Philadelphia Buyer’s Market Recap- Day 4

Well, it’s the final morning of the Buyer’s Market. Since the show ends at 3 in that afternoon, there is on only one session that morning.

Day 4: Session 1: Impacts of Wholesale
The final session is a panel discussion with artists who have or are currently participating in the Buyer’s Market. There is a whole range of experience in the panel from one artist who has been doing the Buyer’s Market from almost the time of it’s inception in 1982 to a furniture artist who was a Visiting Artist himself only one year ago. This was a great time for the remaining visiting artists to ask specific questions from artists with a variety of experience with the Buyer’s Market. One artist asked an excellent question about how long it will take for artists to start earning a profit by participating in the Buyer’s Market. The consensus seemed to be that the first couple shows will always be your slowest. It seems that buyers want to see that you are in the wholesale arena for the long haul. As you start to become more and more well known, you’ll begin to build a loyal base of galleries that will look for you year after year. The main thing I took away from this session is that your first show will be overwhelming and somewhat frightening everything will turn out in the end.

Mentoring Session
As it turned out, my mentoring session was scheduled for the last day of the program, which I actually found to be the best thing for me. It gave me a chance to absorb everything about the Buyer’s Market and then come to my session with specific questions.

My mentoring session was with gallery owner, Barb McCormick of Poppy. For your mentoring session, you are asked to bring pictures of your work instead of actual samples. Barb turned out to be a great mentor. After showing her pictures of my work, she gave me some great advice on what direction I should go if I decide to go wholesale with my work. Plus she gave me some ideas for changes to my existing pieces and for new lines that I hadn’t even thought about. All in all…this mentoring session was a great way to end a long weekend of learning.

Some key takeaways from this weekend

• If you’re going to go wholesale, you should be in it for the long haul.
• If you’re going to do BMAC, be prepared to be in it for the haul. You may not get immediate results
• If you’re seriously thinking about doing the Buyer’s Market, you should seriously think about attending this program. Almost every long-timer said that they wished that the program was available before they started

Well, that’s the end of the series…whew! If you have any questions about the Buyer’s Market, you can visit the Rosen Group’s website. The next Buyer’s Market will be from August 2nd through 4th…so sign up for that session if you’re interested. Be sure to visit the websites of the great panelists and artists that I mentioned throughout the series.