[doHTML]<font size=3><b><u>Comprehensive Tailoring Guide: Index</b></u></font>
<br>
<i>by n'Jessi</i>
<p>
Color Explosion
<br>
<i>Making Tough Decisions</i>
<p>
Choosing Your Schematics
<br>
<i>More Tough Decisions</i>
<p>
Labeling: How to Name your Clothing
<br>
<i>A-Ti's guide on Labeling clothing</i>
<p>
Labeling II:Electric Boogaloo
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<i>Advanced Lessons: Gender/Species Restrictions & Bioengineered Clothing.</i>
<p>
Pricing: The Hard Part
<br>
<i>How to get paid for doing what you love</i>
<p>
Vendors: What to Stock, and Where to Stock it
<br>
<i>Vendor Stocking and Organization</i>
<p>
Setting up Shop
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<i>Putting down roots... and decorations!</i>[/doHTML]

[doHTML]<font size=3><DIV><STRONG><U>Color Explosion: Making Tough Decisions
</U></STRONG></font><EM><br>by n’Jessi</EM></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV>So we have an enormous bunch of colors. Sometimes it is overwhelming. Once an item leaves my house, if it’s not clearly labeled, I have no idea what exact color it is if the customer comes back to match it. Now, matching other tailors’ items is hard, but matching your own should be easy.</DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><EM>Create a system that you can easily understand, but still means something to the customer.</EM></STRONG></DIV>
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<DIV>Basically, you want a system of colorization, that if your customer sends you a tell which reads off the name of the item, you should be able to match it without seeing it.</DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><U>The grid system</U>. A person may assign numbers to the colors based on the position in a grid. So, for example “Dress blouse (red, G16)” so that the customer knows that it is red but you know that it is position G16 on the chart.</DIV>
<p>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><U>The number system</U>. A tailor might also assign a number to every color. This may make more sense than a grid system because the color positions may shift when you resize the window. However, to some visual thinkers, the number system is just too abstract. Again, make sure to add a color, not just a number, so your customer can understand the label as well. <a href="http://www.swgbio.com/palette.htm"target=blank>Click here for an example from the "Needful Things" Tailoring Catalog.</a></DIV>
<p>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><U>My system: names and numbers</U>. Every color has 6 lighter shades in the palette. Therefore, to simplify, I name each “darkest” color, and then follow it by a number, depending on which box I select in the lighter colors. </DIV>
<UL>
<LI><EM>Step 1</EM>: name your colors. My bottom “brighter” blue is called “blue” and the blue two levels up from that is “navy”. The middle blue I don’t bother with because it looks too much like “navy.” The bottom purple is “purple” and again, I don’t use the others because they are too similar. The bottom bright green is called “brightgreen” the middle (pukey) green is called “olive” and the upper green is called “green”. These are just examples of how you can name your colors. The important thing is that when you say “blue” you mean a certain shade of blue, and not any of the three blues.</LI>
<LI><EM>Step 2</EM>: lighten using a number system. Let’s say a client wants a light blue, and I use the blue color that is 3 shades to the left from “blue”. I name that color “ltblue-3”. That way I know that the shade is three boxes to the left of “blue” but the customer can easily see that the item is light blue.</li></ul>
I have included my system not as a guide to emulate (please don’t!), but as an illustration that any system will work, as long as you can decipher your code, and your client can tell what color it is from the label.
<p>
<DIV><U>In conclusion</U>: whichever system you choose, make sure it’s easy for you to understand, easy for you to write (i.e. not ridiculously long on your label) and still easy for the customer to understand.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><em>For tips on labeling clothing, in general, see A-Ti's Guide to Labeling and Labeling II</em>
<p>
<DIV>
<STRONG><EM>Make Choices About Which Colors to Use</EM></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><EM></EM></STRONG> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV>As mentioned above, there are certain colors I don’t use. These can include colors that are too similar to other colors, colors that are unpopular or ugly, etc. Here are a few tips I’ve learned:</DIV>
<UL>
<LI>Generally, if a customer wants a bright color, he will want the brightest color. Nobody says red when he really means “that sort of washed out red, two boxes to the left of the really cool red.”</LI>
<LI>The brightest, deepest, richest colors are generally most requested and most popular.</LI></UL>
<p>
<DIV>Now, there are two types of tailors: vendor tailors and custom tailors. I’ll deal with the choices in turn…</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><STRONG>Custom Order Tailors</STRONG>:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV>You don’t have to worry about items matching each other because generally you’re making an entire outfit in one sitting. However, there are still choices to make.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><U>Just for peace of mind, make sure to keep your terminology constant</U>: decide which color box you will use to fulfill a specific color request and stick with it. If you use the deepest darkest purple as “purple”, always do that. If customer A says requests something in “purple,” that should be the same as customer B’s outfit that he requested in purple, absent additional instructions. This will make it easier later when customers come back and want matching, or tweaking. Trust me, customers will not know the difference between the two purples, so just pick one. The majority of customers will not say “that’s not liiight blue, let’s go one shade lighter.” You’ll drive yourself nuts with reinventing “light blue” every time you get an order for light blue. So decide which color you consider “purple” and “light purple” etc, and when the customer asks for it, you have no trouble knowing which one to pick.</DIV>
<p>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><U>It is absolutely imperative that you mark your colors consistently, especially if you stray from your few “favorites.” </U>If you get a difficult customer who ends up choosing the light blue third from the left after a few redos, make sure the outfit is labeled clearly. That way if the customer comes back and announces she would like a matching hat, you know which weird color you used. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><U>Don’t be afraid to tell a customer that something will look ugly.</U> Really, the customer does not know that high quality boots look faded and nasty in black. It’s ok to say “are you sure” about problem items and suggest a different color or a different item. Don’t color an item in a way that looks lousy. The customer won’t want to pay, and you don’t want your name on it. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><U>When in doubt as to what the client wants, make a pair of sample shorts or a shortsleeve shirt.</U> Unlike vendor sales, the client cannot see what he/she wants before buying. Although there is no guarantee that the color on the shorts will be an exact match to the color on the item, this will at least cut down on the number of redos. Alternatively, you can have color samples in your shop. See <a href="http://www.fishcrime.org/SmisColorShowroom.jpg"target=blank>Smi's Color Showroom.</a></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><STRONG>Vendor Tailors</STRONG>:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><U>Decide which color labels match with which box, and stick to it</U>. It will speed up crafting time because, again, you won’t have to reinvent “light blue” every time.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><U>Make sure everything is clearly labeled, for the customer’s sake</U>. Customers, when matching an outfit, often cannot see the subtle differences in color because they have a background scheme other than alpha blue (trust me on this one, it’s nearly impossible to see colors on the “imperial blue” interface). Therefore, the items need to be clearly labeled so that the customer knows that a “blue” shirt will match “blue” pants.