Selling at your first craft or fiber festival can be intimidating! There is so much to get ready and so many things to think about. Here are 6 tips for vending at a fiber or craft festival with ideas and things to think about that might help you prepare for a successful, profitable experience.
How much inventory should I bring to a fiber show?
One of the most common questions I hear is how to know how much product to bring to a festival. So much of it depends on things like the weather, other events happening the same day, or what kind of customers visit each festival.
- Do you know how much you sold last year? (Your data is gold here!)
- What’s the average attendance at the festival?
- Is your booth somewhere there will be a lot of foot traffic?
- How well advertised is the show?
- It’s better to bring too much than not enough!
Tips for Loading Into the Festival Venue
Some prior planning will make your life so much easier when it’s time to load into the venue!
- Check the venue’s website or even call to ask about parking, ramps, elevators, etc.
- Use boxes that can double as transport crates and displays to save space.
- If you’re coming a long way, find out if you can ship your goods to be held at the venue.
- Practice loading and unloading your vehicle so you catch any problems ahead of time.
- Make a checklist! Include product quantities, business cards, and setup/display items.
Set up your booth for sales
Think like a customer – what would make you want to come into your booth?
- Is there enough room for several people to browse at one time?
- Does your décor match your brand and/or the event (like for a holiday)?
- Is there at least one eye-catching focal piece that people will want to come inside to see or touch?
- If you’re outside, make sure your tent is sturdy, pegged out, AND the poles are weighted. The last thing you want is to have to chase your tent across the fairgrounds due to a gust of wind!
- Different levels of table and displays make your booth visually interesting.
Self Care for Vendors
From crack of dawn setup to evening tear down, it’s going to be a long day.
- Have an assistant to spell you for bathroom and meal breaks. (If you don’t have one, consider asking to trade booth-watching with a nearby vendor neighbor.)
- Wear comfy shoes – you’ll be on your feet a lot!
- Think about the weather – inside or out, you’ll want layers. You might end up right by the air conditioning vent or there might be a pop up shower. No matter what happens, be ready to add or take off layers to stay comfortable.
- Have snacks on hand that you can eat a bite at a time between customers.
- Stay hydrated! You will do a lot of talking, so you’ll want to have water available to sip on through the day.
- Get a good night’s rest and limit alcohol/caffeine consumption the night before.
Packing Out at the End of the Day
You made it! It was a long day, but now you have to pack up and go home.
- This isn’t the time for chit chatting with fellow vendors. Everyone’s going to be tired and cranky and focused on their packing.
- Be respectful of parking/elevator use. Load out as quickly as you can and don’t hog the access routes.
- Have a checklist to make sure you leave with everything you brought (displays, etc.). If you have time, update the quantities remaining of your product as you pack.
- Check with the fiber festival coordinator before you leave to make sure they don’t need anything from you (like sales data for the states where the festival is responsible for remitting the sales tax).
Follow Up and After-Action To-dos
What? You thought you were done? Vending at a fiber or craft festival isn’t over when you unload your car.
- Take a day or two to recover, then go over how it went. Was it a good show? Any problems? Will you do this festival again? If so, is there anything you’d do differently? Write this down for next year!
- Update your inventory. Take notes about what did and didn’t sell well, update your income tracking spreadsheets, etc.
- Depending on the state, you may need to send in a payment for sales tax.
- Update your socials with a thank you/post-festival sale/etc. All those folks who took your business card will be checking you out – don’t waste their eyeballs on your socials or website.
As a bonus for reading all the way to the bottom, here’s a list of all the 2023 fiber festivals I could find! It’s sorted by state and includes the festival websites (when available).
I hope these 6 Tips for Vending at a Fiber or Craft Festival helped! Now you’re ready to go sell all the things at your first fiber festival! Good luck and have fun!