Tips for Selling Your Crafts at Craft Shows

What is up? Welcome back. Do you like to do it a little bit or make it? So do we. And we have a new video each week. This week we have a killer colossal craft show in like two weeks. We do, we do. We have two weeks, two people to make 240 signs. That is a lot of signs. That is a lot of painting. That's a lot of cutting and there's a whole lot of ribbons. A lot of planning. We are definitely going to be heads down, super focused. Nights and weekends to get all of these signs painted and prepped and ready to go for this craft show. So we thought we would show you how we do it and give you a little peek behind the scenes. A little peek at the special sauce recipe. Step one. Time to bring everyone together for a team meeting. Garrett and I used to be in the industry and so we're very familiar with agile project management style. So we use a form of scrum on a weekly basis to get ready for any large project. Gather the team together, have them all in one room and then we share a little bit about what the upcoming projects are. All right this is our daily stand up. Welcome to our daily stand up. We do, we try and do this every day especially, especially on Mondays. And that's where we are today. It's Monday and we're talking about our next craft show. Big craft show coming up is Newport News on 10-1 and 10-2. It's the biggest show of the year. So we need to bring 240 signs to Newport News. And each team member will share a little bit about what's going on in their aspect of the business. So what's happening out back in the warehouse? Are things running properly? Are lasers functioning properly? Is maintenance getting done? Are we, how is production going for the store? Is the store caught up? Is the store behind? The paint room, we'll share a little bit about what's going on in the paint room. Do we have signs? What craft shows are we prepping for? That's kind of where I jump in and help there. Do we have enough supplies? We talk a little bit about upcoming workshops and preparation for the workshops. Courtney will do her update on marketing. Share a little bit about the marketing campaigns that we have going on. Marketing campaigns that are coming up. What kind of results are we getting from those campaigns? And then I'll jump in and I'll talk about the videos that are coming up. Any videos that I need, designs that are coming up, cut files, replacements, or personalized signs. That's all me and I'll be giving my report. It's a fun round Robin. We try and make, we try and keep it quick. We keep it for less than a half an hour on Mondays. That's usually our like weekly sprint. And then every day we try and do like a 10 minute stand up of where are we, are we meeting our goals? We pass the paintbrush. We do, we do. We toss the paintbrush from person to person. Step two, time to organize it. We're going to take all of that information and all of the signs Kim says she needs and we'll put it into that project management board. We use Asana. We set it up into this scrum board format. So there's a column with every sign that needs to be cut and a little tag for each one of them. And as they get cut, they get slid over. The little tab gets slid over to the next column, which is paint, paint and glue. The third column is bows. When the paint and glue is done, they drag it over to bows saying, hey, now it needs bows and ribbons. And then when I'm done with bows and ribbons, I drag it over to in the cart slash done. That means it's done. And that way we keep track of what's been done. Each person will tag what signs that they've done. So if we have help painting, Courtney will help paint. Jonathan paints. Sometimes Tanner paints. I paint. Garrett does not usually paint. I'm designing. But we kind of tag who's doing what so we can kind of make sure that the workload is still spread evenly and everyone's pulling their fair share. You know you could do this with post-it notes too. We found the post-it notes were getting lost, so we went to an electronic format. Yeah, it's an electronic like project board. Step three. We're gonna make all of our cuts, but we're gonna do these in batches. We can fit six signs at a time in all three of our big lasers. So I like to run six of the same sign at the same time. They're all kicked off at the same time. Now if you're using Lightburn, did you know that you're able to put your lasers on the network and then find them by IP address and send your files over the internet that way. So any of you guys that are currently using Lightburn, you can network those lasers. We can send it all. One laptop can run all three lasers and that's really really handy. Yes. We used to have multiple laptops running multiple lasers. So I can frame it on each at the same time. Watch them all get framed out and then start them all each. Then I'll come back. They'll all be done at about the same time. I'll tape everything off so all the little pieces will stay together and we'll bring it inside. Step four. Batch painting. This is where I exit stage right. So we don't always batch paint with this large of a batch. So typically we will do two to four signs at one time, but in preparation for a craft show this size we will do eight to ten signs on these tables. So luckily we do have our workshop tables and during the weekdays they're there for us to paint on. So I can line up these signs and paint eight at one time. This takes a little more time to set up, but the painting goes a lot faster. So we will break down all of our little pieces and group them by color and then we'll do all the backers at one time. Do the first coat on all the little pieces. We can do all eight of one color at one time and then come back and then do the second coat of backers and then you're just about ready to glue. It's really efficient to paint a large batch at one time. Bring it on down to That is what we call a bow