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><U>If you choose a color to use, make sure complete outfits can be put together using that color</U>. This probably will involve cutting down on the colors you would like to use. However, customers prefer one-stop shopping and an entire matching outfit over being able to find a certain bustier in 4 shades of blue. If the customer can’t make an entire outfit, he may not buy anything at all, because nothing is more frustrating than trying to match a random article of clothing, either by going to another vendor, or by trying to track you down. If you decide to use red on a bustier, you need at least to also carry red hotpants, red skirts, some red pants, and absolutely red shoes. The number of colors you use will probably depend on how many items you want to offer on your vendor. <em>Most important tip: keep dress slippers (even 2 pairs) in stock for every color that you use.</DIV></em>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><U>Not all items need to come in all colors</U>. When you carry purple bustiers, for example, think of what goes with bustiers: skirts, hotpants, leggings, etc. But, do you necessarily have to make a heavy reinforced jacket in purple? No way! For the field gear, you may want to choose more muted colors that you wouldn’t be caught dead using on a bustier. Make sure there’s decent variety to put together reasonable outfits that go together, but you don’t need to make sure every item matches every other item. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><U>If something looks ugly in a certain color, don’t make it</U>. Seriously, don’t do it. If a customer asks for it, and he or she is sure (after you explain the problem) that’s one thing, but don’t feel that you have to make something that looks yucky, just because you want it to match all your other items. For example, the noble skirt, because of the yellowy sides, only looks good in navy, black, red and purple. Don’t make it in light blue just because you need to match the bustiers. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><U>It’s ok to label creatively, but don’t forget the codes</U>. If you want to make a fading orange grand ball gown and call it “sunset” to make it sound flashy on the vendor, that’s fine, but make sure you include the codes. That way when you next make a “sunset” you don’t forget what colors you used for the “sunset” look. </DIV>
<DIV>
<p>
<STRONG><EM>Weird Pallettes: Leather and Metal and Dusters, oh my!</EM></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><EM></EM></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV>
<p>
Ok, none of this is going to match up. It’s just a given. It’s problematic when something is really nice but it just doesn’t match exactly. A few tips for dealing with weird palettes:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><U>Find a labeling system to make it clear that these items will not match others</U>. Try as hard as possible not to confuse customers. For example, I name a yellowy color on the leather palette “gold” and then if I match shoes to it, they’re also “gold.” That way it isn’t confused with the traditional “yellow” on the normal palette. </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><u>Reverse engineer your color scheme</u>. If you name a leather/duster color “brown,” search out an equivalent color on the normal palette to also label “brown”. It’s easier to match a leather color using the full palette, than to try to get a leather color to match a main color.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><U>Try to make leather colors that will match a viable regular palette color</U>. For example, on the luxurious gown, the powder blue color can usually match light blue shoes or lekku wrap in the normal palette, so create items with the big picture in mind. It may be frustrating to your clients to offer items that have no items that match to make a complete outfit. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<p>
<DIV><U>Use white or black</U>. Leather, schmeather – white and black are always safe. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV><U>Use white or black accents</U>. That way you can use the wackier leather colors and still have a safety net for matching the rest of the outfit. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV><U>Recognize that some outfits won’t be worn with shoes or accessories</U>. For example, the exotic leotard. If I really have to, I’ll match shoes, but I don’t sweat it too much because many dancers just don’t care about shoes with that one. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV><U>Weird textures happen, but many clients just don’t care</U>. This is mostly the suit jacket, which appears darker than other items, or the thin striped pants which have that weird texture. Most customers don’t care. How you deal with this depends on your customer base. You could try to match these items to your conventional colors, if customers really want that sort of thing. Many times, however, there’s just no way to match the weird-textured item. If it’s a custom order, I’ll warn the client or try to match it. If it’s a vendor order, I’d let the client return it, or make a matching replacement. But I’ve had this happen maybe twice, and it was with a real pain in the butt client. I don’t lose sleep over my suit jackets. </DIV>
<DIV>
<p>
<STRONG><EM>And Finally, Your Personal Preferences Win</EM></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><EM></EM></STRONG> </DIV>
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<DIV>This is a game and it is supposed to be fun. Don’t do anything you don’t want to do. Be quirky. If you think red is the devil, and everyone is wearing entirely too much red, don’t carry red. It’s as simple as that.</DIV>[/doHTML]

[doHTML]<font size=3><b><u>Choosing Your Schematics: More Tough Decisions</b></u></font>
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<em>by n’Jessi</em>
<p>
Presumably now you have a handy-dandy color system in place and you’re ready to figure out what to make. But, you guessed it, there are a ton of schematics, and you have to pick and choose.
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<em><b>Custom Order Tailors</em></b>
<p>
Well well, isn’t your job easy? Your customer tells you what to make. Except when he’s confused, or doesn’t know what the schematics look like, or wants something cool…. Just kidding, choosing a schematic is hard.
<p>
<u>Be knowledgable about schematics, even the ones you don’t usually make</u>. You should know the following details:
<ul>
<li>Gender/species restrictions</li>
<li>Colors it comes in and/or matching problems</li>
<li>Any bug issues (gapping)</li>
<li>Whether it can be worn with other articles of clothing (i.e. armor, long gloves, cloaks)</li>
<li>How it generally looks (does it make you look fat?)</li>
<li>How it generally looks in certain colors (i.e. faded black?)</li>
<li>What items go well with it</li></ul>
<p>
<u>Warn your client if you think he/she is making a mistake about a schematic</u>. For example: revealing tops do not look good on very chesty females (droop factor). If you think something will look bad, tell your client and make an alternative suggestion.
<p>
<u>Reserve the right not to make anything you don’t want to</u>. Fortunately, most tailoring items take generic materials so it’s not as if limiting your schematic use will cut down on your resource searching. However, don’t make anything that is a pain in the butt. For example, I don’t make jewelry, not even by custom order (unless it’s a really close friend). I can never remember which bracelet goes on which hand, and I don’t like the fact that I can’t see the necklaces. For me, it’s not worth it.

<p>
<em><b>Vendor Tailors:</em></b>
<p>
We have a ton of schematics, I think over 200. You’d have 400+ items on a vendor if you made one in white and one in black, only. If you cut down on the number of schematics you use, you can have 400 items, but in different pretty colors. With the vendor nerf imminent, keeping a limit on stock is critical. Keep the following in mind when choosing and creating schematics.
