Doing a Dry Run will give you an idea of how big your booth really is and what it will look like. I remember going to a craft show and setting up all my things the night before, which we had the option of doing and having the time to really digest what my booth would look like.
The next morning, I came in early, thankful that I wasn't rushing to get things setup and lo and behold the lady with the booth across the aisle from me was frantic. Frantic to get her things in and extremely shocked. She couldn't believe how small her booth was and that her display as she planned it in her head wasn't going to fit! Because she hadn't done a dry with the measuring of the booth, she couldn't adjust at the last moment to fix it, either!
I watched her lose sales the entire show, because she had crammed everything in so tight, you couldn't see any of her things. In fact, in her panic, she had blocked people from entering her booth and had things facing the wrong direction! To top it off, she sat in the corner and pouted, because her booth wasn't big enough for her things! She had several friends coming to see her, and loudly complained about the size of her booth. Here she had one day to sell everything, and she had no time or ability to edit and move on!
I felt bad in one sense for her, but really, when you are doing a craft show, you have one chance to get your audience to buy your goods. So why wouldn't you plan ahead and do a dry run of your booth. She could have easily downsized everything, and then restocked later in the day as things sold! She would have made the sales, and people would've enjoyed her presence at the show! Truth be told, her items were gorgeous and I wanted most of them myself, except she scared me off with her tantrums.
Don't be that person that is surprised by the size of your booth. Don't lose a single sale because you overestimated the size of your booth! It will never be big enough, no matter the size, it is just what you do with that space to market your goods. Resist the urge to put it all out in the beginning. Hide some under things or even in the car until some space is freed up. And most importantly, do a dry run!
Check out the rest of my posts in this series here: 31 Days Until a Craft Show. Also, check out those blogs that I love to link up to in the right column. I have met some new ones along this adventure of writing 31 posts in a month(ish).
For a complete list of the 31 Day Until A Craft Show series and links to each post go Here to Day 31.
I had to put your blog in my blog roll to make sure I see your posts , as you are showing.. this series is good!
ReplyDeleteGood luck on the show in December!
What a breath of fresh air your advice is. Too bad that woman allowed so much to ruin the show for her and others. Things are seldom the way you think they'll be at a show so need to just make the best of it and roll with it, smile smile and smile. The people that go to the show go to buy and not see sour faces or hear sad tales.
ReplyDeleteWe used to go to shows alot. One of our first big ones was up in Ft. Benton, MT. It rained almost the whole first day of the show and part of second day. We had brought a canopy so could have a few things out, it poured and the wind blew but here and there were quite a few people. For inexperience show people we did pretty well. We sold several of our benches, stools, country signs I'd stenciled and decorated. We were very encouraged. Did much better than we had expected.
We had really worked hard getting ready for that show. We'd rented a uhaul trailer to take our merchandise and we rented a motel room for 2 nights plus eating. My hubs had worked every day he was home from the road (truck driver) cutting things out.
We really didn't have any idea how our booth would be but we'd planned for any contingency and just went with it rain, cold, wind and all. We did great and we were very pleased with the outcome. We went to more shows after that and did well.
We moved to KY and didn't do so well. It's amazing how different show attendees can be and what they want. After many disappointments we stopped going. People here in western CO don't seem to like the distressed look at all. It's hard to tell what they do like but hopefully we'll find our niche at some point.
Have enjoyed reading your blog and seeing your projects. Thanks for reading my comments.
That is true about the difference in areas. I'm hoping the shabby chic, funky junk look will be a new thing that people will like. So many of the booths here are jewelry. Not sure why, because not many people wear jewelry. Thanks for stopping by and giving your advice and expertise!
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