After a week of preparations, ordering flyers, creating inventory and practically beading my life away, the fair was finally here. Mom and I woke up at 6:00 to get up early, have decent breakfast and be on our way. Luckily, the fair was happening in Robbinsville High School, which was only 15 minutes from our house. Despite the short distance, the GPS decided to play "Guess which way to go" game and we arrived 30 minutes later.
We checked in, found our space and began unloading the car. I really liked the school - it was a HUGE building with tons of light and space. We even had students help us with loading and unloading of the items ( big plus ).
We set up our space in no time. Even before the fair had officially opened to the public. The time went by super fast, but since there was two of us - we managed to set up the booth pretty quickly.
Here are a few pictures of what it looked like.
After 10 AM the customers finally started to come in. It was a slower start, so to keep myself entertained I began beading and ended up creating a silver pair of barefoot sandals.
Not soon after I started work, our first customers made their way to our booth and we ended up selling 3 pairs of earrings and 1 bracelet.
Here is the picture of the lovely ladies who "made history" by becoming our first customers at the fair.
After a while, we sold more and more items. I was surprized that people were actually really interested in sandals AND earrings and rings.
Note to self - make more rings next time.
My mom-in-law stopped by and she brought beautiful orchids which made their way to the display table almost immediately. She ended up buying earrings, bracelet and a pair of Bare Sandals. THANKS MOM!
Here is a picture of both of my beautiful moms together :)
As the day went on, we continued to have fun and talk with the customers. It was a great experience. Making connections was essential. We felt like we definitely spread the word out to a lot of people. I think having flyers and business cards out on the table was A MUST.
Towards the end of the day, we ended up with a decent profit, lots of positive comments and great feedback from our customers. Here are a couple of other pictures from the fair:
In conclusion....
Fairs ....
a. lots of work !
b. require a lot of free time to build up inventory
c. require lots of PROMO materials ( or at least some )
d. MUST BRING MOM - she ended up being an awesome sales woman and was talking up a storm with the customers.
e. could be very profitable - depending on your spot and your product
f. A GOOD TIME ( if you are with the right people )
and...
g. are very good for some sellers, and not so much for others. We had a busy booth, while some of the other sellers did not. I think each person who is selling some sort of handmade goodies, must do at least one or two fairs in order to figure out whether selling in person is something they would like to do. I never realized how much work it is until I actually began preparing for this fair. We were happy with the outcome and looking forward to The Ocean Grove Giant Beach Fair on June 22nd, 2014.
Check back Saturday for an announcement on my SPRING GIVEAWAY!
