I have two shows left for the year.
One on October 13th in a rinky dink little town of 120 people, but it draws from a 60 mile radius, so it ends up being my biggest show of the year. The first year I did it, I pretty much sold out - I came in with $400 worth of product (I was pretty new in the business side of it at that time so it seemed like a lot of stock to me) and went home with 9 bars of soap! Last year I went with twice as much product and came home with 20 bars. This year I have twice as much as last year, so we'll see if they buy me out or not. I've already been contacted asking if I would have this that or the other thing in stock, including one soap that I only make for that show because while I sell a bar here or there, for some reason at that show I sell all of it.
My last show is a new show to me. I was going to do a show in my home town on November 3rd, but there's like... six craft shows that weekend, and I've pretty much given up on selling at craft shows in my town. (I figured out my costs for booth fee and the actual profit margin and it's been in the negative every show I've done here.) Out of town shows do better for me, even with the cost of travel, so when a show popped up last weekend for a city 40 miles away, on a college campus, on game day, for the same price as the in town show I was thinking about doing... yep. my app and check were in the mail on Saturday. I have a few customers established in that town (enough that once a month I make a trip there for deliveries), and one of my lifelong high school friends lives there, so she is going to come help me man the booth. She is way more outgoing than myself/husband/kids are, and is willing to get paid in soap
@dibbles was that you that had friends or relatives in Brookings?
After the Nov 3 show, if I have stock left, then it will go to the annual Artisan Holiday Market in my town. Basically, it's this lady who owns a building uptown, and she opens it from Thanksgiving to Christmas every year, and mans it every day. She charges 40% of all sales as a fee for being in the store, but she brings in a higher purchasing clientele, so last year I priced my soaps at $7/bar. With the markup to $7, I made $4.20 per bar, which was only 80 cents less than what I usually sell my soaps at, and all I had to do was bring soap and pick up leftover stock. I was happy.
