busted

Well, the show I did this past Saturday was not a good one for me. After an hour of no one stopping into my booth I had a bad feeling that things were not going well. I sold four things all day, not enough to cover the booth fee, the item I was required to donate for the gift basket raffle, and probably not even the gas it took to drive there.

I made a couple of mistakes here, and maybe you can learn from them. I'm certainly keeping it in mind for the future.

#1—I listened to other crafters who said they'd heard it was good show. And I shouldn't have. Like people's opinions about restaurants, movies, and good places to vacation, that's very subjective. People have different tastes and are looking for very different things. For me, this show was too country craftsy, with too many hobby craft vendors with low-priced items. I just didn't fit.

#2—Not checking out the show beforehand. Had I skipped the idea of being a vendor this year I could have attended the show as a customer and I would have known immediately that it wasn't a good fit.

#3—Making too much stuff. Because I thought the show would be good I made a lot more items than I would have. Now, having too much inventory isn't necessarily a terrible thing provided you have space to store it. I have two more shows coming up in November, one of which I've done before and know will be good. I can send extra product this month to the shops where I consign. And I can take a much-needed break, too. Maybe catch up on paperwork.

Even though the show was a bust, it wasn't all bad. I met a woman who has a bunch of vintage handkerchiefs to sell. Several people took my card and promised to visit my website to do some holiday shopping (the discount code I gave them may provide some extra encouragement). And I met a young girl who excitedly told me that she'd just learned to cross stitch and loved vintage transfer patterns. You go, girl :)