Craft Fair! Making Some Money with our Woodworking!
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- Опубліковано 20 гру 2022
- We did a craft fair to make some money woodworking - selling our wood crafts. We show you what we did, how much money we made, what we liked and what we would do differently.
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I think you had some good ideas. There are a couple of things I saw that may explain why some things didn't sell as well as you thought would. I think when people want to buy wood that is what they want to see. covering the wood with paper may not be what people expect. A little hand painting may be preferred. Your ornaments are very cute I think they would be even cuter if they had some color or sparkle. I was told that not everyone has the same tastes so you may need to expand the styles so you enlarge your inventory and attract other kind of customer. I've learned a lot from other crafters and I'm thankful for their suggestions. I am talking to you in a business setting I am not putting you down I hope this just gives you more ideas and choices.
Thank you for the feedback. Taken in the spirit it was given. :-)
your prices are amazing! you should consider an online shop.
We have kicked that idea around. Who knows? Maybe we will.
I do stained glass and usually just make a few dollars over the booth rent, and Im happy... Stained glass is just so expensive for craft shows, but they arevso much fun!
That is a pretty cool skill! It's fun to visit folks at craft fairs and see what other people are doing. :-)
My wife and I just got done doing two Saturdays at a pop-up market that is nearby. We've been to the market a number of times. They typically have 15-20 vendors, which includes 3-4 food booths. It is typically well attended. Not crowded but always a decent amount of people at any given time.
We made (or rather, I made) two kinds of Christmas tree candle holders and some small lanterns. We bought a lot of LED candles and tea lights as well as some glass candle holders. We used these to stage the items and we offered them along with the item, for an extra $5-$10. We had 15 of the small Christmas trees, 13 of the larger ones and 5-6 lanterns (3 that were unfinished).
The first Saturday we sold 10 items and made just over $300. The following Saturday we sold 4 items for just over $100. The larger Christmas trees sold the best, 6 of the 10 items sold. We sold them for $30, by themselves, $35 with fairy lights and $40 with a glass candle holder and LED candle.
Back in September, I made over $900 selling jack o' lanterns and that was selling some to our daughter's co-workers, some to friends and some through the Nextdoor online community. I advertised on FB Marketplace and OfferUp and didn't make one sale through those avenues. I only got one inquiry from FB. I even spent money to "boost" my ads on FB and OfferUp. Nothing. So, we thought we could do a lot better with Christmas stuff at the pop-up market.
We got lots of lookers. Lots of people that would pass by and say "Those are nice". Maybe we overpriced the items, maybe we needed to offer other items. I made a 4 ft Christmas tree from fence pickets and we decorated it and put it in front of our booth, for show. A lot of people stopped to look at it and asked if any of the ornaments were for sale, so it did it's job of getting people to stop. Something just wasn't clicking between the shoppers and our items the way I thought it would.
I may not be an expert at this but having been in a cover band, I know that it's not about what you like, it's what your audience will like. I made items that I thought other people would like. I've heard many stories of how well these items have sold for different people. I thought my lanterns would be a hit. They're a little tedious to make but I think they look great. I sold 2 and one of those was to a family member who stopped by our booth on the first Saturday. So, think twice about what you're going to sell next time.
My plan is to start making springtime/outdoorsy items after the first of the year and then hit the pop-up market in mid to late February and early March.
We may not have made the kind of money that I thought we would make, or that I hoped we would make, but we did have a lot of fun. We got to talk to a lot of nice people and had some great conversations. I probably had 20-25 people take my business card. I played up the lanterns as being great centerpieces for a wedding reception and what-not and I had 3 people be very serious about the idea so I may get some business next year. I also got an order from one of the food vendors to make a dog bowl stand for his "bully". It was a great experience and we're excited to do it more next year.
Thanks for sharing your experience. It's quite helpful for those of us just starting out. Have a Merry Christmas and may the new year be bright.
Happy New Year to you! I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and experience as it may help other folks reading the comments. Enjoying talking to people seems a common theme. Nancy and I didn't make a ton of money (still, nothing to sneeze at) but enjoyed visiting with people. Thank you for watching.
Good job thx for sharing enjoyed it
Thanks, Larry!
I've thought of doing this, but I always feel like it won't be worth it. I mean if you're just having fun that's one thing, but if you're wanting a real return on your time, it just doesn't seem to be worth it.
I agree with that. If this was strictly business and we needed to put a value on our time, we wouldn't have made a profit. In our case, we found value in the fun and didn't need to put a value on our time. So for us, it was worth it.