How do you manage?

[new2woodwrk]

We just finished our first major event - a Pirate and Renaissance festival. 

We only setup for 1 of the 3 days, and did quite well and had a blast!

However, it was exhausting! We were setup from 8am to 8pm on a Saturday.

I was wondering, those of you that also do these types of events how do you manage?

It seemed, we were bombarded with customers every 15 minutes - at least 2-6 at a time!

We never got a chance to get anything to eat, which we usually bring with us for our weekly event.

Any and all insightful information how you all manage these is welcome as we may have another coming up in February.... Mardi Gras

Thanks as always in advance

[Joe W.]

Do like the runners do the night before an event - load up on carbs

But seriously, congrats on you adventure!

Was it worth it to go the entire time (did sales drop off toward the afternoon/evening)? could you shut down early?

On a positive note - now you have extra money to buy supplies and part time help? (friends/relatives/your kids).

 

[new2woodwrk]

2 hours ago, Joe W. said:

Do like the runners do the night before an event - load up on carbs

But seriously, congrats on you adventure!

Was it worth it to go the entire time (did sales drop off toward the afternoon/evening)? could you shut down early?

On a positive note - now you have extra money to buy supplies and part time help? (friends/relatives/your kids).

 

The last 1/2 hour we did several unexpected sales so yes, it was definitely worth it. We couldn't shut down early since the traffic was non-stop until the fireworks started - that was our chance to fold up and get out

We've been trying to hire help for a year, no one wants to work anymore

 

[kmmcrafts]

Reading all these post about being whooped after the shows and hearing about set-up and take down blah, blah.. makes me really happy that back in the beginning I had a rough start with in person due to not being able to get baby sitters etc. and so I took to online selling. Back then it was very frustrating but looking back I feel like the big guy upstairs was just setting me up to be where I am today with online selling. Always said I was going to pick up doing shows once the kids was bigger but I couldn't possibly do both shows and online by myself.. No intensions of hiring help.. been there done that in other business's I had and employee's just don't have their heart in nothing but the money and could care less if you succeed or not. 

I do intent to start doing more CNC and laser stuff, not that they are faster but they do help make products and free up "some" time that I could do other task like packaging orders etc.. or designing new items while they work.. there is an advantage to them but it's not a huge advantage.. 

 

[Wichman]

I've been vending at local farmers markets for some 18 years now, started with veggies, now it SS items. Some hints:

   Take snacks (I take roasted almonds), you can munch on the snack in between rushes. If there are two people at the booth then alternate lunches. If you don't have a second person then have a table tent that states "out for lunch".  I'm diabetic and I will not apologize for taking care of my health.

   Watch your emotional energy levels, it is exhausting to be "up" for 8 hrs straight, manage that high to avoid burnout  and watch at the end to avoid energy drop once the show is over.

[John B]

We always take an esky with cold drinks etc.
There has been many a market after a long stinking hot day, that if somebody had offered me $500 for the stock, tables and the whole shooting match, I would of taken it gladly so as not to having to pack up.

[new2woodwrk]

5 hours ago, Wichman said:

I've been vending at local farmers markets for some 18 years now, started with veggies, now it SS items. Some hints:

   Take snacks (I take roasted almonds), you can munch on the snack in between rushes. If there are two people at the booth then alternate lunches. If you don't have a second person then have a table tent that states "out for lunch".  I'm diabetic and I will not apologize for taking care of my health.

   Watch your emotional energy levels, it is exhausting to be "up" for 8 hrs straight, manage that high to avoid burnout  and watch at the end to avoid energy drop once the show is over.

Yeppers, we have a fridge in our trailer with power and it always has plenty of liquids (being in Fl, we learned that very quickly when we first started),  We usually pack a lunch as the food trucks at these events are usually less than satisfying. However, we thought perhaps that this event would be different since the advertised food trucks were not local... "Alas poor Yorick" they were not and the food was terrrible

Live and learn though!

There are 2 of us usually, the wife and I. We work well together, usually unless of course she doesn't do what I say LOL

Agree about the last few hours. The adrenaline of doing so well wore off just as we realized it was time to pack up and go.

