How to turn your "clay" abilities into a business

Lakeside Pottery is a ceramic art teaching facility in Stamford, CT with over 4,500 enrolments in the past 7 1/2 years. In addition to pottery and sculpting abilities and successful teaching techniques, marketing is by far the most important aspect of having a constant flow of people that are interested in learning "clay" and using your pottery/ceramic facility. Unfortunately, I've see a lot of very talented people that invested all of their savings but without the understanding that most effort of any successful business is marketing (and not your artistic knowledge).
Of course the artistic, technical, teaching talent and personality are very important aspect for success. However, this ability must be constantly marketed effectively to insure constant flow of customers who pay the bills.
If I see interest in this topic, I will continue to post tips and ideas sharing what we learn through our very busy 7 ½ years at Lakeside Pottery focusing on the following:
1) Are you qualified to start a pottery business
2) How much capital you need and where to get it
3) How to create mission statement and business plan
4) How to design a studio
5) How to design your offerings (classes, workshop, gallery, events, etc.)
6) what equipment to purchase that meets your vision
7) Successful firing
8) how to insure constant flow of customers / students / pen studio artists?
9) What you should spend your time on,
and more.

Views: 187

Comment

You need to be a member of Electric Mid&Hi Fired Ceramics to add comments!

Join Electric Mid&Hi Fired Ceramics

Comment by Morty Bachar on September 21, 2011 at 3:20pm


Hi Deana,

 

All are very good questions.  We helped in building several studios answering these questions among many other.  See link below for more details on how our consulting services be used: http://lakesidepottery.com/Pages/Pottery%20Consulting%20Services.html

 

And another link for studio useful tips: http://lakesidepottery.com/Pages/Tips.html

 

 

How do you insure constant flow of customers?

This is by far the most important question and where most of a studio / school owners should spend the time in particular before opening the doors to the new facility.  Your time should be spent on:

- Generating affiliations (e.g. your local towns continuing education, nature centers, city camps, etc.)

- Building a solid and high quality web site (90% of our new customers find us on the web when searching for classes, workshop, gallery, workshop custom made commission pottery). 

- Regularly scheduled newsletters with your programs offerings and some added value content such as tips, art shows or craft / art fairs in the area.

- Press releases

- Even posting

- Free introductory workshops

- Help local art teachers in public and private schools.  If you are good, they’ll talk about your studio with parents, administration and students

 

What should I sell as a potter

- Whatever you are very good at

- Do not display items that are less than great.   Take a deep breath and dispose everything that is less than perfect (or give it to charity).  First impression is crucial./body>

Comment by Deanna Baechtel on September 15, 2011 at 8:26pm

great article would love to hear more about it, how do you insure constant flow of customers, what should i spend my time on, what should I sell as a potter, and how should I design my studio.

 

Videos

  • Add Videos
  • View All

Use These Links to Support Us

Low cost flat lapping disc can be used on you potters wheel if you, drill bat pin holes in it, and provide a trickle of water to cool it. At amazon.com, 120 grit for aggressive material removal. Click the image to purchase 

Members have had great things to say about John Britt's new book, Mid-Range Glazes. Click the image to buy from Amazon.com

Purchase Glazes Cone 6 by Michael Bailey, The Potters Book of Glaze Recipes by Emmanuel Cooper, or Making Marks by Robin Hopper, all available at amazon.comMastering Cone 6 Glazes by John Hesselberth & Ron Roy is now out of print.

Harbor Freight is a great place to find unbeatable prices for better HVLP spray guns with stainless steel parts and serviceable economy models, as well as detail guns, all tested by our members for spraying glazes, as well as compressors to power the guns. As yet no one has tested and commented on the remarkably inexpensive air brushes at harbor freight.

The critter siphon gun is a spray alternative that is well liked by some of our members, and is available at amazon.

Amazon is also a competitive source for photo light tents for shooting professional quality pictures of your work. They also have the EZ Cube brand favored by several of our members. You might also want to purchase the book Photographing Arts, Crafts and Collectibles . . .

If you are up to creating videos of your work or techniques you might want to invest in a flip video camera

Following are a few scales useful for potters. Ohaus Triple Pro Mechanical Triple Beam Balance, 2610g x 0.1g, with Tare $169.00

And finally a low cost clone of the OHaus. The Adam Equipment TBB2610T Triple Beam Mechanical Balance With Tare Beam $99.62

ebay is a great alternative for many tools and the equipment used in the ceramics studio - kilns, wheels, extruders, slab rollers are often listed there both new and used.

Tips for Members

If you just want to spout off, it is best accomplished as a blog posting. If you want to get more guidance and ideas from other members, ask a question as a new discussion topic. In the upper right corner of the lists for both types of posting, you will find an "+Add " button. Clicking it will open an editor where you create your posting. 4/16/2014

© 2024   Created by Andrea Wolf.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service