- Work Box (Thank you Barb Lieberman for pointing out this one)
It's a good idea to keep some type of work box, or in my case a work bag. In this bag includes all necessary equipment for repairs. This will vary depending on what you make and sell. This can include needle and thread, pliers, jump rings, glue, etc. This also includes all necessary equipment for making the sale, such as receipt book, pen, calculate, anything that goes with a sale (such as the instructions for how to take care of your fairy garden). I also include yarn, tape, scissors, extra pens, my folder with everything from more business cards to tags to stickers for my bags to important paperwork regarding the event I am attending. Your sellers permit or business license is another good thing to include in there just in case you need it. And if you are anything like me, keeping a first aid kit on hand will be very wise. The more experience you have with events, the more you know what to bring to be prepared for the next event. Barb from Seeds of Inspiration advises making a list of items you know you need while first packing your tool box and then just keeping everything in that particular container so you know you always have everything you need. - Dress comfortably
At the Steampunk Expo, one day I dressed in my Robin Hood costume in an attempt to dress the part. I added gears to it and I had these boots which were rather comfortable. The costume as a whole, while cute and somewhat fitting with the theme, was not. My skirt was short and because of this I am not too comfortable bending over in it. This makes it difficult when dealing with customers and trying to grab bags or bins to restock from under the table. In short, pun not intended, not my best idea.
For Whiskey Flat Days, I was considering a longer skirt, one I can bend over in and move around as need be, and that also fits the theme. However, the first day of Whiskey Flats we have to set up. Personally, I have yet to master how to set up tables in a skirt. I decided to stick with jeans this first day. They offer comfort and I can find other ways to dress the part and match the theme, such as my cowboy hat, customized to be specifically Acorn Tops with the help of The Delightful Bee's acorn felt hair clip! It also works well to avoid the inevitable sun burn that comes with warm days in the desert/mountains.
The skirt will be reserved for tomorrow and Sunday, the busier days.
On the fourth day, when we will have to tear down and pack up, I'll return to the long skirt. - Use the bathrooms first thing in the morning, especially if they are port-a-potties.
This is a good rule to apply to most events. First, mornings, especially during set up, when it is not as busy, is a good time to slip away from the booth without worrying about missing a sale. Second, the bathrooms will not be as crowded. Third, there will be plenty of toilet paper, especially when dealing with port-a-potties. Nearing the end of the day, they tend to run low on those much needed essentials. And fourth, near the end of the day, the port-a-potties stink. Outside of stuffing a Seeds of Inspiration's dash sach up your nose, you can very possibly pass out from the green fumes rising out of that particular restroom. Save yourself the trouble, limit your liquid intake and go first thing in the morning.
On a similar note, you will want to have some hand sanitizer on hand. Occasionally, they will have hand washing stations, but expect and plan for them to not. - The First Day Phenomenon
The first day of expos and multi-day events will be shorter and slower. There is always less traffic on the first day. It's the look-and-see day, the day customers make mental notes of which booth they want to come back to. Jess and I saw this at the Steampunk Expo and many vendors who have done Whiskey Flat Days in previous years told us the busiest days, the days 40,000 people descend upon this small town, are Saturday and Sunday, the second and third day of this four day event.
I suggest using this day to work on your product in the booth. (Normally I do this every day at every event because it's a good way to draw people's attention and explain product, but tomorrow I'm planning on being so busy, I'll be unable to carve at all.) This way, you won't feel a whole day is wasted sitting around with very few sales and there will be less frustration at the many people who will not dish out their wallet for reasons stated previously. - Bring a variety of work
If you bring things to work on in the booth for the whole event, make sure to bring a nice variety to work on if you can. By the third day of the Steampunk expo, I got a lot of ornaments carved, but I was so tired and bored of it, I had to put it away. (As stated above, this will not be a problem for me with this event. However, still a good thing to keep in mind.)
A few tips and tricks I have forgotten and some new ones after this first day at Whiskey Flat Days!
0 Comments
About a month ago, my awesome friend and equally fantastic local artist, Jessica from Jessie J Inspiration's invited me to include some of my items in her booth at Her Royal Majesty Steampunk Expo at the Queen Mary. It was a three day event and from that experience we learned a few tricks and tips.
