Upcoming Event Suggestions, Please !

[Kasey Maxwell]

Hi everyone, I bought my Epilog Zing 40w in December of 2009, I have been practicing quite a bit, and I entered and got accepted into an outdoor event here every Saturday from May until September, it will be local people and lots of tourists, so what I really need your help with is maybe your successes in events like this, like good items to offer to sell and engrave or anything you could help me with, What I already have in mind is a good variety of frames in different sizes for there customizations, I can get wooden frames and I bought lots of 12x24 sheets of foam for creating decorative frames, key chains, pens, acrylic gifts or decorations, things like that, and also offer personal item engraving on the spot, there will be vendors there selling knives and such so I could offer engraving that as well, I will be getting a 10x20 size lot with power, so I will need a canopy tent to protect from rain and/or wind, I purchased a cash register, I will be looking into getting set up with the credit card service as well, I am nervous but confident, I will also have my girlfriend there with me to help out.

Please, I would like this to be as profitable as possible:D as the rent for the space with electric is $1425.00 for the entire summer !

Thank you in advance !

[Doug Lynch]

Sorry the only advice I would have is to make sure about the “quality” of the power. There could be a chance that they will expect you to share a circuit with others vendors. That could make for a lot of popped circuit breakers and down time you and others. Another thing is the exhaust how will you be working that?
Doug Lynch

[Kasey Maxwell]

they asked me for the total amps used per item needing power so I hope they have that figured out, the exhaust is this http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/3AA30

thanks

[Mitchell Andrus]

they asked me for the total amps used per item needing power so I hope they have that figured out, the exhaust is this http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/3AA30

thanks

What you ask for and what you get can be entirely different. Make sure you have an escape clause if they can't get you powered up. The though of running a generator makes my head hurt... I doubt that's an answer.

Also, what happens if the other vendors don't like the smell of wood and plastic burning?

Where are you and can you hijack something relevant? Like Rushmore on pens/pen boxes?
.

[Kasey Maxwell]

I live WAY up here in Anchorage Alaska, I can get a good deal on items with Laserbits, is it easy to make a filter for this blower to reduce smell ?

[Dan Hintz]

Also, if you have to run a generator, make sure it's a quality one that outputs a clean sine wave... anything nasty and you could very easily pop your laser's main board. Even if you get the power you need, can you recover properly (i.e., financially) if the system goes down in the middle of etching something.

[Tom Bull]

Be careful about schlepping your machine about. Don't want to knock anything out of whack.

[Rodne Gold]

Transporting your machine is almost guaranteed to lead to alignment problems as even a teeny bump can put one of the mirrors out. I would be VERY careful about this. You will probably get crowds at your stand , as watching a laser work can be hypnotic to those who have never seen one.
I am sceptical as to whether one can sell or make money selling trinkets at fairs and markets unless it is something really unique you are offering.
What you really need is something that gives you big profits on the item and also on the engraving.

Think of what YOU would buy if YOU were at the fair.. would you buy a frame or a cheap "sourced from the east" trinket? Personalization in itself does not mean any item will actually sell - I have NOTHING in my home , despite having many lasers , that is personalized and have rarely used my machines to personalize gifts I have given.

Basically , with transport and other expenses , the summer would cost you about $3k , about 15-18 trading days , ie about $170 a day. You would have to do about 3-4x that in turnover a trading day to break even , ie round $750 a day...thats a fair amount to do at a fair or outdoor market with items I presume would sell at between $10 and $50 as most purchasers won't spend more than this on an item - its impulse purchasing

If you had to use this opportunity to sell AND market your business in terms of items and products you make for out of fair trading , it might be a good proposition as part of the fair costs are amortized as advertising , but that means you have to display a lot more than the stuff you are selling.
I'm really not trying to rain on your parade here , I think it's worth a try , but you have a month to really reconsider your product mix and refine it to meet those turnover targets etc.

[Mike Null]

I agree with Rodney.

Like Rodney, I have nothing in my home that's been engraved after 12 years in the business. (I did recently do a key ring for a newly acquired vehicle)

If you do a search for fairs, flea markets, marketing products I think you'll find a lot of previous threads on the topic.

[David Fairfield]

Yeah selling to the flea market crowd at a profit is a tough venture.

