Hello Folks!
I am aware that this post is quite vintage, however with the Holiday season approaching ridiculously fast, I thought that I would take a look back at what I learned from my first Christmas Bazaar and hopefully it will help you all, if that is the path that you are on with your business. That being said, before I get started I wanted to talk about how I am taking on this season with regards to the business.
Usually I would be gearing up for the Christmas Feminist Fair, however, I wasn't asked back for some reason. Besides all the possible negative reasons that my anxiety brain is coming up with, I choose to believe that it is because they have far too many wonderful Feminist artists and that they are rotating us now, so that everyone gets an opportunity to participate. Even if I was asked back, unfortunately, I can't afford to pay the table fees, nor do I have any money for the til. Again, anxiety and self-loathing feelings aside, craft fairs are exhausting for me physically and emotionally. Standing or sitting around and chatting with people is physically painful because of my legs and neck pain/injuries and it's exhausting because I am an extreme introvert who can only be with people in tiny dosages. If anyone has any tips for this, please feel free to comment!
To combat that I have my ETSY STORE! It is a work in progress, so bare with me while I upload and try and figure out the cost of how many uploads I can make per month. I am hoping that in the coming year there will be other products besides jewellery. Now, onto today's blog!
I went to my very first Christmas Bazaar, hopeful and wide eyed, but nervous and overwhelmed. It was the biggest venue that I have been to thus far with my business, besides Pride. As I looked around, I began to remember all the coffee I spilled and goodies I served when I volunteered at Christmas Craft Fairs as a Brownie and a Girl Guide in my hometown. Everyone was friendly, warm and welcoming; I couldn’t have asked for a better first Christmas Fair experience. As I set up my products, next to a friendly woman with her overflowing table, I felt as if I had not enough on mine. She told me reassuring stories, that helped me calm down for my panic. And as I complemented her on her beautiful jewelry, she played it off; just as I do, when others complement my work (something that I have been working on changing). As you are reading you are probably thinking “well, it sounds like you had a great time” and reflecting on it now, I did. However, as the morning led into the afternoon, I noticed that no one was buying anything. That I was the only one (that I noticed) who wasn’t getting any customers. I finally did at the end of the day and it was a nice sale and I thanked her very much. I got complements and praise from just about everyone who past, but only one customer. It has taken me a week or so to really think about this, and I concluded that I learned a few things… and here they are.
1.No amount of jewelry can compete with yummy baked goods served by elderly people all dressed up for the Holidays.Maybe these individuals who came here weren’t my target demographic and I need to experiment with other craft fairs to see if I can sell my products to just more than large queer populations (Pride was extremely successful).
2. DON’T WALK AROUND THE FAIR/BAZAAR/SALE (if you do, then do it not at the beginning of the event)!!! It just leads to comparing yourself to others and that is never good.
3. Find ways to fund your table that doesn’t come out of your own pocket. When you save, yes it is a wonderful feeling; however, it can lead to worrying whether you will make that money back instead of focusing on selling and enjoying interacting with your customers (I think that the customers could sense my “I need to make this money back” vibe and it might not have helped matters).
4. Make sure, if you can, have a supportive person or people helping you throughout the time that you are there selling your goods. I am so grateful that my friend was there. She talked up the people and told them that she is a satisfied customer (in fact she was wearing a piece that I made for her). If you can’t have someone there with you, make sure you can chat via texting or other forms of communication, they can help put things into perspective if things aren’t going well, or if you are selling your goods like hot cakes then you can have a cheer leader encouraging you.
5. Lastly, listen to the people around you and ask them what their experiences are selling their products. They don’t have to be selling something similar but if they have been working craft fairs longer than you, take their advice and work with it. I now know that you shouldn’t leave your business cards out because that is an easy way for people to steal your identity (the woman next to me told me that, who knew?? I surely didn’t).
This was such an interesting experience for me and I will take the lessons I learned and use them to make my business become more successful. I hope that you learned a little something that may help you out too, regardless if you own a business or not.
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