christmas fayre - should i do it?

[MrsL]

hello,

I just wanted some opinions please

There is a christmas fayre taking place near me on the 24th Nov. Stalls are £40, apparently they had over 700 visitors last year.

Anyway at the moment i haven't got any stock ready to go, have most of the materials, although i would still need to purchase some more bits.

Do you think it would be really unrealistic to think i could do it and be ready in time?

I was thinking of doing a couple of canvas' to show as examples, in the hope people would order some to be made using their own photos.

I was also going to make some paper bag books left blank i was thinking of some 'baby's first christmas' ones etc

Oh and of course christmas cards

What do you think!

[liberty]

£40 is quite a lot for a stall with 700 visitiors in my opinion. You'd have to sell quite a lot to cover your costs.

Sue

[gilly_dragon]

If it was me, if I could afford to lose the £40, I think I would give it a go. Do you know if there are any other card tables at the fayre? If there are a lot of card tables, then you will have more competition, and therefore, less likely to make as much as if you were the only card table. However, what a wonderful showcase for scrapbooking, as a lot of people are uneducated about what scrapbooking actually is!!

Good Luck, and make "Loads of Money"!!!!!

[MrsL]

yes i did think it was quite steep but wasn't sure as i have never done one before.

I just had another idea - perhaps i could approach ds1's school they have their xmas bazaar coming up?

[gailie]

If you have a crafty friend who has some stock already to go and is willing to share a stall with you then you should have a go.

A whole stall to yourself and alot of stock to make up in this short time might put you under a bit of pressure, but half a stall of stock might be within reach.

Anyway have fun.

[MrsL]

thanks gilly - DH told me to go for it but i don't know :S

[MrsL]

mmmm galie that's a good idea!

I have a couple of friends i could ask!

[adee]

do it for the publicity but not to expect any profit - Mandy and I did a few when we first started, and they were the most hilarious days out we've ever had (people can be very strange! lol) but we didn't make enough for it to be a good business idea.

[MrsL]

ok, thanks for all your replies! I have spoken to my friend and we are going to split the stall and cost wish me luck!

I just need to work out what i will charge for what!

[lesleyuk]

If you do it make some business cards and/or flyers offering personalised cards or just showing some examples of you work. Sometime you can get some good follow on business from that type of thing.

[MrsL]

thanks for the advice lesleyuk

[Marilyn]

Karen can you ask what other vendors will be there? That way you can gauge what is the quality of the shoppers and vendors. Better yet speak with a some of last years attendants.
I hosted a fayre this past June and we raised £920 for our local preschool. I was very happy for a first time event of this kind. (Barclay matched it if met our goal and we did).
how much space r u allowed?
How long is the fayre?
How is advertising done? each vendor? or the host? We did all the advertising and selling of tickets and the vendors provided a gift to raffle.

have lots of fun and success

[MrsL]

Hello Marilyn,

The stall which we have is 6ft, I am sharing it with a friend. They already had enough card makers so i am going to do more scrapping canvases, paper bag books etc.

The advertising is done via our local newspaper (it has a very large readership) for the whole event.

it is 5 hours long

I am just trying to think of ideas to do to make some more £££

[liberty]

Good luck Karen, sharing it with a friend certainly brings the price down and allows for toilet breaks.

Have you thought of doing a children's activity to attract the whole family to your stand?

Sue

[Laura456]

What about making up page kits? Say just a sheet of cardstock - 1/2 a sheet of pp and some ribbon together with printed instructions. Then you could do an example and sell the kit in differnet colourways?