I’ve always had the ‘entrepreneurial’ spirit. I remember, being 9 years old, going down to the local pottery shop and buying a dozen un-kilned coffee mugs. I drew cartoons on them (I was a wanna-be cartoonist back in the day) and brought them back to the pottery shop to have them Kilned (baked).
I’d eventually take them into my local police department or church … and sell them. I did sell a few, But I never really made a profit. The price of the actual mugs, the kilning and paint all cost much more than what I made from sales. This is the same dilemma I have in the retail world. I’ve been selling my own logo design software product in retail stores such as Fry’s Electronics and Office Depot for a few years now.
The boxes each cost (roughly) $3.00 to design. This includes the cardboard, the CD and sleeve, as well as the burning of the disk …and putting in the ‘filler’ to make the box appear strong and sturdy on the shelf.
To design the box’s artwork, You can find a professional graphics person. If you’re brave, and don’t have to meet face to face, you can hire a designer from a company like eLance.com (eLance allows you to choose designers who “bid” on your project). A graphic designer may charge somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,500 to $7,500 to create the artwork for the box! Something to remember: it’ll cost, in the end, about $3,000 for 1000 boxes.
Most times, 1,000 is the smallest amount you’ll be able to print. This can really add up when a large chain (Office Depot for instance has 1200 stores nation wide). Each store may want a minimum of 5 boxes on the shelf. That’s 6,000 boxes. At $3 a pop!).
Once the boxes are manufactured, you have what they call “Shelf Space” to deal with.
Not all fo them, but most retail chains like you to buy this shelf space.
Often times, this shelf space gets as high as $4,000 for just one product! You really need to sell an armload of your software in order to make up this $5000. Oh, and then, the retail chain may take a 10% cut of your sales …It can all get crazy.
Why the internet is better
This is why the internet is so terrific. NO overhead other than your time. (I use external eCommerce companies to handle my shopping cart system. They take 20% of my monthly sales. …but it’s WELL worth it I must say).
This is why downloadable software is so profitable. Create it once and sell it multiple times. An eBook or homemade CD as an example. The Retail stores used to be king, but no longer. The Web rules!
It’s harder to market yourself on the net beign that there’s so much competition. However, that’s where your Search Engine Marketing comes in. But that’s a topic for a another article.
Marc Sylvester – CEO of Laughingbird Software. Home to the Logo Creator, logo design software for Mac and Windows. Visit http://www.thelogocreator.com for more details!
Tags: Design, design software, graphic design, graphics, logo design, logo design software, logos, software