craft fairs

[TWiG]

I am sure many of you on here do craft fairs , I have not done for years but have more time available this year and was thinking of trying a few . I am NOT expecting you to tell me which are your best ones !!!! but do you find them worthwhile ?  Is insurance compulsory and what company would you recommend and approx premium ? also how do you take payments ? When I did some years ago it was cash or cheque , any help on this subject would be much appreciated  ! .  ..Terry... ( I am in Devon so miles from the rest of you .. I think )

[john taylor]

I do a lot of fairs and find them worthwhile.

A lot of people still buy using cash but cheques are a no no now unless you want to risk them bouncing as they can no longer be guaranteed.

I have a proper card machine but they are very expensive to have.   There are a lot of different systems for taking cards now and the only costs are the price of the keypad which range between £50 & £100 as a one off purchase then 2.7% of each sale.   I am trying one system out at the moment to see if I can use it instead of the normal machine.   The system I use is  https://www.worldpayzinc.com/ the only downside of it is that you need either a WiFi or 3G signal otherwise it wont work.   I have used it at several venues OK but one big show I do in the middle of the grounds of a stately home only had a gprs signal which was fine for the normal machine but not for the worldpay system.

john

[bodrighywood]

Insurance is needed though not all fair organisers ask for it. Craft fairs in general are hit and miss and you need a good stock of cheaper stuff with perhaps a few eye catching pieces. Make sure you have plenty of cards though as it can be a source of future commissions. I mainly take cash as my card system is one uses my mobile and a lot of the shows I do I lose a signal. Cheques are up to you whether you trust people or not. Personally I now do a coup[le of local craft fairs and mainly larger two or three day shows where I am able to demonstrate as well.

Pete

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Terry i can recommend Ian Wallace for your insurance. Payments for me are still either cash or cheque and like Pete said sometimes they are hit or miss affairs, especially in the west country for some reason.
Make stuff to suit every pocket but make it good quality, it will sell.
Good luck.
John BHT

[edbanger]

Terry

I've not yet ventured down this route, but at the club I joined the guys there that do them have just invested in a Paypal card reader, I think that it was 99.00 and the charge per transaction was either 2.4 or 2.7% you need a smart phone and it links by an app which you download, I asked them if you need 3g or wifi but they said no just a phone signal, so if you have a Paypal account it might be worth looking in to.

Ed

[Les Symonds]

I planned to go down this route, so I joined a craft association which vets its prospective members before allowing them in. Samples of my work had to go to 2 committee meetings and I was eventually accepted. They won't accept any one who buys-in and sells-on, so all goods sold at their craft fair should be genuine, hand-made craftwork.
However....I called in at a very popular seaside town on Anglesey where they held a 4-day craft fair over Easter. It was in a big function room at the resort's top hotel, ideally situated right in the middle of the High Street and to the rear of the building was a busy garden area and outside that, the pier and waterfront, all of which were inundated with tourists. What could go wrong? Well, my mate, who had a stall there, gave up after three days. His takings were so low that it didn't cover the cost of £70 for the stall and £20 a day for petrol, and, of course, he lost out on the Easter weekend as he was stuck behind a table not selling anything when he could have been in his workshop or out enjoying himself.

This aspect of craft fairs really worries me....do I want to go down this route, I ask myself?

Les

[TWiG]

Thanks for that confidence inspiring story  Les !!!  ( only joking ) I have some past experience of craft fairs , some good , some not so good but none as bad as that !!   My main outlets are galleries and select shops , but as said earlier I am considering doing some craft fairs, but if I have to pay an annual insurance premium etc then I will need to do quite a few for it to be worthwhile , it is also useful for feedback from the public , seeing what is liked,  ( and not liked !) and what sells, and price range.    Terry.. ...    There is a big woodfest up in N Wales in a month or 2 and I may go to this (not selling ) just for fun and combine with visiting some old haunts in Snowdonia , have you been to it before , i think it is annual thing and is it good ?..

[Paul Hannaby]

I remember when I applied to my first craft guild. I took along my best pieces. I had been turning for less than a year so that probably only amounted to three or four things! After it was scrutinised I was offered membership but I decided that any group that would accept work of such poor quality wasn't worth joining so I declined!

[Bryan Milham]

I do attend select craft fairs, my main one is at a very large garden centre not far from where we live. They advertise well before in local papers and throughout the shop and again via the tannoy all the day of the fair itself. Notwithstanding that the normal sales for the day is never less than about £65 and my best a little over £100.

Then there are the local village church events, these give reasonable sales on the lower end of the above figures.

I also support a local disabled school, I've never made a loss but it's not a big sales area but it is to support the school, not my sales.

My best ever was a 'Hobbies Day', nothing for the table, I was mainly there to advertise for the club (with the opportunity for sales), that earned me £220.

Like Les, over the Easter holiday our local Winter Gardens held a Craft Event, 2 days cost £90, SWMBO and I visited but numbers going though were low, so I doubt many people made their table costs.

