Road to Renegade-Get Organized

After getting accepted to your show, I think the most important thing to do is make a calender! For a show as busy as the Renegade Craft show, there is a lot of preparation involved-especially if it is your first show!

Here is an example of my to-do list:
1. Calender-mark out what you want to get done on each day, and stay on schedule! You can't show up to the fair and have an empty booth!

2. Marketing-find the best sources for the products you need. I chose to use postcards to display at my booth and pass around the show. They are sturdy, colorful and large. I think they're more likely to get tacked up at someone's home rather than a small business card that will get lost at the bottom of a purse.

3. Packaging-If you sell your products online already, you have some idea of how you want to package your product. It is important for your packaging to be cohesive with your shop and product. Also, I suggest that your product should to be pre-packaged and easy for your customer to take. You don't want to be looking for an item that has a lot of components while you're trying to close a sale. Which brings me to the next point...

4. Payment-First, you need to decide if you're going to accept cash only, checks or credit cards. The cash is a bit easier to handle, as you will just need a calculator, cash box and reciept book. For a credit card, your going to need to find a company to work with to run the charge through, and a device to complete that transaction. I went the snazzy route and got myself a Square. The Square just plugs into the top of my phone and after downloading the app, I can immediately complete a transaction! I love this little device as I feel super cool, like I work at Apple. I like that receipts get emailed to customers and everything is electronic. Another option for accepting credit cards is a "knuckle buster." I'm sure you're more familiar with this option.

5. Display-Since this is my first fair, I have no booth display! I looked around online at different options and set-ups. There is a great flickr group dedicated to booth displays. Take into consideration that you only have a small space. You should keep things visually clean and yet full looking to draw people to your booth. I think the key is to not have too many different types of items, as to not visually clutter the table. Having items on different levels will help you add more variety to what you are able to sell without making your table design a mess.

I find that making a daily task list is the best way to get things done and most importantly, make a check list! There is so much to do in addition to crafting, things easily can fall through the cracks.