How to get ready for your craft fair (1st or even the 10th…)

1 Plan your fairs in advance

Find them on stallfinder.com or craftsforum.co.uk; check out local council websites; search online and in local press for craft fairs in your area. When we started nearly 20 years ago, this involved looking through the pages of the local free papers but nowadays it’s a lot easier and quicker to go online and search through directories. That said, it may be that local craft fairs are being held in your neighbourhood right now. It’s always worth checking out local churches, schools, community centres, social halls, or leisure venues, such as sports centres or gyms. Any indoor space that’s used for public meetings is a potential site for someone to organise a craft fair. The best advice as to how to plan for your first craft fair may simply be to go along with a friend and find out the contact for booking and how often the fairs are held.

2 Plan your table setup in advance

Put quite simply; don’t rely on chance. It’s not a good idea to only have the vaguest of plans as to how your stall will look. On the day, you’ll have only a limited period of time to set up and if you haven’t worked out a plan to display your goods to their best advantage, you’re likely to be still trying to sort out this out when the doors open and hopefully the customers start flooding in!

It’s always a good idea to start by checking the size and dimensions of the table on offer. It may be that you’re bringing your own to save costs. If not, then take time to practise at home and make sure it’s flexible enough to fit on different size tables – they can vary quite considerably!

Which items on your display do you wish to stand out and for what reasons? So where do you wish to place them? Do you need to find or make room? It may be that you need to buy or make special containers or compartments to display your contents either on or in.

If you want your display to stand out it may need to stand tall so you may need to design several floors or layers on the table or else use upturned boxes to put things on.

Why not take pictures as do this, so you can record different displays and set out to help you decide which works best on the day. While we’re talking about content, don’t forget that less is more. A jumbled stall can often confuse customers causally walking by as they may miss what is right under their noses.  Then there’s the actual number of items themselves to consider displaying on the stall. Do you really need to display all your stock at once? What’s the best selection to start with? Decide also where it’s best to display your prices; in front of the product, behind it or to the side. What may seem obvious to you, may not be so to the customer.

Don’t forget to consider the benefits of having an overall theme to your stall to complement your goods; whether in terms of colours for drapes and table cloths or the boxes in which your goods may be on display. How to plan for your first craft fair involves knowing your brand and colour scheme for your business and this will help you to stand out over your competitors.

So you can see that there are lots of factors to consider in just setting up your table. And that’s just on what’s goes on display.  The likelihood is that you’re also going to want to get easy access to supplies and spares, and bags under the table, as well! So how long will it take you to set up? Always longer than you think so it’s a good idea to time yourself from scratch and allow a little bit extra on the day as chances are that you’ll be surrounded by a whole host of other busy crafters doing exactly the same as you – often in an unfamiliar environment.

3 Make a checklist of items to take

Once you’ve set up your stall at home, it’s always a good idea to note down all the items you need to take with you and pack in the car or van. If you’re being super practical why not actually load them up in the car beforehand just to make sure they all fit. Frames and tables may require extra space and care and you don’t want to damage any of your precious stock.

As well as stock, your checklist should Include, business cards, price labels, different size carrier bags, display boxes or baskets, drapes and table cloths, office essentials (pens, tape, scissors, clips, etc) and personal essentials (food, drink, medication, etc).

It may be a good idea to bring along a couple of spot lights to present your goods in the best possible light! If so, chances are that you’ll need an extension cable and access to an electrical socket. Did you specify this in your booking form?

After you’ve made a list of everything you think you’ll need, don’t forget the small handy essentials like blue tack and string! Oh and Velcro strips can often come in handy for a multitude of little tasks.

4 Check the route in advance

Do you know where you’re going or how long it’s going to take? We’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve got stuck in traffic so it’s always good to make sure that you have the organiser’s mobile phone number in case you’re delayed. You may get to the venue is good time and then find out that there’s no parking available nearby or that all the spaces have already been taken up.  So check parking options beforehand. You don’t want to be lugging all of your stock and equipment any further to the venue than you have to. On this point, depending on your set up, some stall holders use trolleys to transport their stock to and from the car.

5 Take an adequate float

And always keep your money on you for security – make a money apron or buy a waist pouch. Keep change separately away from notes. If you do have the facility for payment by card, make sure it’s charged beforehand and there’s a sign telling potential customers. It might just swing that impulse buy.

6 Labels & prices

If you thought that setting up your stall was hard, then chances are deciding on what price to charge for your labour, time, materials and every last little thing that goes towards your finished product is probably going to be your toughest decision. So you need to decide this well in advance. Having a range of prices is usually a sound move to cater for every pocket. Often customers are inclined to play it safe and buy mid range. Are you going to offer any discount on more than one item or offer an additional product for larger sales over a certain price? Make sure your labels and prices are clearly marked. Tacky price labels may be seen as a reflection of tacky products.

