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Written by Patrice Lewis
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If you have, or wish to have, a home craft business, sooner or later you will want to do a craft show. Craft shows can range from the tiny (small-town celebration, six booths, outdoors) to the enormous (large city, 500 booths, convention center).
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Written by Patrice Lewis
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When running a craft business, there are two basic divisions in sales type: retail (selling directly to the customer) and wholesale (selling to a middleman, who sells to the customer). It's entirely possible to do both, of course. But, the common element in both types of sales is marketing. How else can you earn money if you don't market your products to people who want to buy them?
Of the two selling options, retail sales are more immediately dependent upon marketing. How does a beginning business go about marketing its products to the customer?
I talked to a number of craftspeople to learn what worked for them. Just as important, I wanted to know what didn't work. If a craftsperson is going to spend time and money marketing his products, it's nice to learn what retail ventures bring in the best bang for the buck.
Marketing at Shows
The most obvious place a craftsperson must market his products is at a crafts event, directly to the customer. There's an underappreciated science to this. Casey Robbers of Casey Was Here (www.caseywashere.com) explains what works for her:
• I have a good-looking display that invites the customers in. I have items at eye level and group products by color and type. I have signage outside my tent to attract people from across the festival grounds.
• Once people are in my booth, I have items clearly priced, and there are interesting facts to read about the products so they have a reason to stay.
• I give the customers space, but make sure they know I am attentive to their needs.
• If I am at a show alone, and I absolutely must leave my booth unattended, I leave a note saying "Back in 5 minutes; 10 percent off if you wait!" There are always customers in my booth when I return.
• I have a mailing list sign-up sheet in clear view, as well as a "find me on Facebook" sheet.
• I have an eye-level sign that reads, "Made in New York. Locally made gifts are the best!"
• I have a candy dish. Customers always come in to grab a piece of candy!
• After they have made their purchase, I give them a card and a list of upcoming shows I'm attending so they can shop with me again.
She also explains what does not work:
• Talking too much. I have talked customers right out of many sales.
• Unnecessary family members. Having extra people sitting around in folding chairs looks unprofessional.
• Standing outside my booth making my sales pitch to passers-by. It just made us all uncomfortable!
Marketing's Three Legs
Small business consultant Denise Beeson (www.denisebeeson.com) notes that many craftspeople do not see their marketing efforts as a whole picture. "Think of a three-legged stool," she advises. "Those three legs are mass selling (advertising and public relations), professional selling (one-to-one customer interaction, especially customer service), and sales promotion (trade shows, social media, etc.). Many craftspeople concentrate only on one leg of the stool, and what happens? The stool will fall over, because it is not balanced properly. But retail failures do not happen if the craftsperson is consistently using all the marketing tools in balance."
The Power of the Web
Understandably, nearly all successful marketing in our electronic age includes selective use of the Internet. The key word is "selective." Not every Internet tool will work for every craftsperson or every business. Benjamin John Coleman of Origami Bonsai (www.origamibonsai.org) advises, "I do extensive marketing via the web and have had great success. I call my art ‘origami bonsai,’ and if you type those two words into Google, you'll see the results of my labors. I dominate the search results. This can be done by any craftsperson." Here's what you need to do:
• Decide on a group of two or three words that describe your craft.
• When you write a blog, upload a video, etc., put those two words in quotes in the keywords section of the post.
• Create a video on YouTube with the keywords in the title and in the keywords section.
• Wait patiently, and add more content with your keywords to the web daily or weekly.
• Google’s search engine will re-categorize your keywords based on the new content. In essence, Google will detect that there is something "new" on the web.
Social media can also be powerful, offering artists the opportunity to interact personally with customers. John Greco of Greco Woodcrafting (www.grecowoodcrafting.com) notes, "I've had some success with Twitter, but I feel so many people try to ‘follow’ too many feeds that it often leads to my messages being lost in the crowd. My Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/grecowoodcrafting) has been really great, though. Not only does it help highlight my work, but it also gives me an opportunity for more direct interaction.
