Craft Fair Prep: Deciding What to Sell

New Mini-series....and this one I'm actually going to keep up!

What I thought I would do is a little series on prepping for a craft fair or bazaar...why they are called two different things I'm not sure, they mean the same thing...but I digress...

back to the topic at hand:

Craft Fairs!

I'm going to cover the following topics:

Deciding what to Sell/Inventory

Finding and Registering for your Sale

Designing your Booth

Things to Remember the Day of the Sale

I will also do a day of answering questions if anyone has any....

So here we go with round one!

Deciding What to Sell and Inventory

Before you find a sale you need to decide what to sell. Determining specific items it crucial. There are few areas that you especially want to look at.

1. Is it Something People Want? We didn't even look to sell anything at a fair until we realized that people wanted the items we were selling. I sold a whole bunch of mittens at school before we thought about a fair. We knew heading into the fair that there was a market for our items, which is what you want. Going into a fair that you've spent money on....you want to know that they will sell:)

2. Price Point: Don't charge and arm and a leg...you won't sell anything. But...make sure you're making some profit on your items. Take into consideration what you would pay for your item, how much time you put into the items, and what your materials cost.

3. Some Variety is Good...Too Much is eh: You're gonna want to have a measure of variety, but if you have too much, your booth is going to look cluttered. Personally the booths that have too much stuff are ones that are some that I avoid. I like to see booths that are cohesive, presented well, and there isn't too many different things. Plus having a focus makes getting an inventory together a lot easier.

4. Inventory, Inventory, Inventory! Once you've decided what to make....make a lot of those items. I would advise doing so right after you send in your application...or to be honest 4 months ahead of time. We were really bad at this last year and it resulted in 2-3 all nighters, which was not fun at all! We've done much better this year! Selling out of stuff at a show is great...but if it happens at 10 in the morning, the people in charge may not be too happy. And you're not usually allowed to take down your booth early either. Make more than you think you'll need. It'll pay off!

5. Keep a Inventory Sheet/Log: Another area we may have learned about the hard way. Keeping track of how much you have will give you piece of mind and keep you on track for know what you have and don't have for your show. 

Up next week...Picking your Sale!
Let us know if you have any questions:)

Sarah