I finally had the honor of selling my work at an artist event, Smol Art Mart! The organizers were on top of everything, the venue was really nice, and I was so happy to meet so many new artists. Overall a great experience! But, like many first-timers, I learned a lot through my mistakes. Hopefully, you can learn from them too!
Flying Out to My First Event
Unnecessary costs: ~$175
As far as I know, securing a spot at an artist event typically involves a fee ranging from $200 to $500. However, Smol Art Mart generously waived the vendor fee, which allowed me to allocate that budget towards purchasing a plane ticket to attend. Additionally, I was fortunate to have a friend to stay with, eliminating the need for an Airbnb. Nevertheless, I underestimated the costs of transportation (Lyft rides and train fees) as well as food, which ended up totaling an additional $175.
Slow Checkout: Stickers
Checkout process was inefficient
Even though I only managed to sell a few stickers per day, I quickly realized how slow and cumbersome the checkout process was for each order. Opening plastic sleeves for each sticker order turned out to be way more of a hassle than I expected. Lesson learned! Next time, I'll definitely come up with a better way to have easy access to each sticker without all the unnecessary opening and closing. Gotta streamline the process, you know?
Not Enough Deals
Lost potential T0T
So, I had this sweet deal going on for my charms: buy two and score a $1 discount. Whenever I saw someone eyeing a charm, I'd casually drop in, "Hey, just to let you know, these charms are part of a buy-two-get-a-dollar-off deal 😉." Or if they were ready to checkout with a charm, I'd casually ask, "Wanna add another charm and get $1 off?" It boosted my sales big time.
Sadly, I didn't have any special offers for my stickers or prints, but you can totally see the potential, right? Moving forward, I'll be better prepared and maybe even have some cute little signs showcasing my deals.
Prices Were Way Too Low
Making below minimum wage D:
For example, crafting a single scrunchie takes me about 20 minutes. And get this, I was only selling them for $4 each. So when you do the math, that's like making a measly 12 bucks per hour! Talk about earning below minimum wage, right? Even if it takes me longer to sell, lets say a $6 scrunchie, the upside is that I'll be compensated for the time and effort I put into it.
Looking Forward to My Next Event!
It'll be local to Socal & I maaay have some new products in line. Anyways, you'll hear about it forsure on Instagram so keep a look out!
Thanks for reading,
Sock