"I personally send a Facebook message to each fan when they ‘like’ my page, thanking them and encouraging them to comment on my posts or wall. That alone generates great feedback, with people actually thanking me for taking the time to thank them.
"Once they are a fan, I watch for who comments or ‘likes’ pictures or links I post. Those individuals are invited to be friends with me on Facebook through my personal account, and it is a great way not only for them to get to know me, the artist, better but also for me to get to know the people interested in my work. People who like to buy handmade items largely seem to enjoy that connection to the artist, making the pieces they buy that much more special. I've also made sure my fan page shows my personal account as the page owner, helping people see I'm not a faceless corporation."
The Numbers Game
Toymaker Jim Beachler of Hollow Woodworks (www.hollowwoodworks.com) notes that marketing venues that are supposed to bring in lots of sales often don't. In his words, he lists:
• I've done ads in baby, children, and weekly national magazines. The response was only half of what was needed to achieve minimum break-even on the costs.
• I've tried retail trade shows (such as home shows, baby shows, and children’s shows) and not even made half the minimum break-even on costs.
• I've been involved with companies that mail product literature to families with babies. Again, I did not make near the minimum break-even.
• I tried Groupon. The response was okay, but I noticed about 50 percent were current customers, so, again, the numbers didn’t work.
• I've given away products on radio shows across the country. Out of over 250 products given away, only one has become a regular customer.
Because Beachler's products are higher-end, he's learned what works for him:
• Doing arts and craft shows with more than 100,000 people, as it is a numbers game. There are a certain percentage of the people interested in my products and a smaller percentage who will buy. It's like a funnel, and the bigger the number on top, the bigger the number on the bottom.
• Have an 800 number for customers to get back in touch with me.
• Have phone calls forwarded to me when I am doing shows. Then call back all people that day who left messages. • Have a functioning e-tail website that is promoted on every page of my catalog, on the back/bottom of every product. • Permanently stamp my company name, phone number, and website address on the back of all products sold.
The Advantages of Small Businesses
Vanessa Coppes of enV Jewelry (www.envjewelry.com) points out how small businesses have some advantages over larger businesses while marketing:
• Agility and adaptation: We can quickly move to adjust to changing market conditions.
• Improvisation: We aren't afraid to experiment.
• Customer connection: We have a deep and personal relationship with our market and our customers.
• Passion: We are personally invested.
• Resource limitations: We are already creative, but these limitations also nurture an innovative mindset.
• Collaboration: We rely on each other to share information.
A Good Marketing Fit
Not every craft product fits into a tidy slot. Some artisans create alternative products and must, therefore, cater to those specific alternative markets.
Steampunk fashion and crafts artist Jane Faye of Gaia Noir (www.gaia-noir.co.uk) learned to tailor her marketing efforts to her specific customer base. "Marketing to fellow craftspeople doesn't work well for me," she notes. "Although I use the same techniques as many craftspeople (felting, knitting, dressmaking, millinery, crochet, etc.), what I produce looks a bit unusual, since it's aimed at the steampunk/alternative fashion market. Eventually, I solved the problem by marketing directly on places where people who would use my crafts were likely to be – alternative fashion magazines and steampunk forums and blogs. Marketing directly to your customer base sounds like a straightforward principle, but I think many craftspeople, myself included, often don't follow it."
The Personal Touch
The most recurrent theme craftspeople mention over and over that contributes most heavily to successful sales is nothing more mysterious than the personal touch.
Lindsay Obermeyer of Lindsay Obermeyer Studio (www.lbostudio.com) notes, "When you sell a product you make, the buyer wants to meet you, learn about your inspirations, and better understand how the product was made. When I opened my Etsy store and started selling at craft fairs, I placed ads on a few blogs with large followings and the demographics I felt matched my product. I received a ton of traffic, but very few sales. Advertising can only supplement one-on-one, personal sales and a mailing list. Believe in your product, educate your customers, let them see the process on your blog, and talk about what inspires you." In the end, advice doesn’t get much better than that. |
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Written by Patrice Lewis
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You might be the most experienced craftsperson ever, but let’s face it: we’re all human. As such, we craftspeople are fully capable of making the most stupid mistakes around. These are never more apparent than at craft shows. Here are six simple ways to be prepared for your own slipups:
1Make a list One way to minimize the potential for making mistakes is to make lists—incredibly detailed lists. It might seem unnecessary to list even the most obvious of things, but as the following example illustrates, everyone has their “moments.”
