Craft Fair Recap Part 1: The People

I am happy to report that the craft fair was a complete success!  The weather, although extremely muggy, hazy, and cloudy did not not follow through with the promised thunderstorms.  The foot traffic seemed to be lighter than normal due to the threat of downpour, but the faithful Athens town-folk still came out to support handmade.

I decided to breakdown the recap into two parts: 1) The people 2) the booth display.  

I am a firm believer that the people you choose to either share with your booth with or help you make sales are a huge component to your success at a fair.

This is the lovely Lesley from Homemade Grits, a super talented seamstress and one of my oldest friends.  Our design aesthetics are similar in that we both offer colorful items but they're different enough so that there's no direct competition (i.e. I wouldn't have wanted to share my booth with someone else selling jewelry). 

I suggest choosing a booth partner that you'll enjoy spending long hours with, that you trust will have a positive attitude throughout the day, and that will be responsible for taking care of their own items and sales.  I can't imagine anything worse that having a booth partner that runs off every few minutes to leave you in charge, that has a stinky attitude and could ruin potential sales for you, or that simply doesn't want to be there (I witnessed this yesterday with a different vendor who openly cursed Athens and stomped around with a grimace on her face.  Needless to say, I did not visit her booth).  Look, we even have matching shoes:) 

Lesley brought her amazingly supportive and kind husband Sam with her to help out.  Sam has his own shop and understands the amount of work that Lesley has put into this important day.  He was a great helper to choose because he's personally invested in Lesley's success and him and Lesley simply get along.  Bringing along your significant other can be a GREAT decision or it can be a terrible decision if you're fighting or if your partner isn't supportive or is more hands off with your business.

I tend to be a little bossy and protective when it comes to selling my work (see, I can admit my flaws) so B probably wouldn't have been the best choice for my helper (I don't like mixing business with pleasure if you know what I'm saying) so I brought along one of my best friends Katie.  She has helped sell my work before in public, she knows me almost better than anyone, she's very good with handling money, and I know I can walk away and she works on selling my pieces with as much enthusiasm as I do.  Basically, I trust her.  Choosing a helper is one of the most important choices you will make when it comes to selling at fairs so choose wisely!

So now you know the people that made up our booth.  I had such an amazing time surrounded by these friends.  Even if I hadn't have met my sales goal (which I did, woot!) just being surrounded by these people was enough to keep a smile on my face.

Tomorrow I'll share the details of our booth display.  Thank you for everyone who came to see us and for you all of you who wished us good luck and sent good thoughts our way.  I even met a few people who read this blog regularly and I can't thank you enough for coming out and saying 'hello!'
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.