Tuesday's with Tammy: Know when to hold 'em

Posted by Tammy Miller

The AccuCut GrandeMARK machine and dies have been a source of income for store owners in a unique way for many years. More and more I have been impressed with the creative ways they have used our system to make money. Nothing has proven that to me further than the smart business ideas that were posted on or around March 11th.  If you haven’t read all of them you should take some time and do so. I'm sure you can find some ideas for your store if you have one!

The concept we call "Know when to hold ‘em" is one of my favorites and is one that I suggest all the time to store owners. You can also find this suggestion on page 6 of the 2008 Craft Catalog... if you don’t already have one, you can request the catalog online. Basically, the thought is to keep a few strategic dies in the back room or office (not in your die cutting center) and use them to create pre-cut shapes, kits and themed packages. You could keep the die in the back indefinitely or add the die to your die cutting center when it pays for itself.

So how do you decide which dies to do this with? Album dies, oversized shapes and frames are a good place to start. Let's look at a couple examples.

This is our Mat-Circles-11" die with an example of it used on a scrapbook page (see Sweet Giggly Funny page). It would be a good die to keep back and use to cut out chipboard or any plain color of cardstock and then sell that in your store.

Here's another idea... AccuCut sells four different metal tins that each have a coordinating die. For example, here is a Color My World album using our Large Hinged Candy Tin and the Rectangle Accordion Album die that goes with it.

These are the three shapes you get on the die (with a mini pic of how they fit together):

You could sell the tins and then use the die to cut blank albums in a variety of colors. The accordion album shape is 11 1/4"w x 3 1/4"h so you can get three albums out of just one piece of paper. I would bet that you could charge at least $1.00 for a blank album die cut ($3.00 out of that one piece of paper), so you do the math figuring out the profit you will make. Before long you will pay for that die.

Best of luck, and keep posting your comments. I have heard from many store owners they love to read all of the ideas being shared on our blog.

Comments

[Lori R.]

I just love AccuCut dies and your blog is amazing! My favorite one is the circle scallop. I have add the link to your blog on to my blog http://stampnincklady.blogspot.com/

I also love all the great ideas here.
Lori R.