town. So this is where for us we can get a little bottleneck because nobody else does the bows but me. It's not that the bows are that hard. When the guys are helping me paint signs or assemble signs even just gluing things they're not good at picking out coordinating ribbons. Now if every sign had a specific bow that went with it that might make things easier, but I don't have that much ribbon of one type of ribbon. So sometimes it's a creative process and I'll be choosing ribbons that look like they match the sign. And not every ribbon is the same for every sign. She's got that ribbon eye. She's got that bow eye that only she has. But what I can do is I'll make the ribbons and I'll make them in batches of four. So for this particular round of signs if I'm doing four signs I will make four bows at one time. That is faster. And then I will set them out onto the tables here. You can see we have our signs laid out and I just drop the bow and the hanger and we lay them out so that anybody can come along and tie the hanger on and add the bow. Step six let's circle the wagons. I titled this segment put them in the wagon and the second I saw him smile as we hit record I knew he was gonna say that. So yes we use these great collapsible wagons. We have several different brands that we use and I'll tell you they're all pretty much the same. The ones the Ozark Trail from Walmart is the same as the Uline wagon that we have which is the same as the wagon from Dick's. Yeah from Dick's Sporting Goods. They're all pretty much the same. The wagons are definitely all the same size and they're great for traveling with our signs. The big thing about these is that they're hand-painted and you don't want to mess them up as you're traveling. Not the wagons the signs. Correct. So what we do is we've come up with an efficient way to pack these signs in our wagons. We use these recycled brown paper bags that what are they probably 20 inches wide. They're big. When a customer asks for a bag we will have it because we actually use the paper bags as separators for the signs in the cart. So for every sign essentially there's the bag that goes with it. We don't offer the bags because I want them to walk around with their sign and advertise for me. Oh where did you get that? But if they ask for a bag I'm happy to give it. With the signs in bags it's like a giant sign file cabinet. I'll even sift through looking for one of the signs that I need. Yes. Do you have any more of these? Let me see. I look for the bows. Yep. I start by looking for the bow. Yes you can tell whether it's a Christmas bow, a Halloween bow, a fall bow. Yeah you start looking for those orange ones for a fall sign. I scoot my glasses down to the edge of my nose. I just peep on through. Step seven. Pack it up. We're heading out. So every craft show whether it's this large show or down to the weekly farmer's market that we go to we always bring the bow box and the bow bag. And so I thought I'd show you some of the things that we bring each week. The bow bag doesn't even have bows in it. It doesn't but we call it the bow bag because it kind of comes along with the bow box. The triple b's. So in this little Tupperware box here you can see this is like a this is Sterilite brand comes from Walmart. I always have my zip ties. Trusty zip ties. That we use to put the bows together with. So there's a large zip tie and the tiny zip ties are in this one bag. And then here's one of the things that I've learned to do over time. This might look like a lot. It's I gather this over time. So as I make bows I sometimes have leftover nine inch pieces. Scraps. They're not really scraps they're just I use four nine inch pieces to make a bow. So sometimes I have extra in my little pile that I've cut and I keep them together and I actually change this pile out with the season. So I have a stack like this for summertime ribbons and then I have a stack like this for winter and fall and Christmas or winter ribbons. Sometimes they'll love a sign and then they'll say I don't want the bow or can I change the bow. And so I luckily will have a very large selection of ribbon with me. I don't have to bring it. That's when she makes the fatal mistake of asking them do you want to pick out your own ribbon? I do sometimes say do you want to pick out your own ribbon? So I'll lift this out. That is an hour side detour. Well this gives them the then they're invested. They're really excited because they got to pick their own ribbon. They get really into it. Usually I mean every sign has a bow with it but if in case someone asks just in case there's a bow missing or I've had to steal a bow from this sign and put it on that sign we have these extra ribbons with us and they're all ready to go to make a new bow. I also bring rolls of ribbon but just a few of these with me for hangers. So this is only really used for the backers and the hangers if for some reason the hanger needs to change or maybe I did forget to add a bow to something or it was last minute and we threw it in there. I could create a bow and a hanger. I try to keep this ribbon pretty neutral. A black, a white, orange, whatever the color of the season is. I'll try and have matching hangers with it like here's just a roll of black because this can go with almost every sign. So that's what's in our bow box. Now what's in our bow bag? This little bag right here goes to every show with us. That little bag is like bottomless. It's the bottomless bow bag. It is. You wouldn't believe how much stuff I can fit in this bag and there's more in here right now but it's duplicates of what you see here. It is the bottomless bag. I can fit, there's actually some more stuff in here but it's duplicate of what you see here. But I thought I would show you what we take with us for each show. So we have a touch-up paint kit. So for every color that we use we have one of these little lip gloss