<p>
<u>Get a feel for your audience first</u>. There is nothing wrong with doing a “test run” of items, and seeing what sells. Then make more of what sells, and discontinue what doesn’t.
<p>
<u>Avoid buggy items</u>. Is it really worth putting necklaces on the vendor? I would say no.
<p>
<u>Label clearly</u>. In particular, make sure that items with gender/species restrictions are clearly labeled as such in the label, not in the description on the vendor. This is particularly useful when selling to a merchant-reseller, who certainly would not bother in typing a lengthy description when loading the vendor. <em>For general labeling guidelines, see A-Ti's Labeling Guide and Labeling II (next article). See also Vendor Stocking and Organization for other ways to prevent customer confusion. </em>
<p>
<u>Make unpopular items popular</u>. If you think something is cute, make it anyway. It may take longer to sell, but… do you want everyone to look like drones?
<p>
<u>Don’t make ugly, difficult items</u>. Anything that looks good “in certain circumstances” is probably not a vendor item. Save it for the custom orders.
<p>
<u>Decide whether you want to specialize</u>. If you want to specialize, this will increase the amount of colors you can offer and decrease the schematics you use. It’s up to you whether you want to create a niche for yourself.
<p>
<u>Decide whether you want to spend time making noob items</u>. Do you want to make only elite items, to get more money for each item, effectively cutting down on your crafting time? Or do you want a full array of items, even the lower level ones, for a more complete item selection?
<p>
<u>Don’t make anything that annoys you</u>. Period. Crusade against dusters if you want. It’s your choice.
<p>
<em>In conclusion: do what makes you happy, and what makes your workload reasonable.</em>[/doHTML]

[doHTML]<font size=3><b>Labeling I: Naming your Clothes</b></font><BR>
<i>by A-Ti of Valcyn</i>
<p>
These seems to be an issue that has been brought up before by some tailors and completely ignored by others. The problem is, naming your clothing adds several seconds to the amount of time it takes to create something, and when you're trying to get orders up to date and vendors stocked and sales recorded, those seconds add up.
<p>
But, there is no reason beyond time, not to name your clothing. So why don't more tailors use this tool? I honestly don't know, and it's not really the point of this guide, so just ignore this digression and read on.
<p>
Let's start this little guide with how I name my clothing:<BR>
A-Ti's Formfitting Undershirt (Black-7)
<p>
<b>The Tailor's Name</b><BR>
<b>A-Ti's</b> Formfitting Undershirt (Black-7)<BR>
Where does it go? At the start of the clothing? At the end? No where? I lucked out with A-Ti, since her name leads off the alphabet, most of the items I offer on the bazaar are leading the list. A tailor whose name starts with "W" or "Z" isn't so lucky. I've seen tailors use the name of their store, and yet others who use a name completely independent of both. Whatever the decision a tailor comes to, the key is to be consistant.
<p>
When I first started out I didn't add my name at all to the name of the clothing. I didn't see a need for it, but then I wasn't in it for the tailoring business, I was in it to make clothes for A-Ti the Dancer. Yeah, that lasted long, I got tired of the cantina customers licking me, so I traded in my dancing shoes for a needle and thread and customers who demanded a shirt be made for them right then and there. (Maybe being licked wasn't so bad after all.) When I got serious about tailoring as a profession, I got serious about how I named my clothing and everything, regardless of what it was, was made with "A-Ti's" leading the name.
<p>
Players don't always look to see who the creator is in the details window, so I decided to make it easy on them. And it's paid off. People buy an item off the bazaar and know that they can look for A-Ti to make them other things. I have gotten a lot of customers this way, especially before I reached Master Tailor. The other thing is to keep it simple. If your name has 8 or more letters in it, go for the name of your store if you have one, or come up with a name for your designs that incorperates you name. When I do a search to look for a profession, I go with the person who has the shortest name if possible, I'm lazy that way. Key strokes add up over time.
<p>
<b>The Clothing Name</b><BR>
A-Ti's <b>Formfitting Undershirt</b> (Black-7)<BR>
Unless the item I am creating is meant to be worn as an outfit with other items, or has a name that makes people not even bother to look at it, I try to keep the names as SWG named them. If for no other reason I don't have to remember what was going through my mind at the time. If I am doing bio-enhanced clothing, I will abbreviate the name as needed, maybe removing the Formfitting from the name, but only if I run out of character space.
<p>
Again, the key here is to be consistant. Don't name a flex-form shirt a widget shirt 9 times out of 10 and a flex-form shirt the tenth time through. Make it easy on your customers, and make it easy for them to order the same thing from you in another color. If they have to look around for the type of shirt they have so you can have a basic understanding of what they are wanting, you're making it too hard on them and chances are they won't want to order from you again.
<p>
<b>The Color</b><BR>
A-Ti's Formfitting Undershirt <b>(Black-7)</b><BR>
When I first started out, I had no idea what colors awaited me and even less of an understanding that what I saw as an ideal name would leave someone else wondering what I was thinking. How many people actually know that Lapis is blue?
<p>
I actually ended up stealing an idea from Eva at <a href="http://www.swgbio.com/welcome.php"target=blank> Needful Things</a>. When someone places an order from her site, she number the colors from left to right and top to bottom. I do the same thing, take a relatively generic name and add a unique number to it so that I can tell exactly what color I used. The 7 added on to the black means I chose the color, 7 over from the left. 217 is a bright red. 251 is a purple.
<P>
This also helps customers as they know to look for matching numbers to find a color coordinated outfit. When I complete a custom order for someone, I explain how I label my colors so that they can pass it on to another tailor who might be making them a shirt to coordinate with their pants.
<P>
Try not to get too creative with your color names, most people don't really care and/or have no idea what you mean. (I have a jacket named plum shimmer that won't sell, but I have sold 3 identical jackets of the same color, using a different name.) It's like cars, people think black is black, and when some designer names the color Onyx, even though every other car with that color is called black, the consumer figures it must be a different color. Until they see two cars next to one another.
<P>
No matter system you decide to use, throw the color name on the color of the clothing. When players look through the bazaar, they will stop at the items that have the color in the name, before they will take the time to look through the rest of the clothing with a color in it's name. Consumers in the real world and in the game want things made as easy for them as possible and it's easy for them when they can see what color the clothing is even before looking at it.
