My first craft fair was at the Mid-Autumn Festival, Penang on 7th September 2014. The festival was an annual thing where they had this whole section of the carnival just for the art & craft vendors. I remember how nervous I was cause I didn't know what to expect. But I know it was a chance to meet potential customers and when i received the offer letter I immediately think YES I'm going to do this!
So the organizer, Creativision D.C. Sdn. Bhd., provided the booth with few options in terms of sizes and rental fees. I chose a 5 feet x 10 feet booth with a fee of RM150.00.
It went well and I was so happy but after the carnival ended, I thought there were few things that I thought I should have done in preparation for the craft fair.
Well preparation is the key. You need to prepare on the craft you are going to showcase and also the craft fair itself. So here I would like to give tips to new crafters out there on preparing and organizing your first craft booth.
Have Enough Crafts
The craft I was selling were crochet handmade items and most of it were baby booties and hat for babies from newborn to 12 months old (apart from a few children and adult's hats). Now after a few hours the children and adult's hat were sold out because most family comes with their children and since people would not bring babies to the carnival some would only buy them only if they think it fits their little ones but with hesitation (whether it will actually fits them).
Although I did made a little profit but I thought I could make more if only I had the right products (crochet sun hat maybe because the weather is quite hot). Sure people would buy cute little baby booties for gifts but most of the customers who drop buy would ask me whether I had more of those crochet hats.
So I learnt my lesson there. Do a research what kind of carnival or fair and make sure you have enough and the right kind of crafts. My neighbor in the craft fair, who I got along pretty well was a Malay lady in her 50's was selling a flower arrangement made from 'kain songket'. These flower arrangement she made are for dowry typical in a Malay wedding. Since most of the people are Chinese (Mid-Autumn Festival are celebrated by chinese), she didn't made any sales apart from handing out brochures.
Additional Supplies
Supplies for organizing your booth is important. List out the things you will be needing a week ahead and make sure you have all the things on the day of the craft fair.
• Seller's permit
• Business Card / Company Sticker and flyers
• Display (I used recycle and cheap display. Find more about it in my next post.)
• Little Baskets for small crochet items (crochet hairpin, etc.)
• Inventory sheet and sales book (pricing for all of the items)
• Tablecloths, coverings and boxes to add height and interest
• Stands and fixtures of displaying your artwork.
• Cash box containing change in notes and coins.
• Calculator
• Signs for the stall
• Camera to take photos of your stall for your website, as well as of the fair in progress.
• Clearly label all your items with their price.
• I take custom orders too so I brought a folder with photos of all of my past crochet handmade.
• Packaging materials or merchandise bags (I put flyers in each of the bag)
• Paper, pen and scissor
• Cellotape
• Rubbish Bag
• Containers
Personal item
• Mirror, comb, small towel, make up item (well, you should look presentable in front of your customers right?)
• Baby wipes or tissue
• Sunglasses
• Umbrella
• Hand fan
• Change of clothes
• Snack and water
Handling booth
Smile and when customers drop by to your booth stand up and entertain each of their questions. Relax and enjoy yourself! Craft fairs can be great fun and a wonderful way to meet and interact with buyers and collectors.
Done properly, craft fairs are ideal opportunities to get your artwork in front of a different audience, sell directly to customers, and get feedback on your art.
After the carnival ended, I went online and did some research on any art and craft fair that is available in Penang. And I found out that there is a monthly street event called Little Penang Street Market fair and they promote showcasing of Penang's traditional and contemporary crafts. I explain more about this craft fair in my next post.
