Today I thought I'd have a chat to you about taking your work to a craft fair.
Selling your work in person is a fantastic opportunity to meet your customers face-to-face, get your brand out there and help your cash flow along too. It's not as scary as you think it will be!
1. Think about your stand, how will this represent your brand and your work? How can you display your products so they are seen at their best?
My work is very colourful and contemporary, matched with lovely rustic elements like the brown envelopes, kraft packaging so all this feeds into my display with a cute spotty cloth and big old apple crates to help pair these elements.
A lot of this will come naturally to you, your brand and business is often a reflection of you so you'll tend to be drawn towards things that complement it.
2. Make sure everything is priced.
It puts people off instantly if they can't see any prices, most assume it must be too expensive and move on.
3. Be friendly and approachable but there is a fine balance, make sure that you are not overwhelming your customer. I try and greet most people that come over but if someone is obviously not wanting a chat I leave it and let them browse. Try and read their body language.
4. Remember all the essentials! These are things like; notebook and pens to write down sales, your float so you can give people change when they buy.
Scissors, string, tape (3 things that will help you fix pretty much anything, including your display falling down!)
A big bottle of water and some snacks.
5. Be prepared to adapt.
Not all craft fairs have a standard sized table or space that will be the same as the one you did last week. Some will be bigger, smaller, another shape even. So I try and have extra tablecloths on hand, various display props and I just use these to figure out the space when I arrive.
Creating height on your display is great to get things at the eye level of the customer so have a think about how you can safely do this.
I hope that helps, and if you have any questions please ask away in the comments!
Lou xx