<p>
<b>Just Remember...</b><BR>
Be Consistant, be simple, give them all the info they need up front, and finally, while people want things simple, don't be too unoriginal. Just as in life, clothing from a respected and sought out tailor holds as much merit as a Donna Karen suit or an Hermes scarf does to some people. Give your clothing a "label" that is easy to read, offers all the information, and will be the same no matter what type of item the customer is looking at.[/doHTML]

[doHTML]<font size=3><b><u>Labeling II: Electric Boogaloo</u></b></font>
<br>
<em>by n’Jessi</em>
<p>
This is an addendum to labeling tips in A-Ti's Labeling Guide. A few additional comments:
<p>
<u>Restrictions</u>. Some people have no common sense. Really. They will buy just about anything and then complain that they can’t wear it because of gender/species. How you label for restrictions is up to you. You can choose to label nothing, and expect people to figure it out using common sense. You can label everything, on the theory that people have no common sense, and if you label one thing with restrictions, your customers will expect that unlabeled garments have no restrictions whatsoever. Here is what I suggest:
<ul>
<li>Label Wookiee clothes that don’t already have the word “Wookiee” in them. Believe it or not, I’ve had crested battle padding fly off my vendor at the hands of non-Wookiees. Also, for your Wookiee friends, this will help: if the Wookiee sorts alphabetically, everything will begin with “W” if you add a “Wookiee” to the front of “Crested Battle Padding”, “Sigiled Waist Wrap” and “Decorative Waist Wrap”.</li>
<li>Label female-only items that aren’t immediately obvious. For example, the flared-cuff shirt, the dress blouse, the sports wrap, the flared jacket etc. You may even want to name some skirts “male or female” (no “unisex” under the filter!) to indicate to males that these are ok to buy.</li></ul>
<p>
<u>Bioengineered Clothing</u>. Put stats up front. Stat-seekers care more about stats than fashion. If you label your item “+13 bleed def. paramilitary camos (green/blk)” this will not only put your stats up front, but zap your item to the top of the list when sorting alphabetically.
<p>
<u>To name or not to name, that is the question</u>. Whether to put your name on the item is entirely up to you. When I was advertising for new clients, I always put my name on the item. However, unlike A-Ti, I always put it at the end. First, I was doing vendor sales mostly at the time, so it seemed redundant to put my name in front. Secondly, people want a specific item, and the name may interfere with them finding the item. If they’re looking on the bazaar for a “formfitting undershirt” they’ll be looking under “F”. But if you want to get your name out there on the bazaar, putting your name in front may be the way to go. Finally I decided I was getting too many tells from random people who came across one of my items somewhere and decided to look me up, so I started leaving my name off – figuring that if they’re too stupid to “examine”, I don’t want to hear from them.
<p>
<em>Caveat: if you make items in a factory, the crates will reflect the factory owner’s name, not the name of the schematic creator. If you use someone else’s factory, mark your items with your name, so that he/she doesn’t get tell hell.
<p>
(The real reason I stopped putting my name on items: after making 100 items in one sitting, you misspell your own name more often than not). </em>
<p>
<u>The item description</u>. Please, leave it alone. For your sake, and for the sake of other tailors. Even if the name sounds utterly stupid, please leave it alone. First of all, people read online catalogs now, so they know what the items they want are named. Secondly, I hate getting tells from people who swear up and down that “cargo pants” exist, only to find out that they’re relabeled paramilitary camos. Be kind to your fellow tailors, don’t make up names. If you want to label creatively, be sure to list the original name somewhere. Examples: “Imperial Jacket (Gray Long Formal Jacket)”, “Leia’s Dress (White Pleated Dress)”. The original name (Long Formal Jacket, Pleated Dress) remains intact, while still giving a good description of the item.
<p>
<u>Color</u>. Include both a color description that the customer can understand, but that you can easily match later. See Colorization for details. I usually put the color at the end of an item description, again, because the customer is usually looking for a specific style, and not a specific color. In addition, color codes (for tailor use only) should not be “up front” as they will confuse the customer. Bottom line: be consistent in your color labels, and always include your codes.[/doHTML]

[doHTML]<font size=3><b><u>Pricing: The Hard Part</b></u></font>
<br>
<em>by n’Jessi</em>
<p>
<b><em>Factors To Consider:</b> Time, Expertise, Materials, Popularity, Market, Simplicity</em>
<p>
<u>Time is Money</u>. If you’re a custom tailor, you spend the same amount of time making a fleshwrap as a soft undershirt. It only makes sense that your prices should reflect the time you spend. For a vendor tailor, as well, there may be little incentive to make the “cheaper” low level clothing because it takes the same amount of time to make novice tailor and master tailor items. One solution to this is to create a “floor” amount, which no item will be priced below, regardless of complexity. Ask yourself: for what amount of money would I bother making this item? For me the number is 500 credits, but it varies from tailor to tailor, server to server.
<p>
<u>Expertise Matters – to Hell with Holocrons!</u> So I bust my butt to hit master, pay for all my training, and you want me to sell this to you for a straight cpu basis? I think not! Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that for a while, every tailor on the servers had hit master roughly around the same time, so masters were no longer at a premium, making it not feasible to sell master items at a higher price. With the hologrinders, there was almost no value in being a master. Fortunately, the hologrinding is coming to a close, and many of the “undercutter” tailors have burnt out on the profession and quit. Master items may become a hot commodity again in the near future. Regardless, I paid for every box, I busted my hump to become master, and I’m charging a little markup on all my master goods, and that’s final!
<p>
<u>Materials – does Prada charge by the square inch?</u> Many say that tailors should charge a straight cpu value for clothing. Usually these critics are also quick to point out that our materials are generic and that we are therefore making a ridiculous profit. Not the case!
<ul>
<li>We have a lot of overhead. We need nice furniture, nice house, storage house, harvesters, etc.</li>
<li>We waste a lot of outfits on special orders and redos. How am I going to sell that hot pink flightsuit which my client rejected and made me redo because it wasn’t “gay enough”? (true story)</li>
<li>We’re not mind readers – items don’t sell sometimes. An armorsmith can sell out his entire inventory in a day. I’ve had some items sitting around for months.</li>
<li>We make everything by hand, and each item is low-priced (compared to armor and weapons). A slim profit margin doesn’t work when there are simply not enough hours in the day to hand-craft a high volume of low-priced goods.</li>
<li>Hand crafting and doing custom orders is time-consuming. If you want the individual attention, be prepared to pay for it. In that same amount of time, I could kill some creatures for money. (see “Time is Money” above)</li></ul>
<em>For an excellent pricing calculator that lets you factor separate cpu values for different resources, a higher cpu value for factory-created panels, and a “multiplier” for higher skill items, see <a href="http://www.thewulfen.co.uk/swgtailor/"target=blank>Tailoring Price Calculator</a>.</em>
<p>
<u>Popularity – Supply and Demand</u>. I bump my popular items. Why not? This causes people to either pay more to look like everyone else, or to choose something less expensive and less popular, and we can actually have variety.