This actually happened: My husband and I, early in our crafting career, arrived at a weekend Renaissance fair and began setting up our booth. It was a rare local event for us, no more than half an hour from our home. We set up our booth the day before the event, chatting pleasantly with the neighboring vendor on one side who was also setting up. Late in the afternoon, the other neighboring vendor drove up, tired and stressed from a chaotic day of packing his vehicle and driving for four hours.
We greeted each other, made sympathetic noises about his day (haven’t we all had them?), and I’ll never forget what happened next. He opened the back hatch of his truck camper and gave a cry of dismay.
He had forgotten his booth.
It seems he had a nicely decorated pop-up pavilion that he had modified beautifully in order to attend this Renaissance fair. But in the bedlam preceding his departure, the pop-up was left behind. It is seldom that you see a grown man fighting back tears.
With no other options, he got back in his vehicle and drove away. The next morning he was back, with dark circles under his eyes, setting up in the last few hours before the fair opened.
This man was an experienced craftsperson, yet he still made a horrible mistake—thus underscoring the importance of listing everything, big and small, you want to remember when exhibiting at a show.
Sometimes it’s not the big things but the little things that can make or break you…or at least make your vending experience a whole lot less fun than it otherwise might be. And that’s why it’s so important to start that list several weeks in advance…and to write down everything you think you’ll need.
Once upon a time, I went on a writer’s retreat. It was something I’d been looking forward to for a long time. I thought carefully about the items I wanted to bring. I made sure I had my laptop, some nice clothes and all the accoutrements writers need when they get together to collaborate for the weekend.
But it wasn’t until late in the evening of that first day that I realized I’d left behind one absolutely critical piece of equipment: my eyeglasses.
I wear contact lenses through the day but glasses in the evening and at night, and suddenly I had to go blind until morning (I have terrible vision when uncorrected). It was weird and disconcerting to try and be social with my fellow writers (not to mention trying to act professional) when I couldn’t clearly see a hand’s length beyond my face.
But it taught me a lesson. Now, when I’m preparing to be away from home for a conference, craft show or other event, I make a list of everything—every little thing—I know I’ll need during the course of the event… right down to my eyeglasses.
And that becomes the power of the list in preparing. Start that list far in advance (a couple of weeks is ideal) and add to it as you think about the things you want to make sure you don’t forget. The things you think you can’t possibly forget (like glasses! and your booth!) should be first on that list. List even the big things because, well, you never know what kind of mental lapse you’ll have in those last frantic hours as you pack your vehicle and prepare to depart.
2Have a dress rehearsal I strongly recommend doing a dress rehearsal before going to your show, especially if it’s been a while since the last time. Set up your booth. Set up your shelving or display units. Put all of your stock on the shelves. Put up your signage. If necessary, put on your costume (for themed events like Renaissance fairs). Pretend to process a transaction. There is no finer way to figure out what you’re forgetting.
For example, once a year I do an enormous four-day festival in a huge city two states away. It’s a ten-hour drive to get there, so it’s not like I can dash home if I forget something. I’m good at making lists, so I usually don’t forget anything important.
But one year I forgot to do a dress rehearsal, and boy can something like that throw you for a loop.
What happened was I had a new sign, a large 10-feet-by-4-feet banner that was supposed to attach to a PVC frame and be hoisted above the booth. This way the sign could be seen above the heads of the crowd for a wonderful bit of exposure for our product.
Except for one thing: The PVC rods we bought to frame the sign didn’t fit through the vinyl sleeves of the banner.
So there I was, a country girl in the big city, with no idea where I could find a hardware store to purchase the right PVC poles to complete the structure.
