Lessons Learned from My Holiday Craft Fair Booth

First, thank you so much for your support of my floral wreath booth! I very much appreciated your well wishes. Since @yogajill asked for more pics, I am sharing an update with more pics and taking this time to also reflect on how it went and what I learned.

Because some of you expressed interest in starting you own booth but feel you didn't have enough products or you are too shy (both of which I've felt!), I'd like to share some of my own fears too and how some of those fears do become reality and how not to let that hold you back.

Choosing the Right Venue

This is my first year producing a large quantity of dried floral wreaths and committing to selling as many of them as possible. This is also my first year moving to our small, rural town in Oregon. One of the first things I did when we arrived here was to get myself involved in as many community activities and gatherings as possible - Earth Day festival, farmer's markets, trail maintenance, gardening help, artist meet-ups, workshops, etc. And these activities were my best way of connecting with others and learning about local events that I began considering.

It was at an artist meet-up that I learned about Pacifica's Winter Arts Festival and after chatting with other locals, I learned that this is a very well attended event, with music, food, and many local artists. I kept a close eye on our local online "bulletin board" for when they accept applications. I prepared my products in advance, took good photos of them, and applied. The fee for a booth was $40, which to me is quite reasonable, as they provide a table as well as product racks. As you reach out to different venues, it's important to ask what the fee covers and how many customers they expect.

When the holidays came around, I began to realize that there were many holiday events around our area, including larger ones in the bigger towns. By the time I reached out to those more popular events, it was already too late to get in, so another lesson: do your research early and apply early.

At the event itself, as I chatted with other vendors, I learned that this year, Pacifica was less attended than previous years because the local economy tanked quite a bit and people are tighter with their money. The local vendors knew this and priced their products lower than before. Which leads my to the next lesson.

Pricing

I priced my products according to what I've seen on Etsy as well as my experience selling in Santa Cruz, California. I was in for a rude awakening!

At the show, there is another dried floral wreath maker, whom I've met and know well. She runs a local non-profit educational farm here for many years (thus already established a good reputation) and had attended Camp Joy and learned wreath making in exactly the way I had. I admire her tremendously and was really nervous that I had such tough competition.

Another lesson: get to know your competition.

When I came to her booth to say hello, I was shocked by the price tags on her wreaths! They were HALF the price of mine. We chatted and she explained that the market here are composed mostly of farmers, homesteaders, and travelers, so they can't afford the prices she wished she could charge and knew the wreaths were worth. We both lamented about how much work actually goes into each wreath. But she loves making wreaths and was doing it more so for the joy of it than to make income. She encouraged me to expand my reach to nearby cities because my prices would be right there. **A hard lesson learned: price your products according to the socioeconomic status of your customers or choose a different venue.

Product Display

When I visited my friend's booth, I also noticed hers was much better lit with white light (rather than yellow light which makes it hard to see the colors). My location was not only dark, but set back against the windows, instead of near the walkways, so it was easy to miss.

My rack that was standing closer to the walkway got a lot of attention, whereas my table by the wall had half as much. People also like to be able to pick up things and look at them from different angles. So the farther away the better.

If you can, request for a high traffic location with good light (or bring additional light).

Success

It wasn't all hard lessons though! There were good ones too. The booth gave me a great opportunity to see which of my wreath designs sell well. Surprisingly, my "Forest Scene" wreath was the one that did the best and was sold. So I learned that I can make more of that design. Make notes of what attracts people and what sells. Make more if that!

My yarn and dye tea towels also sold well, but mostly to people who were avid knitters and dyers. Those who weren't enthusiasts seemed turned off by the pricing as they didn't understand that my products were hand dyed.

While the booth was not a wild success as I had hoped, I learned a lot and now I can improve next year. I learned a lot from other vendors who share with me their experiences - many of whom also did not succeed the first year or second year, so don't take it as a judgment on your work but rather like anything worth doing in life, it takes practice and patience :).