Last week I did my first craft fair of 2014, and it went really well! I’ve only done one before and it wasn’t very exciting.
Thursday night I showed up with an arsenal of new products, which I think helped a lot. At the last show I only had framed cross stitches, but this time I also had kits, buttons, and jewelry. I think a lot of the people stopped because they had never seen anything like the lasercut jewelry. I also had Beadeux’s blank pendants available which did really well too.

Here are some things that I think that I did right:

Having a colorful and varied table
I think the bright colors and different products made people more likely to stop and look.
Keeping things simple
For my first show I put everything I had made on the table and it was all at the same level. I think it was a little overwhelming for people to try to look at everything. As difficult as it was for me to tone it down, I only put about half of my framed pieces out.

At one point some women were looking at the framed pieces and I pulled out all the other pieces for them to look at. I’m glad I brought them along but didn’t display them all at once. I also brought along a shelf so that there were two levels.
Was prepared
I wanted to make sure I had everything I could possibly need and it gave me peace of mind. The obvious things are to have enough cash, business cards, and product. I also made sure I had extra price tags, a pen, scissors, safety pins, and tape.
Having a credit card reader available
I very rarely have cash and am always relieved when I have the option to use a credit card places. There are different brands of mobile credit card readers but I’ve been using Square and I’m very happy with it. You can get the reader for free and they also send along a sticker to show that you take credit cards. I stuck mine on a piece of cardstock and framed it.
I also inputed all of my inventory into the Square app. This had the added benefit of not having to do any math, I just clicked on the items being purchased and got the total.

Having a variety of price points
I spent a few days just making as many buttons as I possibly could and I’m glad I did. I had items ranging from $2 up to $40 which definitely helped me reach a wider range than if all of my items were more expensive.

Here are some areas I still need to improve:
Consolidation
This is a big one. If I plan on doing more craft fairs, I need to consolidate and get a better system down. It took me 4 trips to get everything from the car and set up took forever. I’m sure it will come with practice, but it resulted in me feeling very frazzled.
Talking with and engaging with customers
I am definitely an introvert and it can be awkward for me to try to talk with someone looking at my work. I did a much better job Thursday than I did at my first show and I’m sure it’ll continue to improve.

So I was able to cross one off my 2014 goals list! The artisan collective does shows every month and I want to do more. Not every month because that just sounds exhausting, but hopefully more! If you’ve done craft fairs, what advice do you have?