Madelaine Gray - Selling Your Crafts at Craft Shows

by Madelaine Gray

The purpose of this booklet is to introduce you to the wonderful world of selling your crafts at craft shows. Craft shows (also called festivals or fairs) can be fun, profitable, and a terrific business learning experience. You can get first-hand feedback from your customers on why they like and buy your work. This will give you valuable information about your best markets who is most likely to buy your work, what type of shows they attend, and how to present your work to capture your customers interest and enjoyment of your crafts.

If you review this booklet carefully, you will be able to decide whether you are ready and interested in selling your crafts at shows. Shows are not for everyone, and before you launch into the time-consuming effort of applying to, organizing for, and participating in a show, you would be wise to assess yourself and your crafts to determine if the craft-show business is suited to your lifestyle, your personality, and your type of work.

In this bulletin, you will learn pointers about assessing your crafts and selecting craft shows that will best suit you and your crafts. Youll find some useful tips and guidelines on preparing for a show and selling your work at a show. There are a lot of dos and donts that are useful to know and follow in order to enjoy the craft show business and to avoid costly mistakes and lost sales.

Hopefully you will become realistic, yet excited, about the opportunities that await you at craft shows. Remember that the most important thing you can do for yourself is to do what you love to do, do what you find easy, effortless, and enjoyable. If you can follow this principle, you will obtain many personal satisfactions and financial rewards. Keep your eye on what you love to do and what the customer wants, and try to provide a craft that meets both of these objectives.

You may be surprised to learn that the craft-show business is a longstanding, big business. Although there are many small shows of only 20 to 30 exhibitors (crafters), the business as a whole is a large network of experienced, and not-so-experienced, show organizers, also called promoters, who organize and produce craft shows in every state, large city, and thousands of smaller cities and towns each year. Some show promoters have their own companies with full-time staffs specifically to promote, organize, and sponsor craft shows all year. Other promoters work by themselves sponsoring shows on a part-time basis and may be crafters themselves. Profit, non-profit, charitable, and volunteer organizations also sponsor shows, as do some local city organizations. It would be safe to assume that on any given weekend, no matter what time of the year, there is some type of small or large craft show somewhere in your state. Although the most popular and best-selling craft shows are held in the fall and winter holiday seasons, spring and summer shows can also be well-attended. There are so many shows now that some crafters and promoters think the market is becoming saturated.

If you want to sell your crafts at shows, it is helpful to know something about the craft-show business, because you want to sell your work and make a profit. Although many crafters sell their work on a part-time basis, others eventually make their craft their full-time career. Whatever you decide to do, whether part time or full time, it will pay you to learn not only the art side of your craft, but the business side of selling.

Some show promoters sponsor 20 or more shows in a year, with 100 to 400 exhibitors. Other shows are organized just once a year, usually around a seasonal or holiday theme, and may have as few as 20 exhibitors. Shows can be held for one day or for as long as a week, and can draw as few as 50 customers to crowds of over 200,000. Most shows are retail shows but others are wholesale shows for gift merchandise. This bulletin covers only retail shows.

Craft shows have been in existence for a long time and there seems to be no end in sight. Although the craft-show business can be affected by a slow economy, shows continue to remain a viable way for artists and craftspeople to sell their work. Perhaps this is due to the publics hunger for original, one-of-a-kind work in the midst of a world that is saturated by mass production. Arts and crafts can be an expression of basic values that are still held in high regard: producing something with your own hands, and finding an outlet for creative and original self-expression.

Now lets move on to one of the first questions you need to ask yourself

To answer this question, there are several factors to consider:

the quality and variety of your craft product

the quantity that you can produce in a specific period of time

the time and energy commitment required

the financial resources available to you

your support system of family and friends

your personality type and psychological attitudes

transportation considerations

your business preparedness

Consider each of these factors so that you can decide if you are truly ready to sell your work. Perhaps you will decide to go for it immediately or perhaps youll decide that this is not something you are ready to do now. In either case, you can be proud of yourself for not rushing into something without fully considering if it is right for you.

To evaluate your sales potential, you must take an objective and critical look at the quality of your work. Would you buy your work if you were a customer at a show? Do you see evidence of inferior-quality materials, design, or workmanship? Is your work something artistic and/or functional that you think someone would want to have? Have other people sincerely complimented you on your work? What type of feedback have you received from others? Many show promoters are looking for well-made, well-designed products, made of good-quality materials. What sells is something unique: something that is different, or put together or designed in some new way.

Crafts, in the true sense of the word, are something that you have made yourself. You will find that there is also a part of the craft-show business, called buy/sell. Buy/sell crafts are those that you have bought from someone else and you are selling at your own booth. Buy/sell work is accepted in some craft shows, but many exhibitors will insist in their show prospectus that no buy/sell items will be allowed and that all work must be handmade. Original crafts are required for many shows, and items made from kits or prefabricated parts may not be acceptable in some shows.

Also consider the amount of variety in craft products that you have to sell. If you have only one type of product, for example hand-carved bowls, it is important that you have bowls in a variety of shapes, woods, and sizes. Practically no one wants to buy a handmade item that looks like it is mass produced. Construct your item in different colors, shapes, textures, and sizes, and have as many different types of pieces as possible. If you are a potter, have bowls, cups, plates, and vases, and several types of each item. Likewise, if you are a weaver, have work in different patterns, colors, and fabrics, and for different uses, e.g., wall hangings, placemats, scarves, belts, and so forth. It is a rare crafter who can make profitable sales from just one item of one design.