The Logo Creator – Getting Yourself Into Retail

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 then took them to the local fire department and my school and tried to sell them. I did sell a few of them … but I never made enough to compensate for the cost of the cups, kilning and paints! This is the SAME problem I have with the retail world when trying to sell my logo design software. I\’ve been selling The Logo Creator, in large retail stores like CompUSA, Fry\’s Electronics and Office Max since 2004.

The software boxes cost about $3.00 to build. This includes the box, the CD and it\’s sleeve, and the burning of the CD disk. There\’s also a \’filler\’ that the retailers want you to include (this makes the box appear stronger 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.

The least amount that the printshops will let you print is about 1,000 units. It may sound small, but the cost can really add up when a chain like OfficeMax has 1200 stores with each store ordering a minimum of 5 boxes. That\’s 6,000 boxes! It adds up quick.

Then, you have something called \”Shelf Space\” to deal with.

Not all, but some retail chains won\’t just take a product and put it onto their shelves. They need cash for this \”shelf space\” first.

Sometimes, shelf space can go as high as $5,000 for one product! You need to sell a boat load of software to make up this 5k. Then, the retail chain takes it\’s cut. Sometimes up to 10% …It can all get a bit nutts.

Why the internet is better

This is why the internet is so great. There\’s very little overhead other than your own time and talents. I even use an external eCommerce company to handle my transactions. They take 17% of my monthly sales. …but it\’s WELL worth it.

This is the beauty of downloadable software – or anything you can create once and have others purchase multiple times. An eBook for example. Retail used to be king, but I\’ll put my money into Net any time.

It may be a bit more difficult to market yourself online with so much more competition, but that\’s where your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and eMail campaigns come into play …but that\’s a topic for 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!