I have participated in a few craft shows in 2019, and I have learned a lot. There was an awesome show in a neighboring city that was great! Lots of vendors, lots of customers. Granted, it is a long standing craft show and it was in November, so there were a lot of holiday sales. The other was not large, but not the smallest I have ever done, but there were no customers even though it was in the beginning of December. I did another that just was not the venue for me and the crafts I create.
The November show was great. The venue was very busy until about lunch time and sales and customers dwindled. The show was expensive and there were extra charges for tables and chairs, so I supplied my own. I operated at a loss, but gained some valuable experience. I have never done a show this large and was not sure what to expect. I have done shows in previous years, but I have been limited to sharing space with another person, which limited my inventory. In addition, I lack proper displays to allow me to display all of my inventory, so I had to pick-and-chose what inventory to place on the table.
I made sure to have a sign (small one) with my business name, I had table cloths and business cards. I gave out as many cards as I could without being overly pushy. I believe I would have had more sales if I were able to offer more of a variety of my products, but that is just speculation though. I do plan on doing this show again next year, so I am already planning inventory and seeking display options that will suit my inventory.
The December show was at a church. There were 2 large rooms with vendors and the spaces were a generous 10' x 12'. I had to bring a table, but they supplied chairs. The spaces being so large, made the room look sparse. Most people had 1 table. There were very few shoppers that came, due in part to there being a larger craft show in the same city on the same day. Most of the vendors did not sell a thing, very few made their table fees back. I came in just $2 under the table fee, so this show was also at a loss because of mileage, cost of goods sold, and time. I posted on Facebook that I would be vending there, as well as Instagram. I posted when I was there urging my personal friend list to come out and support local vendors if they were in the area. I got a text from my friend late that night stating that she had just seen the post and that she had not seen any advertising for this show, because she has been searching for local craft shows and had been attending most of the ones she found advertised. Other vendors were saying the same thing, that there was no advertising for this show, besides signs on the side of the road, right outside of the church.
The Summer show I did was in August. This show was also a bust. I did not have to pay a space fee because it was a show that requested 20% of sales to cover the space. I am sure they would have added a cap to that cost if there were a lot of sales, but this venue was not for my merchandise. Many people did not have sales, or very little. The show was advertised as a Psychic Fair so this could have put some people off of the show. Or they simply did not know there were crafts. I am uncertain. I mostly go to this show to hand out with my best friend (sister). I had a loss because of my time and gas to get there, but I had done this show before, so I already know what to expect.
All of this to say, that I leaned some hard lessons, but good lessons non-the-less. I am planning my 2020 show inventory already. I am trying to zero in on some inventory items that seemed to get the most attention at the shows I did vend at. There are some items that I did not carry that I will be carrying in the upcoming year. I am going to be adding all of my inventory to my website/Square and I will be carrying some consignment items from some other vendors that make things that I do not want to venture into. I make things they do not make, so it works out well.
I have been doing a lot of reading about craft show vending and watching a lot of YouTube videos from vendors in different states and countries and I have gotten some great ideas, but I have notice that some do not have a good grasp of how to account for actual show costs vs. business costs. I am planning on a series of posts about general accounting for small business owners (vendors) to be able to calculate accurately the costs associated with a particular event and what are overhead costs (general business costs). I think this information would be beneficial to many people who currently participate in craft shows or want to start being a vendor.
*This is the a photo from the summer show.
