One of the most important things you will ever do in your craft business is pick the shows you attend. This is one of the key elements that will make the difference of success or failure. Not being at the right shows with your products will certain spell disaster.
For example, sometime back my wife and I attended what was considered the largest “garage sale” in our metro area. There were all sorts of people from various walks of life who were trying to peddle their goods. It was actually very interesting to observe the wide range of individuals and apparent goals that each had in bringing their items and putting them on display for sale.
For most people I would say they were just using this as an opportunity to clear out their garage. However, there were others who clearly did this for a living. Those you might refer to as vendors ranged from buy and sell to those who made their own hand crafted items. Though few in number some of the hand crafted booths were very well done and attractive looking.
For as nice as they looked, the crafters I spoke with all told me things were slow but they were hoping that it would pick up. One gal optimistically said that this is typically the way these events start out and that things would likely pick up later in the day. Even though there were plenty of sales going on, these booths didn’t seem to have much activity. What was the issue?
Simply put, some of these dear folks were just at the wrong show. For some of them their items just didn’t fit the surrounding and expectation of the show. For example, there was a gal who was sitting by the front door selling her paintings. She had some beautiful work and a great location at the show. But when I asked her if she had sold any she told me no. We got to talking a bit and she told me that she had been painting for three years. I’m no artist but I thought her work was really good.
The problem was that she was trying to sell some high priced items in a place where people were bargain hunting. There were few if any people there who were going to be dropping $250.00 on a small painting. Many of these folk were there to buy cheap items. They wanted tools, antiques or clothes for their kids. Some of the buyers were second hand dealers who were looking for deals they could turn around and sell in their stores.
So, as nice as her work was, it just wasn’t selling. In contrast we had a friend there that was trying to make some extra money selling legos. For a while he was out of work and found this to be an active market. He was selling stuff like hot cakes. His items were cheap and very attractive to the kids. What he had definitely fit the show and the type of customers that were there.
It just goes to show that you need to be careful in your selection of shows. Make sure you take the time to explore the theme of the show and whether or not your products really fit. It can make all the difference.
Learn more about craft shows.
Article Source: U Publish Articles
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