Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sunshine Designs on January 3, 2010 at 2:32pm

Coming from someone who has done this many times.

Find out exactly how many hoops they want.
I highly suggest making a practice hoop in the store, cause let's face it, unless it's in a box, someone will want to play with them and who wants to buy busted up scratched hoops.

Depends on the business you will either:

sell your hoops to them for cash
give them an amount of hoops and they give you a commission percentage per hoop sold

What kind of quality hoops are these?

gaffer/mirror/glitter/prismatic/pattern hoops or are they more vinyl?

I suggest making a variety of colors and styles, you know people out there are super cheap. Plus if you have some cheap ones and some expensive ones and charge the store a certain amount for the bundle the price will vary.

For instance my last order was for 12 hoops. I charged $260
that's $21.66 a hoop. Not a lot I know, but they need to make profit too. For me it only takes about 20 minutes to make a hoop start to finish for me, so that's another reason why re-sellers get a discount from me
(where I live, tubing and supplies are SUPER CHEAP!) Plus I always order a huge order from Identi-tape for cheap shipping and a special discount
I made 4 that were 3/4 100 psi ($14.88 for one roll of tubing, used less than 1/2 of it)
and they were vinyl and gaffer - cost about $5 to make those for me
the rest were 3/4 inch 160 psi (22.99 in my area)
I then made 4 that were 2 specialty and 2 gaffer swirl hoops - this is the most expensive to make
2 collapsibles - usually vinyl and gaffer
then the rest were 1 specialty and 1 gaffer

as far as taxes I have always asked the buyer to pay for them upfront, accept cash and then file my taxes at the end of the year and consider it a sale.

Negatives - people damaging hoops - so make that practice one
People not seeing the worth of your product.

hope i answered everything

Permalink Reply by Hoopnosis (Jenny Hoopnosis) on January 3, 2010 at 11:28pm

Hello Hello~ :D
I have been selling my hoops at another business, actually in another town:p and what I do is sell the hoops at my normal price, then at the store they mark up the hoops abit and make a bit of a profit. I know they are not selling my hoops to make much money, they are selling them because people walking bye see beautiful hoops in the window of many sizes, colors and weights. They get interested and go in the store. The hoops are bringing more people into the store :D

Its a win win for both!!! Hope this helped at all~

Hoopnosis

Permalink Reply by Adriene on January 4, 2010 at 6:21am

Thank you both so much! This is all very helpful information, and I will keep it all in mind when considering the offer. I'll post back with an update!
:)

Permalink Reply by Siren of the Circle* on January 12, 2010 at 9:38am

There's a coffee shop in my town that has local artists' work hanging on the walls that they sell. I figure hoops are art - functional art - and was considering approaching them about displaying/sellling some. I don't have a tax ID (nor do I plan to pay taxes on them). Anyone think this will be a problem?

Permalink Reply by mandy from rainbow-hoops on January 20, 2010 at 7:23am

Hi, i run Rainbow Hoops in the UK,
we do this with a few other retailers.Some
buy hoops at wholesale price and sell them on either at their premises or on-line,
aswell as some have a drop-ship with us:
My hoops are advertised by them but always with my brand.
They get the order and send it on to me. I make the hoop
and dispatch it to their customer, i send them a wholesale costed bill.
It works well for us we get more advertising and sell more hoops
and often these clients come back to buy direct.
We have great relationships with our wholesalers.
That's most important
hope this helps
mandy

Permalink Reply by Miranda on July 6, 2011 at 2:23pm

I'm impatiently waiting for my chance to jump through this hoop.  I'm stuck at basically the first step.  How do I approach a business to ask if they'll sell my hoops in their store?  email, in person or phone Is there a way that works better then others? I've attached my second draft of my letter to retailers.  I plan on passing it out in person the next few days to stores in my area.  I would LOVE quick feedback for myself so I'll give a good first impression and I hope to help others through my experience.  I wanted to add my average sales so far but didn't know how to put it b/c I plan on doing better then ever with my hoops in others stores. 

Attachments:

• Why hoops belong in your store!.docx, 2 MB