It's funny to look back at all the opps moments of starting my business or crazy customer stories. I thought it might be fun to share a few of them. Many of them are lessons well learned and never done again, I would hope.
My first craft show was a small local event in Manchester,VT at our Rec Center. I brought a dozen lampshades, a bunch of boxes of cherry tomatoes and 6 loaves of homemade bread. Everything sold except the lampshades. Drats, that was a bummer. Okay, lets try it again at a little better show... and then a little better and then a little better. I learned to listen to the advice of fellow vendors and there always was lots of advice. Sometimes it was helpful if my product was similar to the person giving the advice. Note to self: find you demographics quick. A damn good first lesson, thank you very much.
I think of some of the hairy things that happened at my early craft shows. Weather is always a hard issue with many of our products. One nightmare story I will always remember is the time I was under a tent and must have been under a hole or seam in the tent. I had stacked and covered my lampshades, but silly me, the plastic bag was wrapped around the stack of shades and tucked into the middle. Low and behold the water went right down the middle. oh, tears. a stack of shades ruined. ( I was doing paper cut shades then.) Oh all that hard work ruined. But everyone loves a 2nd!
Or the time on the Burlington, VT waterfront at a show. I had 8 inches of water in the booth! I packed up that night and set up again in the am. Nothing lost except an evening of selling..Moisture was and is always hard on fragile products.
One year I recieved a bad roll of styrene. 50 yds... omg. what a nightmare. who knew this could happen. I figured I had been using difficult fabrics to laminate or something. Eventually I caught onto this.
Another product issue: Lampshade frames rusting over night. The humidity of the summer had added water to my gallon of glue. At the time, not all lampshade frames were galvanized. I was super busy filling orders, working like a crazy girl only to come into the shop the next day and see the rust seeping through the grosgrain. It is wonderful that most of the frames these days are galvanized; it's always been the lampshade makers nightmare. right?
Or the time you have just finished a shade and the solder of the clip to comes undone. Bummer.
Or the time you have just finished a vintage fabric shade and see a big stain on the fabric that you hadn't noticed.
Or the time you put the credit card slips in your pocket and the numbers blurr or the time the credit card doesn't print the numbers clearly. Or the one time you forget to get the customers telephone number and you forget to give them their Gold American Express card.....
Or the time right after 911, that I told a rude customer that the lamp was NOT for sale.... she had been so incredibly rude! (And wasn't buying a shade, either.) But karma was such that another delightful woman was in my booth observing this and bought the lamp with 2 lampshades! My favorite story ever! And yes, I would do it again.
There are always BAD shows run by lazy promoters. I can think of the time I signed up for one. It was a spring show and a fall show and most of the vendors had signed up and paid for both. No one sold anything at the spring show and they canceled the fall show, but we didn't get our money back???? sleazy and then to be set up across from her at another show. No apology there.... lazy, but sure made the vendors research shows better next time.
I have mostly given up doing shows, but do think it was important for me in the beginning of my business. Lessons learned were invaluable. The customer pretty much tells you what they think. Or you can hear them mumbling how great something is or that it's too expensive. I am only doing The MAY Brimfield Flea Market these days. I have loved it more than any craft show I ever did. I'll be set up at New England Motel Show, booth 66.
What nightmares have you had. I must say, I am super organized. Doing shows was a very stressful time. To load the car, drive to the venue, set up, try to relax and sell and continue on for a day or 2. We all figure out to make it the easiest for ourselves, I think. Bringing healthy snacks, lots of water, money to make change, the bag of supplies like duck tape and advil...a few beers and maybe a bottle of wine for post show relaxation w/ fellow vendors!!! And yes, the friends you make along the way make it worth while. I think everyone would agree with that.
At times I do miss my hitting the road, but most times I'm pretty happy not having to sweat it out. I've found over the years it's best for me to stay put in my shop and have clients bring their fabrics and lamps into my shop. Lampshades ain't too easy to sell at a craft fair!!!! yes you say. I think of the ladies scratching their heads, humm, wonder what size shade I need, wonder how it hooks onto the lamp, wonder what color I need???? My fellow vendors would crack up at me trying to help customers.
But, yes it was worth doing shows IF and only if I was in the right locale. Which makes me remember a really shitty show in Stowe, VT. It was a Harley Davidson Convention at Top Notch.... surely not my perfect customer, BUT 4 years later I picked up a wholesale account from Greenwich, CT that I made shades her shop for many, many years. She kept me really busy. Who knew at the time???? You just have to put it out there and do your best and just maybe.....
I'd say we are in a lucky time now. The economy IS coming back, slowly the money is slowly trickling out of the city. The internet IS our key advantage. The world is now our customer. A few years ago there were 2 little old ladies walking by my shop, I over heard them saying, wonder how she survives here!!!! They probably hadn't even turned on a computer let alone know the potential for a small business. And my website isn't really that useful....but customers do call me at the shop and that is the end goal of a one of a kind business.
Happy Day.
xoxo,
judy