Visit Your Local Craft Show

Have you visited a craft show?  How about your local farmer's market?

This is extremely important!  I still try to visit craft shows, not as a vendor, but as a shopper.  It's a different perspective than being a vendor.  The people there will talk to you differently, too.  If they see you as a shopper, they will try to sell to you and make their product look like it's the best thing out there.  When you talk to them as a vendor, they will tell you how cheaply they made their stuff.  Two totally different worlds.

Kinda veered away from the point.  The point to visiting your local show is to see how others display their wares.  What kind of displays do they have?  Are they making use of vertical space?  Is their display attractive or too busy?

Back to our candle discussion.  When we started with our candles we bought several different jar styles.  Bulb jars, Metro jars, Apothecary jars, etc.  We set up a 6 foot folding table with a nice solid black table cloth to "make the colors pop!"  Problem was, everyone that came into our booth to look couldn't see the different jar styles or the colors.  They were looking straight down at the labels on the top of the jars. 

Solution (and what turned out to be a no brainer):  We cut some small pvc (about 1 1/2in in diameter) and raised the table 6-8in.  Suddenly our jars were visable!  And we started to get more sales.  How simple.  Then we took it one step further and started using displays that brought our candles up to different levels.  Then we moved on to getting shelves which brought our product up to eye level.  Then our sales were even better. 

Now, I know what you are thinking;  "Holy crap, I can't afford to do all that right now!"  I know that.  We couldn't either.  That's why our transformation was slow from raising the table, to using different displays, to getting actual shelving units.  

Don't think you have to have everything right now.  You will be broke before you start.  This is just to get you thinking about your plan.  Visit your local show and see what others are doing.  Even find the promoter of the show or the Market Manager and ask them costs and booth size.  This will all help you prepare.