First Craft Fair

So one of my goals this year was to do a craft fair.  I wanted the experience.  I am not very good at it.  I went with a couple of coworkers to a craft fair that is put on as a fundraiser for a high school in Placentia.  I am glad I did.  Seriously, my booth would have been an EZ up, chairs, a couple of tables and I might have thought about table cloths.  They did the design and I helped setup.

The booth, in my opinion, was one of the nicer booths in the fair.  We had a fair amount of people in the morning but it got pretty hot by noon.

I learned a fair amount about having a booth at the craft fair.  First is that it is a lot of work.  It took more preparation than I was planning.  Displays need to be prepared.  It is not easy to wing it.  There is a sale that is needed to be pitched.  I am not very good at talking to people but I did meet a lot of interesting people.  I learned that the large items do not sell well.  There is probably a market for them but it is only certain people.  I did not sell any of my more expensive items.  I think the highest item I sold was $25 dollars but I had a few tickets in the $40 range.  I sold out of all my nativity ornaments within the first couple of hours.  There was a lot of interest in the more decorative pieces but no buyers.  I also learned there are people that are really good at doing these shows.  There were some pretty elaborate set ups with a lot of stuff.

I have two more planned for this year and I don't know if I will do them again (maybe one).  Lots of fun.  I realized I enjoy working for myself and when one does craft shows they work toward the show.  Right now I am madly cutting out more ornaments to sell at the next two shows.  I am not doing my next design and I did not take any Christmas orders this year.  I am still doing what I like, I just feel like there is a deadline.

I am grateful for the friends and coworkers that showed up.  They made the day.  They also were a great support.