tubes where I can squeeze out just a tiny little bit of paint. Just enough to get on the tip of your finger or one of these little sponges or even a q-tip. Yep we have a little pack of q-tips in here that go with it. We can do touch-ups if we need to. I have one of these sharpie paint pen markers. This is what we use to clean up the edges or touch up black maybe. That's what these sharpies are for. I also have a white paint pen so if the backer a white backer gets scuffed we can clean that up with this paint pen. What is our number one favorite tool to have with us? The number one tool magic eraser. This thing is magic. It'll clean up a sign. It'll clean up a spill. It'll take coffee off of your tablet. This this thing right here. Never leave home without it. We do. You wouldn't believe how often we use these magic erasers. They do a great job. If your sign gets scuffed it may not need a touch-up paint. It just needs a little wipe down with a little magic eraser. Sometimes they just get rubbed together. Again this will clean off those rub marks. Walk by with little chocolate fingers. Yes that too. We also make sure we have extra glue in case a piece happens to pop off. We can put it back on. Accidents happen. Or breaks off. That'll sometimes happen. We use this little plastic container has all of our hooks so each of the sign gets hung onto the little metal display racks with these cute little hooks. We can put them in there. This goes in the bow bag. A little box of brochures. We give everyone a brochure that talks about our workshops. Assuming it depends on which craft show we're if we're really far away. We don't give too much. We don't just give these out. We'll let them take them if they want them. Especially if they know they're close by or in slip it in the bag every time. Yes and then for as you know most people ask oh do you have a business card? So for business cards we actually use these postcards. Yep a little harder to get lost in your purse or pocket. They stand out just a little bit more. Just a little bit bigger. These are the thank you cards we put in order. So if you've ever ordered from us you've probably seen this. It does have all of our social medias on here so they can find us everywhere. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, everywhere. On the YouTubes. The YouTubes yes. Our email address and there's a little coupon code here. A thank you 10 coupon code for 10% off and sometimes this works too. If I just say here you go you can go check us out. There's a little coupon code right here on the bottom of the card. Slip it right in the bag also. We also bring our Venmo. This little Venmo standee when I registered for my Venmo business account they asked if we wanted a advertising kit. It came with a few stickers and this cute little stand up thing and it's great. I really just hope I'll tell you what they can't do. They can't really stand it standing up like this. It is too straight up and down. So I just hold it up for them and it works great. Let's put it in front of my face. And what do we get comments on Garrett? People love these things. They love them. People asked if they could keep them when they're buying their signs. It's a price tag. I just made these little jams on the Glowforge. I picked the font and the tag shape from the Glowforge app. That's it. It's just scored and cut with the Glowforge and they're reusable. So Baltic Birch. If they don't ask only like one person one or two people have really said oh can I have it? We're like yeah sure you're gonna have it if you want it. But they're reusable every show so I don't have to keep buying tags. I don't have to write numbers down. They're right on there. And speaking of reusable. Yes. Reusable zip ties. These are another can't live without. We use them for everything. We use them to keep the racks together. We use them to keep the tent together. Keep the racks to the tent. The flag to the tent. Yes. Hang our signs. We started with just regular zip ties and found we were we felt like we were wasting them. And the great thing about this it works exactly the same and just as well. But there's a little tab here on the side and it will release it. Little thumb tab. Great. Highly recommend. Bungee cords of course. I don't go anywhere without at least two bungee cords. And we use these bungee cords to hang up our little display in the back or just a sign. And then these we found these are just the door hangers that hangs on the door that you can put the door hanger on. Well we've had a couple of comments about people saying well I don't have a hanger to hang it on my door. Do you have one? And we say we got one for you right here. Five dollars. We have one. Five bucks. I think it's a good price. The other couple of things of course. Gotta have these scissors. Scissors. And believe it or not this paintbrush. First of all Garrett plays with it. If it's near him he's flicking it. I'm tossing it. Spinning it. But I use it to dust off the signs as you travel with them or sometimes you have glitter on your ribbon or you might have the burlap sheds and this kind of dusts off the sign. So after I hang them I will go back and kind of clean them off. She'll hang it, fluff the bow and come in with the little paintbrush too. And then dust them all off. Yep do a little dusting touch up. All of that. That's in the bag. Oh and sunscreen. And my little thing of sunscreen. Do not forget your sunscreen. That sun shifts and I burn up like that. He does. Especially when I fall asleep in the chair. He does. Step eight. Load them up. And we have this covered travel trailer. It serves a bunch of purposes. One. We didn't have the space in any of our vehicles to fit more than two wagons. So this allows us to bring up to ten wagons and our racks and our ten and our tables, chairs, everything we need goes right in there. And then at our space we don't have enough