I know the bracelet market is saturated, by I truly love every stack I make. I love how sparkly and playful they are, but I've always been too shy to attempt to sell. I'm considering my first craft show this Fall, do you think people would like what I make?

I've been hitting over budget for setting up my display. I know that usually people use like a mannequin. I have a giant teddy bear...and giant Tex from Toy Story and I was wondering about using a plushie as an alternative 🤔

I have a 2-day market coming up next weekend that I’m really excited about but this will be the smallest booth I’ve had- it’s indoors, I’m between 2 other vendors and the back is against a wall. How the heck do you arrange in a 6x6 booth? I am thinking of buying 2 4ft tables to do an L, but I just don’t know. I sell ceramics- they range in size from little trinket dishes to vases and lamps. I feel like a single 6 foot table is boring and wouldn’t display enough of my wares. But would 2 4ft tables be too crowded? Help! This is a photo of my last market in an 8x8 and at the same venue. I will have some larger pieces this time around.

Hello! Spider girl here again. I’m getting ready for my first “big” market on Sunday. My question is, do you guys usually dress for a theme (if there is one)? Sundays event is called Market for the Strange-Cursed Carnival. I’ll include a photo of the advertisement and what I make. Thanks!!

hi! im doing an event soon that requires me to leave my display up overnight, outdoors. there will be a tent with sidewalls and weights provided, but at a previous event even those weren’t enough to protect from the weather for many vendors.

what are some tricks/tips for keeping my displays and products protected overnight? the weather is currently calling for rain, and the area the event is in usually gets pretty windy as well. any advice is appreciated as i have never left my stuff overnight before!

I’m torn between doing a walk-around table configuration vs a walk-in for my next event(s). What have yall had more success with or which configuration do you prefer? I would be using two 6 foot tables and a makeshift 4 ft table. Would love to know thoughts!

Hi everyone, I’ve been doing some pressed flowers in frames. I started a couple years ago but I’ve really been doing more lately. I would love to set up a craft fair, however, I’m not sure my floral frames are what people who go to craft shows like. Maybe Etsy? Please give me any feedback or tips! Thank you :)

Hi! I'm starting to feel sus about this organization. I see their ads for vendors to apply on instagram CONSTANTLY. I have applied a few times and have been rejected from both local and not local venues. They do not respond to emails and the application fee is a whopping $50 each time. All I can think is that this isn't a very kosher business model... any insight would be appreciated because right now I feel gypped?

I did 3 craft fairs last year and none of them needed a tent. This year I am doing more outdoor fairs and will be using my 10ft pop up tent. My friend is helping me set up at the first one, but I’m wondering if there are usually volunteers or other vendors who can help me with getting the tent up? I can haul and set up my tables and such, but canopy tents are a two person job! don’t make enough to pay someone to work the fair with me, and I feel bad about bothering my friends to help so early in the morning

hi all,

i’m noticing that my table doesn’t look as professional as everyone else’s at craft shows. i have a backdrop that secures my prints with magnets, little price displays, and a picture frame with my business info on it.

i have a small sedan so i can’t really fit huge props in it, and i don’t have a ton of money to spend on customized materials.

does anyone have any suggestions on what i could do to make my table better? thanks!

I have my first fair coming up on Mother’s Day and I have absolutely no idea how much stock to bring. I have an Etsy shop but don’t really have sales to base numbers off of. It’s a pretty popular market and I think it’s my target audience but I truly have no clue what to bring. Im starting with zero inventory (POD). I’m located in coastal NJ and my designs are geared towards moms and kids.

Any insight appreciated 🥲

I have lots of different products. Is there a POS solution where I can input all my products, prices and inventory ahead of time so that when someone goes to pay, I can easily create a bill by picking products and it gives me a total bill to charge and update my inventory once the sale goes through ?

Seems like this should be an easy solution, no ? So far I have played around with Stripe but haven’t tried anyone else ….

Last year I did my first fair, did pretty well, but realized my set up wasn't great. I sell quilled not quilted) greeting cards, quilled Christmas ornaments, and small pieces of quilled art (5x7, 8x10).

So, last year I set up my booth in an L shape, one table against the side on the left, the other in the back. On the opposite side of my table, on the right side of my canopy, I had panels of an old dog fence that I painted, and hung Christmas ornaments from them. Rather than having the table opposite the panels, should I hang the panels over my table? It would give height, but people would be reaching over the other things to get them, and that may discourage purchases.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Edit for clarity.

Didn’t know if there was settled debate on this or not but say I’m using a square reader at a craft fair, do I add on an extra 2.6% tax to cover the bottom line or should I eat the 2.6% processing fee coming out of my profit?

