Sep 05 2009
Starting A Crafter’s Cooperative
A season is finishing here in New England. The Summer season with its tourists visiting the lake, mountains and the beautiful countryside.
This year an energetic person in the area set up meeting of area crafters wanting to join in a co-op store, each selling his or her crafts. In general, the venture has been a success, but next year it should be even smoother with all the kinks worked out.
Here is how we did it some of what we learned:
- Once the expenses were determined, the interested crafters made a commitment to each cover an equal portion of the expenses for the 4 month period we would be open. This amounted to $40 per month.
- Crafters were able to sell and display any of their handmade items and there was no consignment fee, as expenses had already been covered.
- Each crafter was asked to take a share of the hours which the store would be open. this is the area that cause the most difficulty. No one assigned hours, we just signed up for them on the “google” calendar. Some people signed up for an adequate amount, others were somewhat slackers….
- The organizer handled the state paperwork to make the group a corporation; she opened a simple checking account; she wrote out checks once a month to the crafters for the income they earned.
- Sales were recorded on a triplicate sales pad, with one copy for customer, other 2 copies for bookkeeping.
And those were the basics. Advertising took up a good part of our budget, in addition to rent, insurance, etc.
It is a do-able venture, with kinks that are worked out as the group goes along. The way the expenses were handled, everyone knew up front what thier costs would be — no surprises.
If you have the idea to start a co-op, this is a good model to consider.
