Guest Post by Abby Holt
Photo via Pexels
For artists and entrepreneurs on a limited budget, a craft fair is an excellent opportunity to draw in new customers. While vendors can enjoy some generous profits at these fairs, making sales isn’t as easy as it sounds. With the following tips, you can create a successful and affordable craft fair booth with Amazon coupon codes, plan inventory needs, promote your business and collect payment.
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Have a Plan
If you’re getting ready to sell your pieces at your very first art show or festival, you need to take your business seriously - even if this is only a part-time gig for you, you will still owe taxes on your earnings! Therefore, this is a good time to nail down a general idea of your expenses and projected revenue. In addition, you can structure your art business as an LLC. That way, your assets will be protected, and you can qualify for tax breaks that you wouldn’t be eligible for otherwise.
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Focus on Presentation
At craft shows, presentation is everything. Instead of laying everything out flat on a table, get creative with your display. Think about color, height, and the flow of your booth. You can use wooden crates or ladders to create shelves or put together a chicken wire screen to hang things from along the walls. Design your booth so that customers have a personal space to browse without feeling obligated to talk to you—this might mean seating yourself at a table separate from your items for sale.
Find Ways to Save
Your professional product display doesn’t have to cost much. You’ll be able to find almost all of your supplies—such as a tent, table cloths, and decor—on Amazon. If you're a Prime member, most of what you need can be shipped in just a few days. You can put your savings toward your next project.
Calculate Your Inventory Needs
Figuring how much stock to bring can be tricky. Bring too much, and you may be creating unwanted costs by transporting extra items to the fair or paying for a larger booth than you need. Bring too little, and you risk losing out on sales. Calculate your inventory needs based on your sales goals or expected fair attendance numbers so you can come prepared.
Include Product Prices
Customers don’t want to ask you how much things cost, so make sure you price all of your products on display. Try to price your products as accurately as possible so you can cover all of your costs and maximize your profits. Remember to consider the cost of travel in addition to the price of the booth. You may be able to increase your profits by finding ways to save money on your craft supplies. Shop on sale days, use in-app coupons, sign up for rewards programs, and buy your supplies in bulk from wholesalers.
Promote Your Business
Craft fairs are about more than just selling merchandise. Take advantage of this opportunity to promote your business! Position stacks of professional business cards around your booth and throw one into the bag with every customer purchase. To save money on business cards, Made Urban suggests encouraging your customers to take pictures of a sign that’s just a larger version of your business card.
Include an email signup form at your booth to capture leads from interested shoppers. Offer a small gift or a coupon code to encourage people to sign up. Remember to send out a welcome email to your new subscribers when the fair is over!
You can also promote your business with matching product packaging and branded shopping bags. Reduce the costs of your product packaging by keeping it simple and minimal. Your environmentally-conscious customers will prefer this over fancy packaging anyway.
Accept Credit Cards
Accepting credit cards at your booth will prevent you from losing sales to customers who don’t carry cash. Not only that, but a great point-of-sale system will add an element of professionalism to your business. There are many affordable payment processing systems out there. Research available offers and search for deals until you find one in your budget. Also, pay attention to the transaction fees charged by various systems.
A lot of work goes into preparing for a craft fair. Follow these tips to ensure that you will be rewarded for your efforts. That said, try not to be discouraged if your first vendor fair doesn’t go as you expected. Learn from your experience so you can make it even better next time!
