Hello Everyone!

I’m new to the world of fairs and festivals.  Not a total newbie, mind you, but I’m used to doing local craft shows and have been thinking of branching out a bit.  Unfortunately, I’m not at all sure which way to go with it.  I do a bit of sewing, as well as seasonal decorations with fabric accents.

Anyway, the main thing for me with craft events is that I want to be in control of my life.  I know with some of the different things that I could make that I would really be tied down by the inventory and with keeping up with sales.  At the moment, I keep things fairly simply, working with 20 - 30 pieces to display at once and aiming at a deeper pocket.

What I’d love to hear about is a day in the life of someone selling another kind of item?  How do you manage things?  How do you handle the transport between the different events, and the inventory?  What do you get out of it personally?

Thanks!

Hiya Five Days. 

I’ve been selling ceramics for the past four years.  It can be nerve racking sometimes, especially if you are in a fast-paced and very crowded environment.  What I find helpful is keeping accurate records and staying up to date.  I can’t justify buying software, so I use a spreadsheet to help organize things.  Though for the first two years I kept records on pen and paper and had no complaints.  (I type faster now than I write) 

It’s basically a matter of tracking what you sold and for how much.  You note and highlight any piece that you sell out, even if you’re going by color and not entire stock.  I take down all my expenses, which encompasses everything, everything I spent money on I count as a tax write off.  You keep track of your bottom line so you can determine what the most successful shows were, and what’s worth doing again.

I include specific information about each booth, including table size.  After a year of doing it, you don’t remember names or general information, ya know?  You finish your worksheet just a few days after the show ends.  Sometimes if it’s a slow day I’ll start working on the worksheet in my spare time.  You put it off, it just gets more confusing.

You asked about inventory?  Basically, I just sort my pieces into a carry bin.  For organization, I make sure all the bins are about the same size.  It might help to organize them by type or location, so that way the table set up goes faster.  Keep the merchandise separate from your paperwork and, forms and utilities.

Oh yeah, one last thing.  I’d advise anyone thinking of branching out to bring more merchandise rather than less.  I bring about 3-4 more bins than I hope to sell.  It’s better to be over-stocked then sell out in two hours and look like a schmuck.  I have a van so I can save a lot of money on renting a truck every month. 

It’s a lot of fun for me personally.  You’re going straight to the people and interacting with them, getting cash right away.  It can be fast paced, but everyone’s really friendly, and that makes a big difference.

Salute!

This is the thing about working in the world of arts and crafts fairs - no two days are really all that alike!

I should actually adjust that a bit by stating that the day to day work is somewhat repetitive and no successful craft vendors can dodge the boring stuff such as bookkeeping and paying taxes, but craft fairs, festivals and art shows always bring different crowds with different tastes. Even the weather or theme of the event can play a role in the end results of the artisan’s efforts and work.

This all means that most people working professionally in craft events are not going to have repetitive experiences. For instance, I was once at a craft fair that saw the most amazingly large crowds for the first four hours, and then suddenly everyone was gone and we didn’t see business pick back up for the duration of the event. The year before I had been worked off of my feet for both days of the craft fair.

Shoppers can be unpredictable, which means that any artisan or vendor should prepare for the “down times”. I do this by bringing handwork that I can do, and interestingly enough this has stirred the curiosity of some shoppers and actually helped me to make some sales!

@artgiano

Thanks for the note.

I had to laugh when you mentioned the software.  When I first started showing my work at craft shows and trying to sell it at some of our local fair events, my sister was really on me to get tracking software for everything.  I had showed her the notebook where I was keeping track of things, trying to make sure I wasn’t spending $50 in supplies on something I’d only ever be able to sell for $30.  And she was appalled.  Just appalled.  “You are using paper to keep things in order?” she’d shrieked, as though paper was now the #1 cause of infectious diseases.  “You can’t use paper!”

Eventually I convinced her that since I was doing local craft fairs and not founding a multinational corporation, I could probably get away with using the dreadful paper for as long as I wanted.  I do use spreadsheets now, because I spilled tea all over my precious notebook once and it really scared me to think of losing all of my records.  I use the Google spreadsheets so that I can feel like I can access it from anywhere and nothing can happen to my data.  I do sometimes wish that it had more of the sort features of an offline excel program, but they are probably there and I just haven’t figured out how to use them yet.

I think your idea about tracking booth size and table size is great.  Until you said that, I hadn’t realized that I do just try and carry that information around in my head.  It is useful information—you can do a lot of different displays and its good to know in advance exactly what sort of space set up you will be working with.  Some of my seasonal decorations stand up, too, so it’s good to know if I have space in front of the table where it is okay to display them or exactly what my boundaries will be at the event.