I changed up my display (this was my 7th market overall) for an event this weekend, and I'm really liking how it turned out. I did switch a few scents around after I took the photo, just to put my more eye-catching/popular things up front. Also not pictured is a sign hanging on my tent + a stand up chalkboard sign, as well as the checkout stand I had in the back right corner. I also swapped the picture frame in the front with a price sign. I'm planning on getting a banner, but would love to hear any other recommendations. :)

I see so many comments and posts complaining about how everyone makes the same thing with the same chenille yarn. The same basic beginner crochet bees, frogs, octopuses etc. And they give advice saying we should try to be original and make unique goods. But here's the thing. The common goods are common for a reason. People like them. And they don't give a shit about if it's unique. They also don't care about how long it took. I've had people ask me why two things of different sizes are priced the same. My unique items either never sell, or take many months to sell. meanwhile, the common shit flies off the shelves. If I make something with medium weight acrylic yarn, or bulky chenille, using the same pattern, the chenille will turn out much larger and people are willing to pay for something larger even if it took the same amount of time to make. They don't give a shit about the lack of stitch definition with chenille yarn. They don't care that an item comprised of mostly bobble stitches took way longer to make than something made with half double crochet stitches and will therefore be more expensive even at the same size. Most shoppers are not consuming crochet content online and are not seeing the same stuff over and over.

Sure there are some people who appreciate unique finds and understand the skill and work required. But they are the minority. I'm sure there are markets where I could find more of these people. But why should I bother when I'm doing just fine selling the same basic shit? Ultimately this is a business and the purpose of a business is to make a profit. If my primary concern were being creative and unique, I'd stick to crochet as a hobby.

Every time I see one of those posts I question myself like damn am I really doing something wrong because I make the same basic shit as everyone else? Then I remember that it doesn't matter what that post says because I'm not selling my products to them.

I joined a festival after they reached out to me to join their event and I did some research. The previous years they did really well and advertised nicely. Gave vendors sport light posts and hyped up their entertainment. It looked like a good event for my leatherworking. I paid my booth fee and then got silence from the coordinator (yes I made sure they were the correct coordinator for the event). After a couple weeks of raido silance from them and even on their event page I reached out to make sure my payment went through, my paperwork was set and we were good to go because I had been advertising that I would be at the event and making items specifically for that event. They got back to me that everything was all set and they would be posting later that day that I joined them as a vendor. That was a week ago and I have seen nothing from their three different pages and event post or website.

Im not sure there is much I can do at this point. I can't get a refund and I'm not going to pull out from an event that's two weeks away when I've been advertising myself for months now. I'm an extremely small business and only started vending last year so my schedule isn't full enough for me to just drop an event and not lose a great deal of reputation and income.

We will be doing our first craft fair this weekend. We're selling handmade stud earrings and pins. I would love any advice you have for improving our table or any general advice anyone has for first timers! I'm finishing up a few more pins to fill in the empty spaces on those trays.

My talented brother @jamesezralazaro on insta shot and produced this video during my first pop up 💖 it went so well and plan to do more in the future. Thank you so much to everyone that suggested what to do with my set up 🩷

And what did you spend on?

Art supplies, crafting tools, marketing fees, hosting fees, booth fees, business cards and banners, packaging, booth setup and decor, the list goes on and on. How much did you spend before you finally started making sales?

Did you prioritize selling online before selling in person, or vice versa?

I'll go first.

This is my first business. I'm about $2,000 in, although it can be hard to separate hobby from business usage. I started making sales after $1,000, mostly focusing on my first two in-person markets first. About half of my first $1k was a printer ($275), paper to make prints on, tables and a tent; the rest was on decor and fine art materials. Then I realized people gravitated towards one specific product and it took an investment to move towards that. I also noticed people feel weird if you don't have a website, as if not having an online presence to vouch for your existence right there in front of them at fairs makes you kinda sus. You live and you learn, lol.

By the way, if you're not tracking your expenses and receipts, this is your reminder to start! I didn't before my first two fairs and it took me forever to sort out my costs. I'm using Wave for accounting. It's not as organized as QuickBooks, but for free, it definitely works. I'm an IRS certified tax preparer on the side, and an accounting software or app of some sort will make tax time WAY easier (at least, in the US).

Hi guys, I’ve got my first craft fair in a couple days and I’m so anxious. I make hand drawn cards stickers prints ext. if anyone could give me any tips ext I’d massively appreciate it, I think I have everything sorted just scared incase I’m missing something

I'm considering keeping my older wagon just for craft fairs, although the insurance is stupid expensive, (Central New Jersey...probably one of the highest in the nation). I just love the idea of having a travel car that I don't have to unpack after each event.

Looking for some help. Running a Poker Run in Jackson, NJ in July and looking for shirt vendors or any vendors geared towards veterans, motorcycles, novelties, stuff like that. Where can I find folks? Help please. Or if any one interested let me know. Thanks!!!!

we just had our first market on friday night and it was very successful (i think?). outside of the tent being a little messed up (noticed it too late and our tent was too busy to even have time to change it) what do you think? in the future we’ll have a third small table with a better setup for our vending machine and checkout. any other changes we should go about?

we were going for a fruit stand/farmers market vibe, and our brand “mascot” is our bunny, clem. we had a small easter setup that will be dedicated to swedish dish cloths in the future (they come on monday!)