This weekend she and I are booth buddies once more at Whiskey Flat Days in Kernville (and there really is no better person to share with than Jess) While this is not exactly an Expo, it is a multi-day event with a clear theme, so many of these tips and tricks apply. Two weeks following, her and I will be at the Long Beach Comic Expo, and maybe I'll blog about a few more things we learn along the way. But for now, here is what we learned and will be applying to our upcoming events:
There’s an irony to accidentally cutting yourself while carving a door inspired by the man of steel. It’s not the first time I’ve done it. I carry enough bandaids with me on a daily basis for my purse to be considered a first aid kit. During the last craftsman’s guild fair I received a very nice scar on my finger. On the bright side neither of these injuries required stitches. But it reminded me of something I and some fellow crafters talked about during the HMSB Maker’s Retreat last weekend, the difference between a hobby and a business. One of the crafters there talked about how it was the difference between something like Handmade in South Bay and something like the Torrance Craftsman’s Guild. On the ride home from the retreat, though, we decided it was more than that though. For us in Handmade in South Bay, it’s our business, our income, our livelihood or what we’d like our livelihood to be, but it’s also our passion. There is a flame that refuses to die. Yes, we get frustrated and walk away for a bit. We put down the needle and thread and paint and brushes, but we always come back. We walk around with idea books stuffed in our bags and purses. We have our planners as our brains. And we never stop thinking about our business. Even when it’s something as simple as spying all the trees that would be perfect for a fairy door, or dreaming up a new design. We are our business and we take it with us, in our purses, in our notebooks and phones, in our brains, and in our soul. You can hear it in our voices and see it on our faces when we talk about it. We live and breathe not only our businesses, but what our businesses can do for the world at large. And we bleed for it. We cry for it. We try for it. We risk for it. And we work for it. From the moment we wake, to the moment we rest our heads on our pillow. We do not work a nine-to-five. I don’t think we know how. Sometimes dinner, when we remember it through our painting pallets and sewing machines, is at 9 o’clock at night. Lunches are optional and breakfast is accompanied by updating social media and scheduling posts. When Degas was going blind, he switched to sculpting, because there is no such thing as idle hands for a passionate artist. Again, we don’t know how. We are disciplined enough to accomplish it amidst the mind-sucking everyday distractions that come with working from home. We are brave enough to bare our souls to an often unkind world, sometimes even in the circles where we should feel the most safe in doing so and who should be able to understand the most. We push ourselves further than we ever thought we could go. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Passionate handmade entrepreneurs do hundreds on a daily basis. Larger events. Events out of state. More events. Different events. New products. And we do it with very little respect, sometimes even from our fellow crafters who use air quotes whenever they refer to their work as a business. Because while to them they fail to see it for themsevles, us who are businesspeople, who are passionate, who do what we love and love what we do, it is an insult to us. We are crazy. Crazy to think we can do it and put ourselves through it. To be this passionate. But as Jack Kerouac said, “The only people for me are the mad ones.” So, “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” (Apple Inc.) Another great event, the last one for the year! It’s ending on a good note, which makes me happy. There are definitely exciting things to look forward to in the new year (for both you and me), but before the year is over, there is still plenty of time to buy online. If you couldn’t make it to my last event, here is some of what you missed. Handmade in South Bay puts on two shows annually, our holiday boutique (this last event), and our Spring Boutique in April (one of the exciting things to look forward to… honey, you’ll be buzzing about this event)! This was our second holiday boutique and it was pretty darn good, if I may say so myself. 50+ handmade vendors, including the always fantastic DJ Ozzie, 6 very professional young entrepreneurs that will be back for Spring (YAY! Really, these guys are the bomb!) and 5 incredible local artists in our artist alley (I really hope they come back for the spring!) I talk a lot about what makes a good event, often saying it’s not just the monetary element of it. The customers really made this event, even the ones not buying from me. It was the kids especially. Santa handed out free ornament kits and this one little boy in a batman shirt was so happy about his gingerbread man ornament kit. He would not let it go and he kept walking up to my booth and just showing it to me. By far, the very best moment of the show came from the little girl in the booth next to mine. She kept coming over to look at my fairy bottles. When the little girl walked away for a little while, her mother came over and bought the fairy bottle as a surprise. At the end of the show, when we were packing up, the mother told me the little girl was all