Craft Fair Series 2017 + What I Learned

Whew, it was a long haul but we finally made it. Here is a look at my display:

I learned a few things during this process that I will share with you.

• First of all, a pop up wagon would be a life saver if you are doing shows by yourself. Thank goodness I didn't do my show alone, especially the first time around not knowing what to expect. If I continue to do fairs I will be investing in one. When it was time to break down I watched experienced vendors move with lighting speed to breakdown and vacate. The ones who were most efficient had these wagons. They just loaded them up and off they went. I did bring a hand trolly which helped, especially since I wasn't the one wielding it, but I was little limited by it.
• Location is key and you may have to fight for it. They put my booth space in this little offshoot hallway that was not in the line of traffic, it was set at least 6 feet behind all the other vendors, and my neighbors (who arrived before me) took the opportunity to extend their space by setting their tables up to go all the way around. Which for me meant that not only was it too far of a walk off the flow of traffic for people to make an effort to come to my table, but then they also would congregate at the end of my area blocking me from view as they visited the other vendors. My neighbor on the left even decided to park her chair at the end of my table (in my space) instead of inside her own. The girl to the right of me said to always ask for electrical wether you need it or not, it usually guarantees she's in a main walkway.
• Arrive early. I knew it would be a long day, and I knew how much time I needed to set up, so I did not arrive until an hour before the show. While I had more than enough time to set up (because I practiced and photographed how I wanted it to go the day before) my neighbors were there an hour before me and took the opportunity to do what happened to me in the prior point I made.
• Don't make your table too neat and tidy. I set my table up very clean, not overly cluttered, and lots of white space. As if I were designing marketing materials or something, I love my white space. Don't do it. I read all of the information I came across about doing a craft fair and I put them into action. I made different levels for varying heights and I tried not to have anything just lying flat on the table. Within an hour I was pulling things out of baskets and scattering them around the table. As soon as I did that they got noticed, go figure. Now it bothered the heck out of me true, but maybe my table just had too much white space. 
• If I had the time, or money, I would have had a larger sign that hung down the front of my table instead of using up table space. For one, my sign was a little small (but it was what I could afford and could still do the trick). Two, it took up valuable table space. You never know when you have to adjust your set up plan (see point numero two). I could have really used that space for a check out area. Also a good point. I read that you should have a check out area a hundred times so I brought a TV dinner table to set up a station behind my table for bagging and running credit cards. It didn't work nearly as well as I had hoped. It really needs to be right at the end of one of your tables (in this situation it wouldn't have worked because my 10 foot space I paid for was really only 7 tops). When people wanted to purchase something they brought it over and laid it down on top of other things on my table because there was no place else to conveniently do the transaction.
• Get yourself some bed risers. I noticed that most people came through and leaned over to look at the merchandise (my hallway apparently was a little dark as well). For my next go around I thought that if I make my tables a little taller, using 4 inch bed risers, that everything would be closer to eye level and folks wouldn't have to lean down to look at everything. Also, I won't have to worry as much about things left lying flat on the table instead of in a display. It seems like I good idea, I will let you know how it works out. 
• Lastly, make bigger signs for your merchandise. In the interest of time I used all of these chalkboard clips that I wrote the prices on for each little display. It seemed like a good idea at the time but they were worthless. Now I knew what they said but even I could barely read them after I got all set up. I think that was another big mistake. I did individually tag most of my items as well but the one thing I will do differently next time is make larger, bolder, signs to  name what the item is in each of the displays.

All in all I had some set backs, it is a learning curve for sure, but I still sold 3.2 times my booth fee and I hear that's good. My gut is telling me that had I not had the location issue it would have been a lot better. 

Happy crafting!

-Sherry

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

Craft Fair Series 2017 + What I Learned