Congratulations!
I really like those little trays and blocks to elevate other trays...and the flowers. Hope you don't mind if I borrow the flowers for an upcoming craft fair that I am doing.
Please steal away! I made the unfortunate mistake of choosing irises and they finished flowering and died back halfway through the show. So I may need to consider a different option. I definitely don't want to use fake ones. They really did give the stall a nice pop of colour and height.
I love going to markets/fairs and I always stop at tables/stalls when the owner says Good Morning or Good Afternoon. I usually bypass the ones where the folks are just sitting playing on their phones.
As for missed sales...some good advice that I received reminded me of a quote by John Lydgate: "You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time."
Wise words! I have been intending to include shampoo bars in the lineup so that will be covered. I don't personally like salt bars, haven't found one I like yet, so I'm not comfortable selling a product I don't love. So that's one that I'll probably never have in my lineup. Same with vegan soap, I'll happily refer customers to someone else as I'm totally doing this to use my milk so my soaps will never be vegan. I don't have a lot of interest in bath bombs or the other associated products ... may one day include lotion and liquid soap but bar soap really is my happy place at the moment and I'm quite content with just selling that.
I figure the market is big enough that I don't have to 'please all of the people all of the time' (one stop shop). I currently offer four products...soap, goat milk soap, salt soaps and bath salts. The first three tie in with one another with minor adjustments, the bath salts required more committment, but the jars and labels will tie in with some other products I will add much later. And that is key for me...having common ingredients, common equipment, common storage.
Not surprised your soap racks sold...soap accessories (aka 'add-ons') are important (advise from another maker). I have purchased a small quanity of Cedar Soap Decks and Loofah Body Buffs for the craft fair.
I adore your labels, I'm struggling with mine. I bought what I though were perfect labels off Amazon that came with various templates that you can download, but the one I need is corrupted and won't open. I contacted the owner and they sent it direct, but I still can't open it. I have requested that he save it in a different format, but haven't heard back from him. I need to start labeling so I will have to come up with some kind of work around.
Thank you so much, I love the look but need to work on perfecting the spacing. Cigar bands are so super easy.
What did you do for shopping bags? I found these little bags with fiber handles at the Dollar Store that come in different colors and will hold six bars of soap easily. I picked four colors that I like and then designed 'shipping' labels for both sides. Sister who is doing the fair with me (she designs gorgeous cards and other things) thinks the bags are a waste of money. Hubby likes the bags, but thought the labels were a waste of time and money. But then I explained the marketing strategy...women will notice the pretty colored bags and seeing a label will read it, take note and look for my booth. And the bag will be pretty enough to reuse and thus kept and a reminder of where they bought the soaps, that no longer have a label on, from.
I used both paper lunch bags and larger paper bags with handles. Western Australia is plastic bag free so we have to go paper or reusable, though i avoid any plastic packaging so would have used paper anyway. I definitely would like to label the bags with my logo, and intend to for the next show. I have a little thermal label making machine so it will be easy enough to print a bunch and stick them on, I just ran out of time for this show.