upset when she came back. Her exact words were, “The. Fairy. Bottle. Is. Gone!” Her mother kept telling her it was okay and it would all work out, but she was still very upset. Finally, her mother just told her to look in the bag. She is very happy with her new fairy bottle! Between that and the money I raised for my two charities, TSWGO and V-Day, it was worth it, regardless of my wallet when I come home. After a fantabulous event at the Torrance Craftsmen’s Guild, my best event yet, where I not only made yet another customer cry (this time over the Rosemary Remembrance Fairy Pillow), but also had repeat customers from a year ago, I’m gearing up for more upcoming events, not only the last ones for the year, but also for next year as well. As my calendar starts to fill up, I’m planning and brainstorming products and production time for each individual event. It helps, of course, to take certain factors into consideration when planning and brainstorming, such as themes for the event and close by holidays that potential customers could be shopping for. Four days at Whisky Flats means a lot of product, but also going western and vintage! Two days two weeks later at the Long Beach Comic Expo means comic and superhero related items and plenty of product for that event as well! Then there’s the bee themed HMSB Spring Boutique in April and the Torrance Craftsmen’s Guild Spring Event (If you couldn’t come for the holiday craft faire, here’s your second chance for the year)! Before all of that, I have to restock for the upcoming HMSB Holiday Boutique in two weeks. Needless to say, I’ll be busting my butt and cranking out as much as I can! The excitement really helps! So, what to make first? Well, my most recent upcoming event is the Holiday Boutique. I need to focus my attention on restocking the raggle taggle fairy dolls, some doors, and plenty of ornaments. A few new fairy houses will be needed for any repeat customers (cue wink and fingers crossed). After that is a small event at a local school, but it is only a six foot table space and any product left over from the HMSB boutique can be used there. That gives approximately two months to build up inventory for Whisky Flats (this will be the longest event I have ever done) and the Comic Expo. Arguably for every comic and superhero related item I make, I should make two items for Whisky Flats. This begs the question; do I put out the superhero and comic products I have already made at one of the events before the comic expo? Or, to be fully prepared for that event, do I put them to the side? By putting it off to the side, am I running the risk that I could lose out on a sale? To Spiderman or not to Spiderman, that is the question. At both the Comic Expo and Whisky Flat Days I am sharing with Jessie’s Custom Greetings again. We have both agreed that our comic and superhero products will be put off to the side for Whisky Flats due to the events being so close together. These are not easy decisions to make, but it feels really great to have to make these types of decisions. How am I, of all people, going to keep this all straight? Why, piles, of course! I have the start of my Whisky Flats piles, currently, two fairy dolls. I have a pile for the Comic Convention, both doors and ornaments, and soon to be Gotham Fairy House (keep an out for upcoming pictures)! I’m rearing to go! And now that I’ve celebrated this bursting of excitement with all of you, I’m going to get back to work! Wish me luck! There’s a beauty to strangers that I can’t really explain. Don’t get me wrong, when your best customers are your best friends, it’s great to know they love your product just as much as you love your product and, as handmade entrepreneurs, that support means the world to us. When a customer is a complete stranger, however, there is this excitement that I find hard to put into words. I think the first customers are always that first circle of support, your family, your friends, your partners/significant others, and their families and friends. When it’s a stranger, there’s this feeling of it expanding, past your inner circle, even past your local area. There’s nothing like finding out that a fairy house ornament is being sent across the country. Acorn Tops is now in PA! OH YEAH! And through an online source like etsy, it tends to save money. 20 cents per listing versus the money for travel, money for a place to stay, money for the booth fee and whatever other cost would go into a show in PA. That being said, online sales present something of a challenge. First, is getting people to even look at your online store. You don’t have sales if you don’t have views. An online store means an online presence. Social media is an essential for views and while you might save on money, there is often a struggle between making the product to sell and keeping up active social media accounts. The old adage is right, time is money in this biz. This is not to say that keeping up active social media accounts is a waste of time. This is just to say it can be difficult to figure out how best to structure your time. Social media accounts are important for your online store, not only because it’s a way for those strangers to find it, but also because here is where you get that social interaction that is so essential to the handmade small business. Online you do not get the same opportunities you would have in a booth at a boutique. You do not get the face-to-face interactions. Online you have a limited time window to grab their attention