I would try numbers and alphabets in different fonts, sizes and materials, with an easy to understand price list.

So instead of offering them a single purpose trinket, people can think up their own uses, house numbers, signs, wall decorations etc. Vinyl magnetic letters can be stuck on cars for a variety of purposes ("Just Married" "Class of 2010" "Eat at Joe's" etc )

Letters and numbers are one of the easiest things you can vector cut, because there are hundreds of free fonts you can convert to vector graphics, all the work has been done for you.

Good luck and please let us know if any of our ideas worked for you.

Dave

[Kasey Maxwell]

I was kinda wishing to be there at the market not only to sell, but to advertise my services as well, because so far I have gone around to many businesses and showed them samples of what I can do and offer and I leave them my business card and they always say "Wow, what great work you do!", but hardly anyone calls me for service, I post on craigslist and several other online advertising sites and I get some calls from those, so If I'm in the public's eye then maybe I will be more noticed, at least that is what I'm hoping for :D. As far as transporting the machine, when I received it, the X and Y were held in place with a plastic strap and nothing more, I have even thought about getting a used plumbers or painters utility van to have like a mobile unit to do on site work for businesses like Gun shops and to be able to drive to events and its already set up for use, just a thought, I would be worried about bumping it around in the van and I'm sure I'd want to insure it with the auto insurance company as well, that was just a thought though. I have been looking over sites on the internet to get ideas of unique items to sell, people around here dig on crafty items so me and my girlfriend are putting our heads together to figure things out, all in all, I think this will be a good adventure to tackle, so if I can't hardly profit from it or at least break even, then hopefully me getting out there in view will help.........:cool:

Thanks

[Dee Gallo]

If this is a tourist area, you might want to cash in on that by finding out what the local "whatever" is. Then you can make up small items ahead which are fast, easy and cheap to make without having to personalize them. Things like coasters, phone charms, luggage tags, jewelry pieces, etc. are small enough to throw in a suitcase so an impulse/souvenir buy would be more likely. Heavy or breakable things might not go over as well.

For locals, you could try sports team items, such as frames or clocks, anything they could not get readily. Nature themes are always popular. Wine glasses, trophies and signs are something they can come to you for later if they've seen your samples.

Another item I find has a wow factor which is easy and cheap to make ahead is edge-lit lights. People love them. I buy bases from Jim Good, but you can find other vendors. I also buy nightlights from Walmart and remove their boring acrylic squares and replace them with my own creations. They are only a couple of dollars and you can sell them for $10-12. Granted, the markup is not high, but again, you get people looking. Just this past weekend, I sold 20 of them to a guy who is giving them to employees - one design, 6 laser minutes, twenty 2" x 3" pieces of plexi= $200, and he also ordered 8 bigger lights for $25 each. Have some samples of bigger (more expensive) pieces on display which you can make just as easily but sell for at least twice as much. Locals will place orders for Christmas, anniversaries, memorials, graduations, weddings, etc.

My long winded point is try to make your items ahead and don't bring your laser. When people see how the laser works, they don't see the amount of time, practice, skill and effort you have to bring to the work. They just see a flashy magic light... and discount your value.

This is a fun arena for working, but it's hard if not impossible to make money - keep your costs down and your creativity up! Read the posts here for solid advice from the guys who have done it already, they rock!

cheers, dee

[Kasey Maxwell]

I'm with you on the small items, fishing and hunting are big here so I wanted to offer items with fish jumping or fishing or hunting on them however, for larger items I could have them printed on paper in a binder for viewing and hopefully they will take a business card and remember me ;).

[Mike Null]

The big fly in this ointment is that you're targeting retail type customers without a retail location.

I work from my home and try to avoid retail type customers in favor of commercial customers.

There are several things about retail customers to consider: they rarely buy engraving on impulse-it is an occasion driven business; they will take up a lot of your time; their referrals aren't worth much especially if you don't have a retail store; they won't come back--you'll hear a few disagreements on this but typically retail customers are not repeat customers; you won't have what they want, etc., etc.

I'm not trying to discourage you but you should be aware of what you're up against.

What about security?

