Top Tips for Selling at Art & Craft Shows Part III: Mastering the Aftermath | Stine Wiemann | Skillshare
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Top Tips for Selling at Art & Craft Shows Part III: Mastering the Aftermath

teacher avatar Stine Wiemann, Freelance Graphic Designer & Photographer

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      00 intro

      0:36

    • 2.

      01 finances

      4:13

    • 3.

      02 sales

      3:06

    • 4.

      03 change

      2:31

    • 5.

      04 prepare

      4:10

    • 6.

      05 outro

      0:51

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About This Class

In this last class of three I will share more than 8 years of experience with you and walk you through the aftermath of a show. I talk about how I manage my bookkeeping, how I usually assess my sales, how to implement necessary changes and other crucial things you should not forget.

This class is for beginners who would like to get a quick overview  - but even if you have experience with craft fairs there may be some tips, tricks and resources for you to explore.

Included in this class is a blank pdf form template to include your revenue and expenses so that you get your numbers right.

Meet Your Teacher

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Stine Wiemann

Freelance Graphic Designer & Photographer

Teacher

Stine is a freelance graphic designer & photographer based in Germany. She graduated from the University of Marburg, Germany with a masters degree in Fine Arts, Literature & History - since then she worked on her doctoral thesis, founded her paper goods label "sonst noch was?" and worked as a freelancer.

She now lives with her small family near Cologne, Germany in a small village and loves searching for special moments in everyday life to capture with her camera.

Being originally from Northern Germany she misses the Sea anytime she hasn't visited it for longer than 2 months and has a soft spot for great Typography.

Stine's photos & paper goods are sold all over the world through her two etsy shops, several other online shops and brick and mortar store... See full profile

