St George's Hall Summer Arts & Craft fair was my first ever arts and craft fair, and it was the event that would be a series of firsts for me.

Following on from my blog post St George's Hall - Summer Arts Market - Part I

So its 10.30 I'm finally all set up, and the set up took longer than expected, but hey you live and learn.

So now its a waiting game:

• waiting for the doors to open,
• waiting for the customers to come in,
• waiting for a customer browse my stall and ultimately
• waiting for the first sale.

So to pass away the time  got to know my neighbours, who are both seasoned arts and craft stall holders, afterall, we going to be neighbours for the next 2 days, might as well be sociable.

The doors open and there is a trickle of customers which over the day become a steady stream.

By the end of the day, although I have no sales, but I

• Have spoken to a number of different customers,
• Talked about how Joolzery came about
• Talked about the ethos of Joolzery
• The design of the business cards, and
• Talked about the date the website would launch

At the end of the first day, I pack up my jewellery and head home. I was really tired, I never realised or thought how tiring this would be, but hey ho, nothing worthwile is easy!

So the second day, the adrenaline is not running so much as yesterday, and I have a fuller understanding of what to expect of the day.

I'm all set up and ready for the doors to open I say a quick prayer for sales to day and hope for the best.

The morning starts of slow with just a trickle of browsers through the door.

But within the 1st hour I have made my first sale Yay!!!!

Then I get talking to a customer who cannot wear silver, but would be interested in a design using gold instead, details taken.

Things pick up in the afternoon, and sales pick up.

But in every silver lining there's a cloud, and my cloud is being able to take credit card payments.

Now I knew there was a probability that that a customer would want to pay by credit and/or debit card, and my bank had not got back to me intime for the arts and craft fair to get this sorted.

The net result was a loss of £300 in sales.

On loosing my first sales due to not being able to take credit/debit card payments, as asked other stallholders if they take card payments and if so how and what the costs was.

This would be the next thing on my to do list, as loosing credit/debit card sales at one market is unfortunate, doing it a second time is just plain stupid!

All in all my weekend at my first ever arts and craft fair at St George's Hall, has had me on a rollercoaster of emotions, of both highs and lows, it was a baptism of fire.

What was your first arts & craft fair experience?

Joolz xx
 

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September 18, 2013

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