Crochet business

At the very end of April I decided to put my crocheted items into a new boutique store that was opening up here in town, called No. 4 and Company.  I was really excited about this.  I paid a monthly rental fee for my spot in the store and then all the revenue from items sold was mine to keep.  Here is my set-up in the shop:

Here is the view from the front door.  My stuff is straight back against the wall.

I put together a book with photos of everything I had made so that people could place custom orders for items they wanted.

So, my items stayed in the store for the month of May at a rental rate of $50 per month.  I did mark up my items to cover the cost of the rental space.  However, the whole thing ended up not working out for many reasons, and I pulled my items out after only one month.  The women who opened the store specialize in redoing pieces of furniture, building new furniture, and chalk paint.  The people who came into the store were there specifically to purchase those things and not crocheted items.  The store was just the wrong customer base for me.  I think crocheted items overall work better on a custom order basis.  Also, when I made the decision to rent a space, I didn't know that the store would only be open Thursday-Sunday and with shortened hours on some days.  And the store was never very busy even when they were open (the terrible location that wasn't anywhere near anything else, I'm sure had a lot to do with that).  So, with the combination of those things, I only sold a few items.  I almost made back my $50 and was only out the time I spent making the items that sold, so it wasn't too much of a loss.  I have since then, on my own, sold most of the items I made for the store.  And I have continued to have a steady stream of business on my own, so I don't feel bad at all about pulling out of the shop.  It was fun to try something new!