Well, this was a new little festival, first year, so there wasn’t a ton of foot traffic. But on the other hand, the weather was gorgeous, I got some reading done for my syllabus, I talked to a bunch of local folks I haven’t seen in a while, I bought myself some handmade jewelry from local artisans for the first week of classes, and most people who stopped by my booth actually bought something. So that’s nice. Things that sold at my little curiosity shop:
– boxes of passionfruit marshmallows
– several jars of curry powder
– Vegan Serendib
– Perennial
(I’m not sure a general street fair is really the best venue for book selling, as people aren’t really expecting to take time to browse books at them, but oh well…)
– geeky cocktail napkins
– dragon-trapped-in-crystal soap (there was much delight at these; I want to add a little sign explaining what they are)
– castile-brine olive oil & sea salt soap
– little elephant soap
– an 8×10 print of my porch and roses
– pressed flower on storybook paper bookmarks
– pressed flower greeting cards
– several little resin rings (priced at $1 each, because I am a beginner here) — some moss and gold flake, some opalescent pink
– several little hand-sewn lavender sachets (also priced at $1 each)
Only about $200 in gross sales (in five hours, and let’s not forget that packing, loading, and setup took two hours and breaking down, unloading, and putting away will also be two hours, and then you figure in the cost of supplies and I MIGHT not be losing money doing this kind of fair, but I’m probably not doing much better than breaking even)…
…but lots of people took business cards and free recipe cards, so you never know, some of them may end up ordering from the online shop down the road. I got another request for cooking classes too.
I typically make more money on the flash sales online than I have at these community fairs, interestingly. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun to do, and I do still feel like I’m learning how to do them well. And my crafting skills are improving too. Sometimes you need to play the long game.
And hey, it turns out that Square can now do tap-to-pay with a credit card and my iPhone, so I don’t need to worry about bringing their dongle (and a converter) anymore, which I was perpetually forgetting, so that’s great to know. Made sales MUCH easier.
Nice day, if not wildly profitable.
Thanks to Maia Stern of Stern Glass Works for organizing, and thanks to Anand and Kevin for helping me load, unload, load again, and unload… (We definitely got our workouts for today!)
Funny note — there was a dunk tank, and I briefly thought that it might be nice to volunteer to be dunked. It was hot by the end of the day! And then I thought if they advertised “Dunk a School Board Member!” that might be quite the draw for some folks… 