<p>
<u>Market Value</u>. Tailors always complain about undercutters, and there will always be undercutters. Now, do whatever you want, but here are simple reasons not to undercut.
<ul>
<li>You want to make less money? What?</li>
<li>You’ll burn out too quickly. Too many customers. And they will snap up too many items. People will not make difficult choices about colors, if they can buy two or three. They love a bargain so much they will buy indiscriminately. Think about when you hit the sale rack. Do you buy one shirt on sale, or do you buy three, essentially spending the same amount of money you would have anyway, but getting more items?</li>
<li>Indiscriminate buying will lead to your items being resold rather quickly. Trust me, it’s bad advertising to have people trying to get rid of your stuff on the bazaar. It makes it look like you sell lousy clothes.</li>
<li>You’ll get the kind of clientele you don’t want – the cheap, rude ones. Worse yet, they’ll throw enough money at you for 15 outfits and consider you their personal slave. Ugh, been there, done that, no thanks.</li>
<li>Do we really want to see everyone in a dang fleshwrap? Do we?</li>
</ul>
<p>
<u>Simplicity – don’t tear your hair out remembering prices</u>. Round it up or down to the nearest 500. Don’t make life difficult by having some items at 1000, 1100, 1200… it’s not worth it. Anyone who will quibble over 500 credits is probably going to be a pain in the keyster.
<p>
<em><b>Combining these factors – my solution</em></b>
<p>
I used the pricing calculator to factor in the pricing system. I put in a small multiplier for master level items and an even smaller multiplier on the tier 4 items. I then compared certain “standard” items (i.e. flightsuits at the top end, and flex-form shirts and bustiers at the lower end) with other tailors on the server. I played around with the numbers until the targeted items (i.e. flightsuits and shirts) hit the numbers I was aiming for, and I figured the rest of the items should fall into place. Then I went through the list and tweaked items up or down based on popularity and simplicity. The lowest number I use is 500 credits, regardless of the item. I generally do vendor sales, so I don’t charge for my time – but usually people tip me for a custom fitting or a custom order.
<p>
<em><b>Discounts</em></b>
<p>
Discounting is a personal choice. The upside is that you can form lasting relationships with customers that way, and reward customers who treat you well. You can also provide incentive to give you larger orders, which can be made in a factory. The downside is that, without a private vendor system, it is very difficult to distribute reduced-price goods. Even in a cargo pocket, there is a chance of theft. And, even with the backpack or cargo pocket system, it still forces the tailor to make the discounted item custom, even if there are plenty of that particular item on the vendor.
<p>
I would say that discounting works well for the face-to-face tailor, but not so well for a vendor tailor. The fact is, if I have that item on the vendor, I don’t want to be bothered to make another one and put it in a special pack. It’s also frustrating for the customers to see the items right there on the vendor, but hold off on buying them because of the discount. Personally, I don’t give a discount because of the administrative feasibility, since I am primarily a vendor tailor.
<p>
If you are going to give a discount, a few suggestions:
<ul>
<li>Be consistent – give the same person the same discount every time, or base it on the amount of clothes bought. Use a chart if you have to. Don’t change the rules.</li>
<li>Think long and hard before you give the first discount, or that person will always expect it.</li>
<li>Make sure you dictate the circumstances in which you give discounts. You don't have to give the same person a discount in every situation. If it’s a rush order, and you don’t give discounts for rushes, make sure you tell the customer that.</li>
<li>Don’t be bullied into it. Remember, once you give a discount to someone, it’s very hard to revoke that privilege in the future. </li>
</ul>
<p>
<b><em>Haggling</b></em>
<p>
Yes, Preciouss, we hates haggling. Don’t let them bully you! This is more of a problem with the custom-order tailors. Some solutions:
<ul>
<li>“Let me put it on the vendor so you don’t have to pay banktipping fees.” Then it’s too late for haggling. Or simply “Your order is on the vendor.”</li>
<li>“No”</li>
<li>“My prices are not negotiable.”</li>
<li>“I’ll hold it for when you do get the money.”</li>
<li>“If I give you a discount, I’ll have to give one to everyone.”</li>
</ul>
And finally…
<ul>
<li>/ban</li>
<li>/addignore</li>
</ul>
<p>
<b><em>Returns</b></em>
<p>
There’s no right answer to the returns issue. It’s whatever you feel comfortable with.
<p>
<u>Do you want to take returns at full value?</u> I would say this depends on how long the customer has had the item. If the person has had the item extremely long, I wouldn’t take the item back at all.
<p>
<u>Custom order returns?</u> This depends on how weird the item is (i.e. whether you can resell it) and whether you actually have a vendor for selling such stuff.
<p>
<u>Make sure to check the merchandise!</u>
<ul>
<li>What did you sell it for? Is the person trying to sell it back for more?</li>
<li>Has the item decayed?</li>
<li>Are you the item creator? (What is this, the Salvation Army?)</li>
</ul>
<p>
<b><em>In Conclusion:</b></em>
<p>
I’ll say what I always say – do what makes you happy and what you feel comfortable doing. Be firm.[/doHTML]

[doHTML]<font size=3><u><b>Vendors: What to Stock, and Where to Stock it</u></b></font>
<br>
<em>by n’Jessi</em>
<p>
This article is geared toward helping the tailors who prefer to do part or all of their business by vendor sales. If you want to do vendor sales, you first have to decide whether you are going to contract with a merchant, or gain merchant skills yourself (or on an alt).
<p>
<em>Note: articles on custom orders are forthcoming, just not by me, because I do my business primarily by vendor. </em>
<p>
<em><b>Contracting with a Merchant: Probably not Feasible for Tailors</em></b>
<p>
While other professions can easily contract with a merchant, tailors don’t have that luxury, because of the uniqueness of our profession. I spent 3 months contracting with a merchant under the best of circumstances (he was a guildmate and ran a shop for the guild) and it still just didn’t work.
