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ARTISTS AND ARTWORKS LTD
Beautiful Artwork
YOUR OWN AREA AND SELLING
YOUR OWN AREA
When you decide you would like to sell our prints, posters and t-shirts etc., email us first before making any payment so that we can agree with you the area you would like. Generally, each exclusive area will be an area with about 600,000 people.
The minimum number of prints or posters we sell at a time is 100 (A3) prints or posters. We sell you our prints and posters for £1.20 each, therefore 100 prints cost £120 including postage. These are prints/posters which we believe should each retail for £12.50 or above that. You could either sell the prints or posters to a shop for £5.20 each, which may then sell the prints to the public for £12.50 (£10.40 plus VAT) or you could sell each print and poster directly to the public for £12.50 (You won't have to charge any VAT until you reach a relatively high turnover - see VAT guidelines).
100 prints may sound a lot but with a sizeable area to sell our prints within, it's not a lot (see next para). As mentioned above, each area will generally be about 600,000 people. For example, you can sell to shops or market stall-holders, or you can sell yourself - directly to the public in a variety of different markets. There are over 1000 markets in the UK. (See below for Selling). Further, if you wish, you can sell online.
If for example you were to sell to shops with a large footfall (large numbers of people passing/entering their shops) those shops may insist upon a 'sale or return' basis, and if it's a shop with a large footfall then you may decide it's worth agreeing to that arrangement for a limited time. Below we refer to a Counter Display Unit (CDU) - a box which sits on the shop's counter in a prominent position which contains an assortment of prints or posters and a print displayed on the box with a sign referring to the price. These CDU's are probably essential for most shops. However, using such a CDU box you would need to place at least 20 prints in each box. Consequently, the 100 prints would only be sufficient for 5 shops. We're presently designing a new CDU box and a picture of that will be on our website in a few days. The cost of the new CDU's are £5 each plus P&P of £6.30 for up to 8 CDU's and should last in the shop for many months. You would usually refill these boxes every few weeks.
Quantities: To make having an exclusive area worthwhile from your point of view, and also from our point of view, our arrangement with you is that to retain your exclusive area with us you have to purchase within each year a minimum number of prints or posters. We have made these figures not only on the low side, but we believe minimal figures which, even if people are carrying out the business on a part-time basis, they should fairly easily meet these targets which are: In the first year you would have to purchase from us to retain your exclusive area 500 prints or posters including your initial purchase of 100 prints. Thereafter, it rises to 600 prints or posters for each subsequent year.
To put these figures into context, if you decide to sell to shops, perhaps as well as selling prints and posters directly to the public, you're likely to be able to arrange to find say two shops each week to sell the prints/posters, then you should be selling approximately say 18 prints/posters each month per shop. Further, if over a six month period you were then able to have over 50 shops selling your prints/posters, you would be selling 900 prints/posters every month. However, some shops will not be successful, so you would have to replace them but as we're talking about taking on only two shops each week which is a low figure, it's more than likely you would be able to replace the shops which are not successful and still overall be taking on two successful shops each week. It's also worth taking into account that if by the end of the 9th month you have say 75 shops selling your prints and posters, you would have created what most people would consider a successful business and a good income, but still with the expectation of reaching say 100 shops in the months to follow.
Exclusive Area: What we mean by 'Exclusive Area' is that each buyer will have their own area and no-one else will be able to sell our prints and posters in that area. If you or we find that someone else is selling our prints and posters to shops in your area then we will contact them and insist they stop doing so. If they do not stop, then they will be informed they risk losing their own exclusive area.
Although the area will be exclusive, there are some exceptions. For example, markets are sometimes used by market traders who may use markets in different areas. Further, chains of shops which have central buying may also have shops in different areas. Furthermore, an area we have no control over is the internet but, as you know, anyone can advertise on the internet. However, as you will be buying directly from us, the producers of our own prints and posters, at very low trade prices, if you wanted to sell online, yourselves, your prices could be highly competitive.
Our Print Series: There are over 50 images shown in the prints and posters on our website at the moment. When you buy your second lot of prints/posters then, although you may want to buy more of those prints which sold particularly well, we suggest you also buy a variety of different images too because the shop will have many of the same customers regularly visiting them and it's good for them to see that you frequently add new images too. We will also add new series of prints/posters at least twice each year and often three times each year.
T-SHIRTS, TOTE BAGS ETC.
