I had a show this weekend and I'm exhausted. Because of my kids, I can only do one show every six months. It's just too hard to find childcare for a whole weekend. This time I picked the Big Bang Bazaar. It's an indoor show, they provide the tables and chairs and all you do is bring our stuff. That was a big part of the appeal of this show for me. Here's my little corner.
We couldn't hang up anything on the walls, so no sign. But I actually think the faux wood paneling worked with my stuff. I attended this same show in September and it was so packed you couldn't move. So I thought close to Christmas it would be the same way, people lined up at the door to get in, everyone shopping for the holiday. Not so much. It was VERY slow. Like time moving backwards don't see anyone for a half an hour slow. All the vendors that I spoke with were not happy to say the least. The woman in the space next to me said she didn't even make back her entrance fee and the woman next to her only sold one thing all weekend. I felt so bad. I made back my booth fee and a some profit, so I was very happy about that.
But man I am tired. You wouldn't think standing around talking to people would wipe you out, but I'm beat. Shows are always a learning experience, what works and what I would change about the next one. I'm thinking I definitely need a stylus. It would be easier when I'm using my Square to have people sign with that instead of their fingers. A couple of vendors had one and it works really well. I was also interested to see what people were picking up and what they bought. I sold necklaces off of my neck stands the most, so I'll have to invest in more of those. And I sold a lot of bracelets that were memory wire or stuff with a length of chain so the size could be adjustable. I think I'll focus on more of those styles for the next go around.
To all of you out there who do a lot of shows, hats off to you. That's hard work and I don't know how you do it. Hopefully maybe something I learned this weekend will help someone else too.