One thing I will say is that I do normally do much better than the ladies who are trying to sell homemade jewellry or cards etc.

One thing, I won't attend an event if there is another turner - a pen maker I don't consider competition.

[Roderick Evans]

Hi Twig
Cratf fairs...................swings and roundabouts. I've done a few with great success and others........well.......was it worth it.?

I'm doing one next Saturday.... cost of table £25, diesel £10  that's £35 before I start.  Up at 6.30, load the car, away by 7.30. Arrive at venue , unload car, set up table, spend the day there, pack everything away, load the car, get home by 6.30. then have to unload the car.
If I sell a platter for £50.. sounds good but have I really made anything especially if the timber cost me £15 !!!!

Don't want to put you off, but my wife Tina and Border Collie, Bobby, usually come with me and we treat it as a day out, if we do make a profit it's a bonus.
It's a great way for people to get to know you and your work,hand out business cards and generally promote yourself and get to know other crafters.  When you have a really good day this more than makes up for the bad ones. It's also great to have feedback and compliments on your work whether someone buys or not.  I'll let you know next week how I got on.

Regards,
Rod

[Bellringer75]

I do craft fairs the most i made was £800 in one go i normal make about £200

[bodrighywood]

I do craft fairs the most i made was £800 in one go i normal make about £200

What's your secret? I can do that at larger shows but the only time I can remember making those sort of sales is at the run up to Christmas. One reason i do very few now. As Roderick said, by the time you tot up cost of the table, fuel to get there, being business like you should add the cost of your time as well..... My experience is that few people who attend craft fairs are doing much more than looking out of curiosity and the possibility of selling more expensive pieces are slim. Any money made generally tends to be on sub £20 items.

pete

[Richard Stapley]

Twig I personally think Craft Fairs are good, for various reasons, not least you get to meet a lot of interesting people.

I have been doing Craft Fairs for 20+ years and average about 12 a year, some times more some times less.

Over the years I have discussed the virtue of doing CF with numerous Craftworkers and get a mixed reaction but generally those that do not make Big Sales on a regular bassis appear to disappear from the scene, one assumes they give up, whereas those that take the Highs and Lows are around year after year.

I have kept a record of everything I have ever sold and todate I have sold over 13.000 pieces from Lightpulls to Large Bowls and everything in between, this enables me to do two things, firstly it allows me to Turn and not fill our House or the House of Family and Friends with my Woodturning.

Secondly it finances not only the Raw Materials associated with Woodturning but also allows me to purchase new Tools and Equipment.

As I am not reliant on any income from CF for my day to day living the occasional Bad CF is not a real disaster.

I have based the success or failure of any CF on a ratio of 3 times the Stand Fee, loosely based on 33% for the Stand, 33% for Costs and 33% as Profit, it is meant as guide, if I achieve this or better I go home with a smile if not I rethink whether it is worth doing that CF again.

My records show that I have achieved this ratio for 75% of the Fairs I have done with the best 18x and the worst 0.2x, since 2004 only once have I failed to make my stand fee.

You will need Public Liability Insurance as a minimum, to a value of at least £5million if you intend doing larger CF, this will cost in the order of £50 but should you want to demonstrate it will be considerably more.

PAT Testing of all electrical items on your stand [typically Lighting] is required and many CF Organisers require a Risk Assessment for your Stand/Dispaly/Electrics Etc. Etc.

Payments are predominately Cash but a Credit Card facility will without doubt increase your sales, I have had a Credit Card option for 2 years and sales in those years have increased dramatically, there is of course an on cost with such a facility that eats into any profit. As an example today I did a CF and 53% of my sales were via CC.

Tax! do not try to hide any income from the Taxman, it can be expensive if you are caught out, it is not unknown for the IR to target CF.

The most important thing is to get the balance of what you have on offer, the majority of the things I make and sell are nothing like the things I had on display for my first show, you need to generate your own style, produce unique items and try not to copy other Woodturners work, the buying Public are a discerning lot.

Hope this helps and that you give it a go

Richard

[Les Symonds]

Wow Richard....that's an amazingly detailed response that is going to be of benefit as food-for-thought for many of us, so thanks for that.

Terry....I hope that you don't mind me asking this in your thread, but having read back through the thread, we haven't really touched on how we choose which CFs to attend. As a former customer, rather than stall-holder, I tire of walking into CFs and seeing the same old array of cheap-and-cheerful knitted clowns, imported tat and fruit sponges, and perhaps that's the sort of stall that is giving some CFs a poor reputation. But.....how do you, as a potential stall-holder, spot a good one?

Les

[Martin Lawrence]

  Hi All,

 Ragrading Insurance, the below web site if you join /subscribe as a member offers free Insurance for £5 million Liability and includes demonstrating and craft shows sales etc. Be warned does not cover Scorching or burning and from memory is only £38 per annum.

Sorry can't get it to work as a link.

http://www.a-n.co.uk/air/section/425282

Cheers Martin.