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potential new shop advice

TyrantDesigner

Art! Hot and fresh.
Alright, so I have this amazing deal falling into my lap. Right now I do my graphics out of my shop at home with all the distractions that go with it. (travel to and from customers, house hold distractions, wife, etc) and it's working well now because overhead is low while I'm still starting from scratch from my last shop eating it due to the owners health.

The shop ... rent, utilities, insurance, the whole kit ... is as much as most peoples car payments ... but it's not very visible but is store front property. So on the plus side, customers can come to me if need be, I can truly dedicate my time to work without distractions, and it's a face to my shop that people know I won't be gone in 2 months leaving them in a lurch. Downside, monthly bills to account for, but they are low enough that my printmaking class I'm going to be teaching will pay for it.

What do you guys know as the downside to a storefront outside roadside visibility and how would you guys market that without doing ad time in media. I have ideas on the marketing (such as foot traffic dropping off things like brochures, the occasional coroplast signs, etc ... normal stuff) but for those of you that do have that shop without eyesight of a road, what do you find works the best without being a pest?

I think the other piece of advice I need is how would you calculate the overhead of the shop into a cost breakdown for jobs since it's easy to cover (especially in this case) and at least to start would me sparse traffic change for the first 3 months to start? and if it is a sudden pickup would I want to keep the rates the same if the traffic increases say 5 times over what I assume would be a normal breakdown? or lower it to keep costs competitive for clients? Or keep it so it provides me with further job price negotiation room?
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
No one cares if your prices are slightly high..... IF you put out a good product. Don't start out low and gradually increase. People will notice that much sooner than having your prices right where they belong upfront.



There's another thread going on right now about this same question. Check it out because a lot of your answers are already in writing there.
 
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