Sunday, July 1, 2012

Gardeners Market Stuff

A little story...

So for a few years now I've wanted to do a booth at the local Gardeners Market.  Every year I think of stuff I should do bu it would be one large object or one small object and I didn't know how to mass produce.  Well last Fall I got my first dose of a craft fair.  I built about 12 garden benches and a mix match of granite candy boards.  I did horrible.  My benches were priced high and that was all I had so I only sold a couple.  But I got a feel for the craft show crowd.  Well I went through the winter thinking of waht else I should build.  Alot of the peolpe at the show told me I'd do good at the farmers amrket beacuase nobody made stuff like me.  Well as Spring got closer I started just building stuff.  I like large things so I built some assorted coffee tables benches and stuff like that.  Well I went to a meeting they have before the market starts to go over rules and stuff and I talk with a friend that has had a booth there for a while.  I told him what I had and asked him if he thought I'd do good.  He told me he thought I would sell my stuff but not fast enogh to make me coming every week worth wild.  He told me I needed to make some simple small projects to get people in my booth to look at my larger objects.  So I went home a little worried because I only had a week to make some small object that people would look at.  So I do what everybody does I looked on Etsy and Pintrest.  I saw many things of course but I wanted something that would really stick out.  Well I saw this picture of someone who turned old flatware into hooks.  Of course I thought of my wife and said thats it.  So I made up an assortment of coat hooks with flatware hooks on them.  Came up with a couple of other small ideas, stepp stools, apron hangers, and of course candy boards.  Well i was as ready  I could be.  I showed up set up and put on my Hot Topic personality.  My first day was a bomb.  I only sold one item and it was a personal order.    I went home disgruntled and down hearted.  Well the next week came and I did about the same but a little better.  So I needed something,  I had to look to see what was selling.  What I saw was jewlery was the hot item.  Of couse it was girls love jewlery and they like unique jewlery.  So I went back home to figure out what I could do fast and mass produce that girls would like.  I came back to the flatware.  So I looked up flatware jewlery and fould not only something simple but something that nobody else had. So I whipped out a couple handfulls of bracelets and went back.  They were it, they were what got people in my tent.  I sold almost everyone and got people to start buying my small objects as well.  I've gotten better at getting people in my tent and I've gotten a pretty goood stream of people who have started orderinnf from me.  So for a while I will problay just posting alot og the same thing but I will be posting.

This was my first day

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