My saving grace was I had arrived a day early. After hastily consulting a phone book and then scouring my city map, I fought rush-hour traffic until I found a hardware store, purchased the PVC pipe and thus saved our signage. But the experience left me frazzled and exhausted, and more appreciative of the need for a dress rehearsal before doing a show.
3Anticipate the environment It’s impossible to determine everything you may need at a show or event, particularly with outdoor events. But it helps to be aware of the area and/or season.
My husband does a show every September held in the midst of a large mown hayfield. Through harsh experience, he’s learned to bring two critical items: allergy medicine and wasp spray. Both are self-explanatory but neither are items most craftspeople would think to include on their lists of what to bring. This is why advanced knowledge of where a show is being held is so useful. My husband’s allergies are likely to kick up in a hayfield, and everyone knows how much yellow jackets love to nest in holes in the ground, invariably right where you’re assigned to set up your booth.
What about things like sunscreen? A hat? Tissue or handkerchiefs? A small cooler for cold drinks or sandwiches? When you’re doing an outdoor event you’re essentially camping for two days, so prepare accordingly.
Indoor events can be just as important to anticipate. One year we did a reasonably local event held in a college auditorium. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, nothing was wrong per se, but after setting up I realized our booth didn’t have the warm, welcoming atmosphere it normally did. It took a few minutes to understand why. The harsh lighting, generic flooring and echoing nature of the auditorium made for a cold, unwelcoming ambiance no matter how beautifully arranged our products were.
After a hasty trip home for some props, we set out an area rug (to provide a friendly atmosphere as well as muffle the sounds), a floor lamp (for warmer lighting) and brightly colored sheets to drape behind our shelving units to provide a warmer, cozier feel. Not incidentally, it also made our vending experience more comfortable.
4Preplan ad nauseam The old Boy Scout motto of “Be prepared” applies to everyone, especially if you are a craftsperson who finds yourself far away from home for a vending event.
Did you remember to book a room in advance or make arrangements to stay with friends? One time we drove to a large city for an event and naïvely assumed it wouldn’t be a problem to get a room near the function. Country hicks that we are, it never dawned on us that there might be some monkey wrenches in this obvious plan.
You guessed it, dusk found us driving in an ever-widening circle around the event location, desperately searching for a “vacancy” sign and finding nothing. We finally parked on the street near the function and slept (badly) in the car. It wasn’t until the next day that we found a room many miles from the site (I manned the booth alone for a few hours while my husband searched for a motel). This was in the days before cell phones and it underscored—duh—the need to be prepared to the best of our abilities before leaving home.
The following year, as soon as our application for this same show was accepted, we booked a room in a mid-grade hotel a mere block from the event and have used the same facility ever since.
5Follow the “rule of three” Sometimes there are things you can’t anticipate or control when doing a craft show. That’s why it’s nice, whenever possible, to have one or two backup options for critical functions (like financial transactions). A prepared neighbor calls this “the rule of three.”
An example of this occurred when my husband exhibited at a large outdoor event in central Oregon. Thankfully, he applied the rule of three when it came to running financial transactions (the whole reason for doing a show, after all).
There was a glitch in the show production and the electricity to his booth was not available. That meant his bank-issued credit card machine, which recorded information and batched files, wouldn’t work.
So my husband fell back on option two, calling in individual credit cards to the bank using his cell phone. That’s when he learned cell phone service wasn’t available at that location. So he fell back on option three, manually running credit cards using a “chunk chunk” machine. That worked perfectly.
As my husband is fond of pointing out, modern electronic devices are great conveniences until they don’t work. As it turned out, his forethought to bring the “chunk chunk” machine and a stack of old-fashioned credit card slips saved the day for us financially.
6Use a calendar Despite all of our lessons learned, by far the most embarrassing—and costly and stupid—mistake we ever made was to forget the date of a show. Seriously!
No kidding—this is a true story. We had applied to a huge wholesale trade show, were juried in and accepted, paid our $1,000 booth fee and then forgot to write the early-January show date on our calendar. We knew it was in the first month of the year, but what with the holidays and coping with winter snows and dealing with livestock (we live on a farm), we just sort of, well, forgot. Vaguely in the back of our minds we knew we had better start building stock and getting ready, but somehow kept putting it off.
