The Craft Fair Mommy Part II

     As I have mentioned before I am a craft fair mommy.  I make country chic and industrial home decor items from wood, metal, cloth, mason jars and other found items and my awesome handy cowboy daddy makes home decor from horseshoes and reclaimed wood.  We call ourselves Cowboy Country Crafts and you can check us out on my other blog www.cowboycountrycrafts.com.  After setting up, tearing down, packing up, unpacking, displaying and selling my wares I have learned a few things about selling at craft fairs, fair and rodeos, farmers markets, holiday vendor events and the like.   I would like to share my hard earned wisdom with you all.  

1.  Display Display Display!
Of course you must offer a great product or no one will buy it.  Make or sell something that you are proud of and stand behind, always.  Equally important though is the manner in which you display your product.  I highly recommend setting up a trial run in your garage or living room before you ever attend an event.  Move things around and play with the set up in the comfort of your home instead of at an event where customers are watching you mess about and fidget with items awkwardly.
You will need tables, table covers (that fit properly and are not wrinkly!), display stands, props, risers or other containers to display your wears and a sign with your name or company name on it.  I purchased 2 small 4' tables and a larger 8' table at Sam's club for my booth.  They are hard plastic tops with metal folding legs and fold in half for easy storage and set up.  I purchased white tables cloths at Sam's Club also.  I cut and sewed them together to make table cloths that specifically fit my tables and hang all the way to the ground to cover any empty boxes or excess product that I may stash under my tables at events.  I also use squares of burlap material on the table covers under the display stands for aesthetics.  I may use star spangled banners around the 4th of July or holly leaves around Christmas time to make my booth holiday appropriate.
As for display stands my daddy custom built a large folding stand that I use to hang his large heavy horseshoe pieces from.   I had trouble finding display stands that where tall enough and sturdy enough to hang semi-heavy wooden and mason jar wall hangings from so I did what I do... I found some junk!  I love repurposing items.  Why fill up the local land-fill when I can use that item again instead!  I used 2 doors from our chicken brood box that my hubby built when our chicks were wee little ladies and was now going to toss because the girls are grown and living in their custom coop.  The doors are basically rectangles of 2x4"s with chicken wire stapled to the back and 2 hinges on one side.  I removed the hinges (and saved them for a later project!), scrubbed any leftover chicken germs off, painted the wood white and added legs from left over chicken coop trim board that I also painted white and Voila! craft fair table top displays.   Some venues require a tent.  I purchased an EZ-Up tent from ecanopies.com.  It was a great price and came with weight bags and a customizable sign banner that I used to make mu sign.


People are much more likely to shop at a booth that:

• Is clean and organized (No trash on ground or items poking out from under tables!)
• Has easily visible and legible price tags. (Some people will not ask for prices if they can not see them easily.  They will simply move on to the nest booth.)
• Has items displayed at eye level.  (People don't want to look down at items laying flat on a table.  Stack items up or use risers/display stands to get items up to eye level.)
• Is aesthetically pleasing. (Use a color or design scheme throughout your booth that flows well and looks nice.  No mismatched crazy colors or patterns that will distract buyers focus from your products.)
• Has a smiling, well dressed, and presentable merchant running the booth. (Shower and comb your hair, wear clean non-wrinkled clothing and smile!!!  Sounds easy right?  But sometimes at 8am on Saturday all you want to do is sip coffee in peace and quite while wearing yoga pants and rocking a messy ponytail... don't do it!  Ok, sip the coffee, but do it while smiling, greeting customers and looking spiffy.)  

2. Pricing!
This part is a bit tough for me.  I have a bad habit of underpricing.  Crazy right?  People always think that they will over price items but don't often think about under pricing.  I am guilty of this constantly though.  The go to formula for pricing hand crafted items is Cost of Materials + Time + Overhead x2 = Wholesale.  Wholesale X 2 = Retail.  At first I thought, "Wow! This is really going to make my prices too high!"  After some thought and experience though I have found this to be a very good formula for pricing.  At first I was just charging the cost of materials plus a little extra, but then I was not really paying myself and that's not ok.  If I had to hire someone to make these items I sell would I expect them to do it for free? No and I shouldn't expect that from myself either.  My time is worth $.  Don't sell yourself short but at the same time don't expect people to pay crazy high prices for hand made items at craft fairs that's not fair to them.  Try to find a middle ground that compensates you for your time and doesn't rob the customer.  Also, if your prices are too low people assume your product is cheap and won't buy it.  I am guilty of selling my items at wholesale prices rather than the wholesale X 2= retail pricing which means I can not consign items in shops because I would loose $ on the wholesale price after their fee but it also means that I can bring a great product to my customers, in person!, at a great price.  What you do is really up to you.

3.  Product!
Product is #3, really?  I know I know.  Product should be the #1 thing to think about right!?!  Yes but no.  If you have a crappy looking booth and crazy high or highly suspect dirt cheap pricing no one is going to buy from you anyway though so is really does fall in the #3 spot.  There are so many hand crafters and direct sellers out there that finding a product to sell that everyone else isn't also trying to sell can be tricky.  I suggest that you make or sell a product that is of high quality that you yourself would use or recommend to loved ones.  Sell a product that you love and believe in and are willing to stand behind.  Be creative if you are creative!  Sell an awesome direct sales item if you aren't.  Make your business your own and enjoy it!

This is my booth set up at our local farmers market.  

This is my booth set up (without tent) at an indoor event.