Posted by Dave Bull at 2:04 PM, December 18, 2009 [Permalink]
Yesterday saw the end of work on the little new year greeting print; 195 copies are now pressed under the drying boards. In the spare time over the next week, I'll get the envelopes addressed and then truck them all down to the post office. On time again this year!
With that job out of the way, I can get back to normal work, so I have now begun the second run of Forest in Winter - another 100+ sheets. With no decisions to be made, it won't take so long, so by about the 22nd or 23rd I'll be done.
The next job up will be the final print in the Solitudes series - Seacoast in Spring - but I think I'll save work on that one until after the turn of the year. I have the basic 'idea' already in mind, and although it's not going to be an easy one to get down on paper, at least I won't be struggling to think about where to start ...
And ... with just one print now left in the series, it's time to start seriously thinking about what will come next. As usual, there are a lot of ideas jostling for attention, and many paths I could take. As I sit here printing, the 'discussions' inside my head go back and forth, back and forth. 'Carver Dave' has lots of ideas about what he wants to make. 'Printer Dave' looks at some of those ideas and shakes his head ... And of course 'Manager Dave' stands over the both of them, shaking his head even more vigorously!
And that gives me an idea. I have no 'manager' of course; I work completely independently. Because of this though, my decisions sometimes turn out to be somewhat on the impractical side of things. The scroll project a few years back is a perfect example of this - 'Carver Dave' was given his head, and the result was near bankrupcy!
Would you like to sit in the manager's chair for a while? If I offer some of my thoughts on my business policies, and on possible projects for next year's work, would you be willing to proffer some feedback, guidance, and 'advice'? I have to tell you right up front that this will be a purely 'honorary' position ... no 15% cut of my profits for you, I'm afraid! (Although I suppose that doesn't matter anyway - 15% of nothing is ... ) Let's give this a try! Please feel free to put your 'manager' hat on, and put any suggestions into the Discussion form below!
OK, rather than try and decide my entire future all at once here, let's start with a relatively easy point for discussion. Because I live and work in Japan, and because I first started selling prints here, only later extending my reach overseas, I have always priced my subscription prints in Japanese Yen. I never specifically made this a policy, it is just 'the way it is'. Over on the information page for my Treasure Chest, for example, the price is listed as '2,000 yen + 330 postage = 2,330 per print'.
Now because I myself am dealing with other countries all the time, seeing a price in a 'strange' currency doesn't really bother me; if I don't know the approximate value, I just look it up. But when I think back to when I lived in North America, and hadn't yet had many dealings overseas, foreign currencies were just gibberish. Especially ones that had lots of digits. "Look at all those zeros; that looks expensive!"
Off the top of your head - without checking - do you know how much those prints cost?
For making the actual payment transactions it doesn't actually matter much to the collectors, as the credit card processor charges each person in their home currency anyway. It does matter to me, as I would prefer to have payment in my own home currency, but I would be willing to inconvenience myself, if it turned out to be something that would help to increase sales.
So what do you think, Mr. Manager? Should I price my prints in $? In Euros? Pounds? All of the above? Specifically I'm thinking, would it increase orders? But as the currencies are always changing, and I would thus have to adjust those prices all the time, might it be more confusing?
The series continues in If you were my manager : Part Two ...