Confessions of a Fugitive Mind
November 20, 2007
Craft Fair Wrap-Up
On Saturday, The Paper Jay made it's debut at the Thorton's Ferry craft fair. It was my first craft fair as a crafter and a big first step for my paper crafts. Although I wouldn't consider it the beginning of a booming business, I do think it was a success.
I brought a couple hundred cards and a few dozen notebooks, memo pads, and bookmarks and sold about a third of them. There wasn't any one thing that was a hot seller, although the notebooks were a hit and a thank you card involving a bra and a "thanks for your support" message got a lot of attention. The card kits for kids didn't sell well, but they were on the floor, which brings me to the things I need to change if I want to do this again.
I need to play with the pricing a little, at least for the non-card items. The base pricing is fine, but the "buy 5, get 1 free" is not a great incentive. And I definitely need to improve my card displays, which you can see just to the right. Some people will flip through the baskets full of cards, but I think most prefer the spinning rack. It definitely makes them more visible. Just like the tiered display I built out of form core board, which you can see below. I think I need to do a few more shows before I invest in a larger card rack or fancy acrylic displays. A larger table to get more goods out there would help too. Mine was only four feet long in a ten-foot booth space.
Overall, I have to admit that I really enjoyed the experience. Even dragging in my gimmicky tree (and little blue jay) was fun. It just didn't feel like work. I was able to make enough to cover my table costs, the materials for what I sold, and a good chunk of all the supplies I've purchased. And I have enough supplies to more than double my inventory. I consider that to be pretty good for a first attempt. I'll be doing a small fair in the office next week, which short of restocking a few memo frames and using up my lunch hour, won't cost me anything.
Posted by criminal at November 20, 2007 10:45 AM
Comments
Congratulations! The display looks great! Paper Jay. Good choice.
Posted by: Mom at November 21, 2007 9:36 AM