and often in 140 characters or less. On top of this, you are competing with the latest cat video and a picture of someone’s dinner and which Kardashian did what. You do not get the chance to greet a captive audience walking by your beautiful display and draw them in with a cleverly crafted spiel. It’s a very different way to sell. And while a picture is worth a thousand words, it’s never the same thing as seeing the product in person. Reading a description is not the same as being told the story behind it in person. While an online presence is beneficial for your shop, it also opens up a whole new list of endless questions about this customer who is a stranger. Where did they hear about the store? How did they find the product? What made them want to buy that product? What was it that made them take that next step from a simple view or like or heart or reblog or repin to actually hit the buy button? These are questions that are sometimes answered when you meet face to face and yet are rarely answered when facing a computer screen. Where you get tears from customers for your work with charity and you receive stories and dive into discussions of favorite books and the why and when and how and what, often times the only thing you receive from online are numbers and statistics. While this can tell you which social media account gave you the most views, what most people seem drawn to, the words some people searched to find it, it does not answer most of the questions and it never tells you about that one stranger. If this most recent sale of mine on Etsy is like the others, I might never know what the customer thinks of them. I will never know if they're going to hang on a tree or be given to a friend. Though, this time I asked for a review, which is a big accomplishment for me because I always feel so funny asking. We’ll see. I’ll be content with guessing. Because a stranger bought my product and Acorn Tops is now in PA and that is pretty freaking exciting! This fairy garden will be available at my next event, Torrance Craftsmans Guild Holiday Craft Faire. Selling at events is a bit of a double edged sword for handmade small business entrepreneurs, especially when it comes to products and inventory. As I’m gearing up for the last couple of shows for the year, the next event being only two weeks away, the pressure is on. Or, at least, that’s the way it feels. It’s sort of the equivalent of test anxiety, the ever prevalent preparedness anxiety. Do you have enough change? Do you have everything needed for your set up? Do you need to make signs? What about tags and business cards? And then there is your inventory, which without a doubt is the most important aspect of craft fairs and shows. If you don’t have anything to sell, everything else becomes moot. I’m starting to pack everything up, if only to get the small growing Fairy House Village and piles of fairy doors off my floor and bookshelves (I can actually make it to my window now and no, that is not an exaggeration). Products to go down to the car are piled on my bed and seeing it all piled up and trying to pack everything has led to a startling discovery. Holy, handmade! I, for the first time since starting my business, have an actual inventory! It’s not quite at The Seeds of Inspiration level, mind you, but I have more fairy dolls and fairy doors than can fit in their respective bins! How on earth did this happen? Here’s where the rejoicing meets a bit of rain clouds. The past several events have not been the greatest for me sales wise. This has left me with a larger than normal inventory. Enter the double edged sword. At an event, there are always two ways to view sales and the lack there of. That is to say, you have a great event, sold a lot, woo hoo, cue the tap dancing penguins! But the celebration never last long because, oh (insert frustrated expletive), now you need to make more inventory. And during this time of year, with events closer together, that does not provide a lot of time to rebuild the number of products to make this next show just as great. On the flip side of that, you have the piles of fairy products on your bed and shouting ‘holy handmade’ at the top of your lungs. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t take the sting out of the bad shows of the past. You still need to listen to some feel-good-music, eat some ice cream, while watching a great tear-jerker of a movie to lick the wounds, but there is still that feeling of elation that at this next event, my booth will be bursting with product, and I’ll still have enough to restock. We, handmade small business entrepreneurs, struggle with this double edged sword for every event. While the celebrations might always seem short lived, there is something to be said for our determination and perseverance when met with this blade. It’s coming on Christmas, and no I’m not about to break into The River by Joni Mitchell. Okay, so maybe it's not coming on Christmas for the rest of the world, unless you count department stores. However, I have about three events left for the year, all of which are after Halloween, and two of which are after Thanksgiving. Generally, I find Thanksgiving doesn’t generally bring many sales for me, but we’ll see if my Harvest Raggle Taggle Fairy Dolls can fix that. Christmas, though, tends to bring a lot of sales. So, while the rest of society might still be trying to figure out which candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters this year and putting the finishing touches