First Craft Fair

[Tim Baude]

Hello all. Haven’t posted in a while. I have an opportunity to do 2 weekends of a craft/small business fair. They had one in November and had 22,000 people come through. 300+ vendors. Free 8x10 space. Wondering for those who may have done these. What sells the best. I love to personalize. Should I offer an order form also to take orders? Trying to scale down a bit on what I offer as inventory should be a bit high. Thanks in advance for ideas.

[Kev Williams]

What equipment you got?

[John Lifer]

Yep, what can you do? free is good, but I don't try to do any as personalization really requires on site laser. Unless you want to do what a guy I've seen a couple of times do.
1000 key rings in wood with names on them. I can't imagine engraving and cutting out a thousand $3 names. Must have same hanging for the past 3 years.....

[Tim Baude]

I really love doing glasses. Cutting boards. I’ve done a lot of different things. Thinking Maine themed engraving.

[Gary Hair]

I would suggest you don't go crazy making too much beforehand. The general consensus for the last 14 years is that craft fairs are not a big money maker and usually cost you more than you make. Since it's free you don't have to worry about that but you have the cost and time to make whatever you think might sell. I'm not going to tell you that it's a complete waste of time and not to bother, you'll have to find that out for yourself...

[Trey Tull]

Gary is correct. If the booth was free and I didn’t have squat to do, I’d make some stuff and just use it as free advertising. Take some business cards and just talk with people. Maybe put peoples names in a bowl and have a drawing a few times a day for different things on your table. That will help draw people by.

[Bert Kemp]

Maybe Lighthouses engraved on glasses.Maybe laser cut light house. Welcome signs with light house or seascape scene .Moose on cutting board and of course light houses LOL

[Bert Kemp]

Boy I hope its inside LOL any seascape scenes engraved on cutting boards

[Bill George]

When I purchased my plasma cutter years ago (before lasers) I decided to do a craft fair, not free BTW. Went all out with display boards and lots of examples of my work, business cards, information sheets and etc. Waste of time, lots of lookers, questions and perhaps one lead over the two days. People like me who setup had venders selling China made junk, nothing crafty about that!
I think I did one other fair/show.

Best thing I ever did was setup a website and it was a simple Wordpress one and it brought in a lot of business.