Do You Want to Sell at Craft Fairs? || Let's figure it out together!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ส.ค. 2024
- Do you make stuff and want to sell it for actual money? Have you thought about trying craft fairs or markets but don't even know where to start? Well, I've done exactly two art fairs so I'm basically an expert. I'll take you through the steps I take and how I prepare to sell my handmade things to other people...in person.
Is this a good tutorial? Probably not.
But have I learned some things about myself that you might find interesting...probably not.
Yet here I am, sharing my not-so-insightful insight on the internet for everyone to see.
Anyhoo...KO-FI INFORMATION ko-fi.com/katiemakesstuff
I’ll be posting regularly about my different projects and you don’t need to do anything to see that feed.
And yes, you can donate, and for $2/month, you’ll get behind-the-scenes peeks at my upcoming projects, have a voice in what I should try next, and get your name on screen!
But most exciting, you can get your very own digital pattern of my Box Bag Pattern
AND I’m doing pre-sales for my DIY Box Bag Sewing Kit. The listing will close at the end of August, and orders will be shipped in September.
I’m so excited to share these with you as I’m so proud of this pattern.
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Music: [Untouched Land] by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Music: [One Bard Band 320bit] by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
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Find me on Instagram: / katie.makesstuff
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For any inquiries: katieford10@gmail.com
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I am an artist, and I was told out right by another artist, who I very much respect, that I need to raise my prices because I am actively devaluing everyone else’s art in the area. They were totally right🤦🏻. So charging what you are worth is not just for you, it also elivates your fellow makers.
I like that! If I won't charge enough for myself, do it for my fellow artists!
Excellent advice!
Thanks for the pupdate. Glad doggo is going better. Interesting chat. Thanks for being real about the process and not making it look seamless.
The struggle with valuing one’s own work is familiar but I don’t have the same issue with seeing great value in other people’s work. Wonder if third party input could be helpful? (From someone who actually values handmade rather than someone who is looking for a bargain though.)
I watch Christine’s Home Affairs too. Great to see upcycling and batch making, and she’s happy to share patterns. She recently mentioned planning a dedicated video on pricing so hopefully that comes out in time to be useful for you. A while ago in another video she talked about charging her labour at $45/hour, I think, but including overheads as well like electricity and machine maintenance, taxes, etc.
Somewhere else I saw a different way of pricing that included heaps of things I wouldn’t of thought about like tools (needles, blades, hammers, sewing machine), consumables (electricity, thread), overheads (rent, machine maintenance) etc as well as extras for events like booth cost, time for set up and minding the booth all day, signage. Lots to consider.
Off on a tangent, can I just share that I made crumpets from scratch yesterday. It’s taken months to wind myself up to actually making them. It wasn’t as difficult or time-consuming as I had feared, and freshly toasted crumpets for brekky…yum.
First - food tangents are my favorite. Always feel free to share.
And you're right on the money: I have no problem paying more for the handmade works from other people. So why do I have confidence issues pricing my own?!? This is 100% an issue of mine that I need to get over.
Someone else also mentioned including the small things and consumables. I'm starting to believe I need to really look at my practices carefully before the Christmas market...🤔
🙂 It’s a tricky issue but at least you’ve given yourself a decent lead time to consider things. And re-think. And panic a bit (though hopefully not).
I’m excited to see what you come up with for your new apothecary-style branding and tags. They can make such a difference to perceived value/specialness of a product. For cheap leather stamp - maybe experiment with found objects or buttons or a wax seal stamp thing? For sew-in-seam tags, maybe twill tape or grosgrain ribbon with a stamp? Or leather scrap, though that might be too thick in a seam.
Do you have a business/brand name?
I've been selling my art (jewelry) for many years. I learned something from an old jeweler that has always helped me price my items, even though it's still always difficult to pay myself enough. He told me, to price the materials and labor, like Kate suggested, cost of materials, plus markup (usually double) , plus your labor costs. When you come up with that price, look at the item, and decide if it seems about right as a perceived value, or, is it too low. If it's just awesome, and people love it, the perceived value is more than the sum of it's parts, so price it accordingly.
You can under price items, and they won't sell. If you underprice something that people really like, they wonder why it's so cheap. They think they are missing something they should notice about it's quality or value. So, ask yourself if you are pricing it too low, and people think it should be more? I have had things, that sat in my cases for years, sell right away after I marked it up to what it should be.