 

[kmmcrafts]

At the end of the day I guess at least you're thankful that it went well and wasn't a total bust. That's a lot of work to do if you're not going to make good profit from it. My hat is off to those of you doing the shows, especially outdoor ones. We recently went to the Holland MI Pumpkin festival... and they had a outdoor crafts fair. While is was nice and sunny that day but the temps was struggling to be in the mid 40's and a brisk wind all day long too. We walked through the fair and people were having stuff blowing over on their tables. Two of the vendors had generators running upwind of where everyone else was.. and because of the wind even clear to the back of the event all we could smell was the exhaust fumes of those to generators running. I cannot imagine sitting there all day in the cold wind and smelling those fumes.. I sure hope they did well through all of that effort. I've also seen the opposite last summer.. hotter than heck, no breeze they was set up in a asphalt parking lot.. You couldn't pay me enough to do either scenario.. Lot's of crafters say it's just a hobby yet go through all that.. sounds like a job to me, LOL If it were just a hobby and that was me, I'd not be worried about profits and pack up and take all my goods and drop them off to a goodwill or other charity if you just looking to get rid of it, LOL

 

[new2woodwrk]

1 hour ago, kmmcrafts said:

At the end of the day I guess at least you're thankful that it went well and wasn't a total bust. That's a lot of work to do if you're not going to make good profit from it. My hat is off to those of you doing the shows, especially outdoor ones. We recently went to the Holland MI Pumpkin festival... and they had a outdoor crafts fair. While is was nice and sunny that day but the temps was struggling to be in the mid 40's and a brisk wind all day long too. We walked through the fair and people were having stuff blowing over on their tables. Two of the vendors had generators running upwind of where everyone else was.. and because of the wind even clear to the back of the event all we could smell was the exhaust fumes of those to generators running. I cannot imagine sitting there all day in the cold wind and smelling those fumes.. I sure hope they did well through all of that effort. I've also seen the opposite last summer.. hotter than heck, no breeze they was set up in a asphalt parking lot.. You couldn't pay me enough to do either scenario.. Lot's of crafters say it's just a hobby yet go through all that.. sounds like a job to me, LOL If it were just a hobby and that was me, I'd not be worried about profits and pack up and take all my goods and drop them off to a goodwill or other charity if you just looking to get rid of it, LOL

 

We make a tidy profit from our now business, it's not going to make us rich but it is paying for quite a few things normally paid by our real estate businesses.

It hasn't been a hobby since we started to do this regularly - every Saturday, weather permitting now for 2 1/2 years! We stopped thinking of it as "wood and material replacement" pretty much right after we began.

Our profit to date has bought: Our Trailer, all our heaters and coolers and battery packs, new saws, new dust collection and countless lunches, dinners and misc items not to mention help payoff our 2017 Dodge Ram 1500 that tows the trailer LOL!

I wouldn't think of doing all this work if we weren't making profit! We've now moved into looking for a permanent space and down size the market tent to just a small showing. However, commercial space here is priced outrageously at the moment, so probably not going to happen for a bit.

We now have a 2nd battery pack - it's called  a Jackery and it is simply amazing! We have the 1000w version and it will run our trailer refrigerator for 12 hours! It will also run our electric heater and the refrigerator for 6 hours - just enough for our weekly events!

I'll soon be getting solar panels to recharge the unit during the day - it really is an incredible little unit!

As to Cold:

We have several heaters, 2 electric and a propane. They keep us very warm! The propane is a small one that stays under the display table and keeps us warm along with a blanket. The electric is plugged in to our battery power. We also take a food warmer with us, filled with soup or stews or other warm dishes we make.

As to Heat

Well, this is Florida after all LOL - and we learned very quickly how hot it gets out there. Our Jackery runs our portable Air cooler (uses ice units) which helps to keep the trailer a little cooler. So when it gets too hot, we duck inside for a quick cooling off. We also use ice packs in water for cooling ourselves. Not only is it fun, but when we see people struggling with the heat at the market, we offer to dip their bandanas in our iced water. We've made several great sales from this alone!

We also have 2 fans going on us at all times, both are battery charged.

We also provide a doggy water bowl for passers by - we've made plenty of puzzle sales just because of the water bowl as well!

As to Wind

We use baffles behind our display units. This keeps them standing and from not being blown over. If the wind is so strong that the baffles don't help, we set up our "wind" display - all items remain in their totes. Works very well for us. In fact, in days of severe winds, we've set up without our tent!

So, needless to say we are pretty well prepared for most things we've come across but we learn more and more all the time, hence this post

Oh and I almost forgot - we're still having a lot of fun doing these events! Our returning customers are constantly checking in for new items and follow us to the various events we're being invited to so, it's still a great fun day!

Having been a musician for over 35 years, this little business satisfies that ego in me, to be on stage performing!

It's a BLAST!

Edited October 19, 2022 by new2woodwrk

[Puzzleguy]

im surprised you didnt do all three days ?

 

[new2woodwrk]

On 12/8/2022 at 11:22 AM, Puzzleguy said:

im surprised you didnt do all three days ?

 

The problem for us doing multiple days is catch up on inventory. If we sell too much, we would have to cancel a regular Saturday event. Our customers have come to expect us there every Saturday.

As it is, it took us 2 1/2 weeks to recoup all our inventory and get back to capacity.

3 days we would have sold a lot more, but doubt we would have been able to catch up for weeks on inventory

Edited December 14, 2022 by new2woodwrk