It is important to remember that even though you are doing something you love, trying to make a profit at a craft show is still a business and you need to treat it like one. While it is an enjoyably endeavor, there are a few things you need to keep in mind when you market and sell your crafts in order to increase your profits while you do it.
Craft show profits are left on the table in these three areas:
1. Craft expense - When you are putting together your crafts for profit, you need to keep a close eye on money that you are spending to build them. Overspending on supplies is probably the biggest mistake made by crafters wishing to make a little extra cash on their goods. Buy in bulk, make deals at the craft store, price check - do whatever you can to lower the cost of making your crafts. That is the first step.
2. Pricing the product - How much time do you put into coming up with a retail price for your crafts? This is another area where money is just left on the table at a craft show. Aside from the cost to make your crafts, you need to take into account other costs like: booth construction, craft show fees, paying yourself or others to make the craft, financial fees for credit card machines... etc.
When you price your crafts, you need to make sure that you aren't pricing them solely on the cost of the materials to make the finished product. That's only part of the equation - you also need to price the product appropriately - a 10 percent markup just doesn't cut it. You can probably markup your craft 100 percent from the total cost and still be in the proper price range. Find out what the market will bear for your product - you might get more, or less, for your craft than a 100 percent markup.
3. Traffic / Booth - If you can't get people into your booth, and then entice them to buy - it doesn't matter how low or high the price is - it just isn't going to help you make a profit. This would be the third problem. It could have the most impact on your bottom line, because without sales, you have NO profits! Set up an attractive booth that people are interested in frequenting, and then spend some time making your product accessible and improving the flow and efficiency of the booth.
Paying attention to where your money and effort are going should pay off when you head to the next craft shows. If you want to improve the bottom line of your craft show business, then you need to make decisions based on all of the dollars - and common sense!
Natalie Goyette shows you how to make your craft show business profitable in her best selling ebook: Craft Show Success Secrets. Visit her site: [craftshowsuccess.com parked domain].
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