If an item sells really well at the price you determined, next show, kick the price up a little. You need to make a little more on your fast sellers. People will pay more, trust me.
I have an example for you. I had a ruby in my cases for about five years. Its was lovely. The price of ruby had been going up , and I had kept my prices at the price I originally marked them, thinking I would give people great deals. A lady came in who had been looking for rubies for a while, and had a pretty good idea what she should pay for what she wanted. She loved that stone, but hesitated. Next day my ruby dealer stopped in and told me to mark up those stones, since I could never replace them for the price I was asking. So, I marked them at the prices he said they should be. About a week later same lady came in, and bought the stone. She remarked that the stone I had last week was not as nice, she was glad she waited for me to get in more stones.
Okay ... my jaw dropped,, too. Lesson, do not underprice your work or your merchandise. It won't sell.
What a great story!! Thank you for sharing and now I have to reassess everything I sell!
As a photographer I find this to be 100% true. People associate higher prices with higher quality. One must actually deliver on that standard, but undervalued work hurts your success.
omg. I am you. Across the board. I'm forcing myself to get into a fair soon if I start putting things together in time, figure out the pricing, and remember where I've put things I've already made. If I start Christmas shopping too early, I buy things, forget I have them, and then buy something else for that person. Come January, I find the first gift. Maybe there's hope. Great video!
And the good news is that if you don't get the pricing right the first time, you can always change it for the next!
I already know that this video might make me cry , cause i really struggle myself and seeing things like this make me too happy /sad about my disorder
Just found your channel. And I freaking love you! Lol
Woah! Thanks for the shout out. What a wonderful surprise.
Thank you for your support! It really does mean a lot to me!
@@KatieMakesStuff You are quite welcome.
I have zero experience, so to me you are an expert! Thanks sooooo much for this video.
Newest sub Katie! Your first video I saw was cheapy to creepy and when you made the reference to Rachel Maksey I thought oh this is going to be cool and then I started checking out some of your other videos came across this one and you made a reference to Christine's home affairs from Australia who I am also subbed to... So I am now sub to you too!
I love Christine! She's so realistic and efficient!
Hi Katie. Can I add to your pricing calculation. You want to think about your thread cost, your tool cost, add in a percentage to go towards replacement and maintenance. And your machine cost, same as above. Also any dyes or enrichments used on the leather. Also the cost of your energy, heating lighting power for machines. This is all factored into your cost. Then add a percentage for profit.
Really happy your pup is feeling better. Has it been overly hot where you are? My eldest girl ( she’s the red one in my pic. Now the only one left of those four) was suffering terribly earlier in the year here, when we had a summer! I thought she was on her last days. Then temp dropped and she improved dramatically.
Loving your content. I swear you live in my brain.
Love your pricing addition! I forget about to add the cost of all the little things, especially when I've had them for a while.
We're still not sure what happened with Gracie, but for your older girl, have you ever tried acupuncture when it gets cold? We did with an old dog a few years ago and I swear she was a new pup for a while. I was a total skeptic but it would help SO MUCH when her joints were feeling rough.
Pricing is key, too cheap And people will walk by. It’s odd but true!
Have a little a4 sign saying who you are and what you do, as people often like to know the back story of the product.
Pricing. Ah yes do not undervalue yourself or the wonderful products. If you are going to do lots of fairs you need to have a static pricing as people if at many different markets get confused and a bit annoyed if they see the same item they bought advertised at a much lower price. Much easier to do a ‘show special 10% off today’ than alter base price
Table layout, less is more, you can always have extra or varying colour ways stock under the table. Try the table set up in advance how does it look from different angles when your happy take a picture for reference and try and get some height to your stand.
And yes Christmas is fast approaching for us crafters ……. Glad Gracie is getting better and with regards to Christine’s home affairs I have been following her for years and she is amazing at how much she can create using the production line method
Happy crafting all
I saw Christine just put out a new video today on her top 10 sellers and I can't wait to watch it and get ✨ideas✨!
What payment methods do you accept at craft fairs?
Thank you for your question! I offer venmo and PayPal options but offer a 10% cash discount which seems to be pretty popular.