jewelz

Posted by juliekendall on July 7th, 2008 in General

I haven’t blogged in awhile because I’ve been SO busy sewing. Nikki (my CraftyGirlz partner) and I did our first booth at our first Farmer’s Market this past Saturday (July 5). How did we do? We didn’t sell one thing! At first I was REALLY bummed but after talking to some pro’s in the vendor business and looking at a couple of other markets I feel much better. I learned that holiday weekends aren’t so good for Market business. They are either heavily attended or not attended at all. There were 6 booths that didn’t show and very few customers for us so that was one reason for the bust. The other reason was that our products didn’t really fit the customers for this particular market. After going to two other markets on Sunday, we realized that I would need to sell my low end products at a reduced rate for our market (Brighton Market) and then do other high end markets (such as Boulder Market, Vail Market and Evergreen Market) for our finer products. I’m going to see if we can do the Boulder Market next weekend in addition to our Brighton Market.

The upside is that everyone that saw our stuff really liked everything. So this week I’ll be sewing a lot of stuff that is very simple and quick to make with pretty but inexpensive fabric.

All in all I’m having a WONDERFUL time diving into the “vendor” life. I LOVE making the stuff, meeting all the cool people, and just being outdoors. Every person I’ve talked to says that it takes a lot of time getting everything just right so that you actually start making money. I’m looking at this summer as a time to learn the ropes and pay off all the start up fee’s we’ve encountered. (You wouldn’t believe how much you have to do just to have a tiny little 10′ X 10′ booth. I’m talking everything from tax licenses to liability insurance!!)

Below is the picture Craig took of the booth. Take a look and let me know what you think. Next week, we are going to move our money table to the outside corner of the booth so that people can move around more easily inside.