Tips/advice for 1st craft market tent?

[Mulesaw]

This thread contains a wealth of information about selling and setting up at events.

I like the U shape table idea or if there is not room, then one table but lengthwise (not like a counter that you stand behind). Also bring lots of water+ food + snacks for yourselves, buying stuff is costly. 
Bring lots of change. 

Have fun

Brgds Jonas

[chuck123wapati]

On 9/15/2025 at 3:08 PM, fredk said:

Good point about the bags. I forgot about that. 

I use white paper bags with handles on them. They cost a fraction more than than plain brown bags but look so much better. Sometime in the future I'm going to get sticky labels with my brand printed on so I can stick them on to the bags

You have a sewing machine, make cool cloth bags with your logo on them, they are eco-friendly, "sustainable", and blah blah blah LOL.

[bruce johnson]

Good advice so far, and I will throw out a little more. Some based on being a vender (leather shows) and some as a person who visits a lot of antique fairs, shops, and some farmer's market/craft fairs. 

You have three things going on in one booth - teas/botanicals, crystals, and your leather work. You need separate signage for each. That signage should be readable from at least a 10 foot distance from the front of the booth. You have about the 3 seconds it takes for them to walk by to grab their attention and for them to decide if there is something they are interested in. Sometimes I look at a booth and immediately think - too unrelated and stirred together, not serious. Other times I see a booth with signs for Tupperware and used motorcycle parts and I'm like "That's a hell of a mix! I need to talk to these people, they gotta be fun!"  No reason to assume in either scenario but I guess I do. In the later case I am probably leaving with a food storage item, a greasy crescent wrench, and new contacts that I didn't have on my radar screen walking in. 

Candy dish - wrapped and all that. The 1 pound tub of Red Vines? - I ain't touching that when it's had 27 hands in it already. Mix of chocolate (fun size and not those minute mini's), some kind of soft mints, and something like individual wrapped licorice. The whole world loves Tootsie rolls and again - midgies and not the little rabbit turd size. MY wife has put the "no hard candy rule" in for us, choking risk for kids.  Have a garbage can or basket with a little sign by it available for wrappers. That little bit of time when they are opening and tossing the wrapper is an engageable moment. Here is something that became HUGE for us. A separate bowl with signage for sugar-free candy. Several years ago one of our fellow venders asked if we had sugar free, she is diabetic. I told her for sure we would next time. I am still amazed at the response. First show with sugar free a lady with a diabetic kid was all over us thanking us. At the Prescott leather show one guy thanked us and said a lot of the people in Navajo Nation are diabetic. Our booth is now his first stop! At the last several shows now we have expanded to about half regular and half sugar free, and often run out of the sugar free first. 

Take home stuff - business cards at a minimum. Maybe brochures. Brochures can be printed on your computer probably with a software template you've got pre-installed. After our first show I was looking at giveaway promo stuff besides business cards - pens and stuff like that. My friend suggested 6 inch rulers with my info on them. handy size to go in your pocket, you always need to measure stuff, etc.  OK, I'll try some. Let's just say that 13,000 rulers later - it has been a good suggestion. Ditto for stickers. You don't have to give away expensive stuff, but have something that helps to keep people remembering you. Start small and grow. 

Bags - definitely. You can buy paper bags and a rubber stamp and stamp your logo, apply stickers, something to get started. One I got rolling - my promotional products guy again. I can buy good sized reusable shopping bags with my logo cheaper than most paper bags.

Talking to people - some of this is from a seminar I was at eons ago. First and foremost - engage people with what you have to sell. You are there to sell not chat it up like you are in the checkout line at the grocery store. Don't comment on the weather first - you are not a meteorologist and they know if it is hot/cold/humid/raining/nice weather same as you. Don't ask how they are doing if you don't know them personally. Most people are going to say fine or OK and go on. If they stop, you are screwed. You are going to hear about their dental or medical issues, ingrate kids, crummy neighbor, or latest car repair. Start with what you have - We are a little family business. My daughter has beautiful crystals, my wife has some really good teas and botanicals, and I do handmade leather goods and am also the chauffer that lugs the heavy stuff guy.  You don't have to be a used-car salesman, but let them know YOU made it and you can do more items than what they see there. I can go to some 'handmade" craft shows and see the exact same items in three or four booths. Unfortunately, that can be the mentality of your buyers that handmade means some village or cottage industry in another country. Not many people wake up and think "I'll go to the craft show because I need a new handmade belt or wallet". Probably more like "Honey, I know I've played a lot of golf this week, how about we do something together - maybe go to the craft show tomorrow and we can get lunch after". It is his get-out-of-jail-free card. Sales on site are nearly all impulse buys - but they plant the seed for the good orders with the right people. 

Feedback at and after the show - Once you are set up ask someone in show management for suggestions on your booth space for next time. They see it all, and they really want to see you succeed and come back. Same for other venders - ask what they think. Ask customers during the show. You might get the chatty one that you can ask what they think about the layout. For items you have laid out you can ask them what else they might be interested in besides what you've got, either a custom order or suggestion for next time. As the show winds down talk to other venders - maybe everyone had a bad /good/average day.  If you like the experience want to try it more, ask them about other shows that might be a fit for what you sell. Debrief with the family on the way home. what could we do different, what worked and didn't. 

[fredk]

1 hour ago, bruce johnson said:

Don't comment on the weather first - you are not a meteorologist and they know if it is hot/cold/humid/raining/nice weather same as you.

Different nations; the true Brit will not start talking to you unless you start with the weather.      At a show today I must have made about 50 new friends. All conversations started with small talk about the weather  

@ThisIsMyFirstRodeo I do not recommend you doing what we did at shows to get round the regs over food & drink.

We were showing typical medieval foods and drinks. Some was for sale but we didn't say that. We let ppl try 'our lunch/snack'. Then if they liked it they could pre-order and pre-pay for it. Delivery was later. Like 20 -30 mins later

I sold my medieval style mead by selling the fancy bottle and including the mead in it for free. An inspector tried to say that wasn't legal but he checked and came back to me and said as long as the ppl could buy the empty bottle and got the mead free there was nothing he could do about it