BUSINESS: Preparing For Your First Craft Fair

Spring is in full swing and this means the Spring craft fair season is in full swing. Preparing for a craft fair, particularly your first craft fair can be nerve-wracking but it need not be an overly stressful experience if you follow a few simple guidelines. Here is a quick guide to help you prepare for your first craft fair successfully. 

Chalk Hill Studio

Getting there:

• Do some research in advance to check whether the venue in question has parking or a loading/unloading area.
• If the craft fair is taking place in a busy town centre, it is advisable to get a friend or family member to give you a lift so you won’t need to concern yourself with parking.
• Whatever your mode of transport, it’s best to get to the venue as early as you can. Unpacking your stock and setting up your display, particularly if you sell small fiddly items like jewellery, can often take far longer than you may anticipate. There is nothing more stressful than being in the midst of the unpacking and setting up process as the first craft fair visitors start to arrive!  

Stock:

• Ensure you have sufficient stock to fill the size of table you have hired as half-empty tables don’t tend to draw customers. If you feel that this will be a problem, consider sharing a table/stall with a friend. I have done this before with excellent results despite the fact that our respective styles were very different.  

Shared stall: Siobhian Carroll and Sakura Jewellery

• As a rule of thumb you should aim to take 2 to 3 times more than your target sales amount. For example, if your target is to sell £150 worth of stock, you should be aiming to take £450 of stock with you to the event.
• Prepare a variety of stock to cater to all tastes, this means taking along some of your expensive show-case pieces as well as your more reasonably priced bread and butter items as you never know who will be there.
• On the day, don’t display all your wares in one go as you need to be able to replace items that sell to keep your table looking full. 

Pricing:

• Price everything before the event ensuring all price tags/labels are clear and visible.
• Make your life simple and stick to round numbers when pricing your items to ensure that making change is not a mission.
• Another tip is to pre-prepare discount price tags as you may wish to change your item prices on the day to encourage more sales if things are a little slow. Have a clear idea about how low you are willing to drop prices should customers haggle.
• It is also a good idea to workout your wholesale pricing so that you can be prepared should a “buyer” happen to enquire about it on the day, ensuring you don’t fall into the trap of under-pricing your work when put on the spot. 

Float:

• Don’t leave getting sufficient notes and small change to the last minute. A quick prior trip to the post office will mean that you won’t have to scrounge around on the day asking fellow sellers for assistance or make a last minute dash to the shops. I tend to get pound coins and notes to make up a £50 float but this will depend on your selling prices. 

Display:

• Your display will depend upon what items you are selling, the size of your selling space and whether you are attending an indoor or outdoor event. As a general rule, however, displays that utilise boxes and pedestals to create height and variety tend to look more appealing to the customer. In addition, using uniform display equipment and colour co-ordinating cleverly will make your table stand out and look professional.
• For high ticket items it may be a good idea to invest in lockable table-top display cases to keep your more pricey items safe from quick hands as, unfortunately, there can be a fair amount of theft at craft fairs. Here are a few photographic examples of the ways in which some UK artists of varying disciplines display their wares to maximum effect: 

Gillyflower Jewellery

Pouch Bags

Business Cards & Signage:

• Take along plenty of business cards, ensure they are easily accessible to browsers and encourage them to take them. Good signage can draw customers to your stall but bad signage can have the opposite effect and make you look unprofessional. If you don’t have a lot of time to make professional-looking signage, it is better to concentrate on other things. Clear labels, small table signs explaining materials, artist biography and portfolio can also add an extra professional edge to your display.  

Packaging:

• Packaging can say a lot about your items and business. Nicely packaged items send out the message that you care about every aspect of your product and business. Bad packaging can suggest lack of care and customers may subconsciously make a value judgment about the quality of your products so it’s worth taking some good packing along to your event. Always pop a business card in with your packaging. 

Miscellaneous items to take:

• Scissors, cellotape, mirror, receipt book, drinks/food, calculator, notebook and pen to jot down sales and take custom orders, folding chair, table covering, table clamps if windy, layers if cold outside, lights if there are power points you can use, tools to adjust/fix your products, pins/tacks. 

On a final note, try not to look bored! Sitting behind your table all day can be tiring, especially if traffic is slow, but keeping a smile on your face and greeting customers makes a far better impression than sitting slouched behind your stall looking miserable. You could even take your craft along with you to make on the day, keeping your stall looking busy and interesting to customers and giving you something to do to pass the time.  

Craft fairs can be great fun and a wonderful opportunity to get the word out about your business, boost your sales and meet like-minded people.

©  Anna Stassen; all right reserved