With your first purchase of the 100 prints you will also receive free 16 of our pdf art files (see page 5) in which the artwork has been edited for t-shirts, tote bags etc. We don't produce the t-shirts, tote bags etc. ourselves but if you look online there are a great number of companies which specialise in printing t-shirts etc. When you choose a company, and you are satisfied with their price etc and you have agreed exactly where the image is going to be on the item, then all you have to do is email them our file. It's also worth mentioning that it's worthwhile asking for a proof, even if it's only an emailed proof.
YOUR FIRST ORDER OF PRINTS
In this first order of prints we have included 9 of our most popular prints (on page 2)
and also the main print in a new series (on page 3) aimed at a younger audience.
The 9 (A3) prints are:
PAGE 2, TITLE: PRINTS (1) Numbered: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, and A9.
PAGE 3, TITLE: PRINTS (2). Numbered: A11.
Included are 9 (A3) prints of nos: A1 to A9 inclusive = 90 prints
and A11 = 10 prints
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100 prints
SELLING THE PRINTS AND POSTERS
You may decide to sell your prints and posters in one or some of the following ways:
1) Online. As you will know there are a great number of platforms to offer prints/posters online.
2) Through Shops. Selling to and through shops has been discussed above, but it's not only shops which already sell prints, but Furniture shops, Home Accessory shops, Garden Centres, Gift shops and any shop which might want to extend their range of products - Many people buy prints at one time or another. As mentioned above, we suggest you change the assortment of prints regularly.
If you think it's necessary to place your CDU into a good shop which insists upon a 'Sale or Return' arrangement, rather than them purchasing the prints/posters outright, you'll find a number of websites offering 'Sale or Return' Agreements online, some for a relatively low cost and some free. Check that the prints/posters remain yours until you're been paid for them and it's clear that it's the shops responsibility to either return the prints/posters to you in a good saleable order when you demand, if they haven't been sold, or pay you the agreed amount at the agreed time.
If a shop isn't selling regularly better to stop the 'Sale or Return' agreement. No point having a shop which hardly sells, or any other venue which doesn't sell.
Ideally, as mentioned above, aim for 50 shops in the first 6 months and keep adding so that by the end of the first year you are close to 100 shops.
3) Sell through Markets directly yourselves: There are a great number of markets (over 1070 in the UK). Not only through Arts & Crafts Markets, but also other Specialist Markets including the Specialist Food Markets etc., and General Markets. The markets can be good fun and there's often a cameraderie with other market traders. As you probably know, you will need Public Liability Insurance. It's as very competitive area, so it's worth looking around online and comparing prices.
4) If you don't want to sell in markets directly yourselves, you may find stallholders in different markets who may want to sell your prints.
5) Placing your prints in Coffee Houses, Restaurants, Wine Bars, Garden Centres, Gyms, Libraries etc. You would probably have to frame the prints to do this (consider the inexpensive Ikea 'Fiskbo' frame). Sell the prints and frames together for say £25.
PRESENTATION BAGS
Some people like to offer the prints in a clear glossy bag - it's not essential but, after you've been selling for a while, you may want to consider it. The bag we've sometimes used in the past is a clear cellophane 'type' bag we bought from: Transpack www.transpack.co.uk (Tel: 02389 869999)
For the A3 size print, we've bought a bag a little larger than the A3 size
(No. PPB1620. Size: 407mm X 508mm) 100 bags cost £17.43 plus Delivery £6.95 + VAT = £29.26.
Therefore 29p each
Further, as well as the above bag, if you are selling directly to the public in a market, for example, in time you might consider placing a few of the prints on a thick white or off white paper which can substitute as a mount. Place the print on the 'mount' in a cellophane 'type' bag at this larger size
(also sold by Transpack. No. PPB1824+ Size: 465mm X 616mm. Cost = £42.54 incl. VAT and postage for 100 bags
Therefore 43p for each bag.
It looks good and also shows that the print on the mount is ready to be framed because that's what some of your customers are likely to do. We've taken a simple and inexpensive approach to this, and not what a professional framing shop would usually do, and found that a relatively thick and inexpensive A2 off-white paper can be found in 'The Works' (A2 size) Crawford & Black Sketch Pad. The whole pad = £4 but there are 15 pages, so each A2 page costs 27p. We used double-sided tape, placed the print in the centre of the mount and the whole process takes very little time.
(We think if you decide to add a mount in this way you could increase the sale price accordingly)
We should also mention that we have recently seen on Amazon, two companies, one called Cello Express,
and the other Leuoso, neither of which we have dealt with, selling what appears to be the same or very similar bags to Transpack. They seem to include delivery in their price to Mainland UK and it's also worth checking out their prices.
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