<ul>
<li>The sheer variety of our stock requires an initial restock of enormous proportions, which is difficult to do. Basically you have to craft on-the-spot and the merchant has to put up items as you make them. Otherwise you will run out of house spots easily.</li>
<li>There is really no way to tell what has sold – many merchants just don’t “get” why keeping track of each item in each color is important, for replacement purposes. But tailors usually don’t carry 10 identical items, unlike armorsmiths or weaponsmiths. Therefore, you’ll have to check the vendor stock yourself, something you don’t want to do (that’s why you hired a merchant). And crafting in your shop can be dangerous.</li>
<li>Restocking is a chore because nothing is crated. There is no way to make stock “for the future” with the current house storage limits. Therefore, you must make items as needed.</li>
<li>When doing a large restock, which is often necessary, you have to stock “on the spot” because the merchant cannot carry that many individual items. This places you, again, in the shop.</li>
<li>The “offer” system is unwieldy, so sometimes you have to stop restocking simply because there is no place to put the items for pickup by the merchant.</li>
<li>If the merchant goes away for a few days, business suffers greatly, because every item that sells must be immediately replaced. Tailors don’t have the luxury of dumping a crate of identical items on the vendor and going on a holiday.</li>
<li>Tell hell is only worse. People will complain to you about vendor selection, despite the fact that you repeatedly say you don’t own the vendor. People will demand that you make a matching such-and-such (which you were unable to stock because a) you didn’t know it was missing or b) your merchant is out of town). People will wonder why returns aren’t accepted immediately.</li>
</ul>
In effect, usually you have all the hassle of running a shop and none of the control. The system is unwieldy and frustrating. In addition, the following things can happen if the situation goes from bad to worse. (Speaking from personal experience.)
<ul>
<li>Merchant could quit the game, stranding your merchandise on your vendor</li>
<li>Merchant could be fast and loose with your money (after all, he knows what sold, you don’t)</li>
<li>Merchant could be lazy about restocks, putting strain on customer relations</li>
<li>Merchant could tweak your pricing up or down (without telling you), causing people to either question why your vendor is so expensive, or why you are charging more than your own vendor.</li>
<li>Merchant could let items autodelete in stockroom.</li>
</ul>
Many people have successful relationships with merchants, but with the unique aspects of tailoring, I just don’t see how even a good relationship can work out.
<p>
<em>I hope, in future articles, to find a tailor who has successfully contracted with a merchant. When I do, I will post here regarding how to stock a merchant-owned vendor.</em>
<p>
<em><b>Your own Vendor: What to stock?</em></b>
<p>
With vendor limits coming, it seems inevitable that we will have to be making some choices on what to stock. Either we will have to choose to invest more points in merchant, or choose to lower our stocks. In any case, the larger the stock is, the harder it is to manage, so you have to decide for yourself how many items you want to keep on the vendor at one time, and how often you want to restock. Here are some techniques for deciding how to stock your vendor.
<p>
<u>Specialization</u>. You can offer a wider selection of colors if you, for example, cater only to dancers and formal wear. For a tailor with limited time or limited resources, this may be the way to go. Effectively you limit your audience, but that audience should be able to find complete outfits at your shop every time. This is an especially useful tool if you know your audience. If you move into a primarily combat town, chances are you will want to skew your stock based on what the members of your town are likely to buy.
<p>
<u>Just the basics, ma’am</u>. In this case, your vendor is for common items that sell quickly, and in the same color. This is for the tailor who generally wants to do custom orders, but gets tired of custom orders for the same old crap (i.e. uniform boots, black dusters) every time. The “basics” tailor hopes that this vendor of staples will satisfy the needs of many clients for standard-issue wardrobe items.
<p>
<u>Rotation</u>. So you can’t have everything on sale at once. But you can successfully vary your stock by featuring certain styles or colors intermittently. For example, this week you can specialize in dresses and bustiers, those will sell off, and the next week you can specialize in field gear. Or you can feature a new color, for example, such as make many items in red this week, green next week. People will keep coming back to see “what’s new.” Rotation allows you to feature the less-popular items without having a huge stock. Again, if at all possible, try to create your inventories so that customers can walk out with complete outfits.
<p>
<u>Huge Stock, Huge Selection</u>. This is for the tailor who wants to make everyone happy, and doesn’t mind the time commitment of crafting, but wants to make items on his or her own time. Essentially, the huge stock tailor hopes that the shop will serve as a proxy to the custom order.
<p>
<i>For a discussion on how to keep track of what to restock, see Sales Organization.</i>
<p>
<em><b>More Vendors: Splitting Your Stock</em></b>
<p>
Previously, I thought splitting my stock was a nuisance, considering that people were easily using the clothing categories to see what was available. However, now that vendors will have limits, it will be necessary to split up large amounts of stock, depending on what the limits end up being.
<p>
<u>Separating Wookiee Wear</u>. Most tailors will separate wookiee wear out simply because there are few items, and they are all categorized weirdly. While I think it’s a good idea, I don’t personally do it because 1) there is one wookiee who lives in my town and I’ve sold to maybe 3 wookiees since I set up shop and 2) there are so few wookiee items I don’t want to “spend” a vendor on it, because I’m trying to spread my wares out evenly, in anticipation of vendor limits.
<p>
<u><em>Labeling tip</u>: If you don’t have a wookiee-only vendor, please take the time to put a “Wookiee” in front of “Decorative Waist Wrap” and other items which do not specify Wookiee. This will help with returns and alphabetical sorting. </em>
<p>
<u>Separation by Article Type</u>. This would seem intuitive – put all the shirts on one vendor, pants and skirts on another. This would also be easy for the customer to use. The only problem I see with this separation technique is that separation by category will still potentially result in more than 100 items in a given category, and for some reason people are completely oblivious to the “next page” option and will start sending you frantic tells about being unable to find a certain item.
<p>
<u>Separation by Theme</u>. You can put field wear on one vendor and formal wear on another, which helps clients who are looking for something specific. An advantage to this system is that it breaks up some of the big categories (now half the shirts are on one vendor, half on the other). The problem is, some items are “crossover” and it’s hard to classify them (yes, lined shorts are “formalwear” but I would classify them as casual or field gear). Customers may not agree with your classification and pester you about what’s on which vendor. If you’re a “rotation” stocker, this system also will not keep vendor levels constant (i.e. same number of items on each vendor) because one week you will be specializing in field gear, the next week in dance wear.
<p>
<u>Separating Female-only items</u>. This is a good technique for people who don’t want to label items “female only” or take back returns from males who don’t use common sense when purchasing. On the down side, females may forget that some unisex skirts are on a different vendor, and not bother to check the different vendor. However, I’ve found this vendor system incredibly useful, because it’s cut down on my number of returns, increased the number of men buying skirts, and has given me a place to put my bustiers (are they casual? Are they formal?)