7 Your appearance is important

You may spend so much time in deciding how to plan for your first craft fair that you forget about yourself!

It’s often said that you are the best advert for your products. So make sure whatever you wear complements what you are selling or is at least neutral in outlook. Some stall holders will wear aprons or fleeces with a logo and their name or a picture or a web link to the product they’re selling. If you’re thinking how to plan your first craft fair it may be worth investing in a smart fleece with the company’s name on it – if only to give the appearance of an established going concern!

8 Support – Morale and Physical

Why not ask a friend to come with you – At some stage, you’re sure to need a break of some sort, whether natural or otherwise.  Trying to hide behind your stall while munching away is never a good idea.

9 Business card or a way of staying in touch with people

You want customers and potential customers to know how to contact you so a handy supply of business cards on the side of the stall may be a good idea. Better still, include one in each bag for purchased goods. Even better still, have a contact point or website link on the individual wrapping itself – perhaps next to the ingredients if you’re selling a food product. Often customers like to know that there’re buying from local crafters and replying to ‘where are you based’ is a good starting point to establishing common ground or interests and a potential sale.

How to make the most from your craft fairs

Selling at craft fairs is a real art. Attending and getting ready for a craft fair is hard enough job – the rush to get enough stock, pack everything, making sure all your props are ready, getting to your venue in morning traffic and finally setting up. Exhausted already? Me too!

But when the door opens at 10 am and the first visitors are walking gingerly in, the REAL work is just beginning! So, here are my favourite tips on how to make the most from your time at any craft fair:

Dress for success

If you can add whatever you are selling as part of your ‘dress for the day’. That way, you will become part of your brand and people will find it easier to imagine how your handmade jewellery can look on them too.That’s easy if you are selling a jewellery, clothes or other accessories, but it can be a bit tricky if you are selling a chocolate. But, since our best sellers are chocolate buttons, I always wear earrings made from real buttons and handmade button necklace. This makes a perfect starting point for any conversation, as many people notice it straightaway.

You should also be aware of your ‘ideal customer’ – a type of person who normally buys your handmade products. The clever bit is to dress the way your ideal customer would. That way, you have immediately something in common and you can build up a rapport much more easily. You might find that this makes just a subtle difference, but people who love handmade are very unlikely to be automatically drawn to a seller in a comfy tracksuit and messy hair. I always wear my poshes shoes from a well known boutique shop. People who don’t know where my shoes are from, just think they ‘look the part’, but I’ve made a direct sales and started many conversations just because of people recognised the shoes.  If you think now, that this is a bit shallow, I completely agree with you! But, you know what? It works…

Create a display that will place focus on what you’re selling, not the props.

This is another important thing that people selling at craft fairs often get wrong. We – craft sellers – are naturally artistic people and just LOVE to arrange, decorate and dress up. The problem is, that if you set up your stall as a beautifully decorated piece of art, that’s exactly what people will think of it. Something to admire. Something to look at. Something to take an idea from. 

But not something that’s for sale!

This little (but hugely important!) tip I picked up when I worked in a retail and I’ve since transfered it to the ‘craft world’ and it works a treat.

Right, to explain…

In the normal shop, you have the shop window or the areas where merchandise is displayed in an artistic way. Perhaps the new season clothes or seasonal goods. Everything is arranged to tempt you into the shop. The display it’s there to be admired, looked at, but everyone understands that when you actually decide to buy, you go over to the shelves where you pick up your item and take it to the till to purchase. When you are at the shelves or row of clothes hangers, everything is simple, easy access to the goods, simple price tag, no fancy arrangements. You ment to pick up your goods with ease and go.

This is what we are trained to do – this is what we automatically do, it’s more or less unconditional.

So, when potential customer stops in front of your beautifully arranged stall, they don’t know what to do. They can see how beautifully it looks, so they just look at it as if it was a display. They are scared to touch, because it might fall or because they know they shouldn’t touch a display.

So, what’s the trick?

Next time when you set up your stall, by all means have a little area for fancy, crafty ways of arranging your art or craft (perhaps are the back of your stall, where you want to add a bit of height to your stall). But towards the front of your stall, have your goods arranged in rows with price tags either at the front or at the back of the row. Don’t group your items, don’t use odd numbers, just rows. Make sure you leave a gap between each group or row of goods. Pick 6-8 types of products and don’t overwhelm your customer with too much choice.

This might sound really boring and your display possibly will look it too (to another creative person). But remember that most of the time your ideal customer is not another creative person.

When you are running low with one type of item, rather then trying to sell the last few, take then off the display and add another group of products. You won’t shift the last few items from the group, as nobody wants to buy the last item.

When we first applied this principle to our handmade chocolate stall, we were quite shocked how much difference it made to our sales. I had to restrained myself, as I was always dreaming up a new ways of displaying my work, but once we realised that the new simple layout worked, we stuck with it.

So, next time when you are selling at craft fairs, give it a go & come back to let me know how you got on!