Craft Fair Preparations

[MrDarkNebulah]

So my sister is has a booth at a craft fair to sell some things that she has been making (custom signs and other home decor) and asked me if I could come along and help her sell things. I thought that it would be a good opportunity to try and sell some forged trinkets and stuff, since she already has a booth and agreed to the proposition. However, I have no experience when it comes to this kind of stuff. After some reading from previous posts, I came up with a list of things I'd like to try to have prepared for the fair. What do you guys think? I don't know how realistic any of my pricing is, like I said this is the first time I've ever tried to sell anything I've made

 

[JHCC]

I have no idea whether or not your pricing is realistic, but I must admire your organization.

[MrDarkNebulah]

1 hour ago, JHCC said:

I have no idea whether or not your pricing is realistic, but I must admire your organization.

You'd be amazed at what you can accomplish at 3 am when you're procrastinating studying for finals.

[tkunkel]

Good luck at your craft fair!  It is hard to give an appraisal of pricing without seeing pictures of your pieces and the amount of detail and quality you have included.  What kind of pricing have you seen at similar craft fairs in your area?  How much are your trying to earn per hour for your work?  I have learned a lot at farmers markets/craft fairs.......mostly patience;)  Hang in there.  get your finals finished before posting pics and let us know how you and your sister do at the craft fair.

Tom

[Frosty]

I think you're really shorting yourself. $10.00 leaf finial coat hooks didn't sell but $19.95 coat hooks cleared the table in about half an hour and every one sold as soon as I finished it.

I'd double all your prices, maybe triple a couple.

It's EASY to lower prices and almost impossible to raise them. I got away with it by blaming bad advice. Just because the guy who was insisting $10.00 was too much was standing right there was icing. 

Remember the two ways to go to purgatory, hit black iron and charge too little. Hand forged items are selling bragging rights, coat hooks and virtually everything on your product list can be found almost anywhere for Wallmart prices. Trying to compete against Walmart pricing is the wrong way to play it.

A good rule of thumb = Fits in a pocket for under $20.00. $19.95 sold much better than $20.00. Remember folk overlook the 9/10 cent. on the end of the price of a gallon of gas. Yes?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Kuja_torra]

On 4/30/2018 at 2:31 AM, MrDarkNebulah said:

there is no good reason to quote the entire thing

It looks to me as if your trying to make a rate of 60 an hour for your work.  If this is the case, how do you expect to make a bbq fork in 15 min considering the cutting of stock, layout, forging, and finishing. Just want to let you know to be much more realistic with your estimates. Also, i have purchased books on craft fairs and spoken with many ppl that do them. I recommend doing your research and taking the time to learn about them through books and attendance. Most venders will gladly talk about their experiences with it. I wish you the best of luck!

-Kyle

[Latticino]

Agree with others that your prices are most likely too low, but a lot depends on the quality of your finished product, the method of display, and the type of craft show you are selling at.  I did the craft show circuit for more years than I like to remember, and can tell you that it is no easy path to riches, particularly if you undervalue your work or are stuck competing in the wrong weight class.  There are craft shows with national followings where customers are dropping thousands of dollars per purchase on sculptures, furniture or fine jewelry and others where getting someone to part with $20 is a major event.  It looks like you are just dipping your toes in the water, and that is fine to start out with.  I suggest you consider how your work will be displayed with your sister's (interspersed or on a separate stands) and possibly work out some product that will complement hers, so you can sell as a package (say a custom forged frame for one of her signs...).  

Kyle's display has a lot of good things going for it, but misses on some others.  Having a board showing the actual mounting of his handles is a great idea, as is clear and simple pricing.  On the other hand, I always liked to include a couple of larger, vertical pieces in my display that would bring over folks from further away to investigate.  Having smaller, similar work to the larger pieces that was more approachable in price often led to impulse sales.  For the previous example, if you can do a large sign frame/support then sell smaller ones that work as picture frames you might do well.

Good luck.

[MrDarkNebulah]

Yes, I agree with a lot of what you guys are saying. The estimated price was what I was thinking of initially, but while typing I thought it was too low so I added the 60 an hr column. That column is set up so that once I record how long it takes me to make them I can then have an accurate pricing. Y'all are right I don't know much about any of this, it was more of a spur of a moment decision in which my sister had already paid the booth fee and offered me a spot.  I'm looking at it as more of a learning opportunity than anything else. 

Latticino, that is a good point about the package items. I was planning on trying to set up some sign holders/frames to sell as packages. 

Thanks for all the advice guys.

[Frosty]

How about this. Your Sister makes you a nice blacksmith shop sign and you make her a nice free standing tall sign post and hanger? Now your sign is above head height so you don't bang your head on it, it's visible all over the venue, shows off your Sister's work and yours.  It shows you can work to large scale as well. Don't forget you can put coat hangers on it and hang your stuff as a practical demonstration of utility.

Hmmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Charcold]

Very cool breakdown, please change the data type in the cost of bottle openers to $. 

[Desmond Redmon]

Sounds to me like your setting yourself up for both a positive  experience with selling a lot of goods, and a realistic appraisal of how much you can earn.   The only bit of advice I would give is keep the same records for all of the craft shows because part of your first show will be the "first time I have seen this" factor then if you keep it up you will develop people who buy something each time they see you at a specific show.  If you are good you will both get requests for direct orders and people who make a point of stopping at a show to see what you have.

[rockstar.esq]

Your spreadsheet doesn't include material costs, overhead, or profit.  I suspect you're looking at your problem in one direction because pricing seems to be the primary objective.  Catch-all hourly rates are only marginally useful for situations where the work is really consistent.  For everything else they're very risky because it makes all work seem equally profitable.  Its often difficult for people to accept that they're not good at everything they apply themselves to.  

Whatever inventory you take to the show was "bought and paid for" by you.  You will have paid for the material, the tools, the time, and the overhead to convert your resources into a salable product.  That value for you isn't negotiable after the fact.  Once you've invested in it, you've reduced your options to do other things.  For example, you can't get your time back.

Knowing your cost to produce the item, you have half your problem solved.  The other half is to determine the current selling rate for the item in question.  That's awfully hard to nail down because it's driven by so many factors that only your direct competitor could realistically offer an informed opinion.  

I would suggest that you cap your inventory investment at whatever amount you're willing to risk losing entirely.  If one item is more costly for you to produce than another, you might want to consider how to optimize the range of your inventory to suit the sales opportunity.  I suspect that if you knew how much that table of inventory actually cost you, you'd be more confident about what you're willing to accept.

 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

With a craft fair there are also travel expenses, food , lodging, time setting up, time breaking down, time spent waiting on others to get out of the way so you can do what you need to do, booth fees, and sales taxes also come into play along with business license fees.

I used to sell old car parts at automotive swap meets with a friend, and we knew what we had to sell just to break even for the days expenses not including our time. For us it was a fun social outing so as long as our expenses were covered our time there was looked at as entertainment.

[Latticino]

4 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

For us it was a fun social outing so as long as our expenses were covered our time there was looked at as entertainment

That's a very good attitude to have for a craft show.  Then any money you make is just gravy.  Pretty hard to keep when it is your occupation though, which is one of the major reasons I went back to engineering.

One other good thing to do at craft shows is trade with other vendors.  My wife ended up with some very nice jewelry, handmade leather and clothing from trades.