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WWYD?

ashleyhuneyashleyhuney member
in Northern California Babies

I just got an invite to sell my crafts at a well trafficked street fair, only problem is it's this Friday!  My first impulse is no because I have zero product ready and with work and kiddo I can only work a few after J's bedtime nights to get ready.  My other thought is that even though I've put hardly any effort into getting it off the ground I have a dream of being able to make enough money this way that I could not work out of the home, crazy right?  And the only way to really know if I can do this is to dive into the craft fair/etsy scene...

I can't decide so help me out, what would you do?

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Re: WWYD?

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    MeritageMeritage member
    What a great opportunity!  I'm sure you've made a ton of stuff for J. Do you have enough pieces that look new enough to sell?  Can you "borrow" some new pieces you've made for friends?  Even if you have a small set (and take pictures of all of it), it's enough to dip your toe in the water and give out cards or contact info so others can get in touch with you once you've sold out.
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    gsbabygirlgsbabygirl

    Do you have pictures of the crafts you've made?  You can always take orders.  What an awesome opportunity.  Even if you just go out to see what it's like, you could get ideas for when you do have time to make stuff and be ready the next time around. 

    It never hurts to get your name out there.

    Good luck!  

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    futrkingsleyfutrkingsley member

    I totally get the desire to do something with your talents that would allow you to stay home to work rather than do it out of the house.  BUt I'd be cautious about diving in if you aren't really prepared.  Do you have a shop on etsy?  Do you have a website with product photos/prices?  Do you have a biz email for contacts/orders?  Are you ready to put in the time to fulfill orders?

    And how will your booth look if you don't have enough product and collateral?

    If you can't start off on the right foot, prepared for customers, I wouldn't do a booth at a well trafficked fair where you could potentially be giving a not so great impression to potential customers.

    Good luck making your decision!

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    Mrs.BoomBoomMrs.BoomBoom

    Can you call in sick to work and stay home and work on building product before the event?

    I wouldn't do it if I didn't have any inventory to sell.  Could you make samples and take orders rather than selling product on hand?

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    altreualtreu
    I might wait until I was a little more prepared.  I'm sure this won't be the last time you are invited to an event like this, and making sure you have all your ducks in a row might help your dream of working from home come true.  But I usually err on the cautious side...
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    ashleyhuneyashleyhuney member
    imagefutrkingsley:

    Do you have a shop on etsy?  Do you have a website with product photos/prices?  Do you have a biz email for contacts/orders?  Are you ready to put in the time to fulfill orders?

    And how will your booth look if you don't have enough product and collateral?

    Thanks for the good advice ya'll :)  I actually do have an (unstocked) etsy site and a simple website and I did create a biz email and have a handful of biz cards.  I put all that together pretty quickly and easily when I was contacted by the gift shop a few months ago but hadn't gotten any further.  I don't have product, but I have become a machine at one of my crafts so I *could* bust out enough of that and only sell that at this fair.  I realized that there is probably a reason they are contacting me so late in the game (not enough crafters?) and decide to take a gamble and responded that I would do it if the space rental was waived.  So, we'll see, if it doesn't work out maybe I should get serious about getting ready for fall craft fairs if it does I know I could pull together something small, specialized but professional to see if people even want what I got!

    EDIT:

    So they responded that they can't comp because it's unfair to other vendors but they'd like to have me next year. Sooo, now I'm amped up and ready to do this but not sure if it's worth the $25 space fee.  Ahh, what to do!

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