On a Wednesday after Christmas, my husband turned to me and said, “Just when is this show, anyway?”
I located the paperwork, saw the date and my jaw dropped in horror. The show was that weekend. In order to travel to it, I would have to leave the next day.
Needless to say, we weren’t ready. Not even remotely. We had no stock, no order forms, nothing in place that we could throw into the car and make a dash for it.
Swallowing our pride, I confess I called the show producers and lied. I said we were snowed in and would be unable to make the event. It was a year of rough weather, so our story was perfectly believable (in fact, the producer said quite a number of vendors had canceled because of regional flooding), but we had to forfeit our $1,000 booth fee and say good-bye to any potential business the show might have brought us.
Remember, we’re only human
This humiliating experience illustrates that, no matter how experienced a craftsperson you might be, things can go spectacularly wrong due to a lack of preparation. Do yourself a favor and be a Boy Scout in your crafting efforts. Be prepared.TCR
Patrice Lewis is the author of The Home Craft Business: How to Make It Survive and Thrive (tcr.bz/patrice_lewis).
 You might be the most experienced craftsperson ever, but let’s face it: we’re all human. As such, we craftspeople are fully capable of making the most stupid mistakes around. These are never more apparent than at craft shows. Here are six simple ways to be prepared for your own slipups.
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Written by Patrice Lewis
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Ah, the great outdoors. Sunshine, fresh air, the birds singing. What could be better than this? If you’re an artist selling at a crafts fair, lots.
The great outdoors can also mean hot sun, destructive wind, pouring rain, and anything else the Weather Channel can serve up. If you are a vendor at an outdoor craft show, it pays to be prepared.
This isn’t to suggest outdoor shows are inherently worse than indoor ones. Far from it. If the weather cooperates, there are few things more enjoyable than vending at a lively sun-kissed event.
Be prepared
The biggest difference in preparing for indoor vs. outdoor events is obvious: the weather.
A roof over your head—a sunshade of some sort—is the most apparent necessity. Depending on the requirements of the event, your roof can be canvas, plastic or wood. This will provide protection from the sun and precipitation.
However, don’t forget to consider side panels as well. Side panels can cut wind, protect you from side-blowing rain, and keep low-angled sunlight from blasting you. (Or they can lift your booth off the ground and send it sailing, so stake your booth securely.)
If you have a choice—and you may not—try to angle your booth away from the west. As the sun begins to get low in the afternoon, it may smother you in heat and blind you with light to the point where customers avoid you.
Be aware that any weather-related woes you experience may add insult to injury by affecting how many people attend the event. If the heat is oppressive or the rain is daunting, then no one will come. (Hard to blame them, really.)
Foiling theft
It’s not just the weather you need to prepare for at an outdoor venue; you also need to think about theft.
With few exceptions, you are far more vulnerable to having your stock ripped off during the wee hours at an outdoor event than an indoor event. The more brazen thieves won’t even bother waiting until 2 a.m.—some of them may slip a hand (or whole body) into the back of your booth during the day while you’re occupied at the front.
If your booth has floor-to-ceiling side panels, make sure they are clipped together at the corners so someone can’t just lift the flap and slip into your booth. Since the back of your booth is the most likely place you will keep cash, spare stock, your wallet or purse, and other valuables, it behooves you to keep it as safe as possible.
Unless the event can guarantee an amazing degree of security during the night, you may wish to completely remove all stock at the end of the day and either lock it in your car or otherwise secure it. Once a year we do an enormous beer festival in downtown Portland, Oregon. Every night we are the last vendor to leave because we’re busy breaking down our stock and stowing our product in the back of the car for safe-keeping.
It’s a hassle, but it’s worth it: we’ve never lost one of our pieces to middle-of-the-night theft.
Learn the limitations
As a general rule, most outdoor events do not provide electricity. The exception is when the event supplies the booth, in which case they usually supply a single 60-watt overhead lightbulb. However, if you use your own booth and the function continues after dark, you’ll be...well, in the dark.
