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.
I clearly get where you're coming from! I hosted a show at my home in early December. The household was turned upside down for the better part of the week just getting ready. To my dismay, the anticipated crowds did not show up. My spring home show (2013 was year #2) actually outsold the one in December. Go figure that one out!
ReplyDeleteI had taken myself out of a long-standing show that I had done locally that same December weekend. The organizers had become rude to customers and greedy, so I no longer wanted to be a part of it. I did all I could to draw traffic to my show and 10 others joined me with manning the hours and setting up, but there were actually 4 other shows going on that same weekend. (Who knew?) I will concentrate on growing my spring show in May. If you want to learn more about our little group of home boutique artists, you can go to friendsbydesign.wordpress.com --- it's worth a peek!
I just recently started following the Art Jewelry Elements blog. I make clay and enameled copper items - creativeclaycafe.com and torched fusion.wordpress.com
Here's to a happy healthy 1014!! Good luck to you. You have nice work.
Deb