Today I am featuring some helpful tips from Patty Gasparino who is here sharing some of her best tips for hosting a successful craft show! This is for anyone of runs the shows, or might want to host a craft fair one day.
1. Make it easy for vendors to find and locate your event by making a Facebook page and putting someone in charge of it.
It’s free and most people these days are on Facebook. If you have someone internet savvy even better add Instagram etc in addition to whatever print advertising you do.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to research an event and I get a blurb from 2010. No website, no Facebook page, etc makes me feel the event is not serious and if they aren’t advertising themselves, they certainly aren’t going to advertise me. How will the general public find them? Every year you can pickup where you left off and garner more of an audience.
2. KEEP UP YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE! Don’t just leave it there to die a horrible lonely death. Especially 6 months prior to event – get people EXCITED ABOUT YOUR VENDORS AND ACTIVITIES at your event ( music, food, face painting, etc.). Keep the same page year after year then you will keep the same audience and add to it instead of starting from scratch every year. During the year when someone says to their friend “Hey I went to this great event here it is.” they can share your page. Start posting vendors as soon as they sign up. “Bob of Bob’s Soaps will be here. I love their Oatmeal Soap!!!.”
3. Start reaching out to vendors say at least 6 months in advance – busy vendors can book up 6 months or farther in advance and plan their year ahead of time!
4. How do you find handmade vendors in your area? There are a multitude of resources.
Etsy –
Here is the link for Etsy “shop local” just pop in whatever you are looking for or “Handmade” with your zip and you’ll find people in your area!
Etsy – Shop Local
Here’s what a search looks like and you can input anything – shaving products, soap, belts, wreaths, vegan products – go crazy! Message them and ask if they do events in your area.
When you use someone local – who has a following on Facebook – you also get their customers. When I do an event and advertise it on my Facebook page customers often come to see me that are in the general area. So the event gains traffic that may not have come to the event initially AND the vendor gets new traffic from the event itself win-win!
More local vendors + more local people = successful event.
Handmade also gives you more diversity – and you can advertise that! People are NOT going to be seeing the same thing they see at a retail vendor/reseller show. They will be looking at one of a kind items.
When you start to add vendors post them to your page and ask vendors to tag you in their posts BAM you both get free advertising!
There are also handmade sources on Facebook like “Handmade in Your Town”, “Your Town Business Group” etc start searching Facebook and see what is available in your area.
5. Diversify! If you have 50 craftspeople break up your genre’s don’t have 20 jewelry sellers – you’ll be saturated and no one will do well. Maybe no more then 3-5 vendors per craft. Post to your Facebook page and ask your fans what they would like to see – you may get some inspiration!
6. Point out your quirks to your crafts people. Venues have quirks – most sellers are used to dealing with them – wind, light, parking, stairs – let us know ahead of time what the venues quirks are so we can prepare.
I.E.The lack of internet availability is an issue – I have lost sales that had run out of cash and wanted to use credit or debit but could not get a secure connection to load my Square. Had I known there was no internet at all I might have used another phone with a hot spot etc. Perhaps a hot spot for a day or a local store that would be willing to give out a password for a day then remove it once the show was over. Most problems have some sort of fix.
7. Be organized and map out your venue for your sellers. It also helps to have instructions like arrival times, clean up times , where to park etc. I have actually arrived at events where someone has said “Oh just pick a spot!” I had to choose a spot between someone who took a corner in 2 spots and a second person taking up 2 spots on the other side – UGH.
8. Do sellers need to bring food, water, electricity??? If we know we can prepare ourselves.
9. Having volunteers available at set up and take down would be fantastic. Most high schools and churches require community service hours – call them up! Sellers who are working alone also have to pee! Nothing better then someone offering to babysit your space for 5 minutes for a quick break or to pick up food.
10. Speaking of food – Have food! I have done events that had no food or drink. Guess what happens? People leave, especially people with children, and they don’t come back. Have a reason for people to spend more time and hang out. More time equals more sales to us.
11. Come around and ask sellers how it went or email us a questionnaire afterward. Fifty percent of shows don’t do this either. Maybe your vendors noticed something you didn’t.
12. Keep a vendor list and contact the vendors you used last year first for an instant way to fill those booths the following year – Happy vendors want to come back and do a successful event they did well at. You also have the confidence after having used this vendor they are a great match for your show.
Find out more about Patty here:
Blog:
Etsy Shop1:
Facebook:
Pinterest:
We had our first Arts and Crafts Show at a historic farmstead that we are restoring. Hard at first to get vendors, then ended up with 27, and all were very satisfied. Our problem is pricing for vendor fees! We feel we need to charge higher-end vendors $50 but that those who sell things like homemade soap can better afford $25. Any suggestions? Thx!!!
Can you sell a smaller space to the soap vendors? Then it is their choice if they want to invest $50 ?