Well, I don't know if expo is the right word for where I was the past 4 days. It was more of a consignment sale. Expo sounds like it was something large and this was not, I am sad to report. I would like to report the good things that happened to me at the show.
I ended up doing more money on Saturday than all of the 3 other days combined. Business started to pick up around noon. Some of the other vendors had already packed up and left because the morning was so dismal. I think I had one sale and the other people beside me didn't have any. I was ready to throw in the towel also. I was just waiting on my husband to bring in my son actually. LOL I didn't want to pack up until they got there. So I was just waiting on them. Then we got busy. I talked to alot of people got some more custom orders, and I have a lady bringing up her Easter dresses to my house today so I can match up some ribbon and make some bows for her daughters!!!
So as my friend Susan and I were sitting there freezing and talking we were asking each other even though this show was smaller and not as many people would I still have hit my projected amount had I been the only vendor there with hairbows, hats, and headbands like I thought I was going to be??? I said in my earlier post that I think competition is good for business so I would not have been upset had there only been one other vendor there. But 4 spread us pretty thin. I was very happy with the amount of cards I distributed and the many people I talked to. My phone was ringing yesterday even as I was trying to nap.
It takes alot to put on a show. It is alot of work. There is the set up, the take down and the getting ready. Not too mention the days spent at the show and I spend every night making product while i am at the show. I never quite know what the customer is going to want. This show they all seemed to want my little hair clippies. At $4.00 they are a great buy. So I spent every night making more hair clippies. Plus making hair bows is not easy either. It can be quite time consuming as is any craft that we do.
But we all know we don't do this for the money. We do this because we love it. It is very rare in life that we get to do something that we love. It is even rarer that we get paid well for it. So I think it is a trade off. I worked in retail for many years and got paid well for it but I hated it. Now I make hair bows and love it but get paid very little for it. I would like to know if any of you get paid well for your craft??? Or if you absolutely love your job and get paid well for it, I would love to know that too....
I am going to sum this up. There were positives and negatives to this show. Would I do it again??? I don't know. I would have to know that I would be the only one with my kind of product there. And if she was thinking of carrying someone similar they would have to have different product and there could only be one and I would have to have the option of pulling out and getting a refund of my money if I were to walk in on what I did this time. That is something I will be mentioning in all of my future craft shows.
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