 After years of making and selling crafts, I recently did my first "real" craft show! It wasn't what I would consider a successful weekend, but it was very educational. Here are some of the most valuable lessons I learned from my own experience and from generous fellow vendors...
Bed risers: these simple tools can make a huge difference! Stacked under the legs of a standard table, bed risers bring your work up to a more comfortable height for viewers. Booth sitters: find out ahead of time if your venue provides volunteers to come by and give you a food or bathroom break. If not, and if you anticipate a busy show, you may want to bring a helper, or coordinate breaks with your booth neighbors. Load-in: Will you load on the day the show starts? Or the day before? If you’re scheduled to load in a day ahead, be sure to factor an extra night of meals and hotel into your show budget. Sales tax: Adjust your card reader for the local sales tax rate and make yourself a calendar reminder to remit any sales tax you collect. Verticality: Long flat tables are a snooze; what can you do to break up that horizon line? Walls, racks, stands... Lighting: If they can't see it, they won't buy it. Try to find out about ambient lighting and electricity access ahead of time. Rechargeable LED clamp lights might be a good addition to your kit. Mailing list: Put it in a prominent place and keep business cards tucked out of sight unless/until someone specifically asks for one. If you want to capitalize on the connections you make during the show, capturing email addresses is key! Craft show math: Since craft shows can be more financially complex than selling through a gallery, I made this fillable spreadsheet for capturing sales and a wide range of expenses. I used it after the show to see if my feelings about how it went matched up with reality. If I'm ever considering another show in the future, I'll also use the spreadsheet preemptively, to help me make a more informed decision ahead of time about whether or not to participate. Profitable and worthwhile are different calculations, and "worthwhile" is tough to see on a spreadsheet. If I wanted to do a particular show but it felt like a gamble, I'd look for other levels to pull: could I carpool, share a booth, stay with a friend? Consider raising prices? Or add on a revenue source like teaching a workshop on the way home from the show? My first craft show experience might not have been profitable, but it was certainly worthwhile. I can't think of any other way in which I would have had so many inspiring, insightful, and encouraging interactions with both show visitors and other vendors--all total strangers brought together by a love of craft and creativity.
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