Vendor Show – check it off the Bucket List

I actually made it through my first Vendor show on Saturday. And even though it’s been on my 2016 Goals that I can now check off the list, it was actually a really good thing for me to do. 

So today was the day. I’ve been working on how to set up my table now for at least a week or two and I felt pretty comfortable on how I wanted that to look like. I had gotten my business cards in on Friday (whew!) and all my soap was wrapped. I think I’m ready! 

Well of course it was hard to sleep the night before and with the information that tables can be set up at 7:30 am, I was ready to go and after a stop at the gas station for a couple of bottles of Diet Coke on my way to the show, I found myself in the parking lot of the Community Center at 7:29. But guess what? There was only one other vendor there with a whole van of stuff and just parked beside me and getting out of her car was the person who was hosting it for the day. OK, maybe coming with my little boxes of soap at 7:29 am was lesson # 1. I had 2 1/2 hours of prepping my table when I guess I could have gotten it done in 1 hour. Especially since I’ve been practicing it for quite some time! 

And speaking of lessons, I also found out that your tables are all ready marked so you didn’t have to go and find one. You know – the first come first serve thing. Lesson # 2.

With my table set up and everything looking just great I did a once over of my table. And guess what ? Well I’ve been reading these past few weeks on what you should and shouldn’t do at a show (yea, I’m kind of a dork) and as I stood looking over my table and how cool it all looked I realized that no where on my display table did it say how much my soap cost! Wow! I think this mistake was like a Cardinal Sin or something in the craft show world! But I had my dad’s little table that he had made when he was a kid with me and it was filled with tape, paper, markers, scissors,… just about everything so I made up some quick signs for how much my soap costs. Yup, I’m thinking this would be lesson # 3! 

But during the coarse of the day I sure met a lot of nice people and the Vendors by me all new that I was a newbie and was giving me tips and was helping out with all my 85 billion questions that I seemed to have. I definitely felt that these people were like a tight knit family and to be honest I can see myself doing this again!

Now the big question. Did I make any money? Well I did!! SCORE! I made enough to cover my table expenses along with my 2 Diet Cokes that I bought earlier and then also to even take a little bit home with me.

Yup all in all it was a very good day!