If your booth requires electricity to highlight your products (such as stained glass or jewelry), you’ll have to provide your own lamps and make arrangements ahead of time with the event coordinators to have electricity supplied.
Whatever décor or displays you use outdoors must be tough enough to handle breezy or even windy conditions, dust kicked up by the crowds, warm temperatures, rain, and other adversities.
Ah, the great outdoors. Sunshine, fresh air, the birds singing. What could be better than this? If you’re an artist selling at a crafts fair, lots.
The great outdoors can also mean hot sun, destructive wind, pouring rain, and anything else the Weather Channel can serve up. If you are a vendor at an outdoor craft show, it pays to be prepared.
This isn’t to suggest outdoor shows are inherently worse than indoor ones. Far from it. If the weather cooperates, there are few things more enjoyable than vending at a lively sun-kissed event.
Be prepared
The biggest difference in preparing for indoor vs. outdoor events is obvious: the weather.
A roof over your head—a sunshade of some sort—is the most apparent necessity. Depending on the requirements of the event, your roof can be canvas, plastic or wood. This will provide protection from the sun and precipitation.
However, don’t forget to consider side panels as well. Side panels can cut wind, protect you from side-blowing rain, and keep low-angled sunlight from blasting you. (Or they can lift your booth off the ground and send it sailing, so stake your booth securely.)
Make sure your shelving units or other displays are steady. What might work well on a linoleum floor indoors may not translate onto rough ground in windy weather. If you work on the old principle that if anything can go wrong, it will...then you can prepare appropriately.
Another consideration for doing outdoor shows is the need to match your product to the conditions.
For most people, this is not a big deal. After all, hand-knitted sweaters and scarves can handle hot sun as well as chilly temperatures.
But if your product can be damaged by moisture, you must either protect your stock from all possible forms of wetness (including fog, rain, humidity, condensation, etc.), or you’ll have to limit yourself to indoor events.
We did one event in which the temperature grew very hot—in the low 100s. Our beer steins sold briskly—people wanted something to drink from—but unfortunately for the vendor next to us, handmade candles weren’t surviving the warm weather.
We spent much of the weekend shuffling her candles in and out of our ice chest in an effort to keep her products from melting. Our efforts were not entirely successful because our fairly small ice chest couldn’t handle her entire stock, so a lot of her pieces became misshapen due to the heat.
It was not a financially successful show for her, since no one could see all of her products (they were all in our ice chest, after all).
The sturdiness factor
The more delicate your product, the more difficulty you’ll have doing outdoor shows (remember the candles).
Once we did a show at which the vendor next to us sold beautiful and fragile glass items. The weather was perfect...until the very end. When the show ended a microburst hit us out of the blue. It literally destroyed our booth, though we had packed away our stock so the tankards were safe. The woman next to us lost not only her booth, but most of her glass pieces as well.
Of course, outdoor shows occur during the most favorable time of year for good weather, but you always take your chances. Try to be prepared as much as possible—and hope for the best.
It should be noted that the show coordinators are not responsible for lost stock or sales due to weather, so don’t hassle them about it. We remember an event in which the weather got very foggy overnight. A vendor’s tent—a rental tent owned by the event—leaked moisture onto her product, ruining some of it. She tried to make the event promoters pay for lost sales and stock by constant pestering. She didn’t succeed.
The benefits of four walls and a roof
For obvious reasons, indoor shows have their advantages.
Weather is not a factor, unless it is so bad that it keeps customers from coming in the first place.
You don’t need a “booth” per se. As long as you designate your ten-by-ten space as yours by using appropriate shelving units, tables, or other displays, you can get by with less infrastructure.
Sometimes, though not always, electrical floor or wall sockets may be available. Again, however, don’t assume this. If your booth requires electricity, make those requirements clear on your vendor application.
Security is more easily achieved at an indoor event. After the event, the room is cleared out and locked. Voila. However, if your stock is extremely valuable and/or easily hidden and transportable (such as jewelry), it wouldn’t hurt to pack it away for the night. It goes without saying that all cash should be removed from the premise as well.
The bling factor
Indoor events are—or can be—more “glitzy.”