<p>
<u>Separating Accessories/Shoes/Hats</u>. This is incredibly useful, particularly because backpacks are labeled “misc” instead of clothing. They are more likely to be found on an “accessories” vendor. I like separating out the shoes, too, because shoes are not necessarily formal or field (i.e. uniform boots can be worn anywhere). But the question arises whether, if you have a female-only vendor, you put female-only accessories (dress slippers, lekku wraps, etc) on the female-only vendor or the accessories vendor. There is a problem with the vendor at the moment, namely that there are not a whole lot of accessories to fill it. I firmly believe that once the necklace bug is fixed, the jewelry business will boom, and therefore I have invested in the Accessories vendor for now.
<p>
<u>Separating BioEngineered Items</u>. Probably this is the most important thing you can do, if you run a business in bioengineered items. You want to make sure the customers in search of stats get to these items. However, if you don’t do a lot of these items, it may be a “waste of a vendor.”
<p>
<em><u> Labeling tip</u>: If you can’t afford a separate vendor, label your item “+13 bleed defense blah blah” and all BE items will then jump to the top of the list and be clustered together when categories are sorted alphabetically.
<p>
For general labeling guidelines, see A-Ti's Labeling Guide and Labeling II.</em>
<p>
<em><b>Flexibility and Vendor Naming</em></b>
<p>
As you all know, you can’t rename your vendor after you place it. Sure you can remake your vendor, but it took 500 tries to get a pretty vendor, and no frickin way! And you’d have to unload it.
<p>
<u>Advertising (which I will deal with in the next chapter)</u>. Your vendor will appear on the planetary map with the title you gave it. Naming it something like “Shopkeeper Ralph” will probably not draw customers, even if it is listed under the “clothing” category. Especially if you carry BE items, you may want to name your vendor something that reflects that. On the other hand, if your primary source of advertising is word-of-mouth, this is not a concern for you.
<p>
<u>Confusing the Customers</u>. “How the frick am I supposed to know that “Jane” carries female-only items?” Customers may not find what they want without clearly-labeled vendors, resulting in tells to you in poor grammar.
<p>
<u>Reorganization of your Shop</u>. If you’re a person who likes to reorganize, and move things around constantly, you may not want descriptive vendors, particularly if you have a rotating inventory, and may not even be carrying a certain type of item on a given week.

<p>
<u>Roleplay</u>. It’s much more fun to have vendors that are named cool things in a theme. My vendors are named Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Athena, Aphrodite, and Hades, and I dressed them accordingly. It’s too much fun.
<p>
<u><em>My solution</u>: I went for generic names, but then placed a backpack next to each vendor with a message on it describing what was on each vendor. For example “Aphrodite: female-only items, including shoes/hats -->”. This allows me to shift around items and all I would need to do is change the name of the backpack. (Be sure to rename your backpacks in a color that contrasts with your shop walls).</em>[/doHTML]

[doHTML]<font size=3><b><u>Setting Up Shop</b></u></font>
<br>
<em>by n’Jessi</em>
<p>
So now you’re ready to set down roots. By now you should have decided how many vendors you want, and what sort of shop you want to provide.
<p>
<em><b>Location, Location, Location</b></em>
<p>
You may already be settled into a town or whatnot, but things change, and if you ever should move, think about these issues:
<p>
<u>Which planet?</u>
<ul>
<li>Do I want high-traffic areas so that people will drop in, or do I have enough of a devoted client base that they will follow me?</li>
<li>Do I want to travel to harvest? (If you have harvesters out all the time, a less hilly planet would be good.)</li>
<li>What sort of housing do I like? Is that important to me?</li>
<li>Do I want to have higher level monsters around? Will that make my life easier or more difficult? (With the advent of speeders, this matters less than it did before.) </li>
<li>Where are my friends?</li>
<li>Do I like the terrain or will it make me depressed to log on?</li>
</ul>
<u>Which city?</u>
<ul>
<li>Are there other tailors in town? Do they want another? Are they willing to work cooperatively?</li>
<li>Will the people of this town treat me fairly? How do they treat other crafters?</li>
<li>Will there be enough business (i.e. do these people buy clothes or do they live in armor)?</li>
<li>Will they expect discounts or dedicated service?</li>
<li>Is this town hospitable to guests?</li>
<li>Does this town have high or low traffic?</li>
<li>Is this town factional? Will that cut down on the customer base?</li>
<li>What are the taxes like?</li>
<li>Is there strife with other towns?</li>
<li>Is there internal strife such that the town is likely to fall apart?</li>
</ul>
<u>Where in the city?</u>
<ul>
<li>Do I need to be near the shuttleport?</li>
<li>Do I need my factory next door?</li>
<li>Do I want spaces to expand, in case I need storage houses?</li>
</ul>
<b><em>Structure</b></em>
<p>
The structure will be your public face to the world. It’s important that you’re happy with it, and that your customers are too. Keep in mind that merchant tents take 1 lot and hold 125 items. Small houses and medium houses both take 2 lots and hold 250 items. Large houses take 5 lots and hold 450 items.
<p>
<u>Merchant tents: me no likey</u>. I think this is a poor choice for a tailor. Only 3 vendors can fit in it, and there is no room for displays. Yucko.
<p>
<u>Generic/Corellian Houses: Institutional</u>. Don’t pick one of these unless you live on Talus or Corellia.
