Lessons From My First Outdoor Sale

This weekend I participated as a guest artist at the Waconia Farmers Market for the first time.  For those of you who live in the Twin Cities, you know that this last weekend in July felt much more like October than the season it is supposed to be.  I think that the chill in the air may have been a detriment to the early morning traffic at the market (it certainly didn't help the smoothie maker next to us!).  Eric and I were glad we brought sweatshirts but wished we had taken jackets as well (and maybe some cinder blocks...more about that later).

Eric and I got up early (too early considering we'd been out at a concert in downtown Minneapolis the night before) and headed over to the parking lot where the farmers market is held to get set up.  Some folks were already working on setting up their tents and booths when we arrived at 7:30 and the rest of the vendors trickled in as we started setting ourselves up.  As the guest artist at the market, I was able to use a tent that the market provided and Chef Craig helped us set up.  By opening time at 8:00 a.m. Eric and I had gotten things pretty well displayed and were ready to go!

Ready to start the day...we think.

A careful observer of the photo above might have some hints as to the peril my jewelry would soon face.  The wind was a problem for us all day long.  Soon after this photo was taken a strong gust of wind toppled over several of my display busts and one of my earring displays and threatened to take the tent!  Luckily, the earring display that went was the one with my lower priced pieces.  Nothing broke (thankfully!)  I did lose one earring from a pair but can easily make a new one to replace it.  It could have been much worse.  So, what started out as a multi-level display, had to be flattened and shored up as the day went on.

I'm stubborn, so the shift happened one display piece at a time as I slowly admitted that I couldn't beat the wind.  For the most part, we were able to sort of brace things whenever it got super windy and nothing too tragic happened.  Near the end of the day when we were starting to pack up, my reflexes weren't fast enough and the the open box and display bust next to it went flying!  I was amazed that nothing got damaged although the display piece did get a little scraped up.  I might eventually see if there's a way I can update that one to hide the damage to the "leatherette" surface.

My husband was such a trooper holding down the tent most of the day!

After that first big gust of wind tried to make off with our borrowed tent, Chef Craig came over and weighted down two of the stakes with some lovely City of Waconia traffic cones.  This helped, but Eric still had to spend most of the morning holding onto one of the other poles to keep the thing from flying off!  Have I told you all that I have the best husband ever?

Close up of one of my earring displays.  Photo Credit: Nicki B. from Terra Waconia.

Other than our wind excitement, we had a slow start to the morning.  But after the first hour it seemed like the market drew pretty good traffic that stayed steady until about 11:30.  I didn't make my first sale until 9:15, but gained momentum (and sales!) throughout the day.  In addition to actual sales, I gathered more emails for my mailing list and several folks seeded genuinely interested in either checking out my Etsy shop or coming back for something the next time I'm at the farmers market.

So, what did I learn from my first outdoor show?  Here's a short rundown:

• Have extra supplies ready in the car (like weights for the tent legs, jackets, etc)
• If you might be dealing with wind, a flatter display is better.  (I'll be buying more flat tray-type containers for my necklaces before my next outdoor show.)
• I needed more more mid-ranged priced necklaces.  (People loved my more expensive pieces, but weren't prepared to make that sort of commitment at the market.)

It wasn't all work for us at the market.  Throughout the day, Eric and I also got to meet some of the other vendors and sample their wares.  We came home with a gallon jug of honey from Honey Hill Farms, some delicious Scandanavian bread from Green Olive Catering, and some yummy lamb polish sausage from Buffalo Creek Farm.  If you haven't checked out the market yet, I encourage you to do so...there's a lot of great stuff there!

A huge thanks to my sweet husband for sticking it out with me all day and to everyone who stopped by to look at my wares!  I'll be back at the Waconia Farmers Market again on Saturday, September 7th.

Artsy Market Recap

I know that I've been talking a lot in this blog about the Artsy Market...that's because it's been kind of a big deal to participate in my first sale that's open to the public.  It's a different thing putting yourself out there for the whole world to see and judge as opposed to just sharing with friends and family.

Over the last month I have put a lot of extra hours into making Sj Designs an actual business...creating tons of new jewelry, and getting my display goodies all ready.  I feel bad and have to make apologies to my husband for keeping him up too late beading too often lately (and for talking jewelry almost nonstop)!

Friday night we were able to get into the Waconia Farm Supply Garden Center to start setting up.  I was super lucky to get a corner with some built-in adjustable shelving for added display space (it turns out I was also lucky not to be on the sunny and hot side of the building but I didn't know that yet).  There was a bit of semi-controlled chaos as all the vendors tried to figure out their display space and traffic flow...I think that Summer's signage had gotten moved around a bit along the way which didn't help.  Anyway, Eric and I loaded in my display items and set up as much as we could, then headed home for dinner and last minute details.  I had tons of jitters, but at this point I had done all that I could possibly do to prepare.

After all this build up, last Saturday was finally the day!  Anna met me and helped finish getting all my jewelry arranged and on display.  Before we knew it, it was 9:45 and there was a huge line of people waiting to come inside and check out the Artsy Market (or maybe just get their goody bag and flee).

Traffic was steady throughout most of the day and I made a fair amount of sales.  Going into this with little to no real expectations, I was just happy to have made up for the cost of my exhibitor fee and display items.  Success!!

Me in my "booth"

It was great to see so many of my friends and family who stopped by during the day.  I appreciate your support (and your purchases!), but I have to say that the real thrill was making my first sale to a total stranger.  I know that may sound sort of weird, but there it is.  Someone who had never met me and had no relationship with me whatsoever saw something that I made that they loved enough to buy.  I'm not going to lie, it made me a little giddy!

Anna and I at the end of a long day...happy but tired!

All in all it was a great day and a good first experience with this kind of sale.  I will know more what to do and expect next time....and there will be a next time!  After collapsing into a tired puddle Saturday night, today is a new day so it's time to clean up and start working on some new designs.

Counting Down to the Artsy Market

Wow, it's been a super busy last few days around here making preparations for my very first public sale next Saturday!  It's all starting to feel very, very real.  The local paper, the Waconia Patriot, did a full page spread this week on Escape to the Islands and the Artsy Market.  They even had a sidebar listing all the businesses that are participating. It was pretty cool to see my business name there in black and white!

Obviously, I have to get lots of jewelry made and priced to sell, but I've also been trying to figure out my displays.  I bought a small table that I hope will fit into my space, table coverings, and storage supplies to keep all my goodies tidy during the show.  I also started working on how I can give some interest and height to my display.  I figured that just having my display heads wasn't quite enough.

I'm pretty proud of one of my projects, pictured below partially finished.  I took an inexpensive small suitcase (that we usually have picture frames sitting on in our living room) and added a series of small cup hooks inside.  I will be able to hang several necklaces inside and it goes nicely with the slightly rustic look of my other things.  Ultimately, I'll have to play around with my set up to see what works, but I have gathered some nice things that I think will work well together, feel tropical without being tacky, and be reusable in the future.  Also, since you can't see the cup hooks from the outside, my little suitcase can go right back to its old job after the sale!

In other news, my new business cards came yesterday.  The green color is totally me and makes me happy.  They are just quick ones done from a template at Vistaprint, but they will do the job until my friend Anna and I can work up something a little more unique to me and my designs.  Progress!

I can't believe how much I've managed to get done after working my day job as a librarian and juggling all the other details of normal life.  There's still a lot more to do, but I will get there.  Next up, I have to finish making the bookmarks that will be my contribution to the goody bags for the first 50 people at the Artsy Market, put the finishing touches on my Etsy shop, oh, and make some more necklaces!