space in our booth to keep all ten wagons that we bring with us. So it also acts as a storage unit on the spot. So I'll do a lot of running back and forth from our craft booth out to the storage unit to grab signs or put signs back and and bring wagons back in. If he comes back. Back and forth. That's loosely. Sometimes it's back to the trailer. It's a man cave. It doubles as a man cave. It's a storage unit and a man cave. I'll just set a chair up. Some chips and some diadu and watch the YouTubes. So Garrett talked about how he's back and forth on the trailer because he's so busy. Let's just see where Garrett is. I'm looking for signs. It's empty. Oh they're not here. I better look somewhere else. This just in. Kim and Garrett's biggest craft show of the year has just been canceled. Over to you Kim. Due to inclement weather and approaching hurricane, the craft show has been canceled. We're gonna have to come up with a plan B. Stay tuned for more information. Now back to our regularly scheduled program. Step nine. Let's set it up. We're here. Now it's time to plant our roots and set up our booth. We start by setting up our tent. You can set this tent up with one person. It's the easy up tent. It gives us a true 10x10 and it actually covers the whole 10x10 space. It's great because sometimes I'll drop Kim off or she'll drop me off and we'll start the booth set up. And since we have to start with the tent first, it's great that one person can start setting this up. Next we come back in with the 20 inch by six foot tall racks. Again we told you we have them set up in pairs. So we'll set these up and we'll use those reusable zip ties to tie them to each other and tie them to the legs of the tent. We can set five across on one side and five across on the other side. They essentially make a grid wall inside that tent. Sometimes we can use the outside of the the panels and the inside. We always set them up on the inside and it all depends on where our booth is and who our neighbors are and how close we are as to whether or not we can set the signs up on the outside. And if you can schmooze your neighbors they're a little more likely to let you set them up on the other side. Next we set up the table. It's a four foot wide table that's countertop height. This is great because nobody wants to bend over to try to complete their transactions. They might be eating or carrying a child or holding a dog and this just makes it a little bit easier. And we use the four foot as opposed to the six foot because the six foot table is a little bit wider and longer and in that 10 by 10 booth space it takes up a lot of room. It gets cramped real quick. So we use the four foot table because it is a little bit smaller and gives us a little more room on the sides. And then we have this great tablecloth that Kim found. Everybody loves this tablecloth. We got it from Stack Displays. There's no affiliation with with that company but I tell you what go take a look. They have a ton of really cool tablecloths out there and we get tons of compliments on this tablecloth. I can't tell you how many people have asked where did you get this tablecloth? And it's easy to just it makes it look a little bit more professional. It's super durable. We've used it over and over and over again and we have had no we've it's super durable no no rips no tears nothing. We haven't even washed it. And chairs. So you got to have some sort of a chair when things are slow. Hopefully they're not slow. And you want a tall chair so you're face to face with people that walk up to your booth. So yes we use these counter type chairs. Now this particular pair that we have I do not recommend because it's like getting in and out of a hammock every time. Garrett loves them. I'm going to counter her and say I love these chairs. They are perfect for napping. I can't tell you how many times I walk away from the booth and say here can you watch the booth. I'm going to take a look around and I come back and he's asleep. Those chairs are comfortable. It's our eight foot sign banner behind us and we use these bungee cords to hang that up. Then we set the sandbags around each leg. A lot of the places will make you have sandbags and a fire extinguisher. We keep both out there and open so that any auditors that walk by can see them. I would recommend the the nice flat like director's chairs over these camp chairs. These tall camp chairs. Your choice. I do highly recommend those. She's just trying to keep you awake. They're counter type height so you can get in and out and then we can sit in the chairs and talk to everyone pretty much at eye level when they go by and we're not down below our table. Kim yells at me for being on the phone. I have to have to compliment their shoes. I highly recommend greet every single person that pops in or walks by. All right so what'd you think? Did you find any of these tips useful? Do you have any useful tips? What is that super secret craft show tip that you have? Are you sitting on a good one? Leave it down below. I'd love to share it with everybody. I won't tell them it's your super secret secret trick. It's uh it's our secret. All right well big thanks to all of our patrons. We love you guys. Some of these tips and tricks have come from our patrons so thank you guys. You guys helped us out with this one too. Didn't even know it. Well we are about out of time so if you're not going to join us for the patron after show you should totally join us this weekend for the hurricane party. Because it's been rained out or winded out, hurricaned out, we're gonna substitute this craft show by going live this weekend. Saturday and Sunday. And we'll be able to see all your shiny little faces or at least you'll be able to see our two shiny faces. Yeah hopefully you'll chat with us. Yeah come chat with us. See what's up. See what we're up to. See what we're doing. Tell us what you're doing.