Today marked the biggest steps so far in turning my photography into something that can hopefully pay the bills and mean I don’t have to go looking to work for someone else again. I applied for a stall at That Great Market, a small local suburban market in northern Sydney. In the application form I said I wanted to sell art photography prints. After I sent it off, I was metaphorically holding my breath to see what they said…
If they accepted my application, I’d need some stock to sell. I already have a printer set up for large framed prints (see yesterday), but I thought it would be good to have smaller items as well, so today I ordered a batch of greeting cards printed with a selection of my photos. The printer I chose supplies envelopes with the cards, so that’s good. My wife suggested that I should present them professionally by putting each card/envelope in a cellophane slip bag. Searching online found a supplier of those, and I ordered a box of those as well. When these all arrive we’ll have to spend some time collating and inserting the cards into the bags!
Now I can sell all this stuff from an online store – which I still need to set up. I have plans for that, but just need some time to do the necessary installation and configuration.
And then this evening the market responded, saying I could have a stall! They said they were actually looking for a photographer to complement their other stalls, so it was good fortune that I’d applied! I’m definitely taking that as a good sign.
So… I’m now set to have a market stall at Laurelbank, Willoughby, on Sunday 1 March, and at East Lindfield Community Hall on Sunday 15 March and 19 April. I’ll see how they go, and then may extend my stall into future months. If things go well, I’ll look to expand to other markets, including some larger and more well known ones.
This is incredibly exciting… and daunting. I’ve never done anything like this before. I’m making up a business plan and listing equipment that I need to get organised before the first market day. Phew!
New content today:
- Irregular Webcomic! #4178
- Square Root of Minus Garfield #3907
- iToons #356 (yesterday’s update, but I forgot to include it yesterday)
- Comments on a Postcard #4035