Advice On Vending At Art/craft Shows And Special Vendor Events
posted on 10/13/2009
If you have ever wondered how to get involved in vending at art and craft shows, fairs, festivals or other vendor related events to promote your hand made or hand crafted products, read on for a few things to consider before committing to a particular event.
First, do you make a unique item? If so you may want to consider vending at art and craft shows. Unique items will always sell well if the event is successful considering the next few things are met.
If you choose to make a business out of your artistic ability, can you offer your items at a price which will allow you to get sales and not give your items away? Can you offer your items at a reasonable price point? As an artist, sometimes it is a labor of love to produce my items, however participating in a well trafficked, well advertised show makes for a profitable day.
Can you offer consistency and quality? These factors are important. Your customers will return if your items are well made and they are pleased with your goods!
So now that you have decided that you have a unique, well made, reasonably priced item, how do you select a venue? Visiting established shows is a great start. Do your research and ask the vendors how has business been and how well do the organizers of the event promote and run the event.
Some really great craft shows in the NJ area are run by Pat and Joe known as PJ's Promotions (http://www.pjspromotions.com). Not only are the customers who attend their shows very happy to attend such an offering through the artists and crafts people vending there, the vendors are given the opportunity to sell at a well run, well put together and attended show. You must apply to be in their shows because they are known as 'juried' events. You can expect a majority of 'juried' events to be successful compared to non-juried or half flea market half craft show events. If the shows have built up great reputations, they will attract large crowds. If the promoters have done their job, as Pat and Joe do, then the selection of vendors are of the highest caliber attracting crowds that appreciate your goods. To put it short, you are in good company when you vend at a well organized event. You are in for a great day of selling and making a lot of people happy with your unique hand made item.
How do you decide to do an event that is not established? From the outside, an event may sound really appealing and a fabulous opportunity. However, buyer beware, you are talking to a promoter who wants to sell you a spot in their show and will tell you anything to get you to book the spot. Some mistakes you can make no matter how many probing questions you ask, is going with a non-established and over priced show. Some show promoters rely on getting vendors but don't do enough to get customers to the event leaving the vendor to have a major loss. One such show I had the displeasure of attending was the 'Jersey Shore Scholarship Poker Run.' Sadly, the organizers lied to me so therefore I had to find out through attending the event it was a complete failure. The event was held on September 20th 2009 in Joe Palaia Park in Oakhurst. The fund raising event in which less than a hundred potential customers attended due to a poorly advertised and coordinated event was a horrible experience. Nothing is worse that being outside on a beautiful day (perfect weather is a great gift in this field) and having your day become a complete loss due to the promoter's inability to promote the event is just a travesty. Unfortunately, the vendors were not reimbursed because the board decided not to reimburse the unreasonable fee of $100 but gave a free spot for the next event. Which does a lot of good after the fact...I don't think I'll do that again!
Do your research, prepare yourself and go out there and give your great products proper exposure and robust sales by getting involved with well established shows! Good luck :)
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