for sale, be sure you have all your legal ducks in a row.

Every state, county, parish, and town has their own rules as to what a person needs in order to be legally running a business. I recommend going down to your county (or parish as I live in Louisiana) offices and find out what you need.

I’ve run our lampworking business out of three states. California, Texas, and Louisiana. Each have their own regulations. But these are the things you need to be aware of:

First things first. Are you going to be a sole proprietorship? Meaning you are the sole owner of your business? In a partnership with another person? Or maybe you want to be set up as a corporation. I understand there are tax and legal benefits to forming a corporation, but you’ll need to do that legwork yourself. Our business is set up as a sole proprietorship, and is by far the simplest way to go.  I am the owner, so yes, Greg works for me.

Okay, next you need to decide on a business name. If you are going to operate under anything other than your legal name, you need to file a DBA (aka Doing Business As) with your county. Years ago it was a trend in the lampworking community to use made up business names, especially ones with the word fire or flame in them. In retrospect I think those artists would have been much better off going with their own artist name. JC Herrell, Lori Greenberg, Kimberly Affleck, Andrew Brown Studios, etc, etc. All easy to remember. I don’t have to think, ‘were they Dancing Flame, Fire Diva, Midnight Glass?’. BTW, I just made those all up off the top of my head. If any of those are your business name, I apologize if I offended you.

Last month while at Bead and Button we were looking for one of our friend’s booth in the booth guide and none of us knew her business name. We knew her name, but not what she was operating under, and we’d all known her for years. After we found her she concluded she should probably just change it to her own name. Unless you are prepared to do a major branding, think about just using your own name. We’ll remember you, I promise. Greg and I use Chase Designs, since there are the two of us. But I still brand his marbles Greg Chase in every listing. Its the connection thing.

Anyway, if you use your own name you can skip the DBA.

Permits and licenses:

Business license. Find out from your state and county if you need one. For some places you do and some you don’t.It’s usually a revenue thing for cities.  Since I run a business out of my house that doesn’t have customers coming here, I do not need one. I found this out by calling my city offices and asking.

Sales and use tax permit. Almost anyone in engaged in business will need one of these unless you are in a no sales tax state. In Louisiana, I needed to register for one with the state and my parish. In California and Texas I only had to register once with the state and the one form took care of both. If you don’t know, go ask someone or call.Also find out what you need to collect taxes for. In most places if you sell on the internet and ship out of state, you do not need to collect sales tax. If you are selling in person or doing shows, yes you need to collect it. Do your homework, talk to an accountant. Know your city, county and state laws.

Also if you do shows out of state, you will need to register for a sales and use tax number for each state you sell in. Most shows will help you with getting the right forms filled out, but if not, just call the taxing authority in that state and explain your situation. They will help you out.

Resale license. If you are purchasing anything and reselling it, you want and need one of these. This little number makes it so you do not have to pay sales tax on these purchases.

It can seem overwhelming and sometimes the forms are confusing, but I’ve found all of the people at my parish offices to be very helpful. They want you to be legal and are more than willing to help.