1. Scheduling your shows
How much time you can spend at shows and how much money you want to earn is strictly a personal decision and it’s your first step to determine the priority of scheduling shows. It can be a hobby, part time job or a full time occupation.

Your second step is to find shows. Local newspapers will promote flea markets, school fundraisers or community craft shows. Larger shows are listed in regional craft show magazines. Talk with a local crafter or search the internet for “craft shows” in your state.

Your third step is to apply to the shows, usually two to six months in advance. Some shows “jury” your craft before accepting you, requiring slides or images of your craft. 

2. Designing your booth
The standard booth is 10 feet by 10 feet. Outdoor shows take a chance with the weather and a canopy tent is necessary. Some indoor vendors just use the canopy framework to hold lighting fixtures and panels while others utilize card tables and display structures to outline their booth. 

Your craft’s characteristics will determine the booth’s appearance. Paintings require tall panels with hooks, hats need posts with knobs, and pots sit on shelves. Design enough elbow room into your booth so that both you and your customer feel comfortable. 

Your customer needs to be drawn into your booth within three seconds and ten feet from your booth. Appropriate color schemes and lighting visually attract. Demonstrations and movement arouse curiosity. Signs inform. Keep everything inviting and simple!


3. Transporting you and your craft
In essence, your 1000 cubic feet of booth needs to fit smoothly and safely inside your much smaller vehicle. All your stuff will have to absorb a lot of abuse being hauled all over the place so protect it. 

Plastic storage boxes with snap-on lids work well to pack many crafts. Cardboard boxes fall apart in the rain. A light weight luggage wheelie will facilitate bringing boxes from your car to the booth site.

Use the same sized packing boxes so everything fits like a tight puzzle in your car with enough room for you to drive safely. Use bungee cords to secure the load and blankets to protect the vehicle’s interior. 

Remember: A simple booth is simple to transport. So K.I.S.S!

4. Affording the overnight stay
If you can’t make a decent profit selling your craft unless you sleep in your car at night you’re doing the wrong show. Staying with relatives or friends can help cut costs and make the overnight stay lots of fun but often a motel or hotel room is an unavoidable cost of doing business

Expensive rooms can be affordable if you consider the amenities included: free continental breakfast, indoor pool, exercise room, comfortable lounge, internet connections, etc. The proximity of inexpensive restaurants and access to business supply stores or copy shops can also be a real plus. 

Use online discount hotel reservation businesses to get the best deals or get a reference from the show organizer. But a good night’s sleep really is…priceless!

5. Bounce-back promotions
“Bounce back” means “come back to buy some more”. Your satisfied customer is more apt to purchase more of your craft if you simply ask them to. 

Give them a discount coupon good only for a limited time: “10% off today and tomorrow only”. Place in your customer’s shopping bag a list of all the shows you’ll be attending, especially those in their area so they can find you again. 

If you have a retail store drive traffic to it with a special promotion. Encourage customers to visit your web site with a special offer to save money or to discover more of a variety of your craft. 

Invite customers to get on your post card or email mailing list for specials offers or information. 

6. Pricing it right
I once asked a crafter how her booth was doing and she replied “Well, I made my table!” Whooptidoo, but what does that mean? $100 in sales does not pay for a $100 booth fee. Every expense comes out of gross profit, not sales. 

You have only two costs to figure out and keep separate: Production costs and selling costs. Your retail price takes care of the production cost plus a little more. Your marketing abilitiy takes care of your selling cost by increasing units sold. 

The bottom line is to make a decent profit for the business after paying you a decent hourly wage. The profit that’s left is net profit to be invested back into the business to do it all over again.

7. Act the part
If you’re selling clown hats you can dress and act like a clown. But don’t wear clothing or behave in a manner that creates a negative look or distracts from your craft. 

Based upon your personal presentation a customer makes an unconscious appraisal of you as a salesperson or crafter in a matter of seconds. Are you clean, professional, trustworthy, fun, interesting, and intelligent? You’d better be because if you’re not your competition in the next aisle is. 

Complement your craft in a way that shows you respect your customer while at the same time, promoting your product. Wear a professional name tag and give just enough personal attention to make a friend. Earn the sale in minutes, don’t loose it in seconds. 


8. Eating and drinking
Have breakfast two hours before the show. Enjoy a meal after the show. But during the show you need to speak and smile without interference. 

Meals make messes while snacks are neat. Crumbs, spilled coffee and strange food odors silently destroy sales. Instead, bring your own mini-buffet. 

Choose foods that don’t get stuck in your teeth, make you cough or give you bad breath. Snack bars, grapes and yogurt cups work well. Regular tiny sips from a water bottle will keep you hydrated all day long. 

Don’t drink more than one cup of coffee before the show so you don’t have to close down to go to the bathroom during the show. And always remember: you can’t make sales with your mouth full. 

9. Lighting your booth
Good lighting attracts customers in three ways: It spotlights your product, it highlights your professional attitude and it serves as a subtle beacon to passing customers. 

Position your lights so they shine on your product, not on your customer’s eyeballs. While spot lights frame individual products arrays of smaller track lights work well for well stocked displays. 

Study lighting techniques of other crafters because there are hundreds of selections, combinations and prices. Figure out how your can transport fixtures in your car, hang them in your booth and make them unobtrusive to the customer. 

Avoid using the bright orange extension cords unless you can hide them. Buying electricity hook-ups at shows can be expensive, but so is a booth hidden in the shadows. 

10. Signing your booth
Let your signs be your not-so-silent salespeople. While you can save your voice for actual selling your signs can be used to answer those silent customer questions:

Who made the craft? Is there a guarantee? Where was it made? Is the craft material hand made with “natural” materials? How much does it cost? Can it be ordered online? What are the benefits and features? 

Never hand print signs unless you are an artist. Protect paper signs in plexi-glass sign holders. Place signs within the products displayed in front of the customer or high overhead for folks in the middle of the aisle to know what you’ve got. 

Always use large, bold extremely readable font. Let your signs sell the sizzle while you sell the steak!


11. Bags, boxes or both
Don’t lose a $20 sale for lack of a 4-cent plastic bag. A customer won’t buy what they can easily carry. Bags don’t cost money…they increase sales. 

Provide bags which have a hole in the top for the customer’s hand. Make the bag big enough to easily hold your average large sale. Plastic bags are lightweight, easy to pack, and don’t break down when wet. 

Office supply stores sell boxes of “Thank You” bags. Vendors can attach a bunch of them to a table-top with a strong clamp through the hand hold to grab singly as needed. Or custom order bags for the right color and size for your product. Go the extra marketing mile and have your name and/or logo printed on both sides. 

12. Marketing before and during shows
Your booth looks fantastic. You have a great product. The price is right. Now what else can you do to attract customers in the limited time you have? 

Offer an online coupon or ad in the craft show organizer’s web site. They’re often free. See if they will display your brochure at the front desk. Take out an ad or offer a coupon in the show program or the local paper. 

Distribute coupons in the businesses surrounding the venue. Give store managers a discount or free sample if they agree to make coupons available to their customers. 

A compatriot can hand out flyers in the parking lot. And last but not least be sure to give a discount coupon to each of your fellow vendors.