Monday, September 17, 2012

Advice Needed! First Craft Show Acceptance! Eeeeee!

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!  I'm soo excited right now!  TODAY I received my acceptance to participate in Flint Handmade's Winter Craft Market.  It is scheduled for the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 24th, from 10am to 4pm at the Masonic Temple in Flint, Michigan.  There will be a total of 45 crafters at the market & it will be my first craft market evaaa & I'm super pumped about it.

Flint Handmade

I really like that this market, being my first, is only one day instead of two.  I feel like that will be more manageable for me.  I am kind of nervous.  It seems like there is so much work to be done!  On the fly, here's a checklist of things I need to do or purchase before the show.

*Buy something to use as a tablecloth
*Figure out what I'm going to do for credit cards
*Buy a cash box or something for money & get lots & lots of change
*Create new postcards to handout
*Buy bags for purchases
*Figure out table layout, buy or build displays
*Create a show box with things like scissors, tape, push pins, paper & pens, calculator etc
*Figure out how to do pricing labels
*Create an email list sign up book
*Receipt book
*See if mom can work with me
*Inventory book
*Get a large sign made
*Make lots & lots & lots of beautiful books to sell

Handmadeology has a pretty great list of items you need to bring to a show, I'll probably use that to help with my packing.  I think though, that the packing & set up shouldn't be too difficult.  The thing that I'm most perplexed about is the number of actual items to bring.  I've heard that you should bring 2 to 3 times the number of items that you want to sell.  Ok.  But how many items is it reasonable to expect to sell?  Maybe I need to find out the number of attendees from last year?  This isn't a massive market, but it is the weekend after Thanksgiving, and I believe it is well advertised.  Plus, I think that I have a product that lends itself well to gift-giving.  Journals & photo albums are perfect gifts for those friends & family members who you don't know what to get them.  Everyone can use a blank book!

From Flint Handmade Holiday Market 2011
I have no idea how to predict this.  I guess since it's my first one the results of it should help me in the future figuring out how much product to bring for shows.  Maybe I should just plan on trying to over prepare for this one.

Anyone have any advice for me? Anything major that I missed on my preparation list above?  Any help figuring out how much product to bring?  My items are priced anywhere between $6 for a single little paper jotter notebook to $70 for a quality 252 page corded quarter leather journal.  I'm thinking that I'll need a larger supply of the less expensive things & a smaller supply of the more expensive ones right?

Well, I just wanted to share my excitement with you all.  If you have any suggestions for me please let me know in the comments!  I can use any & all I can get :) :)
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