It was Archimedes who said, “Give me a fulcrum and a place to stand, and I will move the Earth”, but everybody focused on the fulcrum instead of the place to stand, which was a big mistake that hasn’t been corrected since the Empire fell — you know which one I mean.
All of them. They all fall down & go boom after a while, just as every dominant species gives way to a new adaptation sooner or later, and in the case of organic life, it’s generally sooner rather than later.
A fulcrum is something steady, something that doesn’t move, and that allows a lever to be applied in order to reduce the amount of torque you need to apply in order to move the targeted heavy thing, such as a giant rock or a planet.
A lever allows you to place the fulcrum so that the amount of force needed is no more than you’d want to put in, taking into account how long it might take to move the thing, meaning that there must be a balance achieved between the fulcrum and the lever handle.
Gosh, it sounds so complicated, but one simple hands-on demo would show you what I mean. The closer the fulcrum point is to the object, the easier it will be to move it with the lever, while the farther away it is, the wider the movement of the object for the given force … oh, heck, I’ll do a demo in the upcoming workshop to show you how it works — most folks never inquire or discover anything about fulcrums and levers, so you might find it interesting and educational.
Keep in mind, however, that the lever and fulcrum are the least important in the scheme of things — it’s “a place to stand” that really makes the difference, and that goes double for sales and marketing, and that goes triple for promotions that introduce work ideas to the public.
If you’ve got a really saleable product, such as the handmade name-tags, that provides the fulcrum, the motivation to buy.
If in addition, you have a place to stand, meaning a roadside booth plunked directly down on a human cattle-path, you can, indeed, move the Earth.
With a high rate of foot traffic, you could have as many as 10,000 chances an hour to make a sale, and you only need to make 30 or 40 sales to make it worthwhile to be out there hustling name-tags, metal-embossing classes and metal-embossing kits, plus any books, CDs or DVD courses you think will be relevant after the primary sale of the name-tag.
The name-tag is important, because it is the BEST, but by no means the ONLY, time to ask the person their name. This is the best time to ask them something about themselves and their family, and you can ask the names of their kids, and ask if they’d like you to make some tags up for them as well, leading to the subject of Christmast and stocking-stuffers, and FAMILY FUN.
Here’s where you mention that a family that does crafts and music together tends to bond better over the years, and it tends to last throughout their lifetimes as a bonding thing they shared back in the day.
AFTER the sale has been completed and written up and item handed over, you can then ask for their email or texting address, etc.
I guarantee that, if I had the population pressure of a fairly constant but not particularly large, crowd of passers-by, especially tourists, I’d be selling hundreds of handmade embossed name-tags every day that the weather was good enough to allow pedestrians the time to stop and look and go through a money-item exchange, which means good weather only.
During rainy days, you can set up indoors by creating a trunk show that any boutique would gladly want to have in their shop, which means “it’s all about presentation”.
Finding the right spot to stand with your merchandise is the real trick. “Give me a fulcrum AND A PLACE TO STAND and I will move the Earth” will be your motto, and hopefully, you will find that place.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby