T-12 Days
Okay, I get it. Big Donkey Retard Award, for me. What the hell was I thinking??
I’ll tell you exactly what I was thinking, I was thinking “Christ on a pogo stick, I need to start selling things, and I need to get into some galleries, so here’s a fistful of likely marks and here’s my shotgun: BANG.” And THEN, then I was thinking, “Oh holy poop. I got accepted. That’s awesome! Um? Oops?” Because one of those is a GIANT craft fair, not just a little piddly one, and it just so happens that it’s the FIRST one. My first one ever. Why does everything I do end up looking like the sledgehammer approach.
So! I have a booth in the Fremont Soltice Fair. (ie the fair that draws about 100,000 people annually.) There are a zillion little tiny details that need to get ironed out – that’s in addition to the giant pile of unfinished jewelry that must be transformed into Product. Go live happens in 12 days.
Stand by for marketing help, you might get drafted to opine.
On the list of HAVE:
-Credit card merchant account – approved today
-Pop-up tent that somewhat sucks – purchased today
-Box of merchandise waiting for pricetags – getting bigger every day
-Glass display cases ($20 on Craigslist!) – procured yesterday
-Etsy account
-Cash box and portable office kit
-Very cool business card design that I love, that is fairly expensive to produce
-Awesome friends and family who have stepped up to help at the fair
On their way (ie oh I really hope these get here before next friday):
-Pop-up tent that sucks less
-Credit card machine
On the list of HAVE NOT:
–5,000 business cards for cheap Found a source!
-Business logo
-Signage of any kind
-Etsy content of any sort
-Price tags
-Photographs of work for the fair
Things I am not going to worry about, no sirree, nope:
-Lighting
-Whatever inevitable thing I have utterly overlooked.
If I am out of touch or not returning messages, please understand — it’s not personal!
I hope to hit the fair an will surely pop by to sprinkle fairy dust and prosperity vibes. Break a leg!
Fairy dust and prosperity vibes would be most appreciated!! :)
I am on break between quarters right now. Let me know if you want me to whip up a print-ready logo/signage for you. ;)
I had a friend who routinely sold at the Fremont Solstice Fair, Folklife, and a handful of others. If there’s one piece of advice I remember from here, it’s to get someone to help man the booth, so you can take breaks.
Best of luck! I hope that it all goes even better than you’ve dared to hope. Your work that you’ve posted is beautiful, so here’s hoping that it gets to the appreciative audience it deserves.
Wow, thanks for the kind words. Unexpected praise means a lot. :)