<ul>
<li>Small house. Pick style 2, floorplan 2. This style does not have the long annoying hallway, but rather opens into a large front room. Style 2, floorplan 1 also lacks the long hallway, but opens into a small front room.</li>
<li>Medium house. Style 2 (or floorplan 2?) is best. It has 3 big rooms, instead of 2 big rooms and 2 tiny rooms. This is ideal for displays and I recommend this one as a shop.</li>
<li>Large house. Both styles are horribly confusing. Both have a large central room, which has stairs leading down into it. The main room is difficult to find, and most of the side rooms are tiny, and generally a waste of space. Unless you’re addicted to stairwells, I would avoid this house, as the medium has a large room almost as big.</li>
</ul>
<u>Naboo Houses: Beautiful, Lush, Dark. </u>
<ul>
<li>Small house. Both styles have a long hallway which is not good for a shop environment. The style 2, however, is only 1 lot, so if you have space issues this may be ideal. But if you have space issues, better to use a merchant tent than a dark, narrow, small house.</li>
<li>Medium House. This is my favorite shop. You walk immediately into a large room which can easily hold 6 vendors. The main room is round and spacious and has elegant columns. It’s not confusing to get to the main room, and the main room has a lovely stairwell from which to drop items, and a balcony. The downsides to this building are the appalling lighting (no matter how many torches you put in, it looks dark) and small side-rooms. The small side-rooms are not a problem unless you would like to roleplay a “fitting room” or use those rooms as places to gather, or for displays.</li>
<li>Large House. Ooo la la! It’s beautiful. It’s huge! It has a huge deck on the roof which is so high you can see just about anywhere! It has many spacious side rooms! The main room has a double staircase that is just breathtaking (Sound of Music, anyone?). That main room can easily hold all your vendors. However, the lighting is still problematic, and it’s still a little difficult to find the main room, if you go up the wrong staircase when you first walk in the door. It’s a judgment call whether you want to spend 5 lots for it.</li>
</ul>
<u>Tatooine Houses: Bright and Spacious, but crude. </u>
<ul>
<li>Small House. In a pinch there is nothing wrong with it. It has a front room that is open, no long hall required, and decent lighting.</li>
<li>Medium House. This house is great for vendors and great for other things too. The lighting is relatively good. The floorplan is easy, there are stairs in the main room, and there are 2 good-sized side-rooms, besides the basement, for roleplay or display purposes. There is even a large deck upstairs (though with a high railing, for us poor shorties). The downside is that the main room is “L” shaped, making placement a problem if you intend to have more than 2 or 3 vendors. There is a little indentation in the “corner” of the “L” which is a perfect setup for 2, or even 3, vendors. Beyond that, though, I’m not sure how the placement would work. </li>
<li>Large House. This house is great for many vendors. You enter immediately into a front room which is huge, and has stairs for display purposes. You could easily put 12 vendors in there. It’s like it was made for 12 vendors. The extra rooms are also spacious and great for displays, especially because of the good lighting. There is a large deck, as well. The downsides are that the house layout is confusing (though I suppose you can get used to just about anything) and that there are weird pipes sticking out of the wall in the front room (something similar in the medium house, but only in a side room) which makes it look industrial. However, the large front room is just perfect for all 12 vendors, if you’re willing to spend the lots.</li>
</ul>
<b><em>Decoration</b></em>
<p>
<u>Get Creative</u>. Make a theme. It’s all up to you. You can make a modern department-store environment, or a garden paradise. Here are some examples:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=33676&poll_id=0&warned=y"target=blank>SeiGE’s shop</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.box4.com/abzintia/shopmap.html"target=blank>Abzintia’s Shop</a></li>
<li><a href="http://fusedreality.net/qitu/Fireplace.jpg"target=blank>Qitu's shop</a></li>
<li>Spire Mining: <a href="http://www.vector-inc.com/images/swg/17.jpg"target=blank>front room</a>, <a href="http://www.vector-inc.com/images/swg/16.jpg"target=blank>back room</a></li>
<li>Shadowace's Shop <a href="http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=36788"target=blank>view 1</a> and <a href="http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=36791"target=blank>view 2</a>.</li>
</ul>
<em>Information Gathered from <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=merchant&message.id=13151"target=blank>Sony Official Boards</a> (login required) </em>
<p>
<u>Vendor Appearance</u>. I really don’t want to tell you what merchant skills are necessary, particularly with the vendor nerf coming up. I think that getting Hiring 4 at some point (even if you drop it later) is wise to be able to dress them, because they always wear ugly clothes. That said, vendors are entirely random, and you will have to destroy and repeat, constantly. My advice: if you have limited merchant points, get Wookiees. They’re naked, and they never look that ugly. Even with “random character race” it should be easy to get a decent-looking Wookiee within 20 minutes.
<p>
<em><b>Advertising</em></b>
<p>
How you advertise is all about controlling your business level, not about making tailoring accessible to everyone.
<p>
<u>Trade Forums</u>. Drop a line on the trade forums if you have set up shop somewhere new.
<p>
<u>E-mail</u>. E-mail friends and old clients with your waypoint. You can ask the mayor to e-mail citizens of the town you live in, and if you know mayors of neighboring towns, you can ask this as well.
<p>
<u>Shouting</u>. Don’t you dare. Bad tailor!
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<u>Doing custom orders in the local cantina</u>. Spend a day doing that and you’ll get your name out. Then respond to tells/e-mails with your waypoint.
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<u>Global Advertising (Ad 3)</u>. This is kind of hit-or-miss. So many empty vendors are listed on the global map that it almost means nothing. Also, people can’t see your shop if they are not on your planet. On the other hand, I’ve found that it brings a significant number of people to my shop, and I tend to turn it off when I get busy. Again, this is tied to your vendor name, so some vendor names may have more draw than others. I purposely left my player name off my vendors this time, so when I registered, I wouldn’t get too much of a crowd. I’ve been around a long time, so my name is fairly well-known.
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<u>Bazaar Listings</u>. Your goods are automatically listed on the bazaar search, if your vendor is new. If your vendor has been around since 2004, then it is likely that you will have to turn the bazaar search on. It is available at all levels and free. The search enables clients to view your stock from the bazaar terminal, but must pick up the goods in your shop. There may be some cases where you do not want this feature enabled, such as a special order vendor or a vendor intended to be private, so be sure that you turn it off in such circumstances.
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<u>The bazaar itself</u>. If you put a few stock items (such as hooded cloaks) up on the bazaar, that may drum up some business, such as people contacting you for special orders. You can also put an "ad item" on the bazaar that has a description of your shop and the waypoint to your shop as the title of the item (i.e. make a headwrap entitled "So-and-So's shop, -xxxx, xxxx"). Put the item up for the maximum bazaar limit to discourage people from buying your ad.
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<u>Auction Channel</u>. I have never once used an auction channel for buying or selling. Afk macros shouting are no fun.
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<U>Entertainer/artisan/city Chat Channels</u>. Some servers have chat channels for entertainers or artisans. In the case of an entertainer channel, it often happens that an entertainer is asking around looking for a tailor. In an artisan channel, that would be a way for a customer to join the channel and ask for a tailor. A city chat channel might also be a good place to find business. <i>Do not spam in these channels! Just join them and leave them on and often someone will ask if there is a tailor online.</i>
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<u>Barker droids</u>. At advertising 4, you can get a barker droid which plays a set advertisement. I don't think this method is very effective, because it gets lost in all the starport spam.
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When you have enough business, stop advertising. It’s ok to ignore a call for a tailor (especially if it’s phrased /shout “ne1 mastr tailors mak cloths! Plz tell!”). It’s ok to keep your shop a “secret” if you’re busy enough. You don’t have a duty to the masses to provide clothing to anyone who wants it, or to make sure that everyone on the server knows where they can obtain clothes. You have a duty to yourself to make your workload manageable.[/doHTML]