I will confess on the inventory I take a slightly different tactic.  I have pictures of all of my pieces, and if I sell out of something I’ll put up a picture and take orders.  Part of this is just due to the nature of the products that I sell—the sewing pieces especially, because color trends change so much and there are fads in the quilting.  Also, since I make each piece I can’t order in inventory in bulk to stock up before a big craft event, I just have to sew faster!  It also helps that I’ve mostly been doing local shows, within 100 miles of home.  I can take orders for pieces and get them delivered out again after the show.  If I was traveling further afield I probably wouldn’t be able to do that.

Thank you so much for sharing!

@ Crochet Lady

You mentioned the dreaded T word:  Taxes.

Once again, when I first started doing this, my sister promptly insisted that I needed all kinds of software tools.  And to set myself up as a business entity.  And to get business cards.  And to get special insurance.  And . . . .and . . .and . . .I was heading into my first arts and craft show convinced that the IRS was going to eat me alive because I wasn’t doing everything she said.  But my goodness some of that tracking software was expensive, and I just thought of my initial forays as basement clearing business events, not founding my own company.  You have no idea how much it scared me when she started talking about the things I would need to do for my eventual employees!

Should probably defend the sister a bit by mentioned that she’s a corporate tax accountant.  Since she usually works with large businesses, she is a bit overkill when I asked her for small business advice.

Now, some of her things I did do, like the business cards.  I have found that those are quite useful.  I put them out on my table for festivals and I’ve gotten a few orders through them for custom pieces.  It does make it all a bit more real, too.  When I meet people and they ask me what I do I can give them one of my cards and explain it to them properly instead of just saying I sew in the basement all day :-)  It makes it all more real somehow, and I think the cards do give me confidence.

On the other hand, you are so right that there is no escape from the administrative side of things, even if I did try to dodge it all at first.  The record keeping is essential.

I liked that you mentioned that you do your handwork in the booth in the downtime at the craft fairs.  I like to do that, too, although I had one lady tell me it was unprofessional.  She gave me quite the speech about needing to be ready all the time to greet and interact with potential customers.  Yet the truth is I’m not much of a pouncer like that and I like doing the work.  Plus, you’re right, it does provide a conversational point for the customers and it can help boost sales.

Thanks for the reply . . .oh, and do you do a lot of multi-day events?  I’ve usually stuck with one day events.

For me, every day is different.  It always starts the same, with me arriving early, unpacking as fast as I can so that I can get a chance to see all of the different booths before the customers come in and so I can look for familiar faces among the sea of vendors.  The locations change with every craft fair, but many of the faces are the same, as I travel a relatively small circuit.

Once I get all of my wares displayed and get my signs hung, I like to look for food vendors and pick up snacks for the day.  There are always unique foods to choose from, ranging from jerky to pickled fruits and dips.  Many times, I am able to trade some of my snacks to other vendors, which is fun for both of us.  I have always been a big fan of the barter system, and it always makes me happy to trade wares with other sellers.  I like to put out samples right before we open and throughout the day.  People often respond well to free snacks, and many of the pet friendly festvals are filled with canine companions happy to see the lady with the free homemade dog treats.

The days are pretty typical, crowds come and go at different paces, and I am usually pretty busy putting things back where they belong, answering questions, and making sales.  I always say that I am going to purchase a laptop before the next festival so that I don’t have to write my sales down, but I never do so.  My inventory is built into my head these days, and I can look at my table at the end of the day and know what sold well and what could use a bit more advertising.  I still keep it all written down, of course, but I rarely use my own reference sheets.  I often offer credit card sales, but sometimes the accounting and costs make it better to only accept cash at smaller arts and crafts shows.

By the time the day ends, I am always exhausted and yet somehow satisfied.  Even when sales have been slow, I always know that I spent the day getting to meet new people and getting to spend time with old friends.  We are a community, really, those of us who frequent the same fairs and festivals, and it is nice.  We look out for one another when someone needs a break, and we take the time to worry when a familiar face is not among us for one reason or another. 

It’s funny how every day at a craft fair is so different, and yet so much the same.  I typically save my accounting for the end of the fair or the end of the week, and by the time I get all of my things packed and home, I am exhausted.  After an especially long day, I tend to wonder for a split second if all the exhaustion and work is worth it, but then I think about all of the people I meet and the fact that I get to do what I love rather than sitting in an office all day, and I realize that I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.