on their costumes or trying to decide what sides will be offered with the turkey and if the pies this year should include the apple with cheddar cheese or pumpkin and whipped cream, I’m blasting Christmas songs in my room, working on Christmas and winter related products. Ice house and Christmas fairy doll, anyone? Holidays and seasons in and of themselves tend to offer a plethora of inspiration. One needs only to walk into JoAnns or Michaels, or, if you’re on the East Coast, AC Moore to discover any amount of craft supplies geared to holidays or seasons. This would be one of the reasons we often unsuccessfully attempt to put blinders on while walking past the fabric sections. And while I, personally, also draw inspiration many times from beloved books or favorite movies, and online through many google, deviant art, pinterest, tumblr, etc. searches, ideas and inspiration and ways to make the ideas happen, also come from the people around me. Truth is handmade entrepreneurs owe a lot to the people around them. I am lucky to have Handmade in South Bay, my own personal Algonquin round table, where I can not only learn tricks of the trade and have help in growing my business, but also vent my frustrations and celebrate my successes. I am lucky to have a boyfriend who always asks what I’m working on and not only shows interest and compliments my abilities and work, but also offers ideas happily, like having the acorns for my squirrel fairy garden look like they are wrapped like a gift, and enjoys seeing me excited about my work. And I am lucky to have a mother who offers honest opinions of my creations, gives suggestions for making them better, acts as a sounding board and often bears the brunt of my frustrated rants and overly excited babbling, as well as the countless other ways she supports me (I could write a novel-length blog about her alone). What it comes down to is this, Acorn Tops would not be where it is today if not for the support I get from my friends, family, and boyfriend. They all have a hand in it and many of my inspiration I owe to them. I am more grateful than I could ever put into words. How do you define a good show? The ideal situation is to sell out and get back what you make tenfold, right? I mean, let’s be completely honest here. This is a business. This is my job. This is my source of income. Idealism, however, is not always the handmade small business entrepreneur’s friend. That is to say, craft shows tend to be hit or miss. Even shows that proved to be a big hit one year, sometimes turn out to be a miss the next. There are many reasons for this, whether the organizers changed the layout, the date of the event was different, the economy, or something as simple as weather. Branching out, which is necessary to grow the business, results in taking the chance on that event we’ve never been to before, which may or may not be good. Yet another risk we entrepreneurs tend to take. Brave little guys aren’t we? But there’s that word again. Good. What exactly are we saying when we define an event with this term? So, selling out seems a little far-fetched, at least for me at this point. No, this is not pessimism. It’s more acceptance that this has been the trend thus far at my events. This then means, I’m probably not going to walk away from a show a sudden millionaire or even a thousand dollars richer. (Wouldn’t that be nice, though?) If we define a good show in terms of money, then based on experience, research, and learning from Handmade in South Bay and fellow member’s experiences the money earned must equate to multiple factors, including booth fees and gas. Let’s say at the end of the event, you glance at your receipt book and spontaneously break out into celebratory song and dance for making all of $200. This must have been a good event, right? But let’s take into consideration what you spent on the event. Everyone have their calculators out? Let’s say you spent $40 on gas and $150 on the booth fee, that’s $190, meaning you technically only made $10. That is not enough for groceries, for rent, not even enough to restock the product that sold. A bit of a downer, right? To figure out a good show a very basic equation should look something like this: (gas)+(booth fee)+(materials to make more product to restock)+ (daily expenses whatever they be)+ (etc.) = good show and celebratory song and dance. As this is a business and a job, finances are a BIG part of it. So where do we, as handmade small business entrepreneurs find our umbrellas when our receipt books and wallet decide to rain on our parade? If we just defined good shows by money, especially while we’re still young and growing, face it, we’d all drown. There’s another way we can define good shows. Handmade small businesses are not just making product and collecting money and working social media. We are also in customer service. And could anybody deny our clientele is a big part of what can make a show good? This is not to say that it isn’t frustrating to have people walk into the booth, spend hours gushing over your product to never take that next step and actually buy it. This is not to say it doesn’t make us want to pull out our hair when someone distracts or steals a potential sale. And this is not to say that it doesn’t make our teeth grind when a customer criticizes or demeans our work. (Handmade small business entrepreneurs must be saints for some of what we put up with.)
|
On Fairy Wings and Acorn Hats
The magic behind it all! Archives
July 2023
Categories
All
|