I don't know if this will be of interest to anyone or not, but felt it wasn't a bad idea to post it anyway.
This is my experience of doing shows and it might give some of the people who are new at shows an idea or two.
I am not claiming to be an expert or that anyone even has to pay it any attention, it is just what worked for me.

First off, I always kept in mind that when I am at a show I am asking people to give me their money. There is nothing in my booth they have to have and they really don't care how much work or time I put into an item.
Many times it is personality that sell the item.
I like people and enjoy talking, so it is ok if we talk about fishing or anything, it is not always push to buy. Of course you have to balance that with practicality. Don't ignore other people to be a good old boy with one person.
Be genuine with people, don't do the fake smile and it is a kiss of death to talk down to a customer. (I have honestly seen customers put a high dollar item down and the money back in their pocket because the vendor took a superior attitude) In the same bend if you act like you don't have time to deal with them they will feel like they don't have time to give you money.

When at a show I try to treat every single person who comes to my booth like they are very important to me.. and they are.. I want their money.
But, I am not subserviant to them, I treat them like a friend. I know everyone is going of course, your not telliing us anything. Then why do so many vendors have a problem in this area?

I set up a bunch of small items $5-$10 range,  then mid price range up to about $50 and only set up a few higher dollar items, even if I have cases of them in the truck. Now what I feel is a very important part of the set up... I walk up as a customer and pay attention what my eyes are naturally drawn to. Where does the eye go from there? Is there a flow? Do your eyes get captured by some interesting items, do they lead to a bigger priced item? If you didn't know everything there, would it draw you into your booth? Often times it only takes moving one or two items to draw people in, which is half the battle to get into their pocket.

Pay close attention to how people react to your booth, what they look at first etc. That simple thing of noticing what people were doing made me a bunch of money more then once. While setting up outside (which was the majority of my set ups) I noticed a lot of people would look in but not come in. I rearranged my display many times with little effect.  When I saw a tall man stoop just a bit to look in.... I had 6' side walls , I ordered up 7' side walls and my business more then doubled. Even the shorter people didn't like the closed in feeling the 6" walls had Even though the peak was close to 10' high . The items didn't change, it was intirely the entrance height of my tent.

Anyway, I really don't know if this will help anyone, but I hope it does. A lot of the times doing shows is so much more then what you have on the table.

Brad

Brad, I think you will help a whole lot of people because that information is exactly the type of stuff we need to know because we are learning from real experience.

Thanks for all that typing, I don't do shows but if I ever do I am better prepared.

When you go to buy your canopy tent, consider one with sides, even if you don't need them, its nice to know you have them if ever needed. Instead of tie downs, I use 4 - 4" X 18" white PVC with a cap on both ends, drilled one end to accolade a 1/2" X 4" I-bolt, make sure you put a nut and washer on the end of your I-bolt, this keep it from pulling out when you pour in your quikrete. Fill it with quikrete, glue the caps on with pvc glue and their ya have it... I also use nylon rope to attach each weight to the corners of each pole and I use S hooks as my attachment hooks.

The PVC doesn't even need to be filled with concrete.  You can use sand, it's easier.

JimQ

Junior Adams wrote on Feb 8^th, 2009 at 2:38am:


Jr... the only thing I can say is, its best to have them and not need them than it is to need them and not have them... remember my neighbor selling Avon, I didn't know about the walls either till my run in with her, now I'm prepared.

I have three walls down 99% of the time, a small breeze can knock 10 HFs down real quick. I said in another post, when, not if, the wind and rain comes you need walls.

Brad_Mortensen wrote on Feb 10^th, 2009 at 12:22am:

For my first couple shows, I had a few small signs around my display that said "Please ask before handling". Some people didn't see (or heed) the signs, and others would just back off and not touch anything.

Now, I encourage booth visitors to handle the pieces. I tell people "Feel free to pick any of the pieces up. They're meant to be handled. I just ask that you don't juggle with them". That usually gets a chuckle, and folks tend to relax and spend more time checking out my work. I've found that people tend to be real careful with my stuff. (Knock on wood.)

the first thing my wife does when i give her a new turning... is rub it against her cheek. She says that is the best way for her to feel how smooth the wood really is. it still amazes her that it is possible to make it so smooth.

Ken
So far in the three that I have done luckily I have no theft problems. One is the largest juried Craft fair and is held in the local high school. There was security at night and also during the day. The other two were church craft fairs and only lasted  about 8 hours and no problems there also.
We take three people to the large one and two to the church fairs that way wife and daughter can get their fill of shopping and let me go off when I need to.

I seldom did a show by myself, but like Vaughn mention, one of the other vendors will usually keep an eye on things for you so nothing walks off.
There was one time I came back to find some money under a vase and a piece gone, the guy stopped back a little later to let me know it was him and make sure I got the money.

The only thing I have ever had taken was by a hardened criminal, type age 3.

Brad

Brad,
You were lucky he didn't hurt you those types of criminals are brutal. 

I don't do shows but I go to them and my tip is - don't sit reading a book!  There's a guy who turns up at a Christmas Fair ('Fayre'?) every year and people just walk past him.  They look at his stuff (which is good) as they pass but don't stop.  I'm always amazed that he hasn't noticed that the other guy there with turned stuff always seems to have lots of people at his stall and seems to shift a lot of stuff.  Maybe it's got something to do with his friendly manner and the fun he has with children.  (If you treat children nicely you can do whatever you want to their parents)

Chuck Beland wrote on Feb 20^th, 2009 at 5:28pm:


Honestly one of the Great truths of the universe!

Brad