[Stanley Waldrup]

Any Pictures?
Sounds like something I would like to add to my line..
Stanley

[Richard Coers]

I don't think your neighbor booths are going to like that blower running. It's going to be loud. Nothing hurts sales like not being able to talk to the people. It's not going to help you either! How about having some videos running on a lap top of your machine working? One of the coolest tourist trinket I've seen done on a laser was contrasting wood inlays of words and pictures. The guy would engrave on side on maple, then use the rubber stamp mode to do a reverse in walnut. The reverse was glued into the maple and sanded smooth. I think he was even from Alaska. So he had bears, otters, ocean scenes, etc... inlayed into a maple base. Of course the word Alaska was inlayed above that. He really had some fine detail and it looked great! The angle of the rubber stamp mode made for zero clearance around the inlay.

[Kasey Maxwell]

I work from my home and try to avoid retail type customers in favor of commercial customers.

Do you really think it might be a good idea to completely stay away from this sort of think and focus my attention on commercial customers? I don't need to waste my time at the flea market if I don't have to, especially if it's going to be a money loss.........

Thanks

P.S. I really appreciate everyone's input on this since I am still new to it all.

Thanks again

[Mike Null]

Kasey

I'm not trying to squelch your idea; I just find that it is much easier and more profitable to work with commercial and institutional customers.

I am also skeptical about taking such a valuable and delicate tool and housing it in a tent.

[Kasey Maxwell]

I agree, I just was hoping to make allot of money there, being that there is a fee of $1425.00 for every Saturday of the "Alaska" summer, not to mention that it is always held in a parking lot that is used weekdays, so that means I'd have to bring everything there, set everything up, then tear it back down again every Saturday, it might be more work than necessary, what about doing the event but NOT bring the machine but have pre made items to sell there and if anyone needed something special then I could take an order for them, I'm just trying to think of ways to make it work.........:confused:

Thanks

[Ron Chapellaz]

I agree with Mike dragging your equipment out there week after week is not the greatest thing to do. You would also have to filter the burn off that is created from the laser. Being in public means you have to protect their environment while they are around the laser. To offer personalized laser services after the fact may be hard as most people at these types of fairs are impulse buyers and likely won't want to take the time to get things done later.

I don't want to burst your bubble either, and I don't want to say that you won't suceed. All the power to you if you do! Best of luck in whatever you do with your laser!

[Kasey Maxwell]

I don't want to burst your bubble either, and I don't want to say that you won't suceed. All the power to you if you do! Best of luck in whatever you do with your laser!

Not bursting my bubble, its reality and that's all there is to it ! :D

So targeting places like schools for awards or shops to make there labels or law offices and doctor offices to do there advertising on pens and so on would be the best value for me effort ? Remember I'm quite new at all this, and I want to give it all I can but to the right crowd.

Thanks

[Kasey Maxwell]

Ok, I think what we are going to do is still go to this event but come up with creative ideas and NOT bring the machine, way to much work for every Saturday, this way we can see how things go and change things if needed instead of having the machine dedicated to the event cause I couldn't imagine resetting it up at home after the event only to have to do it all over again at the event every week.

This is probably the best thing to do in this case :D

[Michael Hunter]

In addition to the arty-crafty trinket stuff to sell to the "general public", take along a few examples of boring old Rowmark labels, anodised aluminium etc.. You might just pick up a commercial/industrial customer that way.

It worked for me... my longest term and best industrial customers both contacted me after I had a stall at a craft fair.

[Dan Hintz]

Kasey,

Have you considered finding someone who has already paid the fee and is willing to carry your products in their booth for a percentage of the profits? It may mean very little money for you the first year, but it will give you an idea of interest level as well as avoiding the huge upfront cost. If it looks like things are selling well, considering paying the fee next year and start your own booth.

[Kasey Maxwell]

Have you considered finding someone who has already paid the fee and is willing to carry your products in their booth for a percentage of the profits?

Actually, the opposite :D, I found someone that wants me to display there items for them, what might be a good percentage for me to charge for there stuff ? Maybe about 10 % or so ?:confused:

[Dan Hintz]

There's no clear answer to what percentage you should charge... whatever you're happy with. Are you paying taxes on the final sale price or are they reimbursing you the difference? Only one of many things to think about...

[Kasey Maxwell]

nope, no taxes in Alaska, I think 10-15% is reasonable to charge :)