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StudentPermalink Reply by Tink in Tokyo on March 5, 2012 at 3:04am

First, find a place to sell the hoops - maybe a flea market or a farmer's market. Find out how much it costs to have a stall or booth. Maybe you can sell hoops at other locations, too, like places where you teach classes, or at events where you are performing, etc.

Very important point is that vending is a business, so you need to do some budgeting and math.

Figure out the cost of doing business. That means your supplies (cost per hoop) plus manufacturing time (Does it take an hour start to finish to make a hoop? What's minimum wage?) and that is your base cost per hoop.

You also need to add on the cost of your booth, display racks, marketing materials (i.e. signs, cards, website, and price tags), packaging, shipping/transportation to the venue, your time for vending, etc. Some of these things aren't so easy to figure on a per hoop basis, so to get an estimate, you can decide how many hoops you want to sell and divide the total of extra stuff by that.

And then you can start to think about your profit. It might be a percentage or a set amount per hoop.

Check into your local & state rules about sales tax. You might need to charge that, collect it and send it into the tax authority. If you are selling a hoop here and there after a performance, you can probably cheat and nobody will catch you. If you have a weekly stall at the farmer's market, probably not. You'll also need to let the IRS know about this income (which is why it's important to do the math up above.)

That's the business part of it. The hoop-making and creating an attractive booth, interacting with customers, etc, is the fun part. They really do go hand in hand...

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StudentPermalink Reply by Victoria McIntyre on March 6, 2012 at 8:56am

Aside from vending to hoopers, keep in mind that

KIDS LOVE HULA HOOPS. Little boys too. Use cheaper tape (vinyl, duct) for color and then add gaffer to make that tape look nice. The kids sometimes like weighted hoops (just put some water or rice inside for different weights) since they are easier to keep in motion and kids aren't going to vortex or isolate it. Make the price reasonable because parents will only spend so much.

I say this because I didn't even realize what a good market children's hoops were until I started vending hoops. 

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ModPermalink Reply by SaFire* on March 25, 2012 at 1:55pm

Do you know where you want to vend?  Or will you also be selling hooping casually to other hooper in your area?  You might want to create a craiglist or kijiji ad for your hoops, then new hoopers in your area can find you.

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StudentPermalink Reply by Trisha Taylor on June 2, 2012 at 12:19am

Just want to say thank you to everyone for your help and advice it's greatly appreciated... Unfortunately for the moment I had to put my hoop making on hold due to finances :( yay adulthood! But when I do start up I will def keep in mind all the advice =) 

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