pink-north said:
Congratulations!!!
Your booth is very quaint. I like it. Do you have any advice for a fellow craft show newbie? I just signed up for one yesterday. I'm very nervous.
Thanks!
I still get nervous, but that turns into excitement once my tent is set up & the first customer enters.
Be prepared for changing weather. Wind can wreak havoc! I found a 2 wheel cart to be really handy for making trips back & forth to the car for boxes of soap, etc. A first aid kit is a good thing to have on hand & extra tape, pens, bottled water, etc. If you have a tent, milk bottles filled with water to anchor the poles.
Do you have a theme for your booth.? Mine is Cottage Chic. The theme pulls all your different displays together. For my first fair, I set my displays up at home before going to the show, so I knew exactly how I wanted them. That saved time once I got there. It took about an hour & a half to set up the tent, unload everything from the car & set up. I was surprised that it took so long.
Show customers how proud you are of your products, be friendly & outgoing. I have tables that are height-adjustable, so all my items are at or near eye-level. Use covered boxes or anything you can to lift things up off the table. Those were the items people really took notice of.
Use LOTS of signs that describe the items you're selling. People actually take the time to read them. Hand out lots of business cards.
If your first show isn't a great success, don't be discouraged. If you passed out lots of business cards, you did lots of pr & you got your name out there. I considered my first craft show as an advertising expense.
I didn't quite make my rental fee & definitely didn't pay for gas there & back. It was a great experience, though!
Every show is different.
Remember, you've probably been a shopper at lots of craft fairs, so you have knowledge you can use from your own shopping experiences. Maybe go to a craft fair before yours comes up & take a pad of paper. If someone's booth attractes you to it, what was the attraction? If a display jumps out at you, why? Do you like strolling around the tables inside the tent, or from outside the tent?
Set up your tables so there's a logical route into & out of your tent. I put my chair at the end of one table with the cash table there. So, logically, customers started at the other table & walked around to me to pay & exit.
The best advice I can give is, "Have fun!" If you're having fun, your customers will be happy to be in your booth.
HTH!
