She did had to listen to my sales patter all day though! I took two types of tomato seeds that I'd saved this year with me to give away, all my children helped me package them up on Friday night - over 120 packets in the end. Having something like seeds to give away is a great way of drawing people in, and starting a conversation with them. I also had a lot of my monthly newsletters printed out and I hope people will sign up to that as well as people seemed to be enjoying them.
I sold enough to make it worth while, my only problem with giving my time to go to these fairs is just how much I could make hourly as a carpenter on site or as a jointer in my workshop and just sell online. It certainly boosts sales for this month a little bit, but it was time away from the workshop not making things. That said I do enjoy going out and talking to people, and it's lovely to receive face to face feedback about the products I make.
I did love having my gooseberry scoops on display and had quite a lot of conversations about them, I think I sold three during the day. Something a bit different and a great present for a gardener that might be tricky to buy for.
I need to do one of these a year to remind myself that although they're fun they're probably not the best use of my time. My daughter had a great day though and it was lovely to share it with her.
My parents used to sell honey products at similar type fairs. They never came anywhere close to getting rich off of doing them but they sometimes broke even and made a fair amount of connections that would hopefully pay off in the future. They eventually had to give up the bee keeping due to interfering with farming which did make them money, so I'm not sure if they were in the beekeeping business long enough to see all those contacts yield future results.
ReplyDeleteI sold a few bars of beeswax as well at this one - talking of bees! Yeah I think in a connections way this is useful. I'm hoping next year we have some honey to sell at some things like this as that will boost sales! Hoping the girls keep their interest in the bees.
DeleteI used to love doing Country fayres with our second-hand smallholding/country books, always a good day out.
ReplyDeleteHope you don't mind me suggesting something - if you use a dark - say dark green- cloth for your table, the wood items would stand out better - just a thought.
I'd say you're 100% right about the cloth, I used hessian as it's from my mums old shop and didn't cost anything! If I do many more I'll do that. I'd like a banner as well really.
DeleteCraft fairs sound all very nice but they're not a way to make money I think, the ones I've been to have been mostly sellers sitting around waiting for customers to appear, as you say, you could get a lot more done at home. But nice for a change now and then.
ReplyDeleteThis had good footfall, but the talks are just easier as people are all into gardening then. I enjoyed the day, it was good fun.
DeleteGreat news about your sales. Have you neverr thought of opening your own smallholding shop selling your wares and any surplus freshly picked veg?
ReplyDeleteI really don't want people turning up here if I'm honest, I'm good at talking and would end up getting nothing done!
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