THE PRACTICALITIES

Running an Arts & Crafts Home agency

Making an agency plan

You may need to develop a clear plan and schedule to make your agency work efficiently and profitably, and a business plan template may help you to define your plan, or click on the link below for a full description and analysis for developing your agency business plan.

www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?r.s=sl&topicId=1073869162

The real value of creating an agency plan is not in having the finished product in hand; rather, the value lies in the process of researching and thinking about your agency in a systematic way. The act of planning helps you to think things through thoroughly, study and research if you are not sure of the facts, and look at your ideas critically. It takes time now, but avoids costly, perhaps disastrous, mistakes later.

Points to consider

I have 15 years experience working within the Arts & Crafts Movement community, dealing, writing and collecting, and have been running The Arts & Crafts Home website for over 6 years. In this time I have seen traffic increase month by month, year by year, with visitor statistics increasing every month, reflecting a growing interest in the Arts & Crafts Movement in particular and period interior design in general. It may well be that I can help you with your ideas and planning, in terms of marketing strategy and customer targeting, and I am always willing to support your ideas and plans. The experience that I have gathered over the years has shown me the most successful areas of promotion, and those fields of products services that generate the highest proportion of interest and sales.

Each agency will have different criteria to consider, in terms of clientele, agent knowledge, location, local history, acceptance and understanding of the products and services, and therefore dialogue with The Arts & Crafts Home, and fellow agents will facilitate an intellectual resource empowering the agents to develop their individual style and methods, but, backed up with a support network.

I fully encourage each agent to develop an individual marketing & promotional strategy and identify target customers using your individual experience, flair, imagination, talent and skills, and am always willing to listen to your thoughts, concerns and observations. I am eager to learn too.

The Arts & Crafts Home is the market leader in the field of Arts & Crafts products and services and has a growing reputation throughout the world and goodwill gained over every continent, and this momentum can be served for your benefit.

I am not expecting rigid schedules and timescales for results; I am patient, and happy to nurture an organic growth of the agencies. I want all agents to consider me a friend, willing to listen and help in all aspects of business and friendship. I tend to think of everyone I communicate with via the newsletter as someone who has full access to my life, failures, successes, growth and path. I am hoping for successful long-term business relationships with every agent and will always try to put your interests at heart, knowing the importance of your individual success.

How the agency works in practice

Once you have read and digested both the introduction and the agreement and you consider it to be worthwhile participating as an agent we will request two verifiable references to your suitability and ability to be nominated as territory agent. Following this we will finalise your territorial area.

You will then be appointed the exclusive and sole agent for your agreed territory and henceforth all sales of products and services arising from your territory will earn the agent 20% of the total gross territorial income.

We will, at this point, require details enabling us to credit your bank account or credit card account with your agency commission. Or, should you choose, we can mail a cheque or use PayPal to credit your nominated account.

You will have a user name and password to access the agent message board and be able to communicate with other agents.

As orders arrive at The Arts & Crafts Home we note the delivery address of the order and will notify the agent of the order, and also keep the agent informed of subsequent dialogue with the client. We shall have individual agent accounts where we will hold the agent’s commissions until the 3 monthly period elapses, whereupon we shall transfer the commission to the agent’s account in the agreed manner.

We will serve the clients interests, communicate, dispatch samples, and pack and ship all orders with our established communication and delivery systems.

Should you successfully nominate an agent for a new territory you will also earn an additional 5% of the new agent’s gross territorial income for the first 3 months of the agency.

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