First Craft Fair

Part One: The Prep

I really have no idea what I’m doing. Let’s just say I’m throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping really hard that something sticks. When I applied to the Long Beach Patchwork Show, my intention was more marketing driven than revenue. Two months later, with a barely breathing bank account, I’m going for revenue. I mean I’m 57 years old and starting a new business is hard but the job market looks terrifying and I just have to make something work. No pressure… I’m actually excited. It’s fun researching the craft fair vendor scene and it seems like everyone is really cool because they’re creating their own little weird gifts for the people.

The Peach Fuzz has an in-depth and well written blog with tips on craft fairs and small business. Their booth pictures are super inspiring with bright pink and blue poms and streamers. There are lots of craft booth display videos on YouTube. To keep my cost down, I’m using our kitchen table and an old beach umbrella. It’s a small space, 4’x8’ so no room for canopies. I scored on a Salvation Army trip and got two wooden cases with glass fronts like you might see in a jewelry store, a nicely weathered blue wooden crate and a glass container for my business cards.

I had no idea how much inventory I needed and ended up using this formula from Handcrafted Income. We’ll see how it goes. The main unknown factor is fair attendance. I didn’t have much luck finding numbers except for a few listings from pre-pandemic times. The event is on a Sunday from 11-5 and I’ve seen anywhere from 700-7000 visitors predicted. I just kind of shot on the high end and calculated for 5000. Any leftover inventory can go to my Etsy shop.

Now I’m in the last production push, cutting and packaging my stickers and prints. The insert cuts are a little off and some of the stickers got bent on my antique paper cutter. They’re good enough for now. I ran out of clear bags for my stickers and had to buy the plastic ones on Amazon instead of the biodegradable ones on Clear Bags to get them in time. My sign isn’t painted yet and I still need to figure out packaging details on my prints. It’s all good though. I’ll just have to do what I can and see what happens.

I got a new paper cutter!