Would your products be better displayed with fancy lighting, elegant signage, or other eye-catching accents? You have a far better chance of dressing up your booth indoors than you do outdoors. Outdoors, one gust of wind would rip away most light decor. Indoors, you can expand.
In fact, it is best to dress up your indoor booth as much as possible (without irritating your fellow vendors, of course). Tasteful use of lighting and accents will bring you notice by passersby, after which your beautifully displayed products will draw them into your booth.
At the first large indoor show we did (a holiday gift show held in a convention center in a major city), we approached our booth display with pathetic naiveté. We were fairly new in business and had only done outdoor events. Our products are sturdy, earthy items that normally don’t lend themselves to glitz and glitter. And therein lay our mistake.
We had our product displayed on wooden shelving units, as we always did at outdoor events. That was it.
For three days we were lost in a sea of 450 other vendors, most of whom had the good sense to use every eye-catching tactic in the book to draw in customers. The event was a financial disaster...as well as a lesson learned.
Eenie meenie minie moe
So what should you do—indoor or outdoor events?
Why, both of course. Both types of venues can reap financial awards and be a lot of fun. With some sensible preparations and an awareness of external conditions, your booth can be attractive, appealing, and a serious money-maker. TCR
 Ah, the great outdoors. Sunshine, fresh air, the birds singing. What could be better than this? If you’re an artist selling at a crafts fair, lots.
The great outdoors can also mean hot sun, destructive wind, pouring rain and anything else the Weather Channel can serve up. If you are a vendor at an outdoor craft show, it pays to be prepared.
This isn’t to suggest outdoor shows are inherently worse than indoor ones. Far from it. If the weather cooperates, there are few things more enjoyable than vending at a lively sun-kissed event.
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Written by Patrice Lewis
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 As craftspeople, we put a tremendous amount of effort into developing our manufacturing skills and business smarts.We’ve thought of it all: taxes, booth design and setup, merchant services accounts, product guarantees, wholesale distributors … the list goes on and on. Gosh we’re just brilliant, aren’t we?
But there’s one teensy weensy little detail craftspeople often forget: insurance.
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Written by Patrice Lewis
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Trish Hodgens of Poly Clay Play tried a number of crafts to make some money, but “most people look at crafts as something to keep women and children busy…not a legitimate way to make an income.” Of all the excuses people use about why their hobby could never be turned into a business, the most insidious and devastating are those inner voices—the creeping doubts from within—that tell you why you’ll never succeed.
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Written by Patrice Lewis
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 When a craftsperson is serious about his hobby, it’s common to speculate whether or not the hobby could become a business capable of supporting a family. This month, we’ll look at some tips to increase your chances of succeeding at that business.
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Written by Patrice Lewis
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 Today, as people face job losses, salary cuts, or other economic woes, it’s worth examining whether or not you can do something extraordinary: make a living and support your family solely by the efforts of your home craft business. It sounds like a fantasy—but can it become a reality? Yes and no.
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Written by Patrice Lewis
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 So many times, beginning crafters think small. A local Christmas crafts fair held in a high school gym might be about as far as your ambition extends. And, depending on your craft, that might be as far as you can go. But if your product is unique, beautifully made, and appeals to a wide variety of customers…then it behooves you to dream big. Don’t be intimidated by the idea that the huge, high-quality craft shows don’t want new vendors—because they do.
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Written by Patrice Lewis
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 It’s far too easy to look at a successful crafter and assume that you, too, can achieve that level of success. But here’s the thing: you can. Remember, the crafter you admire did not achieve that level of success immediately. Nor will you. And never forget the far greater number of crafters you can’t see, because they’re no longer in business.
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Written by Patrice Lewis
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 When you work a craft show, it should be obvious that you will be handling money. But how to handle money often isn’t so clear.
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Written by Patrice Lewis
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 Well, today’s the big day, the day of your first craft show. You selected an appropriate venue. You arrived on time. You’re displaying only juried items. Your booth is handsome and well-done. The only problem is…you’re competing with other vendors at the event. Now what? How do you bring customers into your booth?
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