Well I realised that the post I thought I had written and published is still sitting on my desktop.
The final fair of September was, for me, an unmitigated disaster. It was a vintage and vintage style fair which is generally well attended. The building we were in is a multi-use building housing a cafe, museum, small theatre, drama studio and a tiny cinema.
I found myself in a large drama studio on the first floor with several vintage jewellery and accessory sellers, numerous clothing sellers and a couple of vinyl traders. Set up was awkward and to some extend ill thought out; because it was a drama studio, it was largely soundproof which affected everyone's card payment devices because they rely on good data signal (no reliable wi-fi either).
Signs on the ground floor were few and far between - and having duplicate traders on the ground floor didn't really help either!
Over the day there was, by my count about 30 people come in and look around. Few bought from any of the traders. I had one sale all day. It covered the cost of my parking - there was no on site parking at the venue so I had to park further away once I had unloaded and taken my things through to the venue - so altogether, it was a huge loss of money and time.
I have decided to be picky about what fairs I do from now on, deciding to take a bit of a hiatus from them for the rest of 2017.
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| A few new pieces and a new display prop! |
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| I also enjoy book folding and decided to use my skills for cheap pieces |
So what now?
Part of my plan is to focus my attention in other areas such as wedding accessories and jewellery is that I should be more active in my Etsy shop. For those who are unsure as to what Etsy is, in short it is a global marketplace of handmade goods and vintage goods.
I have had an Etsy shop for over 2 years and in that time I have had it closed, opened, on holiday, on edit and off again. I simply felt so overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the thing!
Back in June, I discovered that there are local regional ‘teams’ my closest being, obviously, Merseyside. I have taken part in some of their Instagram challenges, Facebook questions and have loitered around on social media seeing what the team are up to. Feeling like I need a bit of help with figuring out this Etsy lark, I joined the Merseyside Etsy Team!
This now lets me book onto team “meetings” which take place twice every month, once during the day and once in the evening. Each meeting has an agenda and a small session which is, in essence a short training/up-skilling ‘seminar’ with a different topic each time.
Within the past two weeks I have been to two team meetings - even taking a day’s annual leave from my day job to go to one!
The committee members are all volunteers who are brilliant at selling on Etsy and elsewhere and are really encouraging to old and new members alike.
The sessions are very short, to the point and always makes you meet and speak to new people there is not much room for social-anxieties here but the fact that everyone is at the meeting for the same reason - to get more out of their Etsy shop and sales in general - it is like one giant family.
I’ve decided not to do too much for the rest of the year in terms of selling etc, simply because it’s looking less likely that I will not have the time before Christmas arrives!
I’m looking towards 2018 with new perspectives and highly likely a new direction.
I want to make more accessories for brides and bridesmaids using seed beads, wirework and other “non-traditional” materials.
I have my eye on a few bridal fairs for 2018 and providing funds allow, I will be booking on!
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