Doing markets always feels so risky to me. Will it be busy? Is the weather going to cooperate? Will I make enough to not only cover the cost of the market, but my time and my product? How much do I bring? Over the next few weeks, I'm going to talk a little bit about all of these things!
But first, let's chat a little bit about how I decided to participate in my most recent market with Hazel and Dot! I was first approached about the market at the end of July. At that point, I had been actively prepping for another show, but I frankly felt like I had a LOT ready to go. Between remaining Halloween items and the work I was prepping for the anticipated November show, I felt confident that I'd have way more than I needed for a September weekday market and have plenty of time to make more work for the November event (spoiler: between signing up for this market and it taking place, the November market got canceled. All that worry for nothing.)
Ultimately, there were a few key indicators that told me this would be a great market from the start:
- I had clear information regarding timing, cost, setup/breakdown and expectations.
- The first day of the market included a ticketed preview night. Knowing that over 150 people had paid for tickets that evening gave me a lot of confidence regarding attendance.
- The mix of vendors was phenomenal. I knew my prices would hit right in the middle.
- The location had ample parking and was located indoors. (For past events, being either outside or lacking in parking had ultimately killed any hope of sales.) It was also situated no where near a big box store.
- The combined social media presence of all of the vendors was high- I knew other vendors were bringing people just like I was.
The foundation of this market was so phenomenal, I knew at baseline I'd be successful.
Knowing that it was a 4 day event, my goal was to make about 5.5x the cost of the market. I nearly doubled my goal. Next week I'm going to talk about how!