How to get your booth ready part 2

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay in posting my segment from last week's Prim Talk Radio show. My grandfather took ill and was hospitalized and died on July 26th, so it's been a sad couple of weeks.

This blog is Part 2 of the first segment on how to get your Craft Show booth ready for the craft shows. I hope you find it resourceful!

Thanks,
HEATHER

http://www.cottonpickenprims.com

Getting your booth ready for Fall Craft Shows Part 2
By Heather Burton-Monahan of Cotton Picken Prims

Hi everyone, it’s Heather from Cotton Picken Prims. This week I’ll be adding part 2 to my segment, Getting your booth ready for the Fall Craft shows. This week’s segment will be a little shorter as I have a grandfather whose health is failing and I must leave for a few days to go and visit him in the hospital. I have helpful tips and suggestions so get your paper and pens ready!

Last week I touched upon booth presentation, lighting, product displays, traffic flow and good manner skills for setting up your booth. This week, I’d like to expand on some of these areas and give some other helpful suggestions.

Product displays. Last week I mentioned some helpful points to product displays. This week I’d like to go into a little more detail. For your product displays, most of us will have some tables or shelving set up to display our wares on. Cover your tables with some sort of fabric, whether it be some homespun fabric, table cloths or bedsheets. Yes, you heard me right, bed sheets. I prefer simple bed sheets as they are the perfect size to cover the table lengthwise, widthwise and they are inexpensive and can easily be washed, dried, ironed and folded for the next show in no time flat. I’ll also add a little colour to my table by adding a smaller square sized piece of cloth on a diagonal in the middle of the table. Make sure you have finished sewn edges on your table draping as you want it to look professional. Also when I cover my table I like to have the front covered right down to the floor. This way no one can see my electrical cords or empty packing boxes stored in underneath the table. I like to stick with a basic white or off white coloured sheet and use contrasting colour fabrics for accent colours. I’ve noticed over the years that white makes the products stand out easier. Darker colours tend to make my products blend in and not stand out as much. Change your accent fabrics with the season, like white and red for Christmas type shows, pastels for spring and bold burgundy and purples or oranges for fall. I also like to use crates in my display as well. I was lucky in that my hubby was kind enough to make me some. I painted my crates in a burgundy colour to help with my accenting colours. I also have old crates that are time worned and those are mixed in amongst the rest. Like I mentioned last week, tinker with your displays in the yard or in a room of your house and see what works best for you. Each summer I tend to work under our pergola in our backyard as the deck is a perfect 8x8 foot size. Perfect for setting up my booth and seeing if the traffic pattern works, if the displays are inviting, and I move and switch things around until I find the booth setup that works the best. Then I’ll take down notes, sketches or will take a few pictures to help when it comes show time. Neighbours snicker but they know that I’m a professional crafter who takes her craft show business seriously. Your customers will see the same results if you take the time and effort to do the same with your booth.

Lighting. Last week I mentioned lighting. Don’t be afraid of lighting. I find it attracts more and more to my booth. After Christmas sales are a perfect time to pick up a set of clear mini lights. Drape them in amongst some garland and attach that to your display area for holiday shows. Or purchase some pip berry garland and mingle your mini lights in with the pip berries. It’s all about attracting the customer’s attention to you and your products. I found that once I added some lighting to my booth display, more and more were interested in coming in and seeing what my booth was all about. As I mentioned last week, if you have products that light up, then put them on display lit, so the customers can see what they are and how they work. Make sure that if you are going to use lighting that your extension cords are either hidden or are securely fastened to the floor as you don’t want customer’s to trip over them and fall or injure themselves. Adding a few power bars to help with adding extension cords throughout the booth will help too. Make sure to purchase approved extension cords and power bars. Stay away from the cheaper dollar store type electrical items as sometimes they are not government approved.

One thing I didn’t get to touch on last week was giving your customers a pleasant shopping experience. I tend to go the extra mile for my customers. I found over the years if you add a freebie in your booth, you attract customers like flies to honey. One trick I’ve found to work over the years is putting a little bowl of wrapped candy at the entrance of my booth. It attracts the kids and then mom can’t help but to come on in and browse through the booth. At the same time, the kids are munching on their candy and leaving your display alone so mom can actually take some time to look over your wares. Once I started to do that, I noticed my “Mom with kids” sales increased. Before mom would have a child that was acting up for he or she didn’t want to be at the craft show let alone be dragged into every booth going. So mom would quickly glance and move on and you could just tell with the expression on her face that she was interested but didn’t want to have a child pulling a temper tantrum the moment she stepped in the booth to search out her treasures. So a trip to the bulk food place for some wrapped candy is well worth the trip for mom’s with kids shopping the craft show.

I also don’t like to use recycled plastic grocery bags for customer’s purchases. Sure those are cheaper and help the bottom line, but I’ve gotten more compliments and repeat shoppers with using paper shopping bags with handles. I simply go to my computer and print out labels with my business name and contact info and I stick those onto the side of the paper bag. I also grabbed some tissue paper from the dollar store and when a customer makes a purchase, it’s a little tissue in the bag, then the item and a little tissue on top. Customers really love the personal touch added to the shopping experience.

One other little thing I like to do, is I go out and purchase a few boxes of microwave popcorn. I bring them home and with my computer and some card stock I print out a nice little popcorn wrapper that says Thank you for shopping at Cotton Picken Prims, we hope you will visit us again. Then I put my contact info on there. Cut the wrapper to size and wrap it around the microwave popcorn packet and simply tape the ends. When a customer makes a purchase, I slip one of these into the bag with their purchase and a free little surprise when they get home and open their shopping bag. I’ve had numerous customers contact me and say what a wonderful surprise it was when they opened their shopping bag and found a little thank you pack of microwave popcorn in there.

I also wanted to mention having a little cash register or steal lockable money box with you too at your show. Many times I see crafters with plastic containers and money just tossed in there or sometimes I’ve even seen crafters standing there with bills in their hands and change in their pockets. When they make a sale, they have to go through everything and make change. I have a steel money box and inside is plenty of change for a float, a pen, notepad, a receipt book and a calculator for calculating taxes or change. I also toss in there my vendor’s permit, for sometimes they will ask to see that, and a name tag in a name tag holder. Then at the end of the show, I just toss my name tag back in the box and it’s ready for the next show.

One more item I want to mention is professional looking business cards. I do mine up on my computer. I find it less expensive and they look just as great as if I went to the printers and had them done professionally. I purchased a few card holders at Staples for a couple of dollars and I place my business cards through out my display as well as put one at my check out area. This way customers can pick up your business card at their leisure.

Remember to look professional and happy to be at the craft show. Greet your customers with an uplifting tempo and they will enjoy their shopping experience with you. I try not to sit in my booth and tend to wander around greeting customers, fixing displays, answering questions and what not. When the crowd thins out, then I’ll sit for a second and rest my legs. I also try not to have my lunch while customers are in my booth. I’m lucky in that I usually have my hubby with me, so he watches the booth while I slip out and grab my lunch at a bench or something. I know this is difficult to do if you are by yourself. Still try to be considerate if you have to eat with customers. Always carry a breath mint or two as well.

Well, that’s my segment for this week. I hope you have enjoyed it. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me at Cotton Picken Prims. You can find us on the web at www.cottonpickenprims.com . Next week, I’ll be giving helpful hints on how to deal with that shopper that looks at an item and says to her friend, “ I can make that!”. Till next week, have a great week everyone!