Level: Beginner

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Transcripts

1. 00 intro: Hello and welcome to this third class off my Siri's selling at craft chips, while the 1st 1 concentrating on preparing a show and the 2nd 1 focused on the show itself . This class will get you're ready to finalize everything and get some insights on how to analyze sites so in the end will become full circle. And I hope with these tips you are well prepared for any kind of show our convention. So let's start with probably the most important thing counting the money. 2. 01 finances: so get ready to turn around your cash box or wallet and get counting. It's really important to get the numbers right not only for tax reasons and your bookkeeping or accounting, but it's essential for analyzing your business. Successive. Please, no cheating. Be 100% honest with the authorities, and I usually first can all the cash. And after that I get my numbers from the credit card payments. You can usually get very need list from your card reader provider, so make sure to download it for mine. And finally, I have a look at all the orders that I took during a show that has outstanding. Normally, those are only a few because I have orders paid upfront, but sometimes with regular customers agree to send an invoice when the orders, so make sure you have all the revenue listed on. Once you get this number, it's time to subtract the amount of change. Usually, this is the time when I already prepare my cast change for the next show because then I have the coins available and I almost always take the same amount of cash with me. Have a little in states like 2050 cent coins and 10 1 euro coins and 10 to euro coins. Pipe five, your boots and whatever, whatever menaced goes on. So that big advantage of this is that I don't have to think about my change. I've thought about it once, and after that it's just taking off for this. Of course, once you realized your change isn't working out for you, you have to redraft, that is, but so far it would really well for me. And it's a huge time saver for me. It's also need that every time I incorporated show in my book keeping, that's always the same number for the change. And maybe that's just me nit picking. But I really do like so you have your revenue minus your change, and now you have to think about all the show related expenses you have, whether that's parking gas, a rental car, food you bought during the show or bigger sums like the hotel. Of course, the entry fee. It's really important to think about everything you spend so that you can get your numbers right and to help you. I've made a PdF with a lovely the list that you can fill out on that, you can face your own accounting on and modify the way that you need it. This is a form that you can either print out and fill out by hand or writing it directly. An acrobat reader on your computer. It calculates automatically, and so it might give you a first quick overview over your profits when you first try it. As you can see, I included a column called Document Number on that, maybe confusing. So just let me explain that quickly. If you're doing your book, keeping yourself like I do every income and expenses received must be document, and they need to be consecutively numbered. That allows you and the authorities to quickly identify a document. So especially for all your expenses, it's crucial to get receipts, number them and to file them with all the other documents related to a special show. Having done all that, you can now do the math and finish your accounting. For me, financial wise, that's normally as deep is I go when analyzing a show. Of course, you can go one step further and subtract all the manufacturing and production cost you have , but for me those are general business expenses for including a show. In my accounting, I need the values and the expenses and fat on usually done money ones. If you wanna dig deeper, you have to calculate your production and packaging costs for every product sold, and then apply that to the show. Siles. In order to do that, you first have to assess which items sold, how often, and that brings us to the next chapter. 3. 02 sales: Whether you want to calculate the actual costs off a show or not, getting an overview on what products sold whole often is always a good idea. As I sat in the first course. It may be tedious to write those detailed inventories, but it gives you useful informations and enables you to improve usual performance. So while it's not my favorite thing to do after a show, I find it's worthwhile the effort to count my products. Another advantage of a detailed say it's analysis is that I can identify my show bestsellers. As I have said before, Sometimes your show best centers aren't necessarily those that do best online or in brick and mortar stores. And so getting to know your craft shows showstoppers is quite important, and off course. It's fundamental to see whether or certain product didn't well at all. Just note that sales numbers aren't everything. You always have to combine it with your observations during the show. For example, if a product gets a lot of attention and people ask questions about it so you can engage with them, it's not so important how many you actually sold. It's always compare your numbers with your show experience and make sure to take some notes while the show is still fresh in your memory, especially when there's a big difference between show best centers and, for example, online bestsellers. It's always good to analyze whether there's a correlation between science and your display . It not only helps you to identify those sports in your boots that are recognized most, but also which parts off your display may need some changes. I like to show you some of my examples in my own booth and on the left there's one off my prints and it's the German saying that doesn't translate to English perfectly, But it's something like peace, love and happiness. And that's always an attention grabber, it shows, especially since I made it with alphabet cookies than have been photographed. That print doesn't necessarily sell well online, but it shows it's one of my best sellers as a print and as a postcard on the right. You can see one of my all time classics that sell well since I started 10 years ago. I always make sure to take a least one version off this motive, either as a big print or as a huge canvas because this lake uni bird is still one of my customers favorite. I usually take some pictures of the finished booth on a show, and I saved them through this specific show folder on my hard drive and that why I have a visual that I can easily compare with my science numbers. And over time you get some pretty significant data that perhaps you to improve. For more tips on designing your booth and creating a compelling display, please have a look at the second class that dedicates a whole chapter to this. After you have assessed your sales, it's time to think about whether there are some changes necessary or not, and we will do that in the next chapter. 4. 03 change: Sylvia. Sales were great and your display exceeded your expectations. If you felt completely comfortable in your booth and you had a great time at the show, then congratulations. You've done everything right and can just go on doing what you do. But if there's anything that bothered you and in my experience is always this little something, just keep an open mind and mix things up a little, which has talked about how your sales and your display can intertwine. And so it's really important to it. Just the appearance of your booth. If you feel that there's something missing, maybe you overheard customers saying that they don't understand your product. Maybe they were missing some information, or they found you both to Dark Toe Bride or something like that. Take all of these comments as advice and adjust your booth. According me. Another thing to consider is whether you brought the right items and whether you price them right. If you had competition that sold similar products for less money, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to lower your prices off course. You should think about your production costs and whether there's a way to compete. Price wise, But if you want to keep your prices relatively high, you have to think about your presentation. Maybe your booth didn't convey high quality or handmade as much as it should have, and you could work on that. Well, maybe you should pack a wider price range and tag along a couple more low priced items. Always give in mind what kind of expectations people might have when seeing your booth and what sort of craft show is right for you. Because, as I said before, especially shows that I combined with flea markets or farmers markets trigger people to want to get bargain buys. And if you sell high priced items that just won't work for you, the next thing we need to talk about is your own comfort and safety. Was it too cold or too hard? Did you feel trapped in your booth, or was it too crammed and you couldn't store your stuff? Do everything you can to avoid that next time. And don't be afraid to invest in gadgets or furniture because it will pay off feeling comfortable in your booth. And last but not least once you considered everything that both that you do a test run at home, take new pictures off the booth to take along and update you to do and to pack lists. 5. 04 prepare: in Germany. We have this sighing, and I guess it was some soccer trying or someone's. One said that after the game us before the game, and this is basically how I see a craft you. So once the show is over and I have done my bookkeeping and thought about which things I need to change, I immediately start preparing the next show. And so, first and foremost, I restock all my products according to my packing ists. So everything that is on my list is prepared and packed after that, order my promotional items or packing materials that I need, such as business cards, and give a wise or paper bags in bubble wrap or something like that. And usually I like to think the organizer's and, of course, the customers off a show on social media. I can't stress enough how important it is to connect with the craft show crowd, be an instagram Facebook or Twitter, and this something that I personally still have to work on. But just make sure that you mentioned the show on your social media channels and hash tag aid on your account so that people can find you even if they didn't take a business card with them. It's also a really good way to stay in touch with Organizer's and, of course, with other vendors off a show as well. Sell a song. Craft shows are usually a very helpful bungee. At least that's my experience. And whenever there's someone you really liked or that impressed you with their products, just let them know and photo them on social media. That way, whenever you meet them again on a show, you have an idea of what they were up to, and you can could not that much easier on a personal level with them after that. For me, it's time to get packing, and we have a big attic. And so I have enough storage room to actually get all my boxes ready for the next show. And so usually everything gets done as soon as possible. Of course, that's just my way of doing it, and I would like to get you a quick idea off the pros and cons first Pecans. It takes up a lot of space, and you will have to have a lot of storage available. If your products have do died or best before died. Storing them a while isn't a good idea, probably, and it also means that a number off products aren't available for your normal non show sales. For example, online shops, etc. Or hold and after the pros. It's very need an organized, and you can prepare and pack when you have time and patience for my packaging is a bit time consuming, and so I really like to get that done as soon as possible. And when I have the patience and the time, especially since it can get hacked it before a show, that's a huge advantage. I think it also gives you stock ists enough time to deliver. And in my case, I worked with a very small photo lab, a family business that prints my photos in museum and gallery quality, and they really appreciate it when I don't pressure them on. The last point is that it makes you very flexible. I once got asked whether I would like to participate in a show because another seller was sick. And so the show was on Sunday and I was asked on Thursday and ever hadn't prepared everything before, and I just would have been able to make it. That was one of the most successful shows I ever had, and that really encouraged me to do it this way. If you don't have the time or the spice to do it my way, simply pick those tasks that you can manage beforehand and try to get these done whenever you have a little capacity and never forget that a detail to do list that you can take off is a great tool for you to organize your shows and keep track what you've already handled. 6. 05 outro: Well, that's basically it. I walked through through my process off wrapping up the show, and I hope you could get some useful information out of it. We've come full circle with these free courses, so if you haven't done it already, make sure to visit the other two parts of this serious. And if there's anything you would like to say, please don't hesitate to comment on this class are getting touched. I wish you all the best for your craft chance and help to see you soon on skates you. Bye bye.